The Reddest of the Red
March 5, 2012
By Al Benson Jr.The title of this article is what August von Willich was called by many in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was the editor of a radical, far-left German newspaper. He had settled in this country in 1853 after fleeing Europe because of his participation in the 1848 socialist revolutions there.
He was also called “the communist with a heart.” If you want to know what a “communist with a heart” looks like, hunt up an old photo of “Uncle Joe” Stalin or that gentle old “agrarian reformer” Mao Tse Tung and read about the millions they slaughtered. That’s “communism with a heart.”
Willich was an officer in the Prussian army when he chanced to meet that beneficent reformer, Karl Marx. Shortly after that Willich became what one web site called a “Marxian socialist.” Another web site listed him as a “convinced republican.” Seems a bit contradictory until you understand how the term “republican” is used by Communists. By Communist definition a republic is “a collectivist, totalitarian state dependent on and subservient to the Soviet Union, Red China, or other Communist power center.” Now admittedly that is a modern definition given the countries mentioned, but it fits. This is how Communists define a “republican”—someone subservient to their wishes. If you want to check as to where this definition comes from check out Amazon.com and see if you can find a book called A Communese-English Dictionary written by Professor Roy Colby.
When the War of Northern Aggression broke out Willich, who had dropped the “von” from his name, rushed to join the Union cause. In 1861 he was made colonel of the 32nd Indiana—a German-American regiment.
Like most leftists, Willich had a rather condescending view of Americans. He once stated that “…in this republic a beginning is possible only through the German element…” In other words, this country would not make it without German socialist influence and help and Willich and his Forty-eighter friends who had fled their own countries after their revolutions had failed were now here and ready to help in the formation of a socialist America.
The book Lincoln’s Marxists (Pelican Publishing, Gretna, Louisiana) talks about Willich on page 180 where it states: “Willich was impatient with Americans because they did not share his ‘communist’ vision for their country and for their future. It is not uncommon for radicals, especially those on the left, to be impatient with those who do not share their ideology.”
Willich was a dogmatic socialist who “did not hesitate to sermonize on the merits of the communist/socialist system.” The book Melting Pot Soldiers by William L. Burton noted that Willich lectured his soldiers about the virtues of socialism. This in the United States in the 1860s—Union soldiers being prepped on the greatness of socialism. You can only wonder, if Willich was doing this, how many other socialist or communist Forty-eighter officers were doing this or something similar? The “history” books are silent regarding any of this.
If the Forty-eighter socialists were the backbone of the early Union army, as Friedrich Engels has contended how much socialist indoctrination went on at that time that we are never told about—and what effect did some of that have in the army later on? If you want to know you will have to dig, because the historians—so called, are not about to tell you.
It would seem that this country has been on the road to communism for much longer than anyone wants to believe.
On The Web: http://revisedhistory.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/the-reddest-of-the-red/