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145-511: The Nazi war criminals were held and tried at the Dachau concentration camp since the camp had buildings adequate to housing the many personnel required for and involved in the legal proceedings of a war-crimes trial, and since the Dachau prison camp had many jail cells in which to hold the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS officers and soldiers accused of war crimes. The American Military Tribunal for

290-857: A joint campaign with the Italian Army , and may be considered a separate theatre . More than 6,000,000 soldiers were wounded during the conflict, while more than 11,000,000 became prisoners. In all, approximately 5,318,000 soldiers from Germany and other nationalities fighting for the German armed forces—including the Waffen-SS , Volkssturm and foreign collaborationist units—are estimated to have been killed in action, died of wounds, died in custody or gone missing in World War II. Included in this number are 215,000 Soviet citizens conscripted by Germany. According to Frank Biess, German casualties took

435-591: 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

580-536: A clandestine cadre of air force officers in the early 1920s. These officers saw the role of an air force as winning air superiority, strategic bombing, and close air support. That the Luftwaffe did not develop a strategic bombing force in the 1930s was not due to a lack of interest, but because of economic limitations. The leadership of the Navy led by Grand Admiral Erich Raeder , a close protégé of Alfred von Tirpitz ,

725-720: A few of the Wehrmacht ' s upper leadership went on trial for war crimes, despite evidence suggesting that more were involved in illegal actions. According to Ian Kershaw , most of the three million Wehrmacht soldiers who invaded the USSR participated in war crimes. The German term "Wehrmacht " stems from the compound word of German : wehren , "to defend" and Macht , "power, force". It has been used to describe any nation's armed forces; for example, Britische Wehrmacht meaning "British Armed Forces". The Frankfurt Constitution of 1849 designated all German military forces as

870-934: 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

1015-686: 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

1160-624: 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

1305-515: 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

1450-524: 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

1595-501: 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

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1740-718: 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

1885-408: A single Joint Chief of Staff, Hitler refused. Even after the defeat at Stalingrad, Hitler refused, stating that Göring as Reichsmarschall and Hitler's deputy, would not submit to someone else or see himself as an equal to other service commanders. However, a more likely reason was Hitler feared it would break his image of having the "Midas touch" concerning military strategy. With the creation of

2030-602: A sub-committee of the United States Senate . This drew attention to the trial and the judicial irregularities that had occurred during the interrogations that preceded the trial. But, before the United States Senate took an interest in this case, most of the death sentences had been commuted, because of a revision of the trial carried out by the US Army. The other life sentences were commuted within

2175-764: A sudden jump with the defeat of the Sixth Army at Stalingrad in January 1943, when 180,310 soldiers were killed in one month. Among the 5.3 million Wehrmacht casualties during the Second World War, more than 80 per cent died during the last two years of the war. Approximately three-quarters of these losses occurred on the Eastern front (2.7 million) and during the final stages of the war between January and May 1945 (1.2 million). Jeffrey Herf wrote that: Whereas German deaths between 1941 and 1943 on

2320-604: A time frame of 10 years for remilitarization, but soon shortened it to four years. With the remilitarization of the Rhineland and the Anschluss , the German Reich's territory increased significantly, providing a larger population pool for conscription. Recruitment for the Wehrmacht was accomplished through voluntary enlistment and conscription, with 1.3 million being drafted and 2.4 million volunteering in

2465-768: 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

2610-555: 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,

2755-399: 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

2900-755: The Polnische Wehrmacht ('Polish Wehrmacht', 'Polish Defense Force') in German. In January 1919, after World War I ended with the signing of the armistice of 11 November 1918 , the armed forces were dubbed Friedensheer (peace army). In March 1919, the national assembly passed a law founding a 420,000-strong preliminary army, the Vorläufige Reichswehr . The terms of the Treaty of Versailles were announced in May, and in June, Germany signed

3045-525: The Reichswehr , was established on 23 March 1921. General conscription was abolished under another mandate of the Versailles treaty. The Reichswehr was limited to 115,000 men, and thus the armed forces, under the leadership of Hans von Seeckt , retained only the most capable officers. The American historians Alan Millet and Williamson Murray wrote "In reducing the officers corps, Seeckt chose

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3190-543: 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

