426 Comments

From 1945 until 1989, post-war communism prevailed in the eastern bloc, until it imploded under its own weight 44 years later, as Europe flourished and the Soviet experiment stumbled and fell. In 1980 Reagan declared war on liberal democracy in America. The government didn't solve problems; it was the problem. Here we are, 42 years after the beginning of that movement, in the aftermath of a failed fascist coup to derail the peaceful transition in power in the world's most powerful liberal democracy. It turned out to be a tawdry, pitiful affair; a sort of comic opera, as we are now learning. It nearly worked, carried out by a band of would-be private militia members and assorted other radical adherents to a conspiratorial monologue repeated freely by, none other, the POTUS. The insurgents had already conquered the White House 4 years earlier, but failed to consolidate their power base non-violently by political means, leading to a last minute Keystone Cops sort of assault on Congress. Embarrassing, but true. Embarrassing, but dangerous nonetheless. Embarrassing by it's haphazard orchestration but even more embarrassing by how unprepared were the capital police and adjacent law enforcement agencies, embarrassing by how blissfully unaware was most of America at the possibility that something like that would occur in our capital city. Imagine what might have happened if a similar sized rally of opposing interests had been organized and staged between tfg's stage and the Congress, or even on the steps of the Capital. There would likely have been a riot, but perhaps no breach of the Capital itself. Were there counter-protesters? On the other hand, why should I wish that unarmed civilians might have been present to protect our house of government? Is a "free nation" doomed to such vulnerability? More important still, where were all of the potential whistle-blowers; Aides within the White House, numerous congressional offices, even more numerous state level agencies and the Republican Party apparatus who had to be aware of at least bits and pieces of the conversation and widespread interactions amongst individuals between November and January? Since when has political ideology become more influential than the legality of one's actions? My mind struggles to grasp the reality that the rising desperation amongst those seeking a pathway to reverse the election didn't trigger SOMEONE to blow the whistle on their evolving plans. Aside from the NSA or CIA perhaps, this kind of process could not have evolved in complete secrecy; in this world of cell phones, text messages, tweets and the like, as well as the profound lack of discipline of the POTUS himself, someone should have smelled the rat and leaked it to the press. Were we all so inured to the endless psycho-babble we had endured for 4 years that we simply didn't pay adequate attention? Did we collectively deny obvious clues, like Ukraine on the precipice of an invasion? Was no one willing to believe it could actually happen? Shame on us, I guess. Shame on all of us (or most of us, at least). The entire tawdry affair should have us carefully examining ourselves, even as we try to reconstruct all of the events and players that led to 1/6/2021. We can't view this stuff as some kind of grade B entertainment. It's real life, actually happening with potentially unimaginable consequences to our future and stability within our world. Serious business, deserving of sober, serious consequences.

Expand full comment

More prayers please everyone. Russia has just dropped bombs on Kyiv… tonight…or early morning there…banner just now came across my phone as I was reading Ms Heather’s evening letter

We have so much work to do … go to our polls on Tuesday if your state votes that day as Calif does… VOTE please…and Talk w Everyone Peacefully about guns and children and bombs & PRAY please… for UKRAINE, for ALL OF US…everywhere …

Expand full comment

"It worked. American investment in Europe helped to turn European nations away from communism as well as the nationalism that had fed World War II, creating a cooperative and stable Europe."

All very nice and sentimental, except that's not how it worked.

A good half of the $17 billion (roughly $200 billion in 2022 dollars) never left the United States - it was money the Europeans could spend to buy American equipment here for shipment there; much of that prevented the Europeans from creating competitive industries for those items for quite some time. There's a long story I could go into about how the US used the Military Assistance Program to dump a third-rate fighter - the F-84 Thunderjet and Thunderstreak in it's two variants - on the Europeans involved in NATO, which directly torpedoed both the British and French aviation industries and made sure they were never competitive with the US aviation - now aerospace - industry. The F-84 was followed up by the F-104, an airplane the USAF actually rejected, which was inferior to both the British and French competitors on everything but price and payment options, which was the subject of what was called The Sale of the Century to the NATO air forces in the 1960s, an event that led to the passage of the US laws against corporate bribery of overseas sales in the 1970s when it came out.

And Western European democracy also got a major push from the CIA, which financed the Italian and German Christian Democratic Parties and the French Socialist Party up into the early 1960s, and also ran disinformation campaigns against the Italian and French Communist Parties that make what Putin did here in 2016 look like a child's Sunday School picnic - it helped that the two parties were so hopelessly under the sway of Stalinism, but the CIA did a good job of making sure that the "Gorbachevs" of the two parties never had the chance to oppose the Stalinists.

People who believe the United States ever does anything internationally out of the goodness of its heart probably believe the Easter Bunny will really deliver eggs to them next Spring, on the day the sun rises in the West. I will include Lend-Lease on that list; we didn't do anything for Britain until they had signed over every British commercial possession in the United States under "cash and carry" beforehand.

If I chased away anyone's ponies and kittens, I'm sorry, but fanciful dreams about the United States are just that.

Expand full comment
Jun 5, 2022·edited Jun 5, 2022

Imagine that. Free and democratic nations helping one another, sustaining each other’s democracy with aid, infrastructure, and good will. I hope we can do it again with Vaccine diplomacy.

