SUGGESTED WINTER READING FOR C-133 MEMBERS, 2016-17
I. THE ADAMS-JEFFERSON LETTERS
First, I am going to suggest a book that took me two years to finish. It was not a difficult reading, but one that I liked so much I had to figure out a way to extend its pleasure. The Adams-Jefferson Letters, The complete correspondence between Jefferson, and Abigail and John Adams, were such a joy that I decided to make them my friends, and live in friends at that. Every evening before retiring and with an adult beverage in-hand, I would read two or three letters only and try to imagine myself in America during those years of fruition brought forth by our Founders. I often cite the importance of taking care of our country for our progeny, and it happens that I am a descendant of a Revolutionary soldier. Their spoken future is here for us. Thus, the history of our country is important to me, especially when reading the original words of those at the beginning.
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson spanned half a century and the letters embrace religion, family griefs, European living, separation from family, and joy. The Letters begin in 1777, ceases after1801 after Jefferson’s defeat of Adams for the Presidency, resumes in 1812, and continues until the death of both July 4, 1826. Jefferson died at noon and Adams a few hours later. Then they, the Founders, our dreamers of creating a country that allowed its citizens personal and economics freedoms under a Constitution embracing a constrained vision of governance, were all gone and the country was on its own. We became the shinning light for the world. This book will too become your friend.
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II. THE TRAGEDY OF RUSSIA
For about two years I have been searching for this text without success. There are simply no known original paper copies to be had according to the Library of Congress, at least not by ordinary mortals as I. So, after many attempts, I located a link to the document that tells the story of one of our major Historians, Will Durant, a communist sympathizer, and his 'come to Jesus moment’ after a stay in Russia in 1932. Durant warns at the time, those who read it may not like his analysis as it may ruin the Liberal Cause of this 'great experiment' that was being embraced by many of his colleagues and the American Democrat electorate.
It will take a few seconds to open, so be patience. But, it was the opening salvo, even though gently approached, of a warning about the future of this experiment of Communism that is so alien to the basic instincts of humans wanting liberty wherever they shall be. What followed is almost too sad to read about and for the younger who did not live through it, a warning to heed. And, the inability to be able to find a copy at any library, etc., makes one feel it was suppressed for citizen distribution by those in power at the time.
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III. THE GREAT TERROR
The next is very depressing as it describes Stalin's reign of terror in the 1930s. It is the definitive work describing Stalin's purges, Robert Conquest’s,The Great Terror, and was universally acclaimed when it first appeared in 1968. Harrison Salisbury called it "brilliant...not only an odyssey of madness, tragedy, and sadism, but a work of scholarship and literary craftsmanship." And in recent years it has received equally high praise in the former Soviet Union, where it is now considered the definitive account of the period. This is the most chilling account of the rise and governance by a totalitarian state that I have read. I have been advised there are a few about Mao's rule every bit as inhumane. I cannot leave out Cuba as another possibility. They are all rotten to the core but still the darlings of many of the Liberal Left.
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IV. THE BLACK BOOK OF COMMUNISM
I have also completed reading The Black Book of Communism, and here is a bit from a review: The authors and many others wonder why so many on the Left are still unwilling to admit to Communism's cruelty and its failure; especially, since new research makes it look more despicable every day. Such findings are dismissed by the Left as "right-wing, anti-Communist rhetoric" and further explained by the author as encountering one intractable obstacle: "That any realistic accounting of Communist crime would effectively shut the door on Utopia." Unlike Nazism, they conclude that it will be a very long time before Communism is accorded its fair share of absolute evil. This is an easy to obtain book on the internet.
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WHY READ THESE?
These three histories tell us why we had to live our lives enduring several 'hot wars' and a 'Cold War' of fifty years. Throughout Communist history, supposed enemies of the State were pejoratively labeled as leeches, rats, enemy agents, and capitalists. Such derogatory classifications of the enemy created the justification for terror, and totalitarian states need enemies to survive. There was no need for citizens to actually have done anything at all; extermination was in order to discipline and punish; enemies were to be killed. Trials, famine, and concentration camps were organized in the strictest secrecy and legitimized as a method. They are breathtaking in the descriptions of the tyranny used to control their people to further their false dream of world denomination.
