TFP Newsletter, Vol. III – No. 21 – 1983

 The TFP in Manhattan: "Better Red than Dead? Never!"

The crime committed by the Soviets against the South Korean jumbo jet causing the loss of 269 lives hit the American people like a thunderbolt.

As the unimaginable became reality, with the Soviets' cold admission of the act, the initial shock wave of disbelief turned into a rising tide of public in­dignation both in the United States and abroad.

Immediately following the tragedy, the fourteen TFPs in other countries and the various bureaus of the TFP sent a communique to the press throughout the world titled "TFP PROTESTS AGAINST THE SLAUGHTER IN THE SKY."

The declaration stated, "However flagrant the hypothetical violation of Soviet airspace may have been, which the communist authorities used as a pretext for the bloody act, it is totally contrary to common sense to suppose that the pilot of an unarmed civilian aircraft resisted the orders of the powerful Rus­sian fighters and exposed himself and the other passengers to an irreversible and unnecessary risk of death by disobeying the injunction of the Soviet planes."

The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) added its voice to the many others rais­ed in this country against this barbarous crime by launching a large campaign on the busiest streets of midtown Manhat­tan in New York City.

Beginning on September 8 and continuing through the 12th and 13th, mem­bers and volunteers of the TFP appeared on Fifth, Madison and Park Avenues and the Avenue of the Americas, where they distributed over 120,000 copies of their declaration, "The Downing of the Korean 747: A Deadly and Telltale Thunderbolt." [Full text bellow].

With so many unanswered questions still reverberating in the minds of the great majority of Americans, despite the official statements made by the Soviets, the declaration of the American TFP helps put the pieces of this enigmatic puzzle together.

The manifesto not only decries this un­civilized act but also denounces the whole maneuver of REVOLUTIONARY PSY­CHOLOGICAL WARFARE which the Soviet Union has been waging against the West in order to extend its dominion over all nations.

Since the death of Stalin in 1953, Moscow has not spared any effort to deceive the peoples of the West by preventing them from seeing the intrin­sic evil of Communism, its doctrine and regime.

The American TFP's manifesto dem­onstrates how the Soviets, through the tactics of the "policy of the extended hand," "the fall of ideological barriers," "Ostpolitik," and "détente" tried to convince the West that the communist leaders were in a process of moral and mental mellowing.

This illusion leads naive (or crypto­communist) governments to open their countries to all kinds of cultural, technological and other types of ex­changes enabling communist proselytism to take over key posts.

As a result, the anti-communist soli­darity of the Western nations and their various social groups has become slack and is tending towards dissolution. All over one can see resistance to the ideo­logical or violent attacks carried out by the communists dwindling and a treach­erous trend toward disarmament begin­ning to sweep the West.

Occasionally, during this well-played scenario, communism's smiling mask becomes loose, allowing a glimpse of its terrible true face. This is what happened in the tragic and never-to-be-forgotten episode of the fall of Phnom Penh. But once the initial fright passes, nothing but silence is heard.

Without denying the importance of thermonuclear aggression, terrorism and guerrilla action, the American TFP af­firms that this ideological action over public opinion in the West — weakened by corruption and confusion — can obtain the easiest and safest successes for the Red sect.

Indeed, nowhere did this myth of a Soviet mellowing produce a more aber­rant effect than in the field of unilateral American disarmament. The TFP state­ment asks, "What words would the great patriots of the past use to criticize the use of the slogan 'better red than dead'?"

Addressing itself to the involvement of religious leaders in the nuclear freeze and disarmament issues, the statement asks, "Even worse, what would the great giants of the Faith, spoken of in the Old and New Testaments, or whose deeds are told in Ecclesiastical History, say about those Americans who not long ago, al­leging Christian principles, pleaded for American unilateral nuclear disarma­ment to save the lives of mortal men — as if they were supreme values — even though that meant handing over the few precious remnants of Christian Civiliza­tion to the beast of communist atheism?"

Members of the TFP emphasized this point by addressing the multitudes pass­ing by with the slogan: " 'Better red than dead?' Never! 'It is better for us to die in battle, than to see the ruin of our country..." (I Mac., 3:59).

Above all, the manifesto notes that the tragic incident should serve to dispel the illusion of the Soviets' "peaceful" inten­tions and give pause for thought about Western aid to the Soviets.

In support of this, other slogans noted: "One of the most frightening contradic­tions of history: While the Soviet Union continued to increase its fabulously large empire, the peoples of the West believed ever more in its pacifist advances — and heaped upon it credits and aid that are helping communism to conquer the world," and "The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) to the people of New York: The crime committed against the Korean jumbo jet makes the intrinsic cruelty of communist doctrine and com­munist regimes perfectly clear even to the naive."

In this climax of the Soviet push for disarmament, the barbarous attack on the Korean jumbo jet serves to remind the slumbering West how fallacious is this illusion of communist goodwill into which it is carelessly allowing itself to sink.

