Dupes Quotes

“Incredibly, in November 1933, FDR appointed this giddy member of Stalin's fan club as America's first U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union.”
― Paul Kengor, Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century

“These liberals were prey, typically made vulnerable by their misplaced trust in the far left. They mistakenly saw American Communists as their friends and as simply another group of citizens practicing civil liberties in a democratic society based on First Amendment freedoms. Most liberals, obviously, were not themselves Communists, but in sharing the left portion of the ideological spectrum, they shared with the Communists many key sympathies: workers’ rights, the redistribution of wealth, an expansive federal government, a favoring of the public sector over the private sector, class-based rhetoric (often demagoguery)”
― Paul Kengor, Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century

“What was Ted Kennedy up to in May 1983 with that offer to Yuri Andropov via the KGB?”
― Paul Kengor, Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century

“In the end, the actions of such liberals have the effect---again unwittingly---of continuing to cover for the goals of the extreme Left. Yet again, the soft Left is helping to conceal the hard Left, whether it realizes it or not.”
― Paul Kengor, Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century

“FDR misjudgment, one frequently ignored by historians: the president's refusal to concede Soviet culpability in the Katyn Wood massacre, one of the worst war crimes of the twentieth century.”
― Paul Kengor, Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century

“It was December 30, 1933, and the author of the Great Purge wined and dined Bullitt. At the end of a lovely evening together, FDR's new ambassador bade Stalin goodnight with a tender kiss on the cheek; the doting despot dutifully reciprocated.24”
― Paul Kengor, Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century

“I've never met a man more candid, fair, and honest,” marveled author H. G. Wells after meeting with Stalin in 1934, at the start of the Great Purge. “Everyone trusts him.” Wells had likewise been impressed by Lenin, whom he called a “frank,” “refreshing,” and “amazing little man” who had “almost persuaded me to share his vision.”4”
― Paul Kengor, Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century

“In April 1919, only weeks into Palmer's tenure as attorney general, anarchists sent a booby-trapped bomb to his home. The bomb was intercepted and defused, but a few months later they successfully exploded another bomb on his porch. It killed one of the plotters but failed to injure Palmer, his wife, or his child, who were home in bed at the time.”
― Paul Kengor, Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century

“Wilson's dream was the League of Nations. Today it is common for conservatives to beat up Wilson for establishing this international “peace” organization, the precursor to the United Nations. But it was the far Left that first attacked him for this effort.”
― Paul Kengor, Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century

“It will be necessary to repeat the year 1793,” wrote Lenin. “After achieving power, we'll be considered monsters, but we couldn't care less.”22 Lenin and his self-described group of “glorious Jacobins” would monstrously do just that, and, indeed, could not care less.”
― Paul Kengor, Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century

“To this day, liberals need to be reminded again and again: the Communists were not your friends. Quite the contrary, American Communists were for the most part a strikingly intolerant, angry bunch—a point well known to anyone who joined, survived, and fled the Communist movement or has studied it closely.14”
― Paul Kengor, Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century

“journalists—American Communists targeted the 1968 Democratic National Convention, in part for the purpose of trying to advance their own far-left third party. Bear in mind that they did not target the Republican National Convention that year. It was the Democrats they looked to unravel.”
― Paul Kengor, Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century

“Obama mentor Frank Marshall Davis is an unimaginably outrageous case in point—one that must be read to be appreciated. Davis's brutal demonization of, and vile accusations against, Democratic Party heroes like Truman, a man of true courage and character, ought to disgust modern Democrats. His accusations against Truman and his secretary of state, George Marshall—Davis dubbed the Marshall Plan “white imperialism” and “colonial slavery”—make Joe McCarthy's accusations look mild by comparison.”
― Paul Kengor, Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century

“More than that, the Communists hated those whom the liberals loved. As this book will make clear, the Communists maligned the Democratic presidents whom liberals adored. Throughout the twentieth century, each and every Democratic leader was a target for Communist vilification, beginning with Woodrow Wilson, whom Lenin called a “shark” and a “simpleton.” The Communists, whether American or Soviet, demonized icons of the Democratic Party.”
― Paul Kengor, Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century

“The so-called cultural element of Western Europe and America,” averred Lenin, speaking of the elite, “are incapable of comprehending the present state of affairs and the actual balance of forces; these elements must be regarded as deaf-mutes [idiots] and treated accordingly.” These so-called useful idiots—the title of a bestselling book on the Cold War by Mona Charen9—were to be major components of the Communists’ campaigns.”
― Paul Kengor, Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century

“This was their religion, their faith. Che was their Jesus Christ: “Like a Christian seeking to emulate the life of Christ,” Rudd remembered, “I passionately wanted to be a revolutionary like Che, no matter what the cost.”36”
― Paul Kengor, Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century

“In 1989, Ronald Reagan's final year in the White House,”
― Paul Kengor, Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century