The Aragon Offensive was an important military campaign during the Spanish Civil War , which began after the Battle of Teruel . The offensive, which ran from March 7, 1938, to April 19, 1938, smashed the Republican forces, overran Aragon , and conquered parts of Catalonia and the Levante .
123-707: The Battle of Teruel exhausted the material resources of the Republican Army , and wore out the veteran Republican troops. A slowdown of supplies from the Soviet Union exacerbated the difficulties of the Republican government, whose armament industry in Catalonia was already beleaguered. At the same time, however, Francisco Franco had concentrated the bulk of the Nationalist forces in the east and
246-716: A last stand in the southern part of the town. By Christmas Day , the Nationalists still occupied a cluster of four key points: the Civil Governor's Building, the Bank of Spain , the Convent of Santa Clara and the seminary. The Republicans' Radio Barcelona announced that Teruel had fallen, but Rey d'Harcourt and the remnants of the 4,000 man garrison still held out. The siege continued with the fighting being hand to hand and building to building. The Republicans would bombard
369-475: A British unit. Both high commands were now in heated trains near the battlefield and directing their troops in the final part of the battle. Slowly but surely, the Nationalists advanced, and the La Muela heights fell to them. The Republican forces launched fierce counterattacks on 25 January and the next two days, but gains were temporary. Finally, on 7 February, the Nationalists attacked north of Teruel . That
492-591: A U.S.-based Christian rights group, in 2006, Gao was sentenced to a suspended three-year sentence for " incitement to subversion " against the communist state, and ultimately was imprisoned in Xinjiang in December 2011. Released from prison in August 2014, he was placed under house arrest. In a memoir published in 2016, Gao recounted the torture sessions and three years of solitary confinement, during which he said he
615-537: A building with artillery and then move in with the bayonet . Franco cancelled the Guadalajara offensive on December 23, but the relief force could not begin its attack until December 29. Franco could only send messages to Rey d'Harcourt to hold out at all costs. In the meantime, the Republicans pressed home their attack in atrocious weather. The Nationalist counterattack began on schedule on December 29, with
738-560: A finger of Nationalist territory inserted into Republican Spain, and its capture would shorten the lines of communication between central Republican Spain and Valencia on the coast. Teruel was surrounded on three sides by Republican Spain. In addition, Teruel was a symbol of Nationalist power on the Aragon front. Indalecio Prieto , the Republic's Minister of War, wanted a spectacular victory to reflect well on his tenure and to show how
861-934: A former spy for the Soviet Union who testified against his fellow spies before the House Un-American Activities Committee ; Bella Dodd was another American anticommunist. Other anti-communists who were once Marxists include the writers Max Eastman , John Dos Passos , James Burnham , Morrie Ryskind , Frank Meyer , Will Herberg , Sidney Hook , the contributors to the book The God That Failed : Louis Fischer , André Gide , Arthur Koestler , Ignazio Silone , Stephen Spender Tajar Zavalani and Richard Wright . Anti-communists who were once socialists, liberals or social democrats include John Chamberlain , Friedrich Hayek , Raymond Moley , Norman Podhoretz , David Horowitz , and Irving Kristol . A wave of revolutionary impulses since
984-686: A government sponsored rally against potential North Korean military aggression on Yeouido Island in Seoul to an audience of around 1 million. In 1976, Moon established News World Communications , an international news media conglomerate which publishes The Washington Times newspaper in Washington, D.C., and newspapers in South Korea, Japan, and South America, partly to promote political conservatism. According to The Washington Post , "the Times
1107-624: A high critical campaign against the Leninist regime denouncing the atrocities committed by them against him and the Hungarian people. The Leninist government accused him and demanded that the Vatican remove him the title of Archbishop of Esztergom and forbid him to make public speeches against communism. The Vatican eventually annulled the excommunication imposed on his political opponents and stripped him of his titles. Pope Paul VI , who declared
1230-507: A large number of prisoners. Round figures would be Nationalists 57,000 and Republicans 60,000, for a total of about 110,000. Mathews, Hemingway, Robeson and the British politicians have been mentioned previously, and the battle certainly attracted many other such celebrities. One of them was the Soviet spy Kim Philby , who was nominally a correspondent for The Times covering the war from
1353-515: A lie fabricated by a handful of anti-China people to tarnish China's reputation. The virulent accusations made during the hearing had already been robustly refuted seven years before, not only by Chinese authorities but also by diplomats and journalists of several other countries who conducted their own conscientious investigations in China, including officers and staff of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and
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#17327757597571476-404: A long war of attrition , to be won by the force of arms and by foreign assistance. By December 21, the Republican forces were in the town. Ernest Hemingway and two journalists, one being The New York Times correspondent Herbert Matthews , accompanied the troops entering Teruel. Rey d'Harcourt, the Nationalist commander, pulled his remaining defenders back to an area in which he could make
1599-524: A news conference at which he confirmed that none of the human bodies exhibited had come from China. The statement made by Hagens refuted the Falun Gong's rumors. According to Chinese government officials, "[t]he allegations that Falun Gong members are being murdered in China for organ harvesting, as well as the Kilgour-Matas report, have long before been found false and proved to be nothing but
1722-501: A notable voice of dissent against the Communist Party by founding organizations such as the far-right Epoch Times , New Tang Dynasty Television and others that criticize the Communist Party. Falun Gong activists repeatedly alleged that they were tortured while they were in custody. The Chinese government rejects the allegations, stating that deaths which occurred in custody occurred due to factors such as natural causes and
1845-450: A pancake-flat plain around the village of Concud, about 3 mi (4.8 km) away. A key position was the ridge to the west of the town known as La Muela de Teruel (Teruel's Tooth). Teruel's defensive position was much improved by previously prepared trenches and barbed wire because of its position protruding into Republican territory. The Spanish Republican Army was under the command of Juan Hernández Saravia , who had reorganised
