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The First Major Attack Against a Civilian Target in Modern Warfare decisively answers the question, “Who started World War II?”
“In a recent and now widely seen Tucker Carlson interview, a guest historian named Darryl Cooper casually presented a surprising number of flawed theories about World War II. He focused his misstatements on the respective roles of Winston Churchill’s Britain and Adolf Hitler’s Germany—especially in matters of the treatment and fate of Russian prisoners, the Holocaust, the systematic slaughtering of Jews, strategic bombing, and the nature of Winston Churchill.” -Victor Davis Hanson
The roots of the battle between Marxism and fascism point back to a tragic day in northern Spain, April 26, 1937. It is important we understand that the communist-fascist war of ideologies has revived in our time—and neither side is “on the right side of history.”
Pablo Picasso’s chaotic mural “Guernica” goes as far as an artist can to describe the unspeakable horrors thrust upon a northern Spanish town when Hitler’s new Luftwaffe, along with Italian and rebel Spanish forces, shattered the lives and hopes of a separatist Basque community. This brutal mass slaughter was a “Fauci-an” experiment to observe humanity’s technological ability to inflict mass casualties.
Today’s neo-Marxist points out that Fascist Spanish warmonger Francisco Franco allied with Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini—which is true—but then they make a deceptive pivot to establish a false dichotomy (as communists do so very well).
In their warped worldview, you’re either a noble anti-fascist Marxist or you are a fascist scumbag.
As of late, some on the right have taken on a Howard-Zinn-like historical revisionism, except from the right side of the political spectrum. Ideas expressed by the likes of so-called historian, Darryl Cooper—and entertained by Tucker Carlson, who called Cooper, the United States’s “most important popular historian”—are disturbingly reminiscent of Mein Kampf, undergirded by poor biblical hermeneutics and breathtakingly inaccurate history [a topic I will unpack further in the October issue of FreedomTalk Magazine].
As Rod Dreher explains in Live Not by Lies, “We are being conditioned to accept as true whatever feels right to us.” Dreher quotes German-American historian and philosopher, Hanna Arendt: “What convinces masses are not facts, and not even invented facts, but only the consistency of the system of which they are presumably part.”
To challenge Tucker Carlson or other celebrities is tantamount to betraying the “tribe”; what matters is not truth, but loyalty and conformity. Ironically, the resulting pseudo-intellectual strong-arming mirrors the tactics of woke orthodoxy, operating on fear and ridicule instead of logic and sound academic process.
There is a third category of people that freedom-loving individuals should emulate—those who defeated both the fascists in WWII and the communists in the Cold War: Constitutional Americans and our Anglosphere brethren, with our powerful ideas of Freedom and Capitalism are the bane of both these rival extremist ideologies. Our Founders elevated individual sovereignty and freedom over the totalitarianism of the collective, whether coming from the Left or the Right.
The Ideological Battleground of the Spanish Civil War
Robin D.G. Kelley, UCLA professor of history, depicts Marxist involvement in the Spanish Civil War in wistfully romantic prose, “Cold Warriors tried their best to turn a noble example of democratic liberalism into a vile act of subversion, and when that failed, history textbooks and social studies teachers simply ignored the Lincoln Brigade [a group of U.S. volunteers organized by the Communist International who served in the Spanish Civil War against Franco’s Hitler-backed Nationalists]. Why? Because those who volunteered were labelled subversives—they were ‘premature antifascists.’ Many were, in fact, Communists and independent radicals…”
Like so many today influenced by the warped “People’s History” of Howard Zinn, Kelley portray the Communists as tragic heroes whose “democratic zeal” only failed because “from Hitler’s rise to power, the governments of England and France, with the United States following their lead, never tried to prevent, slow, or even warn of the fascist danger.” [Interesting how the far Left criticises Anglosphere countries for being too passive, while the far Right accuses them of belligerence and provocation.]
This mythology creates an ex nihilo origin story for today’s Antifa radicals and so-called “Social Democrats,” [see my article, Why Socialists Love Democracy] and suggests U.S. complicity with Fascism. Kelley and other “progressives” cast a baleful eye on the “Good War” narrative of World War II. To them, American exceptionalists are fascists. While this is a completely unfair and inaccurate smear on conservatives, their leftist radicalism elicits a reactionary fear response that drives the truly far-right fringe to embrace neo-fascist doctrines—typically couched in seemingly harmless language, like, “it’s okay to ask questions,” and “we are open minded.” The Left literally brings the fascist bogeyman to life.
I fear this deceptive dichotomy has influenced Candace Owens to the point where she is becoming a de facto Nazi apologist. When asked at a Turning Point Action event, “Do you think America should not have gone into that second world war?” Candace emphatically responded, “Yeah, and that is a radical statement. People don’t know how to deal with that because we’ve all been so brainwashed by the school system to believe that.”
America entered the War to save the free world from BOTH fascism AND communism—two warring socialist ideologies…We were the good guys, and our intervention in World War II was absolutely necessary and righteous.
Yes, that is a radical idea, but not a new one, and such certainty smacks of chronological snobbery. It also indicates a lack of scholarship and an understanding of how hypothesis, theory and falsification establish the best explanation of the data. The historical revisionists on both sides claim that the burden of proof is on those of us who hold to the prevailing theory (ie. mainstream historical understanding). “Prove me wrong,” they challenge. But that isn’t how scholarship works. The burden of proof lies on the proponents of the challenging hypothesis to both decisively falsify the prevailing theory and to offer a more robust explanation of the data.
