A History of Stalin's and Mao's Useful Idiots
Take a listen to this 2-part documentary from the BBC World Service. Hurry, though, as it won't be available online for too much longer. You can download it as an mp3 and listen to it later. But do listen. The "useful idiots" phenomenon is not confined to those murderous monsters Stalin and Mao. Here's the blurb from the BBC:
The phrase 'useful idiots', supposedly Lenin’s, refers to Westerners duped into saying good things about bad regimes.
In political jargon it was used to describe Soviet sympathisers in Western countries and the attitude of the Soviet government towards them.
Useful idiots, in a broader sense, refers to Western journalists, travellers and intellectuals who gave their blessing – often with evangelistic fervour – to tyrannies and tyrants, thereby convincing politicians and public that utopias rather than Belsens thrived.
In part one John Sweeney looks at Stalin's Western apologists.
In part two he explores how present day stories of human rights abuses across the world are still rewritten. [Note: Part two also mentions Mao. You know how I feel about him! -- MM.]
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