3335-693: The Battle of Moscow , the Siege of Leningrad , Stalingrad , Tunis in North Africa , and the Battle of Kursk . The German Army was managed through mission-based tactics (rather than order-based tactics) which was intended to give commanders greater freedom to act on events and exploit opportunities. In public opinion, the German Army was, and sometimes still is, seen as a high-tech army. However, such modern equipment, while featured much in propaganda,

3480-464: 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

3625-475: The Dachau concentration camp , but also Flossenbürg concentration camp , Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp complex , Nordhausen concentration camp , Buchenwald concentration camp , and Mühldorf concentration camp complex and consisted of four main categories of charges: main camp offense, subsidiary camp offenses, atrocities against downed fliers, and then a catchall category mainly consisting of details about

3770-754: 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

3915-479: 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

4060-641: 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

4205-515: The Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber. The planes cooperated closely with the ground forces. Overwhelming numbers of fighters assured air-supremacy, and the bombers would attack command- and supply-lines, depots, and other support targets close to the front. The Luftwaffe would also be used to transport paratroopers, as first used during Operation Weserübung . Due to the Army's sway with Hitler,

4350-551: 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

4495-479: The Luftwaffe was often subordinated to the Army, resulting in it being used as a tactical support role and losing its strategic capabilities. The Western Allies' strategic bombing campaign against German industrial targets (particularly the round-the-clock Combined Bomber Offensive ) and Germany's Defence of the Reich deliberately forced the Luftwaffe into a war of attrition. With German fighter force destroyed,

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4640-656: The Malmedy Massacre . The first trial was that of Franz Strasser in August 1945. The mass trials started in November 1945 and were adjourned the following month. By December 13, 1947, when the trials adjourned once more, roughly 1200 defendants had been tried with roughly a 73% conviction rate. During the almost three years in total, the American military tribunals tried 1,672 German alleged war criminals in 489 separate proceedings. In total 1,416 former members of

4785-762: The OKH became the de facto Eastern Theatre higher-echelon command-organization for the Wehrmacht , excluding Waffen-SS except for operational and tactical combat purposes. The OKW conducted operations in the Western Theatre. The operations by the Kriegsmarine in the North and Mid-Atlantic can also be considered as separate theatres, considering the size of the area of operations and their remoteness from other theatres. The Wehrmacht fought on other fronts, sometimes three simultaneously; redeploying troops from

4930-577: 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

5075-471: The SS and Wehrmacht , many SS officers were former army officers, which ensured continuity and understanding between the two. Throughout the war, army and SS soldiers worked together in various combat situations, creating bonds between the two groups. Guderian noted that every day the war continued the Army and the SS became closer together. Towards the end of the war, army units would even be placed under

5220-599: The SS was to be "procured from the Wehrmacht upon payment", however "in peacetime, no organizational connection with the Wehrmacht exists." The army was however allowed to check the budget of the SS and inspect the combat readiness of the SS troops. In the event of mobilization, the Waffen-SS field units could be placed under the operational control of the OKW or the OKH. All decisions regarding this would be at Hitler's personal discretion. Though there existed conflict between

5365-445: The SS were stepped up as well. Following the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943, fitness and physical health standards for Wehrmacht recruits were drastically lowered, with the regime going so far as to create "special diet" battalions for men with severe stomach ailments. Rear-echelon personnel were more often sent to front-line duty wherever possible, especially during the final two years of the war where, inspired by constant propaganda,

5510-514: 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

5655-479: The Soviet Union (1941) and North Africa (1941/42) are regarded by historians as acts of boldness. At the same time, the extent of advances strained the Wehrmacht's capacity to the breaking point, culminating in its first major defeat in the Battle of Moscow (1941); by late 1942, Germany was losing the initiative in all theatres. The German operational art proved no match to that of the Allied coalition , making

5800-594: The Soviet Union , including the Caucasian Muslim Legion , Turkestan Legion , Crimean Tatars, ethnic Ukrainians and Russians, Cossacks , and others who wished to fight against the Soviet regime or who were otherwise induced to join. Between 15,000 and 20,000 anti-communist White émigrés who had left Russia after the Russian Revolution joined the ranks of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS , with 1,500 acting as interpreters and more than 10,000 serving in

