_Communism’s Forebears_
Who are these people who have conquered most of Europe and Asia and
openly flaunt their determination to conquer the world? Where did
they come from? How have they been able to enslave approximately nine
hundred million people? Do they really have the secrets of the A and
H bombs? Will they use them to fulfill their diabolical schemes? And
when?
The answers to these questions are vital to all people—to every
American, man, woman and child. Not even in the days of Genghis
Khan was there such a tremendous upheaval over so vast an area of
the earth’s surface, as the one we are witnessing, as we pass the
half-way mark of the Twentieth Century.
Long before Moses was found in the bullrushes, the people who lived
in the Northern steppe lands sucked hardship from their mothers’
breasts and grew into sturdy savages, mortally feared by their
neighbors. They were Asiatics, that is, they belonged to the Yellow
Race, the best known tribes of which are the Huns, the Mongols and
the Tartars. Today, “Mongol” is the common name given to people
comprising nearly all of Central Asia. Destiny gave a strange role to
these fearless nomads. Blood-thirsty and aggressive, time and again
they burst the seams of their homelands and overran most of Europe
and Asia. Each time they rose to world conquest, the pattern followed
was the same. Guided by the genius of a merciless and brilliant
individual, the dominant tribe or clan ran the full gamut from
tribal communism, necessary in the early days for self-preservation
and mutual benefit, to communistic imperialism. As the tribes grew
larger and more powerful, and the value of the spoils increased
enormously, several leaders struggled for complete control. This
struggle ended in a period of despotic dictatorship, when one man
gained supreme power and wielded it ruthlessly. The period of
oppression lasted, at various times in the past, anywhere from a
few years to a few hundred years, depending upon the foresight and
strategy of the rulers. Invariably, the dictatorship disintegrated,
and the empires fell into dissolution and decline, followed by
desolation and chaos. The method by which each nomad chieftain rose
to power was strikingly similar. He would consistently strengthen his
armies and trap his victims by guile, trickery, infiltration, and
every known deceit.
Succession to the leadership of the clan, tribe or nation was not
necessarily hereditary. It could pass from father to son or outside
the family, just as in the Soviet Hierarchy today succession
passes from Party member to Party member. Then, as now, it was the
strongest physically, and the cunningest mentally, who always assumed
leadership.
These primitive conquerors had several great advantages over their
more civilized neighbors. One was their extraordinary physical
stamina. The weeding out of the weak began practically at birth.
Children, weaned from mother’s milk, were fed on mare’s milk for a
few years and then were left to care for themselves as best they
could.
As clans gathered around the open fires, where all the food was
cooked in huge pots, the strongest men ate first; the aged and women
next; and the children were left to fight over the bones and scraps.
Food was abundant in the spring when mutton, game and fish were
available. In the early winter the hordes lived largely on millet,
and fermented mare’s milk. The latter had a high alcoholic content
and was quite “heady” for the younger children. By the end of the
winter, the clansmen were reduced to foraging and making raids on the
herds of other tribes. The old and weak were left to perish. Only the
hardiest survived.
Another great advantage of the militant nomads over their victims
was their ability to ride the horse. Everywhere else in the ancient
world, this animal was used only to draw the heavy war chariots.
The Mongols, fearing nothing, mastered the horse and became expert
cavalrymen. The resulting mobility was a tremendous asset in warfare.
Without the horse, the Mongols would never have been able to conquer
such vast territories. Learning to ride as children of three or four,
they were superb horsemen in their early manhood and hunted with
consummate skill. When they appeared upon the horizon in a cloud of
dust and with a clatter of hooves, it was only a matter of minutes
before each dropped down like an eagle upon his prey.
Of even more strategic importance was their conception of the fifth
column. Poor always, in comparison with their neighbors, whose lands
and goods they coveted, they—like their Russian descendants—developed
a technique of boring from within. Ahead of them were sent
humble-looking barterers or beggars, who easily bribed and cajoled
their way inside the walls of a city. At the critical moment, the
unfortunate citizens would find their gates open and hordes of wild
tribesmen bursting in upon them with bloodcurdling yells.
Whether at home or in the field, these nomads lived in yurts, or
domelike tents, made of felt and mounted on wooden carts, drawn by
oxen. They spent most of their days on horseback, hunting, fishing
and constantly fighting among themselves and with neighboring clans.
Often they remained in the saddle for days, eating little or no food.
Between each major conquest, there were long periods when fighting
was confined to the steppe lands. It was only when an outstanding
genius appeared that they attempted the invasion of the more
civilized countries—Europe, China or the Near East—which, throughout
the ages, were constantly on the defensive against them.
One of the first of these tribes that grew to world power was led
by Attila the Hun, in the Fifth Century. Slashing and murdering his
way through Europe, he terrorized the entire continent and captured
the greatest city of antiquity, Rome. Earlier, when Rome fell to the
Goths, the citizens though that surely the end of the world had come.
It was not until the Huns attacked, however, that they felt the full
fury of Asiatic destruction and torture.