For those our age, throughout our military service and most of our civilian lives, we were actively involved in the containment of Communism. And, it was for good reason. Communism killed over 100,000,000 men, women, and children, not to mention the near 30,000,000 of its subjects that died in its often-aggressive wars and the rebellions it provoked. Communism was the great and evil story of the twentieth century and at its zenith, ruled a third of mankind. It seemed poised to spread indefinitely and then it collapsed like a house of cards. It had violated one of the basic tenets of civilization, “Thou shalt not kill.”
It should be noted that many of our government officials during that period visited Russia, studied Communism, and returned to the Roosevelt administration imbued with it where among many it became the promise they were searching for to guide America's future. For reasons unknown to those with a modicum of intellect many remain persuaded to this day of its purity to solve social and economic problems even in the light of its historic failures for over a century, where the basic political idea of Socialism remains their playbook for a better America. Oddly, the American Communist Party has endorsed Hillary Clinton for President without a peep from the main stream media. They need to read these histories!
I urge you to read these compelling, timeless histories outlining man's inhumanity to his fellow man in the fight between individual liberty and government authority that led to WWII, The Vietnam War, The Cold War,and The Sino-India War of 1962. It was the great fight to save the world during our life and military service leading to world tragedy caused by totalitarian/socialist based beliefs that can only exist by destroying democratic forms of governance; and, that can only be done by killing a large number of their citizens.
There was no known end to the evil needed in order to exert the brutal discipline they needed. There are dozens written, but these were by those who were once active Communists, became ex-communists, who once dreamed the dream of a false utopia before they came to confront the truth of their beliefs through their experiences. They found evil, not utopia! This is a special history as it encompasses Communism and its spread throughout the world.
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V. AFTER TOCQUEVILLE: The Promise and Failure of Democracy
Now let us turn to my last suggestion. Since we have on the board an early history of two of the major players in our development as a Nation, three histories telling us about the formation and outcome of a most evil form of governance largely developed during our lifetime and that we engaged the world over. Here is one that is post WWII. Released in 2012 and written by Chilton Williamson, jr., After Tocqueville:The Promise and Failure of Democracy.
The fall of Communism sparked the popular notion that the spread of democracy was inevitable. But, in the few decades since the Berlin Wall’s failure, many segments of world societies militate against Democracy. This piercing plain written history raises crucial questions about the future of democracy. What is Democracy? Are Western Societies actually more free than in their origination years? Can we adjust to a globalized world? How do we survive when most care more about procuring what they want than securing liberty?
This author through fact, opinion, and philosophy actually thinks about democracy as it addresses our future. A reviewer had this to say: “A comprehensive and continually stimulating study of how we entered a post democratic age which has subverted nearly everything that was valuable in American democracy as understood by Tocqueville.” It tackles the horrors, contradictions, and absurdities of life after Tocqueville as it leads the author to confront “…the great question as to the probable future of democracy in a world in which the United States is either no longer a democratic nation itself or else too badly weaken by its commitment to democratic ideology to promote and defend something like the real thing abroad”?
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VI. THE UNKNOWN FUTURE
It appears to me that we seem to have let the future catch up to us as we are now facing the emergence of these questions every passing day; and, that makes me wonder, what is the future we are building or protecting for our progeny? Whatever it is, it is much different from the day of the birth of any C-133 member, and seemingly more unsatisfactory.
On September 11, 2001, came a direct attack upon our soil and we entered into a worldwide conflict against Islamic/Fascist terrorism. At this time no one knows where it will lead; we just know that we are up against an implacable enemy dedicated to the destruction of our way of life. Most serious students of military history do not think it will lead to a nation upon nation conflict but decades of Iraq and Afghanistan type military actions. But, it again raises the question of whether peace is so complex that it is beyond humanity’s reach and is merely an invention of the international bourgeois community. Maybe, Thucydides was correct in his analysis and a modern version of his quote would be, “History has shown that peace is merely the interlude between wars?”
Adams and Jefferson when exchanging their letters always ended with an original complementary closing. Here is one that all C-133 members can use as written by Adams to Jefferson on Sept 03, 1816.
I am with ancient friendly sentiments,
Richard Spencer 39th ATS DAFB, 1962-1965
PS A BONUS PICK: If you want to obtain a good background about the historic years of the Twentieth Century other than your life experiences, I would suggest perusing this link to Paul Johnson's Modern Times that has a chapter by chapter review from the early 1900s. I especially like the chapter about America's Suicide Attempt.It is fascinating in itself:
Jack ("Slocs")Slocombe , former nav, 1st ATS, Dover AFB.