1968-525: A policy of shooting commanders of retreating troops. This created discussion among the Communists since Lister was a Communist and the commanders being shot were also Communists. Even as Rojo ordered the Republican concentration at Caspe , the Italians were approaching Alcañiz , and the Republican rout became absolute. Even where a Republican unit would fight effectively, it had to fall back because of
2091-658: A public protest against the Soviet Union in response to its shooting down of Korean Airlines Flight 007 . In 1984, the HSA–UWC founded the Washington Institute for Values in Public Policy, a Washington, D.C. think tank that underwrites conservative-oriented research and seminars at Stanford University , the University of Chicago , and other institutions. In the same year, member Dan Fefferman founded
2214-503: A strategic mistake, but his intelligence reports suggested that to extend the conflict further into Catalonia might draw French intervention. He directed that the attack continue towards the sea. By April 15 the Nationalists had reached the Mediterranean sea at Vinaròs and by April 19, the Nationalists held 40 miles (64 km) of the Mediterranean coastline. This series of victories that started with Teruel inspired great confidence in
2337-768: A view to then rejoining the "purged" ALP, the DLP preferenced the Liberal Party of Australia (LPA), enabling them to remain in power for over two decades. The strategy was unsuccessful and after the Whitlam government during the 1970s the majority of the DLP decided to wind up the party in 1978, although the small federal and state-based Democratic Labour Party continued based in Victoria, with state parties reformed in New South Wales and Queensland in 2008. After
2460-555: A well known anarchist school of thought, there are also anarchists who oppose communism. Anti-communist anarchists include anarcho-primitivists and other green anarchists , who critique communism for its need of industrialisation and its perceived authoritarianism. In The Communist Manifesto , Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels outlined some provisional short-term measures that could be steps towards communism . They noted that "these measures will, of course, be different in different countries. Nevertheless, in most advanced countries,
2583-574: Is political and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia , and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War , when the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in an intense rivalry. Anti-communism has been an element of many movements and different political positions across
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#17327757597572706-399: Is "considered by some to be one of the most important books on political theory of the 20th century". The God That Failed is a 1949 book which collects together six essays with the testimonies of a number of famous former communists who were writers and journalists. The common theme of the essays is the authors' disillusionment with and abandonment of communism. The promotional byline to
2829-543: The Anti-Comintern Pact . Italy joined as a signatory in 1937 and other countries in or affiliated with the Axis Powers such as Finland and Spain joined in 1941. In the first article of the treaty, Germany and Japan agreed to share information about Comintern activities and to plan their operations against such activities jointly. In the second article, the two parties opened the possibility of extending
2952-464: The Civic Union for Stability, Justice & Progress , Constructive Ecological Movement , Russian Democratic Reform Movement , Dignity and Mercy , and Women of Russia . Even though these movements were not successful in contesting the election, they displayed how there was still a strong support of anti-communism after the collapse of the Soviet Union. All of these movements were all critical of
3075-754: The French Revolution that had swept over Europe and other parts of the world and thus also created as a counter-revolutionary reaction. Historian James H. Billington describes, in the book Fire in the Minds of Men , the historical frame of revolutions that extended from the waning of the French Revolution in the late eighteenth century and that culminated in the Russian Revolution . Most exiled Russian White émigré that included exiled Russian liberals were actively anti-communist in
3198-479: The Great Depression , when they organized street battles against German Communist formations. When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, his propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels set up the " Anti-Komintern ". It published massive amounts of anti-Bolshevik propaganda , with the goal of demonizing Bolshevism and the Soviet Union before a worldwide audience. In 1936, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan signed
3321-641: The Italian Communist Party (PCI) from reaching power. From 1945 onward, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) leadership accepted the assistance of an anti-communist Roman Catholic movement, led by B. A. Santamaria to oppose alleged communist subversion of Australian trade unions, of which Catholics were an important traditional support base. Bert Cremean , Deputy Leader of State Parliamentary Labor Party and Santamaria, met with ALP's political and industrial leaders to discuss
3444-551: The Kremlin has," for dividing the bipartisan foreign policy of the United States. Liberal anti-communists like Edward Shils and Daniel Moynihan had a contempt for McCarthyism. As Moynihan put it, "reaction to McCarthy took the form of a modish anti anti-communism that considered impolite any discussion of the very real threat Communism posed to Western values and security." After revelations of Soviet spy networks from
3567-577: The Petrov affair blamed "subversive" activities of the "Groupers" for the defeat. After bitter public dispute, many Groupers (including most members of the New South Wales and Victorian state executives and most Victorian Labor branches) were expelled from the ALP and formed the historical Democratic Labor Party (DLP). In an attempt to force the ALP reform and remove alleged Communist influence, with
3690-514: The Soviet Union under the rule of Joseph Stalin . Also on the left-wing, Arthur Koestler —a former member of the Communist Party of Germany —explored the ethics of revolution from an anti-communist perspective in a variety of works. His trilogy of early novels testified to Koestler's growing conviction that utopian ends do not justify the means often used by revolutionary governments. These novels are The Gladiators (which explores
3813-912: The Soviet occupation of Hungary during the final stages of the Second World War, many clerics were arrested. The case of the Archbishop József Mindszenty of Esztergom , head of the Catholic Church in Hungary, was the most known. He was accused of treason to the Communist ideas and was sent to trials and tortured during several years between 1949 and 1956. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 against Marxism–Leninism and Soviet control, Mindszenty