5945-845: 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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6090-491: The Spanish Civil War . The effectiveness of officer training and recruitment by the Wehrmacht has been identified as a major factor in its early victories as well as its ability to keep the war going as long as it did even as the war turned against Germany. As the Second World War intensified, Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe personnel were increasingly transferred to the army, and "voluntary" enlistments in

6235-544: The United States military between August 1945 and December 1947. The proceedings were similar to the 12 post-1946 Nuremberg trials that were also conducted solely by the United States. All the hearings were held within Dachau because it was, at the time, the best known of the Nazi concentration camps and it would act as a backdrop for the trials by underlining the moral corruption of the Nazi regime . They were held by

6380-491: 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

6525-407: The Waffen-SS were found guilty of summarily executing 84 American prisoners of war during the attack. In another trial, former German commando Otto Skorzeny and nine officers from the Panzer Brigade 150 , were found not guilty of breaching the rules of war contrary to the Hague Convention of 1907 for wearing American military uniforms in a false flag operation, Operation Greif . After

6670-408: The Wehrmacht's weaknesses in strategy, doctrine, and logistics apparent. Closely cooperating with the SS and their Einsatzgruppen death squads, the German armed forces committed numerous war crimes (despite later denials and promotion of the myth of the clean Wehrmacht ). The majority of the war crimes took place in the Soviet Union, Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Italy, as part of

6815-462: 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

6960-411: 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 ,

7105-484: The war of annihilation against the Soviet Union, the Holocaust and Nazi security warfare . During World War II about 18 million men served in the Wehrmacht . By the time the war ended in Europe in May 1945, German forces (consisting of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine , the Luftwaffe , the Waffen-SS , the Volkssturm , and foreign collaborator units ) had lost approximately 11,300,000 men, about 5,318,000 of whom were missing, killed or died in captivity. Only

7250-459: The " battle of annihilation ", the Wehrmacht managed many lightning quick victories in the first year of World War II, prompting foreign journalists to create a new word for what they witnessed: Blitzkrieg . Germany's immediate military success on the field at the start of the Second World War coincides the favorable beginning they achieved during the First World War, a fact which some attribute to their superior officer corps. The Heer entered

7395-408: The "German Wehrmacht ", consisting of the Seemacht (sea force) and the Landmacht (land force). In 1919, the term Wehrmacht also appears in Article 47 of the Weimar Constitution , establishing that: "The Reich's President holds supreme command of all armed forces [i.e. the Wehrmacht ] of the Reich". From 1919, Germany's national defense force was known as the Reichswehr , a name that

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7540-645: 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 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

7685-426: 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

7830-433: 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,

7975-582: 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

8120-560: The American Military Tribunal, without a jury, but instead by a panel of seven men, one of whom was versed in international military law . The prosecution was different from most trials, in that the burden of proof was on the defense. The term used by Ben Ferencz was "quick trials". The charges to be carried out by the United States Military were against Germans such as camp guards, some SS units and medical personnel, who had taken part in war crimes against allied nationals. The Dachau trials consisted of 465 trials of individuals from not only

8265-555: 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 ,

8410-482: The Armed Forces, retaining the position until his suicide on 30 April 1945. The title of Commander-in-Chief was given to the Minister of the Reichswehr Werner von Blomberg , who was simultaneously renamed the Reich Minister of War. Following the Blomberg-Fritsch Affair , Blomberg resigned and Hitler abolished the Ministry of War. As a replacement for the ministry, the Wehrmacht High Command Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), under Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel ,

8555-492: 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

8700-470: The British. Karl Doenitz , the U-Boat Chief, began unrestricted submarine warfare which cost the Allies 22,898 men and 1,315 ships. The U-boat war remained costly for the Allies until early spring of 1943 when the Allies began to use countermeasures against U-Boats such as the use of Hunter-Killer groups, airborne radar, torpedoes and mines like the FIDO . The submarine war cost the Kriegsmarine 757 U-boats, with more than 30,000 U-boat crewmen killed. In

8845-439: 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

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8990-684: 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

9135-511: 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

9280-439: 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

9425-423: The German armed forces prior to 1941. With the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the government's positions changed. German propagandists wanted to present the war not as a purely German concern, but as a multi-national crusade against the so-called Jewish Bolshevism . Hence, the Wehrmacht and the SS began to seek out recruits from occupied and neutral countries across Europe: the Germanic populations of