Attila was a typical Mongol of his day. Shaggy-headed, dirty and
disheveled, his gorilla-like appearance evoked as much terror as if
he had been a wild animal. With as little regard for human suffering
as for the priceless treasures of Rome, he was lustful only for
power, wine and women. He is said to have kept a huge harem, and,
like his followers, to have left countless children by captured
slaves all over Europe and Asia. Because of his merciless brutality,
plundering and rape, he was called by his victims, “The Scourge of
God.”
In 451 A. D., Attila was finally defeated, and while celebrating the
addition of a new beauty to his harem, he died. He had taken from the
world, by force, everything he wanted, because he knew no other way
to get it. His vast and powerful empire collapsed like a house of
cards and fell into utter ruin.
Approximately seven hundred years later came the most brilliant, the
most destructive, and the most incredible of all the forerunners of
Communism, Genghis Khan. He conquered not only the major part of
Europe and almost all of Northern Asia, but also established powerful
dynasties in Persia and China.
Born in 1162 A. D., Genghis Khan, at thirteen, succeeded his
father as Chief of the Yakka Mongols. A robust lad, he was tall
and broad-shouldered. His eyes set far apart, unlike those of the
Mongols, did not slant and were a curious shade of green. He had high
cheekbones and a sloping forehead beneath abundant red hair, which he
wore in long braids down his back. His was a striking personality. He
was as different from the other members of his horde in appearance as
he was in mentality.
In his early years, Genghis wore the simple clothing of his
tribesmen, consisting of skins sewn together with sinews. Frequently
he greased his body to keep out the cold and moisture when it was
necessary to sleep in the snow. He ate raw meat, and drank mare’s
milk and sometimes blood which he let from the veins of his horses’
legs. Mentally the equal of any Caucasian, he undoubtedly had
European blood in his veins. Perhaps that of a Princess, who knows?
Although this despot had an ungovernable temper and a wrath that
could terrorize the strongest, he also had the capacity to make firm
and lasting friends and loyal followers. He spoke thoughtfully and
deliberately and is said to have remarked many times, “Monasteries
and Temples breed mildness of character, but it is only the fierce
and warlike who dominate mankind.” His eloquence could spellbind the
masses.
He was an expert with the bow and arrow. His physical strength
made him the leader of the wrestlers. He had been known to pick up
an opponent, hold him high above his head, then break his back as
though it were a bamboo reed! He enjoyed wrestling matches only when
they rivaled the Roman gladiators, when the bones of the weaker
adversaries were broken and crushed. He despised weakness of any
kind, for he himself was a match for any man, and he had never been
bested at any sport. Born of a race unwashed and illiterate, he
raised his tribe of unknown barbarians to a position of world renown.
Believing firmly that the Mongols were the natural masters of the
world, he also was convinced that he had been chosen by Destiny
to lead and control them. Thus impelled, this amazing barbarian,
starting with only a tribe of wild nomads, finally conquered
everything from Armenia to Korea, and from Tibet to the Volga River.
After Genghis Khan had subdued all of China, he settled down and
developed into a typical oriental potentate. He lived in splendor
on the present site of Peking, a far cry from his earlier primitive
tent on the Gobi desert. Just so, in 1949, Mao Tse-tung sprang from
the mud caves of Yenan to the palaces of Peking as China’s Number One
dictator. Here, in this ancient city, Genghis, as Emperor, surrounded
himself with courtiers and officials, as well as with wives,
concubines and slaves.
He held high court and worked on affairs of state in a high pavilion
of white felt, lined with treasured silk. Here also he entertained
his friends and kept a silver table on which sat vessels of fermented
mare’s milk and bowls of meat and fruit for their pleasure. Dressed
in a lavishly embroidered robe and wearing a long and flaming beard,
he sat at state functions on a dais at the far end of the pavilion.
With him on a low bench sat Bourtai, his favorite wife. She was the
real love of his life, and he claimed only the children born by her
as his own. The Empress was small and dainty, with beautiful features
and long hair braided with jewels and heavy coins. She was the mother
of three sons who were destined to rule at a later period a domain
larger than Rome’s. Other wives and concubines grouped themselves at
his left, on lower platforms. His nobles sat on benches around the
walls of the building, wearing long coats, bound around with enormous
bright-colored silken girdles, and large, uptilted felt hats. In the
center of the pavilion glowed a great fire made of thorns and dung.
There was utter silence when Genghis spoke. His word was absolute
law. It is said, “Any who disobeyed his word was like a stone dropped
into deep water, or as an arrow among the reeds.”
Genghis Khan was almost as superstitious as he was brilliant.
Believing that the character of every animal was in its heart, he
hunted lions and tigers with great zest, preferring to capture them
alive. He tore them open with his bare hands, pulled out the heart,
and ate it while it was still throbbing. Convinced that this gave him
the courage of a savage beast, he compelled his men to follow his
example.
A military genius, he is known as the greatest guerilla fighter in
history, but his real life work was the molding together of his
vast hordes into a disciplined, well equipped, highly trained, and
completely organized army. He used the forced labor of subjugated
people—a significant parallel to the present day methods of Stalin,
who, in order to increase the efficiency of his armies, drafted
into them German scientists, artisans and technicians, as well as
thousands of humbler laborers.
