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The '''Abraham Lincoln Brigade''' was a contingent of private American citizens acting as combatant volunteers in the [[International Brigades]], which fought for the Spanish so-called "Republican" government during the [[Spanish Civil War]] of 1936-1939. When that government took power, "leftist mobs attacked political opponents, churches and clergy," observed Herbert Romerstein, director of the [http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/usia/ U.S. Information Agency]'s Office to Counter [[USSR|Soviet]] [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_v36/ai_3348685/ Disinformation] and [http://cicentre.com/disinformation.htm Active Measures] in the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] administration.<ref>[http://www.iwp.edu/faculty/detail/herbert-romerstein-3 Herbert Romerstein], The Institute of World Politics</ref> “A spokesman for the right, José Gil Robles, complained in the Spanish parliament of over a thousand assaults, 269 political murders and the burning of 160 churches.”<ref>Malcolm A. Kline, "[http://www.academia.org/tolling-the-red-bell/ Tolling the Red Bell]," Accuracy in Academia, June 9, 2008</ref> On July 13, 1936, the government's Republican Assault Guards abducted and murdered monarchist leader Jose Calvo Sotelo.<ref>Paul Preston, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=xdb2bWYQ6b8C Doves of War: Four Women of Spain]'' (University Press of New England, 2003) ISBN 1555535607, p. 351</ref> Over the following days gunfights broke out between socialist and Falangist militias, and the army, under Nationalist leader General [[Francisco Franco]], declared martial law.

The '''Abraham Lincoln Brigade''' was a contingent of private American citizens acting as combatant volunteers in the [[International Brigades]], which fought for the Spanish so-called "Republican" government during the [[Spanish Civil War]] of 1936-1939. When that government took power, "leftist mobs attacked political opponents, churches and clergy," observed Herbert Romerstein, director of the [http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/usia/ U.S. Information Agency]'s Office to Counter [[USSR|Soviet]] [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_v36/ai_3348685/ Disinformation] and [http://cicentre.com/disinformation.htm Active Measures] in the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] administration.<ref>[http://www.iwp.edu/faculty/detail/herbert-romerstein-3 Herbert Romerstein], The Institute of World Politics</ref> “A spokesman for the right, José Gil Robles, complained in the Spanish parliament of over a thousand assaults, 269 political murders and the burning of 160 churches.”<ref>Malcolm A. Kline, "[http://www.academia.org/tolling-the-red-bell/ Tolling the Red Bell]," Accuracy in Academia, June 9, 2008</ref> On July 13, 1936, the government's Republican Assault Guards abducted and murdered monarchist leader Jose Calvo Sotelo.<ref>Paul Preston, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=xdb2bWYQ6b8C Doves of War: Four Women of Spain]'' (University Press of New England, 2003) ISBN 1555535607, p. 351</ref> Over the following days gunfights broke out between socialist and Falangist militias, and the army, under Nationalist leader General [[Francisco Franco]], declared martial law.

Franco's Nationalists are often labeled "[[fascist]]" for accepting aid from Fascist [[Italy]] and [[Nazi]] [[Germany]]. But Franco not only "refused [[Hitler]]’s demand to hand over Spanish [[Jews]], saving tens of thousands of Jews from extermination," according to Jonah Goldberg, but "signed the document abrogating the 1492 Edict of Expulsion of the Jews from Spain." This at a time when "the supposedly ‘liberal’ [[French]] and [[Dutch]] eagerly cooperated with the Nazi deportation program."<ref>Jonah Goldberg, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=wHihWKJE3asC Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning]'' (Random House, Inc., 2007) ISBN 0385511841, p. 17</ref>

Franco's Nationalists are often labeled "[[fascist]]" for accepting aid from Fascist [[Italy]] and [[Nazi]] [[Germany]]. But Franco not only "refused [[Hitler]]’s demand to hand over Spanish [[Jews]], saving tens of thousands of Jews from extermination," according to Jonah Goldberg, but "signed the document abrogating the 1492 Edict of Expulsion of the Jews from Spain." This at a time when "the supposedly ‘liberal’ [[French]] and [[Dutch]] eagerly cooperated with the Nazi deportation program."<ref>Jonah Goldberg, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=wHihWKJE3asC Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning]'' (Random House, Inc., 2007) ISBN 0385511841, p. 17</ref>

Romerstein characterized the International Brigades as "[[Stalin]]'s foreign legion."<ref>Herbert Romerstein, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=D5koGQAACAAJ Heroic Victims: Stalin's Foreign Legion in the Spanish Civil War]'' (Washington: Council for the Defense of Freedom, 1994) ISBN 9994812505.</ref> "A 1986 Soviet source claims that the [[Soviet Union]] sent 806 military aircraft, mainly fighters, 362 tanks, 120 armored cars, 1,555 artillery pieces and about a half million rifles" to Spain during the war, noted Romerstein. “The Soviets also claim that about 3,000 Soviet volunteers participated in the war, including 772 airmen and 351 tank men.”<ref>Malcolm A. Kline, "[http://www.academia.org/tolling-the-red-bell/ Tolling the Red Bell]," Accuracy in Academia, June 9, 2008</ref>