Expand full comment

Just a comment - and really I'm not being pedantic. There's communism and Communism, there are republicans and Republicans, there are liberals and Liberals. What's the difference? - considerable - the "small c communism" is a philosophy, the Big C Communism is a political system (otherwise known as State Totalitarianism). Ditto republican and Republican, and so on. It is ESSENTIAL to differentiate between them - and the USA seems to have done a pretty good job of confusing everything - resulting in some pretty horrible attitudes and actions.

Expand full comment

Good Morning Heather and not a bad job for 11 minutes. The same speech should be given again today as the US loses its way in the spirit of helping others and joing with other countries to keep democracy thriving and working. I think Biden does not get enough credit for trying to put these 11 minute ideas into action. We have seen a better NATO participation and trade is again opening up so perhaps the future may not be a bleak as it appears. If only something could be done about guns.

Expand full comment

At the heart of both democracy and communism is a seemingly unshakable belief that humans desire justice and are capable of treating each other fairly. Seemingly unshakable in the face human impulses to greed and exploitation - which are the basis of capitalism and which an 'enlightened' capitalism seeks to mitigate through good labor practices and good government.

Justice and fairness are also at the heart of much which we call religion - and which every religious hierarchy and administration sacrifices to power.

It seems we corrupt and despoil every fine notion we are capable of. Why so many are thrilled by authoritarianism and desirous of the reflected 'glory' of secular and religious hypocrites and cynics, and satisfied with the crumbs from their tables amazes me. That so many keep the faith in the best we humans are capable of heartens me.

Expand full comment

I love it. So modest. So radical. Thank you, Heather.

Expand full comment
Jun 5, 2022·edited Jun 5, 2022

This is such an important share because it is what Steve Bannon began to destroy when he actively pursued Trump for a place at the table. His goal was/is to burn down the U.S./Europe relationship and make the U.S. an isolationist country.

Expand full comment

Heather, Thanks for a wonderful and horizon-broadening piece of intellectual history and history of the development of collaboration between the US and western European countries (as well as, eventually, Japan) over the last seventy-seven years. I would, however, be remiss if I did not also point out that the Marshall Plan was the foundation upon which, over the last seventy-seven years, transnational capitalism has proliferated , largely for the benefit of countries of western Europe, the United States, and Japan. A big question at this point: Can an effective response to drastic climate change coexist with ongoing development of transnational capitalism? I am very skeptical that that is possible. What do you think?

Expand full comment
Jun 5, 2022·edited Jun 5, 2022

I consider George C. Marshall the greatest American of the 20th century. He was the indispensable American military leader during World War II. The Marshall Plan ‘saved’ a Western Europe economically and physically devastated by WW II.

As Secretary of State, in 1947 he met with his counterpart in Moscow and also spoke with Stalin. He encountered intransigence as the Soviets clearly sought to take political advantage of what one observer describe as ‘the carnal state’ of Europe.

Marshall visited Western Europe on his way back to the United States. He was appalled by what he witnessed. He feared that, without massive American rebuilding and immediate food assistance, various European nations would not recover from WW II devastation.

Upon his return, he ordered his staff to prepare recommendations for a massive European assistance program. Then he asked to speak at the Harvard graduation. His 11-minute speech galvanized European leaders who saw Marshall’s initiative as an imperative life preserver to a sinking Europe.

A massive problem was how to get the Senate to support such an unprecedented peacetime assistance program. In 1946 the Republicans had captured the House and the Senate (1st time in nearly two decades) in an election that was a repudiation of President Truman.

Marshall was widely respected and admired for his WW II accomplishments. This helped as he sought to persuade Republicans, some of whom agreed with Senator Taft’s isolationist views, to support the Marshall Plan. [Marshall emphasized that most of the Marshall Plan funds would be spent in the United States].

General Marshall spoke around the country on the benefits of the Marshall Plan to the America people. Before the Senate, he described the Marshall Plan in a way that won over enough Republican votes and swiftly resuscitated post-war Europe.

To President Truman’s credit, when he was asked why not call such a major initiative the Truman Plan, he observed that the ‘Truman Plan’ politically would be dead on arrival, while the Marshall Plan would succeed.

Expand full comment

Thank you for this perspective. Seeing Hungary and Turkey sliding back into authoritarianism is disheartening. In the long run, the people other than the oligarchs are certain to suffer. It will be more like the 1930's than the 1960's. We as well are not immune so long as FOX and Trump and his enablers continue to try to emulate Tass and Russia. The sedition caucus needs to be remembered by name....lest we forget.

Expand full comment

So will we need another Marshall Program in the coming years, after the destruction of Ukraine, and the coming war in Europe? Putin will not stop at the border with Poland if he still has any semblance of a functioning economy. Prayers are not going to help: they did not stop Hitler, and they will not stop this Russian madman. Combine the destruction he is wreaking on Europe's braadbasket with the increasing destruction we are causing in the Amazon and Canada: those prayers won't make a bit of difference. We will still want our soft Charmin to wipe our grass-fed bottoms as the world starves.

Expand full comment

In stark contrast to General Marshall’s far-sighted plan, Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau wanted to deindustrialize Germany even at the cost of mass starvation there. FDR at one point favored it, but Churchill’s wise objections to it prevailed.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgenthau_Plan

Expand full comment

Donald Trump is straight up , a real estate "mogul" who is a liar and a grifter. By attribution and profession, Dr. Oz is a quack. Go through Trump's cabinet or co-conspirators or GOP leaders and you'll wind up with quite a list of colorful descriptors, I'm sure.

Expand full comment

Sometimes boring is good. We must stop Putin for the same reasons. He will not stop with Ukraine and Ukraine deserves their freedom.

Expand full comment