9570-418: The German army's early success. In the strategies of the Blitzkrieg , the Wehrmacht combined the mobility of light tanks with airborne assault to quickly progress through weak enemy lines, enabling the German army to quickly take over Poland and France. These tanks were used to break through enemy lines, isolating regiments from the main force so that the infantry behind the tanks could quickly kill or capture

9715-429: The Gestapo document archive in East Germany , and used the information to denounce the presence of a Nazi war criminal living in France. In June 1976, there appeared political flyers denouncing the presence of SS-Obersturmbannführer Joachim Peiper in the village of Traves. Later, a newsmagazine article the left-wing L'Humanité identified Peiper's presence and residence in Traves, and he received threats of death. In

9860-415: 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

10005-422: The Jews serving in the Reichswehr given an automatic and immediate dishonorable discharge . Again, on his own initiative Blomberg had the armed forces adopt Nazi symbols into their uniforms in May 1934. In August of the same year, on Blomberg's initiative and that of the Ministeramt chief General Walther von Reichenau , the entire military took the Hitler oath , an oath of personal loyalty to Hitler. Hitler

10150-421: The Nazi regime were convicted; of these, 297 received death sentences and 279 were sentenced to life in prison. All convicted prisoners were sent to War Criminals Prison #1 at Landsberg am Lech to serve their sentences or to be hanged . Two of the most highly publicized trials concerned the activities of German forces during the Battle of the Bulge in late 1944. In the Malmedy massacre trial , 73 members of

10295-441: The Netherlands and Norway were recruited largely into the SS , while "non-Germanic" people were recruited into the Wehrmacht . The "voluntary" nature of such recruitment was often dubious, especially in the later years of the war when even Poles living in the Polish Corridor were declared "ethnic Germans" and drafted. After Germany's defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad , the Wehrmacht also made substantial use of personnel from

10440-920: The OKW, Hitler solidified his control over the Wehrmacht . Showing restraint at the beginning of the war, Hitler also became increasingly involved in military operations at every scale. Additionally, there was a clear lack of cohesion between the three High Commands and the OKW, as senior generals were unaware of the needs, capabilities and limitations of the other branches. With Hitler serving as Supreme Commander, branch commands were often forced to fight for influence with Hitler. However, influence with Hitler not only came from rank and merit but also who Hitler perceived as loyal, leading to inter-service rivalry, rather than cohesion between his military advisers. The German Army furthered concepts pioneered during World War I , combining ground ( Heer ) and air force ( Luftwaffe ) assets into combined arms teams. Coupled with traditional war fighting methods such as encirclements and

10585-627: 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

10730-706: The Soviet Union was created in 1922. During 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

10875-611: 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

11020-815: 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

11165-664: 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

11310-471: 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

11455-631: The Western Allies had air supremacy over the battlefield, denying support to German forces on the ground and using its own fighter-bombers to attack and disrupt. Following the losses in Operation Bodenplatte in 1945, the Luftwaffe was no longer an effective force. The Treaty of Versailles disallowed submarines, while limiting the size of the Reichsmarine to six battleships, six cruisers, and twelve destroyers. Following

11600-503: The army that existed in World War I. In the 1920s, Seeckt and his officers developed new doctrines that emphasized speed, aggression, combined arms and initiative on the part of lower officers to take advantage of momentary opportunities. Though Seeckt retired in 1926, his influence on the army was still apparent when it went to war in 1939. Germany was forbidden to have an air force by the Versailles treaty; nonetheless, Seeckt created

11745-410: The beginning, there was friction between the SS and the army, as the army feared the SS would attempt to become a legitimate part of the armed forces of Nazi Germany, partly due to the fighting between the limited armaments, and the perceived fanaticism towards Nazism. However, on 17 August 1938, Hitler codified the role of the SS and the army in order to end the feud between the two. The arming of

11890-399: 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

12035-543: The coast of Norway, which had been occupied since 1940, convoys from North America to the Soviet port of Murmansk could be intercepted though the Tirpitz spent most of her career as fleet in being . After the appointment of Karl Dönitz as Grand Admiral of the Kriegsmarine (in the aftermath of the Battle of the Barents Sea ), Germany stopped constructing battleships and cruisers in favor of U-boats. Though by 1941,

