The Use of Propaganda and Psychological Warfare by the Left—A Summary of Dr. Blaylock’s Classic Essay by Dr. Miguel A. Faria

This summary refers to a momentous essay written by my friend, Dr. Russell L. Blaylock, who has studied political science, in general, and totalitarianism and communism, in particular, for nearly five decades. Dr. Blaylock wrote the paper in 1989, but the manuscript had been lost. Fortunately, he had sent me a copy, which I had read, kept, and treasured. I recently rediscovered the copy rummaging through my papers, and with Dr. Blaylock’s permission, his classic essay finally reached the light of day, and was published online by HaciendaPublishing.com.

Those of you who read the essay carefully will find valuable historical knowledge as well as timeless sociological and psychological wisdom in its analyses of the flawed political philosophies of collectivist/communist revolutions. These deceptive socialist revolutions—aided by the use of psychological warfare and abetted by the organs of propaganda disseminated by the popular press and other media—frequently topple governments and reach bitter fruition. The heaven-on-earth workers’ paradise never materializes. Instead, the workers’ paradise turns out to be led by authoritarian tyrants imposing hells-on-earth—oppressive police states, peppered with concentration camps fenced in with barbed wire.

In the end, these left-wing dictatorships deceptively seeking people’s democracies and elusive equality (where members of the party are always more equal than others) are totally incompatible with personal security, liberty, happiness, and the aspirations of the human soul. Desolation, extermination of “enemies of the state” (euphemistically sometimes shouted as “enemies of the people”), cruelty, barbarity, and slavery become the order of the day.  What follows is a summary that does not give justice to his comprehensive, scholarly, and well-documented essay. Please read it.

The year 1989 saw the tumbling of the Berlin Wall; and by 1991, the Soviet empire had collapsed under the weight of its immoral record of injustice, economic inefficiencies, moral shortcomings, persecutions, and human suffering. A great push was given by such towering figures as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Saint John Paul II, the Great, and many individual courageous patriots, who worked from inside the Iron Curtain to overthrow the corrupt and bankrupt communist system.

Today Vietnam and China, nominally communist nations, are doing their best to leave the system while saving political face. But, freedom in those countries remains illusory. The toll of totalitarianism was that 100 million souls perished in the 20th century during peacetime, while purportedly the communists and socialists were cracking eggs to make the omelets they never produced.

As communist bloodbaths in the USSR, Vietnam, China, and Cambodia demonstrate—left-wing revolutionaries are most sanguinary and vicious in victory, murdering their enemies by the millions. And, they are most ungrateful and vindictive even in defeat—Dr. Jonas Savimbi was assassinated in Angola, just as communism was collapsing worldwide and peace was within reach in Africa.

The communist FMLN terrorists were defeated in El Salvador by the courageous security forces of the people of El Salvador, and after the collapse of Soviet communism, the FMLN gave up terrorism and violence, and agreed to participate in the democratic process. Again and again, they were drubbed in the voting booths of El Salvador.

In Nicaragua, after Anastasio Somoza’s overthrow in 1979, Eden Pastora, a former Sandinista hero, quickly became disillusioned with the new Marxist government established by his previous friends in the FSLN and the ruthless Ortega brothers. Pastora went back to the hills of Nicaragua and became a Contra leader in the Southern front known as El Comandante Cero (“Commander Zero”). In 1984, while negotiating an armistice with the Marxist Sandinistas, Pastora was the target of an assassination attempt at the La Penca bombing incident. He was severely wounded. The Contras attained numerous battlefield successes, but after they were defunded by a disingenuous U.S. Congress, the Marxist Sandinistas were able to remain in power, bringing continued privation and suffering to the Nicaraguan people, right up to the time of the Soviet collapse in 1989-1991. The Sandinistas then sought money and rapprochement with the U.S., and boosted by opinion polls, and in their own minds believed themselves the darlings of the people—they agreed to use the democratic process to remain in power and gain legitimacy. Like the FMLN in El Salvador, the FSLN Sandinistas were drubbed at the voting booths, and in 1990 Violeta Chamorro, the head of the opposition parties, was elected President of Nicaragua by a landslide.

Unfortunately, today crime is the order of the day in several Central American countries, particularly in Honduras and El Salvador. Central America, like most of Latin America, has learned much about freedom following the collapse of Soviet communism, leftist guerrillas, and corrupt dictatorships of the right and left varieties—but they have not learned enough about civic responsibilities. Generalissimo Francisco Franco would have called this state of affairs libertinaje (that is, from excessive liberty without duty, “debauchery”).

Likewise, Central America, like the rest of Latin America, has learned about democratic elections, empty slogans and popularity contests, and even mastered the handling of the levers at the voting booths; but without the salutary methods and traditions of Republican institutions, it does not understand separation of powers, checks and balances, the rule of law and other accoutrements of constitutional governance or, most importantly, the duties and responsibilities of citizenship that come with self-rule. As of late, there has been too much crime and corruption in Latin America. And yet, Americans can learn much from Latin America concerning the integrity of the family, faith, and race relations.

Nevertheless, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, the Central American nations where the largest battles were fought for and against communist dictatorships, achieved some measure of peace, order, and prosperity—until recently.

Written by Dr. Miguel Faria

Miguel A. Faria, M.D., is Associate Editor in Chief in neuropsychiatry; history of medicine; and socioeconomics, politics, and world affairs of Surgical Neurology International (SNI). Dr. Faria is a retired Board Certified Neurological Surgeon. He is the author of Vandals at the Gates of Medicine (1995); Medical Warrior: Fighting Corporate Socialized Medicine (1997); Cuba in Revolution: Escape From a Lost Paradise (2002), and America, Guns, and Freedom: A Journey Into Politics and the Public Health & Gun Control Movements (2019). His most recent books are Controversies in Medicine and Neuroscience: Through the Prism of History, Neurobiology, and Bioethics (2023) and Cuba’s Eternal Revolution through the Prism of Insurgency, Socialism, and Espionage (2023; in press) published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, England. His website is https://haciendapublishing.com.

This article may be cited as: Faria MA. The Use of Propaganda and Psychological Warfare by the Left—A Summary of Dr. Blaylock’s Classic Essay. HaciendaPublishing.com, May 17, 2023. Available from: https://haciendapublishing.com/the-use-of-propaganda-and-psychological-warfare-by-the-lefta-summary-of-dr-blaylocks-classic-essay-by-dr-miguel-a-faria/

Copyright ©2023 Miguel A. Faria, Jr., M.D.