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3936-848: The Vichy regime and the Legion of French Volunteers against Bolshevism ( Wehrmacht Infantry Regiment 638) in France; and in South America movements such as the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance and Brazilian Integralism . Historians Ian Kershaw and Joachim Fest argue that in the early 1920s the Nazis were only one of many nationalist and fascist political parties contending for the leadership of Germany's anti-communist movement. The Nazis only came to dominance during
4059-421: The armament industry in Catalonia in the hands of the anarchists . One anarchist observer reported, "Notwithstanding lavish expenditures of money on this need, our industrial organization was not able to finish a single kind of rifle or machine gun or cannon ...." Franco's retaking of Teruel was a bitter blow to the Republic after the high hopes that had been engendered by the city's capture. It also removed
4182-527: The mainstream media and the alternative press , and many members of them said that it could lead to World War Three and a nuclear holocaust . The movement's anti-communist activities received financial support from Japanese millionaire and activist Ryōichi Sasakawa . In 1972, Moon predicted the decline of communism , based on the teachings of his book, the Divine Principle : "After 7,000 biblical years—6,000 years of restoration history plus
4305-422: The political spectrum , including anarchism , centrism , conservatism , fascism , liberalism , nationalism , social democracy , socialism , leftism , and libertarianism , as well as broad movements resisting communist governance . Anti-communism has also been expressed by several religious groups , and in art and literature . The first organization which was specifically dedicated to opposing communism
4428-411: The totalitarian and atheistic ideologies that have been associated with 'communism' in modern times. ... Regulating the economy solely by centralized planning perverts the basis of social bonds ... [Still,] reasonable regulation of the marketplace and economic initiatives, in keeping with a just hierarchy of values and a view to the common good, is to be commended". Pope John Paul II ,
4551-645: The 1920s and 1930s. Many of them had been active in the White movements that functioned as a big tent movement representing an array of political opinions in Russia united in their opposition to the Bolsheviks. In Britain, anti-communism was widespread among the British foreign policy elite in the 1930s with its strong upperclass connections. The upper-class Cliveden set was strongly anti-communist in Britain. In
4674-604: The 1930s. Liberal and social democrats in Germany formed the Iron Front to oppose communists, Nazi fascists, and revanchist conservative monarchists alike. In 1936, the Anti-Comintern Pact , initially between Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan , was formed as an anti-communist alliance. In Asia , Imperial Japan and the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) were the leading anti-communist forces in this period. By 1945,
4797-645: The 20th anniversary party for the Times , Moon said: "The Washington Times will become the instrument in spreading the truth about God to the world." In 1980, members founded CAUSA International , an anti-communist educational organization based in New York City. In the 1980s, it was active in 21 countries. In the United States, it sponsored educational conferences for evangelical and fundamentalist Christian leaders as well as seminars and conferences for Senate staffers, Hispanic Americans and conservative activists. In 1986, CAUSA International sponsored
4920-768: The Archdiocese of Esztergom officially vacated, refused to fill the seat while Mindszenty was still alive. According to the Christian Science Monitor , Gao Zhisheng , a Christian lawyer in China, is "one of the most persistent and courageous thorns" against China under communist rule. Gao gained acclaim for challenging the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) by defending coal miners, migrant workers, political activists, and people persecuted for their religious beliefs, including Christians and Falun Gong adherents. According to ChinaAid ,
5043-585: The Black Arrows ( Flechas Negras Division ) broke through. Everywhere the Republican forces were falling back. Many, soldiers and officers, just ran, and the retreat became a rout. In addition, the spreading anti-Communist sentiment in the Republican Army deepened the demoralization. The Communist commanders were accusing each other of various acts of wrongdoing or failure to act. André Marty and Enrique Líster attacked each other. Lister started
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5166-650: The Bolshevik regime, which they saw as betraying the war effort with peace with Germany, followed by annexed portions of the Soviet Union losing their self-determination. Later, knowledge of Stalinist show trials and other repressions in the USSR , from 1922 onward, led to a liberal anti-communist consensus by the start of WWII, which temporarily gave way during the WWII alliance with the Soviet Union. Historian Richard Powers distinguishes two main forms of anti-communism during
5289-549: The Civil War, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia and Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia . Fascism is often considered to be a reaction to communist and socialist uprisings in Europe. Italian Fascism , founded and led by Benito Mussolini , took power after years of leftist unrest led many disgruntled conservatives to fear that a communist revolution was inevitable. Nazi Germany 's massacres and killings included
5412-872: The Cold War ended. Nevertheless, anti-communism remains an important intellectual element of many contemporary political movements. Organized anti-communist movements remain in opposition to the People's Republic of China and other communist states . Since the split of the communist parties from the socialist Second International to form the Marxist–Leninist Third International , social democrats have been critical of communism for its anti-liberal nature. Examples of left-wing critics of Marxist–Leninist states and parties are Friedrich Ebert , Boris Souvarine , George Orwell , Bayard Rustin , Irving Howe , and Max Shachtman . The American Federation of Labor
5535-566: The Communist Party headquarters ( Zhongnanhai ) in a silent protest following an incident in Tianjin. Two months later, the Communist Party banned the practice, initiated a security crackdown and launched a propaganda campaign against it. Since 1999, Falun Gong practitioners in China have reportedly been subjected to torture , arbitrary imprisonment , beatings, forced labor , organ harvesting and psychiatric abuses . Falun Gong responded with their own media campaign and have emerged as
