PrintDecember 4, 2005
Would liberals fight Hitler today? (continued)
The answer is 'yes,' if he threatened a communist country.
In the years leading up to 1941, the hard left supported the 'America First' peace movement alongside many on the right. The popular version is that Pearl Harbor changed all that, but the truth is different. Yes, the rest of the country galvanized for war after December 7, but the left's changeover came six months earlier on June 22, 1941—when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. Suddenly the hard left became wild for war with Hitler, and stayed that way until 1945.
That's the real reason why WWII was 'the good war' of nostalgic memory. It was the last one that the hard left—including whatever adherents it had in Hollywood at that time—joined the rest of the country in supporting. See a communist poster from the war on auction here.