Romerstein characterized the International Brigades as "[[Stalin]]'s foreign legion."<ref>Herbert Romerstein, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=D5koGQAACAAJ Heroic Victims: Stalin's Foreign Legion in the Spanish Civil War]'' (Washington: Council for the Defense of Freedom, 1994) ISBN 9994812505.</ref> "A 1986 Soviet source claims that the [[Soviet Union]] sent 806 military aircraft, mainly fighters, 362 tanks, 120 armored cars, 1,555 artillery pieces and about a half million rifles" to Spain during the war, noted Romerstein. “The Soviets also claim that about 3,000 Soviet volunteers participated in the war, including 772 airmen and 351 tank men.”<ref>Malcolm A. Kline, "[http://www.academia.org/tolling-the-red-bell/ Tolling the Red Bell]," Accuracy in Academia, June 9, 2008</ref>

Using [[Moscow]]'s [[Comintern]] archives, Romerstein documented that approximately 80 percent of the American volunteers were [[CPUSA|Communist Party]] members,<ref>Daniel J. Flynn, "[http://spectator.org/archives/2008/04/04/the-lefts-good-warriors The Left's Good Warriors]," ''The American Spectator'', April 4, 2008</ref> the remainder made up of [[Fellow traveller|fellow-traveler]]s from the [[Socialist]] Party of America and the Socialist Labor Party. Promised they were signing up for only a seven-month hitch, the volunteers were later informed that they were in for the duration of the war.<ref>[http://www.iwp.edu/news/bookID.20/book_detail.asp Heroic Victims: Stalin's Foreign Legion in the Spanish Civil War], The Institute of World Politics</ref> Those who complained were imprisoned or shot<ref>Michael J. Waller, "[http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-59624679.html Heroic Victims: Stalin's Foreign Legion in the Spanish Civil War. (Review)], ''Demokratizatsiya'', June 22, 1999</ref> &mdash;and listed as casualties.<ref>Malcolm A. Kline, "[http://www.academia.org/tolling-the-red-bell/ Tolling the Red Bell]," Accuracy in Academia, June 9, 2008</ref>

Using [[Moscow]]'s [[Comintern]] archives, Romerstein documented that approximately 80 percent of the American volunteers were [[CPUSA|Communist Party]] members,<ref>Daniel J. Flynn, "[http://spectator.org/archives/2008/04/04/the-lefts-good-warriors The Left's Good Warriors]," ''The American Spectator'', April 4, 2008</ref> the remainder made up of [[Fellow traveller|fellow-traveler]]s from the [[Socialist]] Party of America and the Socialist Labor Party. Promised they were signing up for only a seven-month hitch, the volunteers were later informed that they were in for the duration of the war.<ref>[http://www.iwp.edu/news/bookID.20/book_detail.asp Heroic Victims: Stalin's Foreign Legion in the Spanish Civil War], The Institute of World Politics</ref> Those who complained were imprisoned or shot<ref>Michael J. Waller, "[http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-59624679.html Heroic Victims: Stalin's Foreign Legion in the Spanish Civil War. (Review)], ''Demokratizatsiya'', June 22, 1999</ref> &mdash;and listed as casualties.<ref>Malcolm A. Kline, "[http://www.academia.org/tolling-the-red-bell/ Tolling the Red Bell]," Accuracy in Academia, June 9, 2008</ref>

Before the Spanish Civil War, the [[Communist]] line was that war was a capitalist racket. But with the outbreak of war in [[Spain]], "the Soviets could aspire to control the eastern end of the [[Mediterranean]] and had hopes of eventually controlling the western end as well, thus giving them control of the entire Mediterranean."<ref>William B. Dunham, "[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mfdip:@field%28DOCID+mfdip2004dun03%29 How Did You Get Here from There?: Memoir of a Diplomatic Career]," Foreign Affairs Series, Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, 1996 (Library of Congress)</ref> Overnight, the party line flip-flopped: "Well, the same people who in 1933 sniggered pityingly if you said that in certain circumstances you would fight for your country, in 1937 were denouncing you as a [[Trotsky]]-[[Fascist]] if you suggested that the stories in ''[[New Masses]]'' about freshly wounded men clamouring to get back into the fighting might be exaggerated," wrote [[George Orwell]]. "And the [[Left]] intelligenstsia made their swing-over from 'War is hell' to 'War is glorious' not only with no sense of incongruity but almost without any intervening stage."<ref>George Orwell, "Looking Back on the Spanish War," reprinted in George Packer, ed., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=WREtVBBT9lEC Facing Unpleasant Facts: Narrative Essays'', (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008) ISBN 0151013616, p. 145]</ref> Orwell, a socialist, fought in Spain for the Red cause, and was shot through the neck.<ref>Peter Stansky and William Miller Abrahams, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=dh_aqAZk-UQC The Unknown Orwell: Orwell, The Transformation]'' (Stanford University Press, 1994) ISBN 0804723427, p. 276</ref> Yet he was forced to flee Spain in fear of his life from Soviet-backed communists who were suppressing revolutionary socialist dissenters.<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/orwell_george.shtml George Orwell (1903 - 1950)], Historic Figures (BBC)</ref>

