"I don't regard Communism as an evil. Some of my best friends are Communists. I think Russia is a fine, great country and I admire Stalin."
— Franklin D. Roosevelt, to Senator Martin Dies, the White House, 1939
This post was just going to be about
that quote, for which I tracked down the
original publication it appeared in, the
September 1953 edition of American
Mercury,
in an article entitled "Prophet With
Honour — The Story of Martin Dies,"
written by Howard Rushmore (see bottom
of post). But even more interesting, is
the story of the journalist who wrote
the piece.
Mr &
Mrs Howard Rushmore, before the
murder/suicide in a NY taxi
For the background I recommended this article,
and this article (both
very kosher), but particularly this article (very
non-kosher) on the anti-communist
scandal magazine Rushmore wrote for.
Basically: In 1939, Howard Rushmore was
a member of the CPUSA, and a reporter
for the Communist Daily
Worker, but he turned his back on
communism (supposedly over the film Gone
With the Wind!) and went on to be one of
the most productive exposers of
communists in Hollywood. He wrote and
lectured extensively, he testified at
numerous Committees on Un-American
Activities, and Joseph McCarthy called
him "one of our greatest Americans"
(although they'd later fall out).
Rushmore even attempted to expose the
truth behind the "suicide" of "antisemitic"
former Defence Secretary James
Forrestal, and secular saint Eleanor
Roosevelt.
On February 3, 1958, Rushmore supposedly
shot his beautiful wife, and then
immediately afterwards shot himself, in
the back of a taxi they'd hailed on
Madison Avenue! The only witness to the
homicide/suicide, was the taxi driver,
an Edward Pearlman (very, very kosher).
