Facisimo Y Guerra

Fascism and War

The World Wide Depression

As you’ll recall from last time, after 1929, the world was in the midst of a massive economic downturn, the “Great Depression” of the 1930s. Almostevery nation on earth suffered some sort of dislocation because of it.

In the United States, voters responded by bringing into office Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a remarkable man and one of the mostimportant Presidents of recent history. He instituted the “New Deal” in an attempt to restore prosperity.

The rest of the world wasn’t so fortunate.

Stalinism

In Europe and Asia, meanwhile, theCommunist movement was on the march. Marxist-Leninist parties were appearing everywhere, and many were associated with the Communist International headed by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics(USSR).

Unfortunately, the Soviet Union was now under the control of Stalin, a bloody-minded dictator. Thus, Communist parties in many parts of the world found themselves being turned into tools ofSoviet foreign policy. Independent minded Communist leaders were purged or even killed.

As an aside, Chairman Mao nearly suffered this fate. Stalin disliked him and seems to have tried to replacehim with men loyal to himself. 

But, meanwhile, under Stalin’s tutelage, Communist parties all over the world grew increasingly violent. This terrified many non-Communists.

Fascism

Meanwhile,partly in response to Stalinism, a new and strange ideology had appeared on the scene. This was “Fascism,” a word derived from Fasces, a word Latin meaning “bundle,” and sometimes used to describe anax tied to a bunch of wood rods. Fasces, then, represents unity and strength.

Fascism takes some of its characteristics from Communism. In fact, Fascism sometimes presents itself as a form ofradical socialism. It, too, envisions a single party state that would control many aspects of the economy. It differs from Communism in that it proposes a mixed economy with some parts owned by the state...