5658-439: The Contras , in addition to paying for flights by rebel leaders. CAUSA's aid to the Contras escalated after Congress cut off CIA funding for them. According to contemporary CIA reports, supplies for the anti-Sandinista forces and their families came from a variety of sources in the US ranging from Moon's Unification Church to U.S. politicians, evangelical groups and former military officers. In 1983, some American members joined
5781-418: The Guadalajara offensive. Another error made by the Republican military leadership was assuming that the Nationalists were as tired and worn out as the Republicans. The Nationalist attack began on March 7, 1938, preceded by a heavy artillery and aerial bombardment. At 6:30 a.m., three Nationalist armies attacked the Republican line stretched between the Ebro River and Vivel del Río . The northern part of
5904-529: The International Brigades to join the struggle. Many of the units had been in the area but in reserve. Celebrities and politicians meanwhile entertained and visited the units. The US communist-sympathising singer Paul Robeson sang for them on Christmas Eve with a repertoire that included L'Internationale and ended with Ol' Man River . Future British Prime Minister Clement Attlee , the left-wing Labour politician Ellen Wilkinson and future Labour government official and diplomat Philip Noel-Baker visited
6027-415: The International Coalition for Religious Freedom in Virginia , which is active in protesting what it considers to be threats to religious freedom by governmental agencies. In August 1985, the Professors World Peace Academy , an organization founded by Moon, sponsored a conference in Geneva to debate the theme "The situation in the world after the fall of the communist empire." After the dissolution of
6150-425: The Madrid area. The Republic, therefore, started the battle on 15 December. Teruel, in southern Aragon , had a population of 20,000 and was the remote capital of a poor province. It had been fortified in 1170 to buffer the warring Moorish and Christian states . In 1937, it served essentially the same purpose by separating the Republicans in Valencia from the Nationalists in Zaragoza . Because of its elevation in
6273-401: The Nationalist leader Francisco Franco regained Teruel. This battle became the military turning point of the war. The Republic 's decision to move against Teruel was motivated by several strategic priorities. Republican military leaders thought that Teruel was not strongly held and sought to regain the initiative by its capture. By 1937, the Teruel salient was similar to the fingernail on
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#17327757597576396-531: The Nationalist side. Evidently, he was already under Moscow's orders in Spain but wrote glowing reports about Franco. Near Teruel in December 1937, a shell hit an automobile in which Philby and three other journalists (Bradish Johnson, Eddie Neil and Ernest Sheepshanks ) were riding. Philby was the only survivor. Franco personally decorated Philby, who was greatly exhilarated. 40°21′00″N 1°06′00″W / 40.350°N 1.100°W / 40.350; -1.100 Anti-Communist Anti-communism
6519-409: The Nationalists that the war was almost won. In the meantime, the French had reopened the border, and military aid that had been purchased and was piling up in France because of the embargo, streamed into Spain and to the Republican forces. This slowed the Nationalists as the Republican defense stiffened. The disaster was contained for the time being, and although the Nationalists pursued other attacks in
6642-399: The Republicans became the besieged and the Nationalists the besiegers. After Rey d'Harcourt's surrender, the Nationalist buildup began to tell on the Republican forces. With the weather clearing, the Nationalists started a new advance on 17 January 1938. Two days later, the Republican leadership finally gave up its scruples about the Battle of Teruel being an all-Spanish operation and ordered
6765-431: The Republicans, forcing them to abandon position after position and attacked the retreating columns. Both Germans and Soviets learned valuable lessons in this conflict about the use of aircraft in support of infantry. On the ground, Lleida and Gandesa fell on April. One hundred and forty American and British soldiers from the XV International Brigade became prisoners of the Nationalists. Also on this day, Aranda's troops saw
6888-410: The Republicans. Such a loss would be a political failure, and Franco determined to make no concession. He had just started a major offensive at Guadalajara , and the relief of Teruel forced him to abandon that offensive, much to the disgust of his Italian and German allies. The Nationalist relief of Teruel also signified that Franco had given up the idea of a knockout blow to end the war and had accepted
7011-407: The Soviet Union in 1991 the Unification movement promoted extensive missionary work in Russia and other former Soviet nations. In the Muslim parts of the Soviet Union ( Caucasus and Central Asia), the party-state suppressed Islamic worship, education, association, and pilgrimage institutions that were seen as obstacles to ideological and social change along communist lines. Where the Islamic state
7134-498: The Stalinist policy of the USSR, and some leftist parties and organizations within the movements called it an "unmitigated disaster for socialists" Milovan Djilas was a former Yugoslav communist official who became a prominent dissident and critic of communism. Leszek Kołakowski was a Polish communist who became a famous anti-communist. He was best known for his critical analyses of Marxist thought, especially his acclaimed three-volume history, Main Currents of Marxism , which
7257-707: The U.S. Consulate-General in Shenyang". In 2006, allegations emerged that a large number of Falun Gong practitioners had been killed to supply China's organ transplant industry . The Kilgour-Matas report found that "the source of 41,500 transplants for the six-year period 2000 to 2005 is unexplained" and concluded that "there has been and continues today to be large scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners". Ethan Gutmann estimated that 65,000 Falun Gong practitioners were killed for their organs from 2000 to 2008. In 2009, courts in Spain and Argentina indicted senior Chinese officials for genocide and crimes against humanity for their role in orchestrating
7380-420: The Unification Church began supporting anti-communist organizations, including the World League for Freedom and Democracy founded in 1966 in Taipei , Republic of China (Taiwan), by Chiang Kai-shek , and the Korean Culture and Freedom Foundation , an international public diplomacy organization which also sponsored Radio Free Asia. The Unification movement was criticized for its anti-communist activism by