12180-575: The command of the SS , in Italy and the Netherlands. The relationship between the Wehrmacht and the SS improved; however, the Waffen-SS was never considered "the fourth branch of the Wehrmacht ." The Wehrmacht directed combat operations during World War II (from 1 September 1939 – 8 May 1945) as the German Reich 's armed forces umbrella command-organization. After 1941

12325-812: 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

12470-483: 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

12615-740: 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

12760-559: The creation of the Wehrmacht , the navy was renamed the Kriegsmarine . With the signing of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement , Germany was allowed to increase its navy's size to be 35:100 tonnage of the Royal Navy, and allowed for the construction of U-boats. This was partly done to appease Germany, and because Britain believed the Kriegsmarine would not be able to reach the 35% limit until 1942. The navy

12905-408: 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

13050-703: 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

13195-595: The early morning of 14 July 1976, Peiper's house was set afire, and killed him. Wehrmacht The Wehrmacht ( German pronunciation: [ˈveːɐ̯maxt] , lit.   ' defence force ' ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer (army), the Kriegsmarine (navy) and the Luftwaffe (air force). The designation " Wehrmacht " replaced

13340-452: The early stage of Operation Barbarossa in the Soviet Union (June 1941). After Hitler declared war on the United States in December 1941, the Axis powers found themselves engaged in campaigns against several major industrial powers while Germany was still in transition to a war economy. German units were then overextended, undersupplied, outmaneuvered, outnumbered and defeated by its enemies in decisive battles during 1941, 1942, and 1943 at

13485-555: The enemy troops. Originally outlawed by the Treaty of Versailles, the Luftwaffe was officially established in 1935, under the leadership of Hermann Göring . First gaining experience in the Spanish Civil War , it was a key element in the early Blitzkrieg campaigns (Poland, France 1940, USSR 1941). The Luftwaffe concentrated production on fighters and (small) tactical bombers, like the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter and

13630-498: 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

13775-422: 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 ,

13920-543: 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

14065-584: 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

14210-686: The guard force of the Russian Protective Corps . In the beginning, women in Nazi Germany were not involved in the Wehrmacht , as Hitler ideologically opposed conscription for women, stating that Germany would " not form any section of women grenade throwers or any corps of women elite snipers. " However, with many men going to the front, women were placed in auxiliary positions within the Wehrmacht , called Wehrmachtshelferinnen ( lit.   ' Female Wehrmacht Helper ' ), participating in tasks as: They were placed under

14355-603: 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

14500-855: The intensifying theatre in the East to the West after the Normandy landings caused tensions between the General Staffs of both the OKW and the OKH ;– as Germany lacked sufficient materiel and manpower for a two-front war of such magnitude. Major campaigns and battles in Eastern and Central Europe included: For a time, the Axis Mediterranean Theatre and the North African Campaign were conducted as

14645-576: 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

14790-408: 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

14935-470: The name " Wehrmacht "; the Reichswehr was officially renamed the Wehrmacht on 21 May 1935. Hitler's proclamation of the Wehrmacht ' s existence included a total of no less than 36 divisions in its original projection, contravening the Treaty of Versailles in grandiose fashion. In December 1935, General Ludwig Beck added 48 tank battalions to the planned rearmament program. Hitler originally set

15080-411: The navy had already lost a number of its large surface ships, which could not be replenished during the war. The Kriegsmarine ' s most significant contribution to the German war effort was the deployment of its nearly 1,000 U-boats to strike at Allied convoys. The German naval strategy was to attack the convoys in an attempt to prevent the United States from interfering in Europe and to starve out

15225-403: The new leadership from the best men of the general staff with ruthless disregard for other constituencies, such as war heroes and the nobility." Seeckt's determination that the Reichswehr be an elite cadre force that would serve as the nucleus of an expanded military when the chance for restoring conscription came essentially led to the creation of a new army, based upon, but very different from,

15370-641: The next decade until the Germans finally left in September 1933. However, the arms buildup was done in secrecy, until Hitler came to power and it received broad political support. After the death of President Paul von Hindenburg on 2 August 1934, Adolf Hitler assumed the office of President of Germany , and thus became commander in chief. In February 1934, the Defence Minister Werner von Blomberg , acting on his own initiative, had all of

