I apologize to the reader for the unattractive invitation, but put yourself in Brezhnev’s shoes and take in the European panorama from his vantage point and through his eyes, so to speak. The left is experiencing setbacks, or at least being forced into significant tactical retreats, in all the free countries of the Old World. In the countries where it advances, it does so in such an artificial and clumsy manner that it must be embarrassing. This, of course, is true only to the extent that such an increasingly outdated sentiment still exists in the minds and hearts of the prime movers of world revolution.
Brezhnev’s embarrassment could not be greater. What to do if all the resources of political cunning, propaganda, and force have already been exhausted in Europe?
Brezhnev must ask himself the same question about Latin America. Except for Cuba (a Soviet enclave in the Antilles, more artificial than, for example, Gibraltar in Spain), the entire Ibero-American world is as free of communism today as it was when “Che” and Camilo Torres began their wanderings and killings.
What, then, should Brezhnev do?
The reader can imagine the dictator’s monumental eyebrows furrowed, his gaze grim and thunderous, a look only Paul VI could meet with a smile.
But the communists still have a way out. Where violence, dialectics, and propaganda fail, revolutionary psychological warfare finds uniquely effective means to achieve victory. Means the reader cannot even imagine.
An example? The Tupamaros’ showin Uruguay.
There is no ear for which the nickname “Tupamaro” does not evoke violence, tragedy, and blood. However, a book has now been published in Uruguay that is at once light, attractive, and well-documented (384 pages, 32 illustrations, and more than 300 documents), offering an entirely original interpretation of the Tupamaro phenomenon. Rather than being the spearhead of widespread popular discontent, the Tupamaro movement was nothing more than a show of gunpowder and blood through which Soviet imperialism sought to conquer the Uruguayan Republic. The book proves what it asserts. No one who reads it can dispute this.
So much so that, after its launch in Montevideo on December 16, it has had enormous repercussions in the press, radio, and television and has not been contested to date.
Naturally, I am discussing this book here because, as an authentic Catholic by the grace of God, I am deeply interested in the advances and retreats of the communist revolution worldwide.
Added to this fundamental interest is the fact that all peoples of Iberian origin are one big family, and that nothing good or bad can happen to any family member without all the others suffering as well.
However, I do not hide the fact that my special commitment to fighting communism in Brazil is also a powerful factor in my interest in the subject.
If one show can bring Uruguay to the brink of the abyss, could another show not produce a similar effect on us? Let us sharpen our vigilance and scan the horizon for any sign of a show.
* * *
To explain the effectiveness a show can have in countries like ours, I recall Clausewitz’s principle, which I have often mentioned in this newspaper: to defeat your opponent, it is not usually necessary to wage war; suffice it to take away their will to fight.
Let us apply this principle to any Latin American country, specifically Brazil or Uruguay. A communist minority unable to impose itself through the aforementioned triad of political cunning, propaganda, and force can defeat us if it takes away the majority’s will to fight.
How can a show achieve such a result? That remains to be explained. The Uruguayan book offers a thorough explanation, so I strongly recommend it to all Brazilians.
Obviously, I could not end this article without mentioning the book. It is titled Leftism in the Church: The Communists’ Fellow Traveler on Their Long Journey of Failures and Metamorphoses, and it was authored by the Study Commission of the Uruguayan Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property.
So far, the Brazilian TFP has only a small number of copies, but it will soon be available in bookstores that are neither openly leftist nor specifically “Catholic.” Indeed, both types, which fiercely oppose censorship, have a relentless internal censorship system that prevents them from selling any TFP work.
That said, by way of a fencing move, I naturally turn to next week’s article, in which I intend to present a summary of the highly relevant Uruguayan work.
