That assessment also underscores how one of the greatest victims of the battle against communism in the early Cold War was the cause of anti-communism itself. Invoked to prop up right-wing military dictatorships and topple democratic governments, to allow its self-appointed leaders to spout easy shibboleths about “rollback” and “liberation” but then shirk all responsibility for its consequences, anti-communism became to many just one more political hustle, a sales pitch that sold well to the gullible or frightened or overly trusting.
