Quotes from Guenter Lewy

A recurring theme in the literature of secular humanism is the harsh assault upon traditional religion, especially Christianity.

It was also not until many years later, Baldwin related, that he discovered that the Communists used these fronts as recruiting grounds for the Party. If the treasurer happened to be a party member, funds would be siphoned off for party purposes. Eventually Baldwin recognized the futility of working with the Communists. "I recognized the lesson many others—but, unfortunately, not all liberals—learned: that no movement in which communists participate can successfully resist

Many of these ex-Communists came to agree with the British editor of The God That Failed that "no one who has not wrestled with Communism as a philosophy and Communists as political opponents can really understand the value of Western democracy. The Devil once lived in Heaven, and those who have not met him are unlikely to recognize an angel when they see one."98 This self-image helps to explain the sense of mission and self-righteousness exhibited by so many ex-Communists.

From early on, important segments of the movement against the American involvement in Southeast Asia were not so much antiwar as they were partisans of Hanoi, whose victory they sought to hasten through achieving an America withdrawal from Vietnam. Given the fragility of the Saigon government and the dependence of the South Vietnamese armed forces on American assistance, none could have any illusion about the effects of this policy. The New Left, too, soon came to favor a victory of Hanoi.