7503-403: The United States, anti-communist fervor was at its highest during the late 1940s and early 1950s, when a Hollywood blacklist was established, the House Un-American Activities Committee held the televised Army–McCarthy hearings , led by Senator Joseph McCarthy , and the John Birch Society was formed. The White movement was a loose confederation of anti-communist forces that fought against
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#17327757597577626-409: The advantage of controlling the efficiently-run industries in the Basque Country . The attacking army was commanded by Fidel Dávila Arrondo , with Juan Vigón Suerodíaz as his second in command. José Solchaga , José Moscardó , Antonio Aranda , and Juan Yagüe would command army corps alongside the Italian General Mario Berti . A reserve commanded by García Escámez and García Valiño constituted
7749-404: The airplanes and arms that it had lost at the Battle of Teruel. On the other hand, the Nationalists concentrated the bulk of their forces in the east and prepared to drive through Aragon into Catalonia and the Levante . Franco had the edge on resupply, as the Nationalists now controlled the efficiently run industrial might in the Basque Country . The Republican government, however, had to leave
7872-464: The army almost from scratch. The Republicans had a total of 100,000 men in two armies. The Army of the Levante was to conduct the main part of the assault supported by the Army of the East. Saravia wanted the coup de main against Teruel to be an all-Spanish operation without the assistance of the International Brigades . Among his commanders was the trustworthy and able communist commander Enrique Líster and so Saravia chose Lister's division to lead
7995-423: The army could function under his reorganization. A victory at Teruel would also aid the government of Prime Minister Juan Negrín in its quest to take over the industries of Catalonia from their workers. Lastly, Republican intelligence learned that Franco intended to start a major offensive against Madrid in the Guadalajara sector on 18 December and so the Republicans wanted to divert the Nationalists away from
8118-417: The attack started again, this time in the area east of Zaragoza and Huesca . This part of the front that the Republic had held since August 1936, was lost in one day. The villages in eastern Aragon that had experienced social revolution, either by their own actions or from the anarchist columns from Catalonia, were all taken by the Nationalists, with many of the inhabitants becoming refugees. In this part of
8241-417: The attack was carried out by Yagüe's elite Army of Africa , supported by the Condor Legion and forty-seven artillery batteries. The Nationalists broke the front in several places on the first day of the battle. Yagüe advanced down the right bank of the Ebro, slashing through all defences. Solchaga won back Belchite on March 10, and the XV International Brigade , with its US, Canadian and British complement,
8364-399: The book is "Six famous men tell how they changed their minds about communism." Anatoliy Golitsyn and Oleg Kalugin were both former KGB officers, the latter being a general. Dmitri Volkogonov was a Soviet general who got access to soviet archives following glasnost , and wrote a critical biography dismantling the cult of Lenin by refuting Leninist ideology. Whittaker Chambers was
8487-464: The collapse of neighboring units. The Italian and German airplanes controlled the skies; their bombers attacked the fleeing Republican units with aerial protection from modern fighters. Karol Świerczewski , known as General Walter, commander of the International Brigades, barely escaped capture at the fall of Alcañiz. Finally, after two days of heavy fighting, Caspe fell on March 17 to Varela's attacking army. The International Brigade performed valiantly in
8610-466: The communist Bolsheviks , also known as the Reds , in the Russian Civil War . After the civil war, the movement continued operating to a lesser extent as militarized associations of insurrectionists both outside and within Russian borders in Siberia until roughly World War II . During the Russian Civil War, the White movement functioned as a big-tent political movement representing an array of political opinions in Russia united in their opposition to
8733-430: The communist Bolsheviks. They ranged from the republican-minded liberals and Kerenskyite social-democrats on the left through monarchists and supporters of a united multinational Russia to the ultra-nationalist Black Hundreds on the right. Following the military defeat of the Whites, remnants and continuations of the movement remained in several organizations, some of which only had narrow support, enduring within
8856-685: The communist Soviet Union was among major Allied nations fighting against the Axis powers in World War II (WII.) Shortly after the end of the war, rivalry between the Marxist–Leninist Soviet Union and liberal capitalist United States resulted in the Cold War . During this period, the United States government played a leading role in supporting global anti-communism as part of its containment policy. Military conflicts between communists and anti-communists occurred in various parts of
8979-408: The declassified Venona project , Moynihan wondered: "Might less secrecy have prevented the liberal overreaction to McCarthyism as well as McCarthyism itself?" Chancellor Konrad Adenauer , who presided over postwar West Germany as a market liberal democracy, signaled that the Soviet Union was the "greatest threat to liberty", an idea that exerted major domestic and international influence. After
9102-451: The defense, but was driven off. After eight days, the Nationalists were 70 miles (113 km) east of the positions they had held when the battle started. This first part of the offensive punched a huge hole in the front, created a salient from Belchite to Caspe to Alcañiz and back to Montalbán . The Nationalist Army now paused before the Ebro and Guadalupe Rivers to reorganize. But on March 22,
9225-703: The documentary film Nicaragua Was Our Home , about the Miskito Indians of Nicaragua and their persecution at the hands of the Nicaraguan government. It was filmed and produced by USA-UWC member Lee Shapiro , who later died while filming with anti-Soviet forces during the Soviet–Afghan War . At this time CAUSA international also directly assisted the United States Central Intelligence Agency in supplying
9348-498: The establishment of the state-controlled Vietnam Buddhist Sangha . Thích Quảng Độ was a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and an anti-communist dissident. In January 2008, the Europe-based magazine A Different View chose Thích Quảng Độ as one of the 15 Champions of World Democracy. The Catholic Church has a long history of anti-communism. The most recent Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "The Catholic Church has rejected
9471-608: The existence of the Soviet Union, anti-communism became an important feature of many different political movements and governments across the world. In the United States , anti-communism came to prominence during the First Red Scare of 1919–1920. During the 1920s and 1930s, opposition to communism in America and in Europe was promoted by conservatives, monarchists, fascists, liberals, and social democrats. Fascist governments rose to prominence as major opponents of communism in
