Donald Trump has placed participants in recent protests in the United States on a par with the Nazis and Nazis, as well as the Communists.
"American heroes defeated the Nazis, overthrew the Nazis, defeated the Communists, saved American values, upheld American principles and drove terrorists to the very ends of the Earth," Trump said in a speech on the occasion of US Independence Day.
“Now we are working to defeat the radical left, Marxists, anarchists, instigators, marauders and those who in many cases have no idea what they are doing,” the President of the United States added, probably referring to the protests against police brutality and racial inequality that swept the country in late May.
Revision of history
The White House is not the first to attribute the United States victory over the Third Reich. So, on May 8, only the United States and Great Britain were named Nazi winners on a Twitter post.
“On May 8, 1945, America and Great Britain defeated the Nazis! The spirit of America will always triumph. In the end, this is exactly what happens, ”the report said.
On May 8, 1945, America and Great Britain had victory over the Nazis!
"America's spirit will always win. In the end, that's what happens." pic.twitter.com/umCOwRXWlB
Moreover, the role of the USSR in the victory over the “axis” countries was not mentioned, which caused outrage among many Internet users. In response to a statement by the American administration, many posted a photo on the net in which a Red Army soldier hoisted the Victory Banner over the Reichstag.
The comment was commented on in the Russian Foreign Ministry. A statement by the Russian foreign ministry said that attempts to distort the outcome of the defeat of Nazism and the decisive contribution of the USSR "cause extreme outrage."
Meanwhile, according to political scientists, the statement of the head of the White House was only a continuation of a long-standing policy, in which the history of World War II is presented in the most favorable light for the United States, and the participation of the USSR is either faded into the background or distorted.
So, in anticipation of the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, the Pentagon posted a presentation on its website listing the main stages of World War II. At the same time, a negative assessment was given to the historical role of the USSR - the US department believes that Moscow established an occupation regime in Eastern Europe following the war, while democracy "flourished in Western Europe."
In addition, the authors of the presentation laid the blame on the Soviet Union for the outbreak of war along with Germany.
At the same time, according to Washington, the United States played a decisive role in the victory over Nazism: supposedly it was the landing of the Allied forces in Normandy on June 6, 1944 that made the collapse of the Third Reich inevitable, the document says.
Analysts call this approach of the United States "absurd from a historical point of view."
“The role of America in the Second World War is overestimated by the Americans and the Western world, it can not be compared with the contribution and losses that other states suffered at that time,” Vladimir Shapovalov, deputy director of the Institute of History and Politics of the Moscow State Pedagogical University, emphasized in an interview with RT .
"New phenomenon"
Experts also draw attention to the fact that the head of the White House in his statement not only equated fascism and terrorism with communism, but also tried to link protests that began in the United States several weeks ago with these phenomena.
“Donald Trump is trying to link fascism, communism and protesters together to discredit them. This is not true, but the roots of such statements date back to the days of the Cold War and McCarthyism, when the Communists were declared the main enemies in the USA, ”Vladimir Shapovalov explained.
According to Andrei Sidorov, Dean of the Faculty of World Politics at Moscow State University, the rhetoric that Trump uses is quite typical for American politicians, but earlier it was most often used in relation to external opponents.
- US Racism Protest
- Reuters
- © Andrew Kelly
“Politicians have created a black and white picture of the world in which only the United States is fighting global evil. At first it was totalitarianism - the communist and fascist regimes, and after 2001, international terrorism began to play the role of the enemy. Trump is trying to make American protesters and radicals such enemies. This is a new phenomenon, all the predecessors were looking for opponents all the same outside the country, ”said the expert in an interview with RT.
Recall, mass protests began in the United States in late May, when the video of the detention of 46-year-old African American George Floyd hit the Internet. The man died after a police officer pressed his neck to the ground with his knee for several minutes, despite the detainee's complaints about the lack of air.
This incident caused a storm of indignation in American society, the country was swept by mass protests against racism and police arbitrariness.
The protesters did not limit themselves to criticizing the modern system, but they also began the struggle against monuments to historical figures who, in the opinion of activists, were related to the formation and maintenance of the slave system in the United States. The monuments to the Confederate politicians, as well as the military, who fought during the Civil War on the side of the Confederation, were primarily attacked.
Already on May 31, rioters dismantled the monument to the founder of the city of Birmingham in Alabama, Charles Lynn. Soon, a statue of General Robert Lee was tumbled down in Montgomery.
Protests, accompanied by looting and demolitions of monuments, lasted all June. Against the backdrop of these events, the authorities of many cities in the southern states ordered that monuments dedicated to the Confederates be removed from the streets.
Trump from the very beginning harshly criticized the protesters and did not even exclude the possibility of using the army to suppress the riots, but things did not come to the realization of these plans.
“Cocktail of protest moods”
Meanwhile, experts believe that scaring society with the “communists" today is much more difficult than during the Cold War, when communism was associated with US geopolitical opponents, experts say.
In addition, the growing sympathy for socialist ideas is indicated, for example, by the fact that Senator Bernie Sanders, who openly calling himself a socialist, has twice in recent years had high chances of becoming a candidate for the post of US President from the Democratic Party.
According to a survey conducted in October 2019 by YouGov sociological service, 70% of Americans born after 1985 would vote for a socialist politician. At the same time, among the generation born after 2000, this indicator was 64%.
“There are quite a few leftists in the Democratic Party today, such as Alexandria Okasio-Cortes or Bernie Sanders. In the United States, there is now a perturbation of the internal political system, which brings up such left-wing elements, ”Andrei Sidorov explained.
There are also openly radical leftist movements in the USA that call Trump a “fascist” and call for revolution.
So, in response to a speech by the president dedicated to Independence Day, participants in the Revolutionary Communist Party and the anti-fascist movement staged a rally during which they burned the US flag.
“July 4 is the day when America’s blood-soaked foundations of genocide and slavery, as well as its history of conquest and imperial domination around the world, are glorified as“ greatness, ”the party said in a statement.
Her activists trump her at all called the "supreme fascist." Representatives of the political force also declare the need to "put an end to fascism in America", since it threatens "the very future of mankind."
“The immediate resignation of Trump and Pence! Need to seize the moment. Let's change the course of history not only for ourselves, but for the whole of humanity, ”the activists call.
Moreover, such movements represent only part of the political spectrum of protesters, experts say.
“In the American protest movement, there is a complex combination of different ideas - both anti-fascist and many others. In general, we are talking about a complex cocktail of protest moods. But Trump simply uses the ideological clichés that existed during the Cold War against opponents, ”says Shapovalov.
In his opinion, the current attack on the historical symbols of the United States has become a kind of demonstration of the catastrophic consequences of an arbitrary attitude to historical facts.
- Burning american flag
- © @ freedomgirl2011
“This policy, which American leaders have always pursued in relation to other countries, has now hit the United States with a boomerang. The arena of confrontation is the United States itself, where Trump and his Democratic opponents are trying to consolidate their voters. The president’s words are not addressed to the protesters, but exclusively to his audience, and they only matter to his supporters, ”said Shapovalov.
This view is shared by Andrei Sidorov.
“The rest of the society is influenced by left-wing radical protests and the Black Lives Matter movement, now in the USA there is a serious revaluation of values. Trump is supported by the right, and he is also trying to fight for the minds of the vacillating Americans, using the familiar definition of “evil” and casting a shadow over the left, among which there really are a lot of radicals, ”the expert summed up.