15515-664: The next few years. With the exception of one person who died in prison, all of those convicted in the Malmedy massacre trial were released during the 1950s, the last one to leave prison being Hubert Huber in January 1957. A distinct case about the war crimes committed against civilians in Stavelot was tried on July 6, 1948, in front of a Belgian military court in Liège , Belgium. The defendants were 10 members of Kampfgruppe Peiper; American troops had captured them on December 22, 1944, near

15660-560: The oldest and youngest were being recruited and driven by instilled fear and fanaticism to serve on the fronts and, often, to fight to the death, whether judged to be cannon fodder or elite troops. Prior to World War II, the Wehrmacht strove to remain a purely ethnic German force; as such, minorities within and outside of Germany, such as the Czechs in annexed Czechoslovakia , were exempted from military service after Hitler's takeover in 1938. Foreign volunteers were generally not accepted in

15805-674: The opening year of the war. No aircraft carrier was operational, as German leadership lost interest in the Graf Zeppelin which had been launched in 1938. Following the loss of the German battleship  Bismarck in 1941, with Allied air-superiority threatening the remaining battle-cruisers in French Atlantic harbors, the ships were ordered to make the Channel Dash back to German ports. Operating from fjords along

15950-406: The other half performed obligatory services connected to the war effort ( German : Kriegshilfsdienst ). Legally, the commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht was Adolf Hitler in his capacity as Germany's head of state, a position he gained after the death of President Paul von Hindenburg in August 1934. With the creation of the Wehrmacht in 1935, Hitler elevated himself to Supreme Commander of

16095-563: 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

16240-586: The period 1935–1939. The total number of soldiers who served in the Wehrmacht during its existence from 1935 to 1945 is believed to have approached 18.2 million. The German military leadership originally aimed at a homogeneous military, possessing traditional Prussian military values. However, with Hitler's constant wishes to increase the Wehrmacht ' s size, the Army was forced to accept citizens of lower class and education, decreasing internal cohesion and appointing officers who lacked real-war experience from previous conflicts, especially World War I and

16385-417: 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

16530-512: 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;

16675-573: The previously used term Reichswehr ( Reich Defence ) and was the manifestation of the Nazi regime's efforts to rearm Germany to a greater extent than the Treaty of Versailles permitted. After the Nazi rise to power in 1933, one of Adolf Hitler 's most overt and bellicose moves was to establish the Wehrmacht , a modern offensively-capable armed force, fulfilling the Nazi regime's long-term goals of regaining lost territory as well as gaining new territory and dominating its neighbours. This required

16820-558: 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

16965-547: The reinstatement of conscription and massive investment and defence spending on the arms industry . The Wehrmacht formed the heart of Germany's politico-military power. In the early part of the Second World War , the Wehrmacht employed combined arms tactics (close-cover air-support, tanks and infantry) to devastating effect in what became known as Blitzkrieg (lightning war). Its campaigns in France (1940) ,

17110-597: The same authority as ( Hiwis ), auxiliary personnel of the army ( German : Behelfspersonal ) and they were assigned to duties within the Reich, and to a lesser extent, in the occupied territories, for example in the general government of occupied Poland , in France , and later in Yugoslavia , in Greece and in Romania . By 1945, 500,000 women were serving as Wehrmachtshelferinnen , half of whom were volunteers, while

17255-463: The spot where one of the massacres of civilians in Stavelot had occurred. One man was discharged; the others were found guilty. Most of the convicts were sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment; two officers were sentenced to 12 and 15 years. Towards the end of his life, Joachim Peiper settled in Traves, Haute-Saône , in eastern France. In 1976 a Communist historian obtained the file on Joachim Peiper from

17400-519: 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

17545-598: 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,

17690-557: The terms. Germany helped the Soviet Union with industrialization and Soviet officers were to be trained in Germany. German tank and air-force specialists could exercise in the Soviet Union and German chemical weapons research and manufacture would be carried out there along with other projects. In 1924 a fighter-pilot school was established at Lipetsk , where several hundred German air force personnel received instruction in operational maintenance, navigation, and aerial combat training over

17835-412: The treaty that, among other terms, imposed severe constraints on the size of Germany's armed forces. The army was limited to one hundred thousand men with an additional fifteen thousand in the navy. The fleet was to consist of at most six battleships , six cruisers , and twelve destroyers . Submarines , tanks and heavy artillery were forbidden and the air-force was dissolved. A new post-war military,