9594-479: The experienced Generals Antonio Aranda and José Enrique Varela in command. The German Condor Legion covered the attack. By New Year's Eve , a supreme effort allowed the Nationalists to be on the La Muela Heights and actually to break into the town and to take the bullring and the railway station, but they could not hold their gains in the town. Then, the weather actually turned for the worse, with
9717-422: The fall of Gorbachev and the Soviet Union in 1991 , the anti-communist movement grew rapidly. In the early 1990s, many new anti-communist movements emerged in the former Soviet bloc as a result of failed elections and Boris Yeltsin's Palace Coup . When this seizure of power occurred, more than thirty electoral blocs set out to contest the election. Some of these anti-Stalinist groups were: Choice of Russia ,
9840-731: The first assault. Colonel Domingo Rey d'Harcourt was the Nationalist commander at Teruel when the battle began. The Teruel salient had a Nationalist defending force of about 9,500 men, including civilians. After the attack began, Rey d'Harcourt eventually consolidated his remaining defenders into a garrison to defend the town. Teruel's Nationalist garrison numbered between 2,000 and 6,000 according to various estimates. The garrison numbered probably about 4,000, half of them civilians. Lister's Republican division attacked Teruel without any preliminary aerial or artillery bombardment while snow fell on December 15, 1937. Lister and his fellow commander, Colonel Enrique Fernández Heredia, moved to surround
9963-543: The following will be pretty generally applicable." Ludwig von Mises described this as a "10-point plan" for the redistribution of land and production and argued that the initial and ongoing forms of redistribution constitute direct coercion. Neither Marx's 10-point plan nor the rest of the manifesto say anything about who has the right to carry out the plan. Milton Friedman argued that the absence of voluntary economic activity makes it too easy for repressive political leaders to grant themselves coercive powers. Friedman's view
10086-420: The frontline defenders had no combat experience. The Republic could not replace its lost equipment as Soviet aid was starting to dry up. Essentially, the Republican army was surprised by the Nationalist attack. The Nationalists had redeployed their forces much faster than the Republican general staff thought possible. Although warned by spies, the Republican generals were convinced that the Nationalists would resume
10209-584: The growth of labor unions , the Civil Rights Movement , and the War on Poverty and simultaneously opposed what they saw as Communist totalitarianism abroad. As such, they supported efforts to contain Soviet communism and other forms of communism. President Harry Truman formulated the Truman Doctrine to stop Soviet expansionism. Truman also called Joseph McCarthy "the greatest asset
10332-603: The information which the Western media obtains about Falun Gong is distributed by the Rachlin media group which is described as a public relations firm for Falun Gong. According to reports which were released by the Vienna Radio Network on July 12, Gunther von Hagens , a famous German anatomist, recently held an exhibition of human bodies which provoked Falun Gong's allegations of live organ harvesting. Hagens held
10455-577: The last obstacle to Franco's breakthrough to the Mediterranean Sea . Franco wasted little time and began the Aragon Offensive on March 7, 1938. The Republic had withdrawn its best troops to replenish them after the loss of Teruel on February 22, and the Republicans, still reeling from the heavy losses at Teruel, offered little resistance. The Nationalists rolled through Aragon , entered Catalonia and Valencia Province and reached
10578-489: The main force. José Enrique Varela with the army of Castile was to stand by, on the wings of the attack, at Teruel. The Condor Legion was also on standby. Colonel Ritter Von Thoma , its commander, convinced Franco to concentrate his tanks rather than spread them out. Because of the material losses at the Battle of Teruel, half the Republican troops lacked even rifles, and since the best troops had been withdrawn to refit,
10701-576: The millennium, the time of completion—communism will fall in its 70th year. Here is the meaning of the year 1978. Communism, begun in 1917, could maintain itself approximately 60 years and reach its peak. So 1978 is the border line and afterward communism will decline; in the 70th year it will be altogether ruined. This is true. Therefore, now is the time for people who are studying communism to abandon it." In 1973, he called for an "automatic theocracy " to replace communism and solve "every political and economic situation in every field". In 1975, Moon spoke at
10824-577: The mountains (3,050 ft; 930 m), it usually has the lowest annual winter temperature in Spain. The town was a walled and mountain-ringed natural fortress on a high knoll above the confluence of the Turia and Alfambra rivers. It is surrounded by a geological potpourri of scragged gorges, tooth-shaped peaks and twisted ridge fingers. West of the town, the Calatayud highway runs up a slight gradient to
10947-408: The movements assisting their opposition to what they alleged was Communist subversion of Australian trade unionism . To oppose Communist infiltration of unions, Industrial Groups were formed. The groups were active from 1945 to 1954, with the knowledge and support of the ALP leadership, until after Labor's loss of the 1954 election, when federal leader H. V. Evatt in the context of his response to
11070-714: The north toward the Segre River and in the Valencia area , the Aragon Offensive was for all intents and purposes concluded by April 19. The Nationalist attack was spent and the resistance on the coast was much more formidable. Battle of Teruel 40,000 Teruel garrison: 4,000 -less than 10,000 The Battle of Teruel was fought in and around the city of Teruel during the Spanish Civil War between December 1937 and February 1938, during
11193-636: The north, Republican forces pinned Solchaga down in the Pyrenees , but in the south, the Nationalists drove across the Maestrazgo. Almost everywhere, the Republicans started to fall apart. The various factions started to accuse each other of treachery. The Communists starved anarchist troops of needed munitions. André Marty , the overall commander of the International Brigades, travelled around looking for traitors, but he could not prevent
11316-559: The offensive, Barbastro , Bujaraloz and Sariñena succumbed to the Nationalists. On March 25, Yagüe took Fraga and entered Catalonia. He attacked the next town, Lleida , but El Campesino held him off for a week, giving the Republicans a chance to withdraw with valuable equipment. The retreat of the Republican forces was covered by Colonel Durán 's Mountain Group in the Maestrazgo , the rugged mountainous area of southern Aragon. In
