At the beginning of the 20th century in 1902 Vladimir Lenin wrote a short book, “What’s To Be Done?” In it he gave his recipe for making Russia (and then the world) communist. The key, he wrote, was small tightly-controlled intellectual leadership that would use any and all means, including extreme violence, to gain power. Fifteen years later his organization, the Bolsheviks, did gain power in Russia and proceeded to give birth to the world’s first communist country, the Soviet Union of Socialist Republics. Within a few decades communists controlled one third of the world’s people. By 2000 the cold war had ended and only one-half of one percent of the world’s people is still controlled by Marxist-Leninist power. Just 2 small countries, Cuba and North Korea.
At the end of the 18th century, a small group of patriots led by George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson gained power by free election in the new world of America and established the world’s first democratic (they called it republican) government, the United States of America. Within the next two centuries democracies became the world’s most admired and imitated countries. By 1950 democracies made up about one third of the world’s peoples mostly in Europe, North America and Australia. By 2000 democracies are the governing system for more than sixty percent of the world’s peoples on all continents.
This rise and fall of communism, in my view, was the most dramatically important story of the 20th century. The western democracies won the Cold War that brought down totalitarian Marxist-Leninism. So now in 2010 the democracies have been challenged by a radical Islamic ideology that promises to destroy the “Great Satin” America. So for us today in the western democracies, who are under attack, we need to ask … “What’s To Be done?”
The script for my answer is now finished, in draft form at least. It is longer than most of my previous programs but I am planning nevertheless to publish it on one DVD with a menu that will let teachers choose from 10 sections. They can do it chronologically as it is written or they can jump from section to section in whatever order they choose.
I am going to post all ten sections on the Hawkhill News and Bill Stonebarger’s Blog (see our web site: www.hawkhill.com). Just to make it more fun I will post the sections in order but one at a time like an old-fashioned serial story. I would greatly appreciate any comments, criticisms or corrections from readers. This is only the first draft and I will take any of your comments in mind before recording the final version.
WHAT’S TO BE DONE?
A 10-part guide to the 20th century Cold War with speculation as to what it can teach us in the 21st Century war against radical Islam.
Part 1: Introduction:
The Cold War in the second half of the 20th century pitted the western free-market democracies against the communist command-economy dictatorships. The United States led the democracies. The Soviet Union led the dictatorships. The democracies won.
The war against terror of the 21st century pits the western free-market democracies against radical Islamic theocracies. The United States is leading the democracies. A small terrorist group called Al Qaeda is leading the theocracies. So far neither side has prevailed.
This Cold War of the 20th century was the longest-lasting, most expensive and most deadly war of all human history if your criterion is the number of human casualties.
How long the war against terror will last is unknown at the present time. It has already proved expensive and deadly.
Most of the casualties due to the Cold War were not on the bloody battlefields of Korea or Vietnam (nor even of the Second World War itself, out of which the Cold War was born). Horrific as all of those battlefield and civilian casualties were, most of the violent deaths in the 20th century came from totalitarian regimes murdering their own citizens! The atrocities of Hitler’s National Socialist (Nazi) regime in Germany are well known. The atrocities committed by totalitarian Communist regimes against their own people before and after the Cold War are not as widely known or acknowledged.
Most of the casualties of the war with radical Islamic theocracies have been in the Middle East and in Afghanistan, though almost 3000 were in the U.S. when the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked on Sept. 11, 2001.
Let’s look first at the “cold” war between communism and democracy, and follow with a look at the 21st century war against Islamic terror. They have some similarities but also sharp differences.
When I was in college some sixty years ago, the Cold War was just beginning—or so the standard version of the story goes. Some list the beginning two years after the end of the Second World War in 1948 when the war-time Prime Minister of Britain, Winston Churchill, accompanied by the new U.S. President Harry Truman, gave a speech at Fulton, Missouri.
“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; … all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.”
Forty-one years later a key link in that iron curtain was opened when the Berlin Wall came down. Two years after that a Russian flag replaced the Soviet flag over the Kremlin and the Soviet Union was no more. The Cold War was over. The democracies had won.
What happened during those forty-three years? More important, why? What was it about the Cold War and that made it so long-lasting, so expensive and so deadly? And what lessons, if any, does the cold war have for us in the 21st century?
Stay alert next week for Part 2: The Rise of Communism.
In the meantime you might want to check out THE COMMUNIST CHALLENGE, which is Part 4 of our well received program, DEMOCRACY IN WORLD HISTORY.
Here is a review, for instance, from Education Reviews Online at the University of Buffalo, NY.
Democracy in World History
2006
Distributed by Hawkhill Associates, Inc., 125 Gilman St., Madison, WI 53703; 800-422-4295
Produced by Bill Stonebarger
Directed by Bill Stonebarger
DVD, color, 194 minutes (6 DVDs, approx. 30 minutes each)
Sr. High – Adult
American Studies, Economics, European Studies, History, Middle Eastern Studies, Political Science
Reviewed by Michael J. Coffta, Business Librarian, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
Highly Recommended
Date Entered: 6/18/2007
This voluminous work sets out on the daunting task of discussing hundreds of years of the evolution of democracy in a swift manner without seeming cursory. Democracy in World History accomplishes this with a balance of detail, analysis, and identification of overarching themes related to strings of significant world events. The series does an excellent job in demonstrating linkages of events and movements. It also does a superb job of examining common threads among different civilizations. For example, it makes comparisons between Roman and medieval and industrial civilizations in the context of slavery. The viewer never feels overwhelmed by jargon, but is skillfully acquainted with terms such as Divine Right, human rights, industrialization, enlightened despotism, etc. The most notable aspect of this series is its overall consistency. The narration has the feel of a grandfather’s storytelling. Casual references, such as referring to microbes as “beasties,” and the like give this series a relaxed but informative tone. Make no mistake, however, that this is a rigorous rendering of the history of democracy. Scripts for each DVD are available on the Hawkhill web site. www.hawkhill.com.
Not simply a recording on a disk, the filmmaker has taken full advantage of the medium, by including a good deal of interactivity on each DVD volume. “Guided Questions” (usually in multiple-choice format) provide instant feedback and links the learner back to the portion of the “movie” with the information pertinent to the question.
This is an outstanding body of work, and is highly recommended for high school audiences and higher. It is important to note that while the volumes are interrelated, they also stand independently as solid surveys of the historical eras.
Bill Stonebarger, Owner/President Hawkhill
P.S. Don’t forget, we still have our huge 2010 Sale on where we give 70% discounts on all DVD programs, and 90% discount on all remaining VHS programs. See our web site: www.hawkhill.com