RETURN

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, Inc. was established by authorization of Congressional Resolution H.R. 3000 and Presidential Approval, Public Law 103-199. According to a fundraising appeal from Dr. Lee Edwards, President of the group, "this memorial museum...will be built in our nation's capital for three important reasons.

"First, the Victims of Communism Memorial Museum will honor the more than 100 million men, women and children worldwide who have lost their lives resisting communism since 1917 when the communists brutally seized power in Russia.

"Second, the museum will inform and educate the millions of people who will visit the memorial about communism and the misery those who practice it have inflicted on humanity.

"And third, it will be a place where the continuing crimes against the human spirit committed by the communist governments of China, North Korea, Vietnam and Cuba will be documented."

The organization has set a fundraising goal of $100 million by the year 2000. Dr. Edwards wrote:

"In October 1917, the foundation for the very first communist country was created when Lenin and his Bolshevik followers murdered thousands of their opponents to illegally seize power in Russia.

"In the years that followed, despots like Joseph Stalin expanded the now famous Gulags that Lenin created-concentration camps designed to isolate and systematically murder anyone who dared to think, speak or act against communist tyranny.

"As we saw in Ukraine, Stalin deliberately starved millions of men, women and children to death as a matter of government policy in order to terrorize and control non-believers.

"In time, Russia's communist elite attempted to expand their control over free people by exporting their revolution' to the rest of Europe, Asia and Central America.

"Instead of withdrawing their armies from Eastern and Central Europe as they promised at the end of World War II, they left them in place to crush democratic movements in countries like Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and occupied Germany.

"Turning south and east, they helped to impose communist governments in mainland China, Korea and Vietnam.

"In Central America they subsidized Fidel Castro in Cuba and used his island prison to help install the Sandinistas in power in Nicaragua. The Sandinistas then paid the Kremlin back by fomenting war and misery in the rest of the region.

"The world communist movement even attempted to establish a beachhead here in the United States! They secretly funded the Communist Party of the USA as well as dozens of other anti-American groups that held our freedom and democracy in contempt.

"After more than seven decades of relentlessly brutal effort, they had spread their cancer of communism to more than 40 different nations-a feat that inflicted enough misery on mankind to make victims of us all.

"WHO CAN FORGET Stalin's pact with Hitler to divide Poland and other parts of Europe-a pact that made it easier for Hitler to wage his cruel war and conduct his evil Holocaust?

"WHO CAN FORGET the rise of the Berlin Wall and Russia's dream of starving this free city into submission?

"WHO CAN FORGET the Korean War that took over 35,000 American lives...or the Vietnam War-the war that split this nation in half and cost more than 58,000 American lives?

"WHO CAN FORGET the Cuban Missile Crisis that threatened America with nuclear war and forced us to spend TRILLIONS of dollars defending ourselves against the Soviet Union's vast military machine...trillions of dollars that could have been spent instead on helping people lead healthier, happier lives?

"AND FINALLY, WHO CAN FORGET THAT COMMUNISM IS NOT DEAD?

"This important question has just one answer...our children!

"Because even though the Berlin Wall has fallen and the Soviet Union has collapsed, over ONE BILLION people still suffer (and many die) under communist governments in China, Vietnam, Cuba and North Korea every single day!

"Like me, I know you and people of our generation will never forget what we've been forced to go through in the struggle against world communist aggression.

"But with the Cold War over and the once-powerful Soviet Union in pieces, OUR CHILDREN AND FUTURE GENERATIONS COULD EASILY FORGET HOW EVIL COMMUNISM IS.

"Without the everyday threat of nuclear war to remind them, OUR YOUNG PEOPLE COULD EASILY FORGET HOW COMMUNISTS HAVE SOUGHT TO IMPRISON WHOLE NATIONS AND PEOPLES IN THEIR SEARCH FOR POWER AND PRIVILEGE.

"What's more, future generations may never understand that those who embrace communism have never been content with their victories. They have always preyed upon the weakness of neighbors to expand their reach whenever and wherever possible.

"From exploiting the ruins of war as they did in Eastern Europe after 1945 to the outright invasion of a neighbor as they did in Afghanistan, the goal of communism has always been domination.

"And just as important, we can never let those who would dismiss the true evil of communism be in a position to rewrite history and deny that more than 100 million innocent people have been murdered in its name.

"We must remind our countrymen that there are still over one billion people throughout the world waiting for their liberation day...over one billion people who need to know that they have not been abandoned by free people in their struggle for freedom simply because the Soviet Union has been defeated.

"THAT IS WHY THE VICTIMS OF COMMUNISM MEMORIAL MUSEUM MUST BE BUILT AND WHY YOUR SUPPORT IS SO IMPORTANT.

"Your tax-deductible gift of $20, $25, $50 or even $100 will help us build a museum in Washington, D.C. that will include:

"* THE HALL OF HEROES. This hall will feature exhibits honoring the great anti-communists of this century. Honorees will include everyone from Alexandr Solzhenitsyn who wrote THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO that documented the horrors he witnessed as a Gulag prisoner to President Ronald Reagan, whose iron-willed defiance of Soviet expansion led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

"* THE ASSEMBLY OF CAPTIVE NATIONS. This part of the museum will contain exhibits for each of the more than 40 nations that have suffered under communist rule in this century. The exhibits for Communist countries that remain include China, Vietnam, Cuba and North Korea will be revised from time to time to update and document the ongoing crimes committed by these regimes.

"* THE LIBERTY AUDITORIUM THEATER. This theater will show compelling documentary films that chronicle the crimes committed by communists with testimony, where possible, from the surviving victims themselves.

"* THE ROLL CALL OF VICTIMS. The names of victims and their video testimonials will run continuously on video screens for individual viewing and through an electronic database.

"* THE HALL OF INFAMY. Here we will exhibit the artifacts of communism's inhumanity including a display on the Berlin Wall, a re-creation of a Gulag barracks, a torture room' at the Hanoi Hilton prison and products produced in China's forced labor camps sold in the West. And finally,

"* THE GATEWAY TO FREEDOM. This area, which will serve as the entryway to the entire Memorial Museum Complex, is where those who helped build and sustain this memorial will be recognized for all time through plaques, name plates and the Directory of Donors Honor Roll..."

The letter goes on. Sounds like a very worthy project, and I've sent in my contribution. The money for some presidential campaigns probably could have been better spent for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (PO Box 98239, Washington, DC 20090, 202/785-0266, Fax: 202/785-0261). We plan to keep informed on the progress of this project.

This article was copied from the Religion & Politics Digest