11439-563: The pact to other countries "whose domestic peace is endangered by the disruptive activities of the Communist Internationale". Such invitations to third parties would be undertaken jointly and after the expressed consent by both parties. Communists were among the first people targeted by the Nazis, with Dachau concentration camp when it first opened being for the holding of communists, leading socialists and other "enemies of
11562-417: The period, liberal anti-communism and countersubversive anti-communism . The countersubversives, he argues, derived from a pre-WWII isolationist tradition on the right. Liberal anti-communists believed that political debate was enough to show Communists as disloyal and irrelevant, while countersubversive anticommunists believed that Communists had to be exposed and punished. Cold War liberals supported
11685-512: The persecution of communists and among the first to be sent to concentration camps. In Europe, numerous right and far-right activists including conservative intellectuals, capitalists and industrialists were vocal opponents of communism. During the late 1930s and the 1940s, several other anti-communist regimes and groups supported fascism. These included the Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS in Spain;
11808-558: The refusal to accept medical treatment. According to David Ownby, "[t]he Chinese government has suppressed movements like the Falun Gong hundreds of times over the course of Chinese history ", adding that the Chinese Communist government did "the same thing the imperial state had always done, which was to arrest and generally, not always, execute the leaders and pretend to reeducate the others and send them back home and hope that they would be good people from there on". Most of
11931-471: The sea for the first time. In the north, the Nationalist advance continued and by April 8, Barcelona's hydro-electric plants in the Pyrenees fell to the surging Nationalists. Barcelona's industries suffered a severe decline, and the old steam plants were restarted. The Nationalists could easily have taken Catalonia and Barcelona, but Franco made a decision to advance to the coast. This decision turned out to be
12054-476: The sea. By April 19, 1938, they controlled 60 km of coastline and so divided the Republic into two. Laurie Lee , a British poet and writer who, by his account, served in the International Brigade, summed up the Republican strategy of attacking Teruel: "The gift of Teruel at Christmas had become for the Republicans no more than a poisoned toy. It was meant to be the victory that would change
12177-403: The start of a four-day blizzard in which 120 cm of snow fell and temperatures of -18 °C occurred. The fighting ground to a halt as guns and machines froze, and the troops suffered terribly from frostbite . The Nationalists suffered the most, as they did not have warm clothing. Many amputations were performed to remove frostbitten limbs. Franco continued to pour in men and machines, and
12300-519: The state" in 1933. Thích Huyền Quang was a prominent Vietnamese Buddhist monk and anti-communist dissident. In 1977, Quang wrote a letter to Prime Minister Phạm Văn Đồng detailing accounts of oppression by the Marxist–Leninist regime. For this, he and five other senior monks were arrested and detained. In 1982, Quang was arrested and subsequently placed under permanent house arrest for opposition to government policy after publicly denouncing
12423-598: The suppression of Falun Gong. In the 1940s, Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon cooperated with Communist Party of Korea members in support of the Korean independence movement against Imperial Japan . After the Korean War (1950–1953), he became an outspoken anti-communist. Moon viewed the Cold War between liberal democracy and communism as the final conflict between God and Satan , with divided Korea as its primary front line . Soon after its founding,
12546-558: The tide of the battle slowly started to turn. However, the Republicans pressed home their siege, and by New Year's Day in 1938, the defenders of the convent were dead. The Civil Governor's Building fell on January 3, but Rey d'Harcourt fought on. The attackers and the defenders were on different stories of the building and fired at each other through holes in the floors. The defenders now had no water, few medical supplies and little food. Their defences were piles of ruins, but they continued to hold out. The Nationalist advances stalled because of
12669-424: The town from the north and then surrounded it, as the Republicans had accomplished in December. On 20 February, Teruel was cut off from the former Republican capital in Valencia , and with the Nationalists entering the town, Hernández Saravia gave the order for withdrawal. Most of the army escaped before the route was cut off, but about 14,500 men were trapped. The colourful communist Republican commander El Campesino
12792-444: The town. They immediately gained a position on the heights of La Muela, and by evening, they encircled the city. Rey d'Harcourt pulled his defences into the town and, by December 17, had given up trying to keep a foothold on La Muela . Francisco Franco , the Nationalist commander, finally decided on December 23 to aid the defenders at Teruel since he had decided that as a matter of policy, no provincial capital would be allowed fall to
12915-431: The virtual destruction of the International Brigades. Republican troops suffered arbitrary executions with officers sometimes being shot in front of their men. In general, the campaign seemed lost, and nobody knew where the rout would end. The campaign was decided by air power. The plains of Aragon provided easy landing fields allowing rapid air support from close behind the front. Nationalist aircraft continually drove back
13038-414: The war; it was indeed the seal of defeat". Casualties from the Battle of Teruel are difficult to estimate. The Nationalist relief force lost about 14,000 dead, 16,000 wounded and 17,000 sick. In the original Teruel defensive force, including the garrison, casualties were about 9,500, nearly all of whom were dead or captured, which gives a total of 56,500 casualties for the Nationalists. The Republicans lost
13161-531: The weather, and finally, on 8 January Rey d'Harcourt surrendered with Anselmo Polanco, the Bishop of Teruel , at his side. Teruel had fallen to the Republicans. Just over a year later, the Republicans, in one of their last acts of the war, killed Rey d'Harcourt and the bishop, along with 41 other prisoners in February 1939. After Rey d'Harcourt's surrender, the civilian population of Teruel had been evacuated, and
13284-593: The wider White émigré overseas community until after the fall of the European communist states in the Revolutions of 1989 and the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1990–1991. This community-in-exile of anti-communists often divided into liberal-leaning and conservative-leaning segments, with some still hoping for the restoration of the Romanov dynasty . Two claimants to the empty throne emerged during