Genghis acquired, ultimately, over four hundred thousand warriors,
countless elephant and camel trains loaded with the wealth of
Croesus, and multitudes of armed slaves. “Unmatched in human valor,”
it is said, “his hordes overcame the terrors of barren wastes, of
mountains and seas, the severities of climate and the ravages of
famine and pestilence. No dangers could appall them, no prayer for
mercy could move them.”
Genghis Khan was the symbol of a new power in history. The ability of
one man to alter human civilization began with him and ended with his
grandson Kublai Khan, when the Mongol empires began to crack. It did
not reappear again until the rise of Stalin to power.
The vast empires that Genghis established, with their accompanying
devastation, was not all that he achieved. Had this been so, he would
have been merely another Attila destroying with little or no definite
purpose. His genius for organization and his clever statesmanship
made him the model of kings, although he could not read or write when
he drew up the incomparable “Yassa,” or code of conduct. This curious
document, not unlike the dictates of Stalin, had three main purposes:
to ensure absolute obedience to Genghis Khan; to bind together all
the nomad clans for the purpose of making war; and to punish swiftly
and mercilessly, anyone who violated the law, civil, military or
political. With the “Yassa,” he and his heirs ruled their empires
for three generations. The lash of its ruthless authority held it
together.
Genghis died in 1227 A. D., leaving the greatest empires and the
most destructive armies the world had ever known to that day. Not
until the advent of the Tartars, a few centuries later, did another
Asiatic tribe rise to world power. Led by fearless Tamerlane, they
also laid waste everything in their path, in the savage manner of
their predecessors. Once again the pattern was repeated. It is
characteristic of the empires built by the steppe nomads that they
were not the result of gradual development and expansion, but the
product of a rapid growth under the leadership of a single powerful
man. These men all seem to have had an evil genius for political
intrigue, for exacting fanatical loyalty among their followers, and
for devising ways to conquer many times their own numbers.
The aim of each of these Asiatic conquerors was to control the vast
area of the world from the Pacific Ocean to Central Europe. They
planned the overthrow, by force and violence, if need be, of all
other governments and peoples in their path. Czarist Russia, in
1905, achieved the geographical empires of Genghis Khan, actually
peopled by descendants of the same racial elements. Had they not been
defeated subsequently by the Japanese, the Czars and their successors
probably would have controlled all of China. In this new grouping
of mankind, however, it was the half-Tartar Russians and not the
Mongols, who were the dominant military factor. Today, the ruling
power comes from Moscow, and not from the Mongolian East, except for
the infusion of Chinese blood that has resulted from seven hundred
years of constant conflict with the Celestial Empire.
With the discovery of America and her tremendous natural resources,
the lust for world dominion has increased. Today, Stalin has
ambitions for global mastery. His first tools of conquest are the
Communists in every country. In February, 1947, as the Communist
Convention in London, delegates from thirty-two countries met
to reaffirm their pledges to support the Communist Party. These
Communists are not members of a political party in the American
sense; they are sinister and potentially powerful weapons of the
Soviet Government.
Everywhere today, the “New Democracy,” or early Communism, has
followed the pattern of the rise of each Asiatic despot. It repeated
itself in Moscow in the early Twenties at the death of Lenin, when
Stalin and Trotsky struggled for power. China, today, is passing from
the first stage, the period of self-denial, of sharing the wealth, of
submitting to rigid discipline and purification for “The Cause”—the
Sackcloth and Ashes stage. The Chinese Communists are beginning to
experience the progressive steps of disillusionment, apprehension and
abject terror, as was the lot of millions of Russian peasants during
the infamous Thirties.
The great and overpowering tragedy of Communism is that at no stage
or time has it ever been the shining Utopia that hypnotizes the
credulous common man and woman and some of the dreamers in high
places in our own government. It would appear that neither Marx
nor Engels understood human psychology or analyzed intelligently
the lessons of history, for Socialism, in suppressing individual
initiative, inevitably leads to I-Don’t-Care-ism. An economy based on
share-and-share-alike, without regard to individual effort, failed in
Russia because it put a premium on mediocrity and deprived man of the
fruits of his own labor. It had to be replaced with “Stakhanovitism,”
or piece work, which the American labor unions have fought constantly
in their march toward Socialism. The Russians found that the only
way to make men exert themselves without the incentive of reward
was through fear of punishment. Thus Socialism has to be enforced by
police methods to be at all effective. What is this but dictatorship?
Socialism, Communism, Stateism—these can no more be separated from
each other than can the component parts of homogenized milk.
Communist leaders, motivated by the promise of power, insist that
world revolution is inevitable. The Chinese Communists, for many
years, repeated an ancient legend. They said: “The Mongols still are
waiting in their felt tents, for the issue to be decided. They are
gathering around their yurt fires and chanting together: ‘When that
which is harder than rock and stronger than the storm winds shall
fail, the Empires of the North Court and the Empires of the South
Court shall cease to be; when the White Tsar is no more, and the Son
of Heaven has vanished, then the campfires of Genghis Khan will be
seen again, and his empire shall stretch over all the earth’.” That
prophesy is being fulfilled.