I find that these WWII revisionists fail to rise to the level of either criteria—neither those on the Left nor the right. Asking questions is important, but demanding acceptance of fringe interpretations without earning it is pseudo-intellectualism—whether the doctrines of Howard Zinn, or Darryl Cooper.
Back before the Marxists infiltrated the public school system, and the neo-fascist-leaning far Right responded with spurious claims, kids were taught the truth: America entered the War to save the free world from BOTH fascism AND communism—two warring socialist ideologies. After defeating fascism, the United States rebuilt the economies and infrastructures of Europe and beyond—even those of our enemies, Germany and Japan. We were the good guys, and our intervention in World War II was absolutely necessary and righteous.
Candace is likely too naïve and lacking in academic depth to make a bold assertion on this subject—she is neither a historian nor a trained scholar—and she may not realize that her misguided assumptions mirror communist vs. fascist distortions of history. Of course, one does not need specialized training or academic bona fides to do research and ask questions, but those qualifications are needed for a thorough understanding of how historical analysis and the Scientific Method arrive at the most substantiated theories. Instead of, as Plato was taught by Socrates to “follow the evidence where it leads,” too many self-made “scholars” begin with a premise and then search for data and anecdotes to support their a priori positions.
To borrow from Wordsworth, “the world is too much with us,” and some revered as conservative influencers have been influenced by revisionist history. Please, Candace, stick to topics you’re qualified to speak about. Tucker, please do not portray fringe hypotheses as “important” historical inquiries until properly vetted.
As horrible as the bombing of Guernica was and the air bombardments of England, and the allied bombings of Dresden and Hiroshima were, ideologies are more deadly than bombs. Fascism and communism killed more people in the 20th Century by far than any other ideology. The fascists, and to a large degree the communists as well, were entirely to blame for WWII, entirely to blame for the massive casualties required to stamp them out. America and the Allies who were forced to fight fire with fire did not commit “war crimes” by fighting back, and it is not fair to judge them through a 21st-Century lens.
“In terms of soldiers lost versus civilians killed, Britain waged a less lethal war than most of the other belligerents, losing fewer soldiers than its two allies and killing far fewer of their enemies as well. Dresden and Hamburg paled before the American incendiary campaigns against Japanese cities between March and July 1945, followed by the two atomic bombs. And America’s bombing of civilian targets paled before the Japanese’s army systematic and decade-long slaughter of millions of Chinese civilians, not to mention Hitler’s agendas of destroying European Jewry.” -Victor Davis Hanson
The Communists of the 20th Century were certainly as bad, if not worse than, the fascists; they just lacked the industrial power to win the early battles against the Reich. This is so well portrayed in the 2016 movie, Guernica, which highlights George Steer of The London Times, the man most responsible for exposing the attack on the town as an act of terror. The movie also portrays the vicious nature of the Soviet-led communist resistance, which terrorized the population with psychological warfare and compelled censorship—the same tactics that Stalin used to brutalize and enslave his own population and murder many more millions than Hitler ever did.
“Unlike many Spaniards who fought solely to defend homes and villages…the [communist] internacionales were committed idealogues. They were romantic and often impassioned young men who shared a common hatred of fascism and the fear that soon it would engulf all of Europe, yet whose personal political philosophies ranged from Bolshevism on one extreme to world anarchism on the other.” -Russell Martin, Picasso’s War
Unfortunately, the foul spirit of communism has survived into the 21st-Century as a kind of mind virus that is replicating in the United States, with the goal of abolishing freedom worldwide. It has worked surreptitiously for decades to flip the historical narrative for its own vile purposes. Casting American Patriots as “fascists,” and
themselves as the “protectors of Democracy—just like the Marxists did in the 20th Century—the extreme Left provides a justification for stopping ”the fascists” by any means necessary.
But that narrative isn’t any more true than it was nearly a century ago. Conflating conservative Americans with the fascists is a leftist myth that some on the Right perpetuate out of ignorance. The United States, despite its faults, is built upon the righteous ideology of our Founding Fathers,—neither left nor right—including the proposition that all men are equal, and government should serve, not rule. Patriots are NOT fascists, and fascists are NOT true patriots. The majority of Americans are and always have been the true antifascists, and—thank God—anticommunists as well!
“George Orwell had gone to Spain believing that fascism might be thwarted there before it took hold in all of Europe, and that conviction had not altered as he increasingly came to see that the Soviet model offered nothing better and that ideologies of every kind could be devilishly indifferent to the sufferings of humankind.” -Russell Martin, Picasso’s War
Kelly John Walker is an American statesman, senior writer, author, and entrepreneur. He is Communications Director for Lindell Legal Offense Fund, Founder of FreedomTalk, and Editor-in-Chief for FreedomTalk Magazine.
Kelly’s work has been published in The Washington Times, Gateway Pundit, The Epoch Times, Andrew Magazine, Newsmax, Townhall, Law Enforcement Today, and more. He’s often asked to appear on such programs as The Eric Metaxas Show, Bannon’s War Room, Real America’s Voice, The Alex Newman Show, Conservative Daily, NTD News, the Sam Sorbo Show, and more.
Kelly holds a BA in English & Theology, and a Master of Science degree on a graduate fellowship with the US Department of Defense. He had a distinguished career as a conservation professional, founded two award-winning advertising agencies. In 2020, Kelly joined the fight for freedom as an independent journalist after making a bold stand against tyranny that saw him canceled out of a job and arrested twice for speaking out.