13407-610: The world, including during the Chinese Civil War , the Korean War , the Malayan Emergency , the Vietnam War , the Soviet–Afghan War , and Operation Condor . NATO was founded as an anti-communist military alliance in 1949, and continued throughout the Cold War. After the Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, most of the world's communist governments were overthrown, and
13530-564: The worst Spanish winter in 20 years. The battle was one of the bloodiest actions of the war, with the city changing hands several times by first falling to the Republicans and eventually being retaken by the Nationalists . In the course of the fighting, Teruel was subjected to heavy artillery and aerial bombardment . In the two-month battle, both factions together took 110,000 casualties . With his superiority in men and material,
13653-555: Was a harsh critic of communism as was Pope Pius IX , who issued a Papal encyclical , entitled Quanta cura , in which he called "communism and Socialism" the most fatal error. Popes' anti-communist stances were carried on in Italy by the Christian Democracy (DC), the centrist party founded by Alcide De Gasperi in 1943, which dominated Italian politics for almost fifty years, until its dissolution in 1993, preventing
13776-637: Was a weak area since most Republican forces had been concentrated to the south around Teruel itself. A massive cavalry charge , one of the last in the history of warfare (there were one or two exceptions near the Caspian Sea during World War II ), broke the Republican defences and scattered them. Aranda and Yagüe swiftly advanced and the victory was complete. The Nationalists took thousands of prisoners and thousands of tons of supplies and munitions. The Republicans ran for their lives if they could. The final battle began on 18 February. Aranda and Yagüe cut off
13899-415: Was also shared by Friedrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes , both of whom believed that capitalism is vital for freedom to survive and thrive. Ayn Rand was strongly anti-communist. She argued that Communist leaders typically claim to work for the common good, but many or all of them were corrupt and totalitarian. At the end of World War I , liberal internationalists developed an early opposition to
14022-517: Was always strongly anti-communist. The more leftist Congress of Industrial Organizations purged its communists in 1947 and was staunchly anti-communist afterwards. In Britain, the Labour Party strenuously resisted Communist efforts to infiltrate its ranks and take control of locals in the 1930s. The Labour Party became anti-communist and Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee was a staunch supporter of NATO . Despite anarcho-communism being
14145-469: Was established by Moon to combat communism and be a conservative alternative to what he perceived as the liberal bias of The Washington Post ." Bo Hi Pak , called Moon's "right-hand man", was the founding president and the founding chairman of the board. Moon asked Richard L. Rubenstein , a rabbi and college professor, to join its board of directors. The Washington Times has often been noted for its generally pro-Israel editorial policies. In 2002, during
14268-459: Was established, left-wing politics were often associated with profanity and outlawed. In countries such as Sudan, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Iran, communists and other leftist parties find themselves in a bitter competition for power with Islamists. George Orwell , a democratic socialist , wrote two of the most widely read and influential anti-totalitarian novels, namely Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm , both of which featured allusions to
14391-537: Was preparing to drive through Aragon and into Catalonia and the Levante . The Nationalists were able to concentrate 100,000 men between Zaragoza and Teruel with the best troops in the lead. Even though the Nationalist army was numerically inferior to the Republican forces, the Nationalists were better equipped and had almost 950 airplanes, 200 tanks and thousands of trucks. In addition to his foreign aid from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy , Franco by this stage had
14514-523: Was set free and after the failure of the movement he was forced to move to the United States' embassy in Budapest , where he lived until 1971 when the Vatican and the Marxist–Leninist government of Hungary arranged his way out to Austria. In the following years, Mindszenty travelled all over the world visiting the Hungarian colonies in Canada, United States, Germany, Austria, South Africa and Venezuela. He led
14637-511: Was surrounded but eventually broke out to escape. He always claimed that Lister and other communist commanders had left him to his fate in the hope that he would be killed or captured. The Nationalists finally recaptured Teruel on 22 February. The Nationalists found 10,000 Republican corpses in Teruel after the battle was over. The Battle of Teruel exhausted the resources of the Republican Army. The Spanish Republican Air Force could not replace
14760-544: Was sustained by his Christian faith and his hopes for China. Gao predicted that the communist rule of China would end in 2017, a revelation he reportedly received from God. Gao was " disappeared " in August 2017. As of April 2024, his family has not heard from him or about his whereabouts since his disappearance. In the Indian state of Punjab , communism was opposed by the Damdami Taksal order of Sikhs. Communism
14883-601: Was the Russian White movement , which fought in the Russian Civil War starting in 1918 against the recently established Bolshevik government . The White movement was militarily supported by several allied foreign governments which represented the first instance of anti-communism as a government policy. Nevertheless, the Red Army defeated the White movement and the Soviet Union was created in 1922. During
15006-555: Was the last unit out of the destroyed town. The commander of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion , part of the XV International Brigade, Robert Merriman , was killed during the retreat. A Soviet secret policeman had specially designed the fortifications at Belchite, but they fell easily to the advancing Nationalists. The Italians attacked at Rudilla , met some initial resistance and then, led by
15129-524: Was weakened after Sikh youth who had become communists were reinitiated into Sikhism and initiated into the Khalsa by the influence of Damdami Taksal Jathedar Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale . Many communist party members and supporters were assassinated by Taksalis and other Sikh militants. Falun Gong practitioners are against the Chinese Communist Party 's persecution of Falun Gong . In April 1999, over ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners gathered at
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