FACES AND PLACES: The fossil wins, again! (04/30/00)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

The fossil wins, again!

Let there be no doubt the ham-fisted, KGB-style early morning raid of the Gonzalez home in Miami was another victory for that old Marxist fossil Fidel Castro and his menagerie of America-is-always-wrong leftist sycophants.

It was also one of our nation's darkest hours.

The entire Waco-style debacle was the kind of forked-tongue travesty of justice that has become so typical of our attorney general. First you obfuscate the issue by forwarding the "best interest" paradigm, in this case, that of Elian Gonzalez. You showcase an ersatz psychologist like Irwin Redlener who proclaims that Elian Gonzalez "needs to be rescued" because he is in a "psychologically abusive" environment. Even though Dr. Redlener never came within 100 yards of little Elian you remain confident that the media, which has aided and abetted your outrages all along, will never question the man's credentials or his conclusion. Dr. Redlener, after all, is a friend of Hillary.

Next you ignore the mother's dying wishes and promote the idea that every father has the right to be with his son. Forget that in Cuba the law states succinctly that every child belongs to the state and that the parent's role is merely custodial.

You ignore Commadante Castro's staged political, anti-American demonstrations in Havana and argue that it's really Miami's Cubans who are politicizing a family issue. You assume a conciliatory and reasonable posture by agreeing to abide by "the rule of law." When the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rules that Elian's petition for asylum should go forward, you return to the "rights of the father" gambit without so much as an eye blink. The media echoes your sentiments and the family-oriented American people nod their agreement.

Finally, you graciously consent, in the interests of all concerned, to reason with the "unreasonable" Cuban Americans, described by Time magazine as a "privileged, imperious elite ..." Once you have gained the confidence of Elian's Miami family, you lull them into a trusting relationship. Then, on Holy Saturday, while still on the phone with them, your combat-geared stormtroopers bust down the door and, at the point of an automatic weapon, forcibly snatch 6-year-old Elian from the loving and comfortable environment he has known for five months. Later you describe this traumatizing horror as a "successful rescue mission" and the only option. Most Americans agree.

The Elian fiasco is not the first time that the Cuban American community has been body-slammed by Washington. During the Bay of Pigs fiasco, Cuban Americans were recruited by the CIA to invade Cuba and did so in good faith. Once they landed on Cuban soil, however, Washington withdrew its support and hundreds of freedom fighters were left to rot in Castro's prisons.

As Wall Street Journal Deputy Editor Michael Gonzalez, himself a Cuban American, points out, liberals love to bash Miami Cubans for two reasons. "First, liberals harbor a latent sympathy for Fidel Castro and for communism. Second, our very success disproves the claim that 'Hispanics' or other minority groups cannot thrive in America."

Ukrainian Americans know what it means to be debased by a media controlled by the left. During the Cold War Ukrainians and other American members of the Captive Nations assembly were often portrayed as war-mongering extremists living in a past that would never return. Now that the past has returned and Ukraine is free once again, there are no apologies from anyone, let alone the left and its legion of academic fellow travelers.

All ideas have consequences and horrible ideas - no matter how well intentioned - often lead to horrible consequences. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had the idea that Joseph Stalin was a closet democrat. During negotiations at Yalta FDR agreed to Stalin's demands that all refugees from the Soviet "Shangri-la" be repatriated after the war - forcibly if necessary. The Soviets held the position that all Soviet citizens who found themselves in Germany and in Austria after the war were anxious to return, except those who were Nazi collaborators.

This view was echoed by The New York Times which argued on January 24, 1945, that refugees who didn't wish to return were "collaborationists who have no claim on the sympathies of Russia's Western allies." By November 19, 1945, 2,037,000 people were returned to the Soviet Union. Operation Keelhaul, as it was called, forcibly repatriated thousands of kicking and screaming Soviet citizens before President Harry S. Truman put an end to this outrage by the signing of the Displaced Persons Act of 1948. As Alexander Solzhenitsyn pointed out in his writings, the majority of those who returned, forcibly or not, were sent to the gulag. "Democrat" Stalin did not want anyone who had been in the West polluting the workers' "Eden" with democratic ideas.

Operation Keelhaul was followed by other betrayals of trust. The United States did nothing to support the Hungarian revolution of 1956, even after the U.S. secretary of state had earlier suggested that aid to captive nation revolts might be appropriate.

The South Vietnamese military assassinated South Vietnamese President Diem, an American-educated ally, with the blessing of U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge and President John F. Kennedy. Left-leaning media puppets prepared the ground with articles clamoring that President Diem was a tyrant who was not in touch with his people. His successors were not only less competent but avaricious as well. Half believing the claims of left-inspired media, hirsute agitators and assorted Hollywood queens that Soviet-educated Ho Chi Minh was a Vietnamese patriot, America pulled out of Vietnam, leaving another ally twisting in the wind. Nor were there any apologies from the left for the "patriotic" atrocities that followed the Communist take-over.

And finally there were the forcible returns of Soviet sailors, the Lithuanian Simas Kudirka, who sought refuge on an American coast guard vessel, and the Ukrainian Myroslav Medvid, who jumped ship in New Orleans. Remember that? Remember how we were told that Mr. Medvid actually yearned to return to his native land?

So what lies ahead? Americans will remain convinced that Elian's kidnapping was the right and only solution. Elian will bond with his father and will eventually choose to return to Cuba, where he will be placed in a boarding school to be "re-educated" after his exposure to "dangerous anti-Cuban elements." In time, "60 Minutes" will feature a special on Elian in Cuba. And Al Gore will deny he ever supported asylum for Elian.

Myron Kuropas' e-mail address is: [email protected]

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