17980-475: The verdicts, the manner in which the court had functioned was disputed, first in Germany (by former Nazi officials who had regained some power due to anti-Communist positions with the occupation forces), then later in the United States, including by Senator Joseph McCarthy . The case was appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States , which made no decision. The case then came under the scrutiny of

18125-480: The war with a minority of its formations motorized ; infantry remained approximately 90% foot-borne throughout the war, and artillery was primarily horse-drawn . The motorized formations received much attention in the world press in the opening years of the war, and were cited as the reason for the success of the invasions of Poland (September 1939), Denmark and Norway (April 1940), Belgium, France, and Netherlands (May 1940), Yugoslavia and Greece (April 1941) and

18270-516: The war-crime trials at Dachau featured the JAG attorney William Denson as the chief prosecutor, and the attorney Lt. Col. Douglas T. Bates Jr., an artillery officer, as the chief defense counsel. Unlike the international military trials in Nuremberg that prosecuted the major Nazi war criminals under the jurisdiction of the four Allied Occupying Powers , the Dachau tribunals were held exclusively by

18415-503: The western front had not exceeded three per cent of the total from all fronts, in 1944 the figure jumped to about 14 per cent. Yet even in the months following D-day, about 68.5 per cent of all German battlefield deaths occurred on the eastern front, as a Soviet blitzkrieg in response devastated the retreating Wehrmacht. Anti-communism Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after

18560-593: 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

18705-666: 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

18850-433: 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

18995-542: Was also prioritized last in the German rearmament scheme, making it the smallest of the branches. In the Battle of the Atlantic , the initially successful German U-boat fleet arm was eventually defeated due to Allied technological innovations like sonar , radar , and the breaking of the Enigma code. Large surface vessels were few in number due to construction limitations by international treaties prior to 1935. The "pocket battleships" Admiral Graf Spee and Admiral Scheer were important as commerce raiders only in

19140-415: 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

19285-457: 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

19430-422: Was dedicated to the idea of reviving Tirpitz's High Seas Fleet. Officers who believed in submarine warfare led by Admiral Karl Dönitz were in a minority before 1939. By 1922, Germany had begun covertly circumventing the conditions of the Versailles treaty. A secret collaboration with the Soviet Union began after the Treaty of Rapallo . Major-General Otto Hasse traveled to Moscow in 1923 to further negotiate

19575-420: Was dropped in favor of Wehrmacht on 21 May 1935. While the term Wehrmacht has been associated, both in the German and English languages, with the German armed forces of 1935–45 since the Second World War, before 1945 the term was used in the German language in a more general sense for a national defense force. For instance, the German-aligned formations of Poles raised during the First World War were known as

19720-469: 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

19865-459: 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

20010-412: Was most surprised at the offer; the popular view that Hitler imposed the oath on the military is false. The oath read: "I swear by God this sacred oath that to the Leader of the German empire and people, Adolf Hitler, supreme commander of the armed forces, I shall render unconditional obedience and that as a brave soldier I shall at all times be prepared to give my life for this oath". By 1935, Germany

20155-477: Was often only available in relatively small numbers. Only 40% to 60% of all units in the Eastern Front were motorized, baggage trains often relied on horse-drawn trailers due to poor roads and weather conditions in the Soviet Union, and for the same reasons many soldiers marched on foot or used bicycles as bicycle infantry . As the fortunes of war turned against them, the Germans were in constant retreat from 1943 and onward. The Panzer divisions were vital to

20300-487: Was openly flouting the military restrictions set forth in the Versailles Treaty: German rearmament was announced on 16 March with the "Edict for the Buildup of the Wehrmacht " ( German : Gesetz für den Aufbau der Wehrmacht ) and the reintroduction of conscription. While the size of the standing army was to remain at about the 100,000-man mark decreed by the treaty, a new group of conscripts equal to this size would receive training each year. The conscription law introduced

20445-431: Was put in its place. Placed under the OKW were the three branch High Commands: Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH), Oberkommando der Marine (OKM), and Oberkommando der Luftwaffe (OKL). The OKW was intended to serve as a joint command and coordinate all military activities, with Hitler at the top. Though many senior officers, such as von Manstein , had advocated for a real tri-service Joint Command, or appointment of

20590-415: 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

20735-420: Was specifically dedicated to opposing communism 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

20880-428: 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

21025-472: 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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