Revolutions Today and Yesterday, Part 1

By Zach Foster

Part 1: Knowing the Past to Understand the Present

In the wake of the ongoing state of revolution in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya (where the revolution is being provoked to civil war by the Qadafi regime), and one expected to break out in Saudi Arabia, many people are wondering what directions these countries will go.  Will the revolutions be successful?  Can the people form new governments?  Will civil war ensue?  What system will the people choose to run their governments?

In the United States, emotions are running high as the American people watch the revolutions in awe.  Ultra-conservatives are scared out of their wits that Barack Obama’s Constitutional policy of nonintervention (which at this point is only direct nonintervention, as the U.S. has been performing humanitarian missions for the Egyptians, Tunisians, and Libyans) will pave the way for radical militant groups like the Muslim Brotherhood to take power.  It is highly unlikely that they could take power, since they are a scant minority among people protesting for their basic human rights to be respected.  The world knows how devastated the countries would be if radical (violent) Islam seized the reigns of fledgling revolutionary governments: they would parallel Afghanistan under the Taliban and Iran under the Ayatollah.  The educated and socially conscious revolutionaries are aware of this.  Nonetheless, more and more often Conservatives like to blame the President for the mere sake of blaming the President.

Leftists and socialists throughout America are riding revolutionary coat tails as usual, waving their flags, red banners, and claiming solidarity with the Middle Eastern revolutionaries from the safety of their college campuses, public parks, and police protection of the First Amendment, but not actually doing anything to fundamentally benefit the cause of the revolutionaries. The leftists are also protesting America’s policy of foreign intervention, though many if not most are doing so from a viewpoint of class struggle rather than pro-Constitutional reform.  Many are hoping that the Socialist and Communist parties of these countries will become leading forces in the revolutions (which they have yet to do).  In light of this, it may be beneficial to politically conscious Americans to study Communism in past revolutions and American interventionism, to see how the past affected America and how the current events could affect America.

Oddly enough, despite incredible evidence and living testimonies that largely vindicate the United States’ actions in Southeast Asia (particularly Vietnam) from 1954 – 1975, political agendas still manage to distort history and paint Ho Chi Minh as a hero.  Ho, famous for “leading” the Vietnamese to freedom from French Colonialism and reunifying the “artificially divided” Vietnam.  It is only prudent to analyze Ho’s path to Leninism in his own words.

Next: Ho Chi Minh's own words and Lenin's track record