From: cberlet@igc.apc.org (NLG Civil Liberties Committee)
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy
Subject: Re: Bellant: Old Nazi Networks in US
Date: 12 Dec 92 02:28:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #R:cdp:1299600110:cdp:1299600128:000:3813
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!cberlet    Dec 11 18:28:00 1992


/* Written  9:10 pm  Dec  8, 1992 by cberlet in igc:publiceye */
/* Written  8:30 pm  Dec  6, 1992 by cberlet in igc:p.news */
/* Written  7:37 pm  Mar  4, 1990 by nlgclc in igc:publiceye */
Bellant: Old Nazis/Conclusions
	
CONCLUSIONS
	
          Americans are, in general, not aware of the role and 
importance of the Eastern Front in the history of WWII. The 
German <blitzkrieg>, the Russian winter and the long Soviet 
counterattack are the staples of the history of this subject. The 
resulting ignorance allows us to tolerate an extensive network of 
collaborators established by Hitler's Third Reich, many of whom 
then came to the United States after the war ended. When these 
collaborators promote themselves as past victims of Soviet (or 
Romanian, Hungarian, etc.) persecution and as patriotic 
anti-communists, they mask their past fascism, Nazism, and, 
often, crimes against humanity.
	
      A combination of ignorance, amnesia and in some cases 
political sympathy have allowed both American and European 
abetters of the Third Reich to play a prominent and respectable 
role inside the Republican Party. In many cases these fascists 
are unrepentant about their past as enemies of the United States 
and as supporters of Nazi genocide. It is painfully ironic that 
it was our victory over Germany which forced SS-linked groups to 
flee their eastern European homelands, in some cases to the 
United States, and subsequently allowed former enemies of the 
United States to influence American politics at the highest levels.
	
      The American right wing has made common cause with this 
racism and anti-Semitism in their ranks. The American Security 
Council is an important organization which is less an aberration 
of the American Right than the expression of two generations of 
Old and New Right issues, priorities, outlooks and personalities. 
As Christopher Simpson observes in <Blowback>:
	
     "Captivated by a vision of the world in which any enemy of 
the Communists was a friend of ours, the United States' 
<public> role in Eastern Europe during the cold war 
consisted in large part of the creation of polarized crises in 
which East-West cooperation became impossible, while the 
<clandestine> counterpart to this same policy often created 
secret alliances with war criminals, Nazis, and extremists."
	
      The presence of these political currents in the American 
political process presents a challenge to members of both 
political parties and to those of neither party. Observers and 
researchers in the media, academia and in non-profit political 
and religious groups must all ask themselves whether the 
condition described herein is acceptable.
	
      In 1988 the George Bush presidential campaign was presented 
with the opportunity to repudiate the anti-Semites, Nazi 
apologists and fascists who had been recruited into the 
campaign's ethnic outreach arm through Republican party contacts. 
Instead of repudiating anti-democratic tendencies and bigotry, 
the Bush campaign chose to sidestep the charges and moved instead 
to minimize damage to the political campaign.
	
     The record to date leads to the conclusion that the 
Republican National Committee and the network around the American 
Security Council and World Anti-Communist League may consider it 
forgivable to have been a fascist collaborator so long as one is 
today an active anti-communist pursuing the maintenance of the 
Cold War in foreign policy and extremist right-wing politics at 
home. If this is an incorrect interpretation, then it is 
incumbent upon them to give a better--and public--explanation of 
why a tolerance for anti-Semitism, racism, authoritarianism and 
fascism is a hallmark of both their foreign policy intrigues 
abroad and their political coalition-building at home.
	
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