The manifesto of the American TFP closes by rejecting the defeatism of those who advocate our unilateral nuclear disarmament.

The document points how the tragedy of the South Korean 747 is a lesson for these Americans, since it shows the ferocity of the enemies of the Free World.

THE DOWNING OF THE KOREAN 747: A DEADLY AND TELLTALE THUNDERBOLT

The crime perpetrated a few days ago by a Soviet fighter jet against the Korean 747 hit the American people like a thunderbolt in the night. Even though it unfortunately killed many, it — like a thunderbolt — also illuminated with terrible clarity a panorama until then covered by deep darkness. Yes, deep darkness that for years has been pro­gressively obscuring the panorama of our foreign policy, with obvious consequences in our domestic policy and incalculable damage for the whole nation.

This reality thus brought to light with ir­resistible clarity but with the fleeting brilliance of a thunderbolt, should not be forgotten by public opinion. So, today the American Society for the Defense of Tradi­tion, Family and Property (TFP) calls on all Americans: Remember the tragedy of the South Korean 747. The event tragically reported by the media on Sept. 2 contains a clarifying lesson for us all to guide our thoughts and political attitudes for many years to come.

*     *     *

What exactly have we seen? We have now seen something that we began failing to see shortly before 1971, when Nixon's trip to China was announced; something that already at the Yalta Conference in 1945 we would have profited much to have seen more clearly.

Indeed, communist doctrine, and the history of the communist regime in Russia could have left no doubt in our minds that the Moscow government, inspired in all its actions by an implacable ideological imperialism, aims at imposing the communist thinking, system of government and economy, culture and lifestyle throughout the world. This fundamentally atheistic and materialistic goal annihilates all independent nations in a civilization that, from certain viewpoints, is the highest that the world has ever seen. It is not only for this reason that this goal should be repudiated, but also because of the methods without which it could not be achieved: brute force, aggression toward weaker nations, espio­nage, continuous fomenting of agitation and subversion in every nation, and finally, the MASTERPIECE OF PERFIDY AND SHREWDNESS WHICH IS REVOLUTION­ARY PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE.

As a consequence of the fall of the Czarist regime, some nations that belonged to the Russian Empire became independent. But their independence was short-lived as the Soviet boot inexorably crushed Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Later, in Yalta, Soviet Russia became lord over six countries in Central Europe: Poland, East Germany, Czecho­slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. The Russian might also played a significant role in implanting communist regimes in Yugoslavia and Albania.

After Yalta, the Soviet Union imposed the communist yoke on North Vietnam, North Korea, China, Cuba, South Yemen, the Congo, Benin, Ethiopia, South Viet­nam, Cambodia, Laos, Angola, Mozambi­que, Grenada, and Nicaragua.

In spite of a semblance of independence which fools no one, all these countries have become subject to the Soviet Union in a truly colonial relationship.

Communist China, Yugoslavia and Al­bania of course cannot be qualified purely and simply as Soviet colonies.

But the list of nations wounded by Soviet imperialism is even longer. It also includes countries that formerly had stable indepen­dence but which were subjected to a situa­tion similar to classical protectorates with the corresponding ambiguities and mutabilities inherent in certain aspects of such regimes: Iraq, Syria, Libya, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Cabo Verde, Sao Tome and Principe, Tanzania, Zambia, Seychelles, Guyana, and Surinam.

Even more nations find themselves in an unstable, grayish zone between the situation of Soviet protectorate and independence. If they are indeed independent to some extent (and this varies from nation to nation, and at times from one year to the next), the fact of the matter is that they do not enjoy full independence; and the points in which their independence is restricted are always deter­mined by the weight of Russian interest. These countries are: Algeria, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Malta, and Finland ("finland­ized" Finland).

Perhaps none of the nations in this gray­ish zone show the contrasts between the af­firmations of independence and the sub­sistence of some traces of dependence as conspicuously as Algeria.

Of course, none of these countries recog­nizes itself as part of this "grayish zone," since this would suit neither them nor the Soviet Union, which is always working to disguise its imperialist expansion as much as possible. But this grayish zone exists. Everyone knows it.

Other nations are confronting ruthless guerrillas in order to keep themselves from being swallowed up by the Soviet Union: El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, Peru, and the Philippines.

Of course, the naive and the useful-inno­cents will object to one point or the other on this huge list. They will certainly say that one or another country mentioned here is independent. But, this is not the time to argue with either naive people or useful-innocents. To put them at ease, let us concede that there is independence, one just as real as the freedom of movement of a mouse with a cat’s paw resting on it. Let us move on.

