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Beating the Unbeatable Foe: One Man's Victory over Communism, Leviathan, and the Last Enemy
By the time Joseph Stalin died in 1953, Communism was a rapidly spreading disease - one seemingly without a cure. Enter Dr. Frederick Schwarz, a "pathologist of Communism" who had already spent more than twenty years in the study of Communism's basic ideas. At Dr. Billy Graham's suggestion, Dr. Schwarz formed the United States Christian Anti-Communism Crusade (CACC). For the next four decades, the CACC was the steel spine of the American anti-Communist movement, helping to educate such great anti-Communist leaders as Ronald Reagan.
Beating the Unbeatable Foe is Dr. Schwarz's first-hand account of his lifelong battle against Communism, his devotion to truth and freedom, and his vibrant Christian faith.
Beating the Unbeatable Foe is Dr. Schwarz's first-hand account of his lifelong battle against Communism, his devotion to truth and freedom, and his vibrant Christian faith.
599 pages, Hardcover
First published November 25, 1996
About the author
Fred C. Schwarz
12 books5 followersAustralian physician and political activist who founded the Christian Anti-Communism Crusade (CACC).
He made a number of speaking tours in the USA in the 1950s, and in 1960 moved his base of operations to California.
1913-2009
He made a number of speaking tours in the USA in the 1950s, and in 1960 moved his base of operations to California.
1913-2009
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June 30, 2013
This is the personal memoir and political testament of the founder and leader of the "Christian Anti-Communist Crusade." I've rated it rather high for a rightist propaganda book because it is much better written than most and because I believe it to be a useful source for scholars trying to understand the Cold War Right. However extreme the CACC or its ideas may sound to us today, this book has endorsements from several mainstream Cold War political figures, including Bob Dornan, William F. Buckley, Jack Kemp and Ronald Reagan.
And, in fairness, the CACC was not an “Extremist” group, in the sense of having an agenda to overthrow the US Constitution and replace the government with an authoritarian regime, nor in the sense of collecting weapons to wage war against the government or population of the United States. I point this out because they could claim, with reasonable legitimacy, that this differs them from at least some of their Communist opponents. When I subscribed to the CACC newsletter in the mid-1990s, they were largely a human rights advocacy group, with a rather pointed focus on human rights abuses in the Communist and former-Communist world. Only occasionally would they resort to accusations of “creeping socialism” in the USA, and that has now become part of the mainstream Republican agenda at any rate.
Dr. Schwarz tells the history of his involvement in the anti-Communist cause, and gives a good deal of information that will be of use to historians about the rise of the CACC and of anti-Communist activity in the US and throughout the world. He does so in an engaging and disarmingly good-natured style. Schwarz is clearly intelligent and well-read, but he addresses his audience in a down-home style that often obscures the subtleties of his observations. For example, in his discussion of Marxist theory he goes back to Hegel to understand the roots of the dialectic. He says, (p.46) “[t]he theory of evolution had persuaded many that man was improving and would continue to do so.” Now, this may sound like an error – Darwin lived after Hegel and did not publish The Origin of Species until after Marx had written the The Communist Manifesto. But, notice he hasn’t said “Darwin’s theory of evolution.” In fact the philosopher Immanuel Kant had posited a theory of evolutionary change among species which even admitted the possibility of humans being descended from other primates, so the “theory of evolution,” broadly speaking, did exist at the time of Hegel. But Schwarz leaves this out, probably in part because he doesn’t think his audience wants that level of historical detail, but I think also as a deliberate tactic. Tactically, it puts him in a position of being able to refute any liberal fact-checkers who try to grab this “low-hanging fruit” to prove him wrong. It also allows any Creationists reading the text to decide that he agrees that “evolution is a Communist plot” although he has not said any such thing. In a single seemingly over-simplified sentence, he has pulled off a remarkable tactical victory, and a lot of the book is like this.
So far, it seems to me as though Cold War historians have largely ignored that portion of the anti-Communist movement which is represented by Schwarz and the CACC, the portion that appealed simultaneously to the far right and to more mainstream (and even sometimes bi-partisan) political forces. When someone finally gets around to studying them seriously, this book will be an excellent source, although it will require a very nuanced reading. For historical context, it would be nice to know to what degree the CACC was, in fact, a “human rights” organization, and to what extent (if any) they funded paramilitary operations within countries whose regimes they opposed, and whether such activities included reprisals against civilians. That information would inform our understanding of their claim to be on the morally correct side of history.
And, in fairness, the CACC was not an “Extremist” group, in the sense of having an agenda to overthrow the US Constitution and replace the government with an authoritarian regime, nor in the sense of collecting weapons to wage war against the government or population of the United States. I point this out because they could claim, with reasonable legitimacy, that this differs them from at least some of their Communist opponents. When I subscribed to the CACC newsletter in the mid-1990s, they were largely a human rights advocacy group, with a rather pointed focus on human rights abuses in the Communist and former-Communist world. Only occasionally would they resort to accusations of “creeping socialism” in the USA, and that has now become part of the mainstream Republican agenda at any rate.
Dr. Schwarz tells the history of his involvement in the anti-Communist cause, and gives a good deal of information that will be of use to historians about the rise of the CACC and of anti-Communist activity in the US and throughout the world. He does so in an engaging and disarmingly good-natured style. Schwarz is clearly intelligent and well-read, but he addresses his audience in a down-home style that often obscures the subtleties of his observations. For example, in his discussion of Marxist theory he goes back to Hegel to understand the roots of the dialectic. He says, (p.46) “[t]he theory of evolution had persuaded many that man was improving and would continue to do so.” Now, this may sound like an error – Darwin lived after Hegel and did not publish The Origin of Species until after Marx had written the The Communist Manifesto. But, notice he hasn’t said “Darwin’s theory of evolution.” In fact the philosopher Immanuel Kant had posited a theory of evolutionary change among species which even admitted the possibility of humans being descended from other primates, so the “theory of evolution,” broadly speaking, did exist at the time of Hegel. But Schwarz leaves this out, probably in part because he doesn’t think his audience wants that level of historical detail, but I think also as a deliberate tactic. Tactically, it puts him in a position of being able to refute any liberal fact-checkers who try to grab this “low-hanging fruit” to prove him wrong. It also allows any Creationists reading the text to decide that he agrees that “evolution is a Communist plot” although he has not said any such thing. In a single seemingly over-simplified sentence, he has pulled off a remarkable tactical victory, and a lot of the book is like this.
So far, it seems to me as though Cold War historians have largely ignored that portion of the anti-Communist movement which is represented by Schwarz and the CACC, the portion that appealed simultaneously to the far right and to more mainstream (and even sometimes bi-partisan) political forces. When someone finally gets around to studying them seriously, this book will be an excellent source, although it will require a very nuanced reading. For historical context, it would be nice to know to what degree the CACC was, in fact, a “human rights” organization, and to what extent (if any) they funded paramilitary operations within countries whose regimes they opposed, and whether such activities included reprisals against civilians. That information would inform our understanding of their claim to be on the morally correct side of history.
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