Lincoln Brigade Honor At State House Is Inappropriate
By DEAN DEXTER
A lot of people, some rather innocently, were duped by the communist
movement in the 1930s and before. Radical labor organizers, leftist intellectuals
and the anarchists of that era were among those who found special inspiration
in the likes of Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, and later Josef Stalin, Butcher of
the Gulags. At that time many in this country were being hypnotized by the
promise of a Utopian state offered by this new idea called communism. So
knowing how a plaque got approved for display at the New Hampshire State
House, honoring a very small band of men who fought in the Spanish Civil
war with the Leninist-communists of that period, ought to be interesting.
The 12 from New Hampshire were in Spain fighting the forces of Francisco
Franco, the Generalissimo or El Caudillo as he was also known. Franco is
one of those figures in history who turned out to be somewhat of a good
guy, as dictators go, a Cold War ally of the United States.
Franco over-threw a regime that was in disarray and by 1936 essentially
controlled by Marxist Communists and militant socialists receiving financial
aid from Russia. While Moscow (and our New Hampshire boys) were with the
unstable Loyalists, Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy were supporting
Franco. The U.S. had decided to sit this one out.
News reports about plans to honor the New Hampshire fighters say little
is known about their politics, that is, why they went to fight with the
communists. It should not be hard to figure out, however. They left comfortable
granite hills to fight in a bloody civil war in a foreign land, against
the advice of their own government. Either they were highly committed to
the politics of the side they were on, or enormously -- even recklessly
-- adventuresome, or both. What is known, however, is that in the end the
Red Loyalists and the New Hampshire men lost, and Franco won. Thank goodness.
Later, Franco kept his distance from his unsavory allies, Hitler and
Mussolini, staying essentially neutral during World War II. What followed
was an era of political stability and prosperity in Spain, albeit headed
by a tough old dictator, which continued to the Generalissimo's death in
1975. Today Spain is headed by the level-headed King Juan Carlos I and Queen
Sophia and all is well in the land. One can only wonder what history would have been like had the communists
prevailed and ended up controlling Spain as a puppet government during the
Cold War.
Our boys from New Hampshire -- a part of something loosely known as
the "Lincoln Brigade" -- in the end landed on the wrong side of
history. Anti-fascist, pro-communist, maybe well-intentioned, but by verdict
of history, certainly over their heads as far as the geopolitics of it all
goes.
So for this we honor them? Does such a notion not degrade the tribute
we pay others who fought the good fight and changed history for the better,
and of who's deeds and motives are without question?
It is telling that no New Hampshire veterans group has embraced honoring
the Lincoln Brigade.
To a degree we can be restrained in our criticism of such soldiers
of fortune by virtue of our later perspective of events. But putting a plaque
up to honor their misplaced zeal is another matter.
We remember the unsuccessful Hungarian revolt of 1956* when people
on foot stormed tanks in the streets trying to overthrow the communists.
There's a simple plaque in the State House that honors that heroism, near
the civil war flags and oil portraits of bonafide giants of another time.
New Hampshire took in many refugees from Hungary then.
Plaque honoring those who fought for freedom in
the Hungarian Revolt of 1956, N.H. State House, first floor
Certainly our State House is a museum of sorts and an appropriate
place to honor deeds of valor and sacrifice. But the causes have got to
be the right ones, and there ought to be a popular consensus about them
as well.
It's a shame that this commemoration of the "Lincoln Brigade"
-- which by the way has absolutely nothing to do with our 16th president
-- has come from what seems to be out of nowhere. For lack of a better understanding
of history, this gesture, however well motivated, is not only an embarrassment,
but highly inappropriate, a reproach to the lives of those who suffered
miserably for generations under the tyrants these New Hampshire men were
fighting with.
The New Hampshire lads maybe didn't know any better, but we should.
Certainly the people at the State House should know better.
Dean Dexter is a former N.H. state representative and Belknap County
Commissioner. He served as an assistant to the late Robert C. Hill of Littleton,
N.H., U.S. Ambassador to Spain (1969-1972).
_______________
Note: This piece first appeared as a guest commentary in The (Laconia,
N. H.) Citizen, February 20, 2001 and other newspapers. After much public comment, including a public
hearing and similar opinion articles and letters published throughout the state, a legislative committee voted
unanimously on February 21, 2001 to not place a plaque honoring the Lincoln
Brigade in the New Hampshire State House, reversing a decision it had made
earlier.
*Budapest:
October 23, 1956 -- Ralph Reiland