As its empire, so overwhelmingly vast as to make those of Caesar and Napoleon seem small, was forming, the Soviet Union, with the subtle and multi-faced aid of Revolutionary Psychological Warfare, achieved something perhaps even more frightful: to increasingly persuade the peoples of the West that the minds of Russian leaders and thinkers were undergoing a process – a quite enigmatic once, by the way – of mental and moral mellowing. Thus, Moscow was able to instill in numerous currents of opinion in American and Europe the conviction that if the Soviet Union were given unsuspicious treatment and favored with financial, economic and technological resources of all kinds, communist imperialism would be transformed into lyrical peace efforts.

 History will never  understand how such an illusion could have gained ground at the same time that communist Russia was extending its claws over every continent, all the more so since at the very moment that inside the nations in which that tepid and fatal illusion was blowing, ideological proselytism, agitation and at times even subversion were making untold progress.

  This illusion had its weight in leading the American people to accept the insolent and aggressive presence of the Soviet claw in unfortunate Cuba, only two steps away from our shores. It visibly contributed to President Nixon’s opening of the fatal era of “détente” with the communist world by visiting Red China in 1972. Thus, the "policy of the extended hand," long ago set in motion by Moscow, achieved success. From then on, peaceful coexistence was presented as the only reasonable solution. The "Ostpolitik" of Bonn, and that of the Vatican, developed to their fullest. Leftism began to swiftly infiltrate all religions. The "fall of ideological barriers," which had been around long before its name was de­fined, was at work not only in international relations but also opened the doors of the West's most respected, most illustrious or most influential institutions to the com­munists.

The presence in the Second Vatican Council of a delegation of clergymen of the Greek-Schismatic Church as observers authorized by and obedient to Moscow caused that illustrious assembly to abstain from condemning communism.

During the administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford which were greatly influenced by Mr. Henry Kissinger, and later in the Jimmy Carter administration, these tactics produced in our country's sphere of influence tragic and well-known fruits such as the unforgettable fall of Vietnam and Cambodge and the loss of the Panama Canal.

The illusion of a “mellowing” Soviet psychology is not only present   in all of this, but also accounts for Western countries – ours more than all the rest – beginning to furnish the Soviet Union, its “colonies” and “protectorates,” and the countries in the “grayish zone” with all kinds of goods in ever growing quantities. The West thereby became, to a considerable degree, the financier of the enemy that with every passing day took on the proportions of a Leviathan. This has enabled the Soviet Union to prolong the captivity of the nations whose liberation we desire so much.

But none of this opened the eyes of the obstinate. More recently, not event the aggression against valiant and glorious Afghanistan was able to show the emptiness of the heralded mental and moral “mellowing” of the Kremlin despots.

Not long ago, those sector of the public with foresight were astounded that President Ronald Reagan conferred the chairmanship of a high level commission charged with studying our policy toward Central America on the man upon whom weights the responsibility for the fall of Vietnam.

*      *     *

However, in no field did the myth of a "mellowing" Soviet mind produce a more aberrant effect than in the area of unilateral nuclear disarmament of the United States.

The most basic patriotism leads man to prefer his own death to the destruction of his country. What words would the great patriots of our past use to criticize the use of the phrase "better red than dead," that in fact reveals the underlying intention of many Americans to surrender the nation to Soviet imperialism, if by so doing they could save their own skins?

Even worse, what would the great giants of the Faith, spoken of in the Old and New Testaments, or whose deeds are told in Ecclesiastical History, say about those Amer­icans who not long ago, alleging Christian principles, pleaded for American unilateral nuclear disarmament to save the lives of mortal men — as if they were supreme values — even though that meant handing over the few precious remnants of Christian Civilization to the beast of communist atheism? What would they say upon learn­ing that among the leaders of such Amer­icans there are more than a few bishops of the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church when nothing in Catholic doctrine and historic tradition gives foundation to this attitude? After having obtained some significant results, the work of those Amer­icans has subsided for the moment, but will readily reappear at the first opportunity.

If such were to happen, there would be every reason for Mathathias to rise up in their path and exclaim: "And behold our sanctuary, and our beauty, and our glory is laid waste and the Gentiles have defiled them. To what end, then, should we live any longer?" (1 Mac. 2:12,13); or Judas Macha­beus crying out: "It is better for us to die in battle, than to see the ruin of our nation..." (1 Mac. 3:59)

*     *     *

The crime against the Korean 747, like a deadly but telltale thunderbolt, makes us see how fallacious is the myth of the So­viets' "psycho-mellowing." It has become clear that those who would rather be red than dead will fall into the hands of the executioners now oppressing Vietnam; per­petrators of one of the most shocking tra­gedies of all time in Cambodia; and pro­moters of the construction of a pipeline in Siberia with slave labor. And yet those same men at times preach in the West the over­throw of existing regimes with the pretext that they are not liberal enough!

Let the tragedy of the South Korean 747 be a lesson for these Americans.

We deny that the world is reduced to the alternative between surrendering to com­munism or facing nuclear catastrophe. We could hope that Almighty God would spare from this calamity the peoples who know how to love Him more than life, just as He might not spare those who love life more than Him.