The moral fight between good and evil, Part 1

By Mark Faust
HCP columnist

“Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Rocky Balboa are the three people most responsible for ending the Cold War.” When I would get to the 1980s with my upper-level American History classes, I would throw this line into my teaching just to see which students were paying attention. 

None of them knew who Margaret Thatcher was; most knew that Reagan was a president, but all knew who Rocky was. Once Rocky was mentioned, the kids would perk up, and I would have them for the rest of the class as we debated capitalism and democracy vs. communism. While that sentence may have a little hyperbole in it, Rocky Balboa was a significant player in the Cold War.

As a kid growing up in the 1980s, I remember several conflicts that divided America. Coke and Pepsi had their cola wars. The Celtics/Lakers basketball rivalry divided sports fans on the East and West Coasts. Did Miller Lite taste great or was it less filling? 

While Americans were divided on many important topics, there was one thing that everyone agreed on; the Soviet Union and their communistic ways was evil. There were no ifs, and, or buts about it. The Soviets were the bad guys. Growing up, I didn’t really understand why the Soviets were bad, but everything in America told me they were. I knew that the only way Drago could beat Apollo in Rocky IV was by using steroids. I also knew that the American way of life would win thanks to a bunch of brave, courageous high school kids in Colorado that led the resistance against a Soviet invasion (WOLVERINE!!) in "Red Dawn." 

There was anti-communist, pro-America propaganda everywhere in the 1980s, and I took it all in as a kid.

There was more than just the propaganda that told me the Soviets were evil, there were actual events that even a kid could understand. I’ve always loved sports, and I remember reading articles and books about how the Soviets and their allies stole the 1972 Olympic basketball gold medal from us. 

I read about how, in an effort to win Olympic medals, the communist East German government “provided” steroids to their female athletes without their knowledge. This aspect of their “training,” as it was referred to, caused severe, long-term medical problems for the female East German athletes. 

I remember watching the Berlin Wall come down at 1989 in class at school. Once again, I didn’t understand the politics of the Olympics or what the Berlin Wall really was, I just knew that the communists were cheating to win and they needed a big wall to keep people in (even though the people inside wanted out). These actual events solidified to me how evil communism was.

As I have grown older, I’ve spent a great deal of time studying the Soviet Union and communism. I’ve read about Josef Stalin’s imprisonment of over 15 million Russians in gulags for political reasons. In an effort to turn neighboring countries into communists in the 1950s, Soviet soldiers were placed outside voting stations in Poland, Romania and other Eastern European nations to remind them how to vote. 

When anti-communist leaders like Jan Masaryk in Czechoslovakia fought against communism, they were thrown off buildings. I could keep going on the atrocities committed by the communists in the Soviet Union (like 10-15 million Soviets starving to death during the collectivization of farm land by the government), but I think the point is made. And many of you reading this now can remember many of those evil acts.

The singular idea that unified America in the latter half of the 1900’s was the evils of communism. We couldn’t let those evils spread outside of the Soviet Union. Our military fought in Korea and Vietnam to keep those places free. Congress investigated Hollywood and the communistic messages they were infecting the American youth with in movies and television. We forced them out of the Western Hemisphere during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Whatever the Cold War event, America had to win. It was a moral fight between right and wrong.

Unfortunately, far too many Americans today don’t acknowledge the evils of communism. 

Even though America won the Cold War with collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, communism and all its evils are now ensconced in China. But an influential faction of America doesn’t believe that Chinese communism is a moral threat to America. LeBron James and the NBA continue to do business with China, chastising those who dare to support a free Hong Kong. 

The movie industry has edited multiple movies ("Top Gun: Maverick" was one), removing any semblance of anti-communist paraphernalia. Apple creates most of the IPhones in China and helps the Chinese government censure the internet in Hong Kong. 

While all these entities are making a great deal of money in China, a blind eye has been turned on the evils that are going on in China. And in true communist fashion, the Chinese government is terrorizing its own people. Chinese citizens were locked in their homes during COVID, in some cases even having their doors welded shut. Over a million Uyghurs, an ethnic group of mostly Muslims in Xinjiang, have been imprisoned (and worse) by the Chinese government. LGBTQ members are often forced into conversion therapy. Chinese communism today is no different than Soviet communism in the latter half of the 1900s.

Regardless of the era or country, communism is the same. It stifles freedom and abuses it citizens in a variety of ways. Unfortunately, America’s attitude towards communism has changed. It’s no longer looked at as a moral evil. 

Too many people haven’t been taught about the atrocities associated with communism, and too many people are making money working with the Chinese. As a result, modern-day America has lost its moral bearings and doesn’t know the difference between good and evil.

Mark Faust is a local educator and resident of Pricetown.