Before the Spanish Civil War, the [[Communist]] line was that war was a capitalist racket. But with the outbreak of war in [[Spain]], "the Soviets could aspire to control the eastern end of the [[Mediterranean]] and had hopes of eventually controlling the western end as well, thus giving them control of the entire Mediterranean."<ref>William B. Dunham, "[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mfdip:@field%28DOCID+mfdip2004dun03%29 How Did You Get Here from There?: Memoir of a Diplomatic Career]," Foreign Affairs Series, Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, 1996 (Library of Congress)</ref> Overnight, the party line flip-flopped: "Well, the same people who in 1933 sniggered pityingly if you said that in certain circumstances you would fight for your country, in 1937 were denouncing you as a [[Trotsky]]-[[Fascist]] if you suggested that the stories in ''[[New Masses]]'' about freshly wounded men clamouring to get back into the fighting might be exaggerated," wrote [[George Orwell]]. "And the [[Left]] intelligenstsia made their swing-over from 'War is hell' to 'War is glorious' not only with no sense of incongruity but almost without any intervening stage."<ref>George Orwell, "Looking Back on the Spanish War," reprinted in George Packer, ed., ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=WREtVBBT9lEC Facing Unpleasant Facts: Narrative Essays'', (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008) ISBN 0151013616, p. 145]</ref> Orwell, a socialist, fought in Spain for the Red cause, and was shot through the neck.<ref>Peter Stansky and William Miller Abrahams, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=dh_aqAZk-UQC The Unknown Orwell: Orwell, The Transformation]'' (Stanford University Press, 1994) ISBN 0804723427, p. 276</ref> Yet he was forced to flee Spain in fear of his life from Soviet-backed communists who were suppressing revolutionary socialist dissenters.<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/orwell_george.shtml George Orwell (1903 - 1950)], Historic Figures (BBC)</ref>

Though supposedly formed to fight [[fascism]], in the wake of the [[Nazi-Soviet Pact]] the International Brigades reversed course yet again, largely hewing to the [[Communist Party]]'s new allegedly "non-interventionist"<ref>[http://www.alba-valb.org/resources/lessons/world-war-ii-letters-from-the-abraham-lincoln-brigade/preface Preface], World War II Letters from the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, Abraham Lincoln Brigades Archives, 2008</ref> line, opposing Allied efforts to resist the [[Nazi]]s or interfere in [[Hitler]] and Stalin's division of Europe. “The American people look upon the veterans as the foremost champions of democracy and anti-fascism,” said Lincoln Brigade veteran Milton Wolff in May 1941. “We must utilize this prestige in the boldest fashion to explain the fundamental difference between their imperialist war&mdash;which we vigorously oppose&mdash;and the Spanish people’s defense of democracy which we just as vigorously supported.”<ref>Malcolm A. Kline, "[http://www.academia.org/tolling-the-red-bell/ Tolling the Red Bell]," Accuracy in Academia, June 9, 2008</ref>

Though supposedly formed to fight [[fascism]], in the wake of the [[Nazi-Soviet Pact]] the International Brigades reversed course yet again, largely hewing to the [[Communist Party]]'s new allegedly "non-interventionist"<ref>[http://www.alba-valb.org/resources/lessons/world-war-ii-letters-from-the-abraham-lincoln-brigade/preface Preface], World War II Letters from the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, Abraham Lincoln Brigades Archives, 2008</ref> line, opposing Allied efforts to resist the [[Nazi]]s or interfere in [[Hitler]] and Stalin's division of Europe. “The American people look upon the veterans as the foremost champions of democracy and anti-fascism,” said Lincoln Brigade veteran Milton Wolff in May 1941. “We must utilize this prestige in the boldest fashion to explain the fundamental difference between their imperialist war&mdash;which we vigorously oppose&mdash;and the Spanish people’s defense of democracy which we just as vigorously supported.”<ref>Malcolm A. Kline, "[http://www.academia.org/tolling-the-red-bell/ Tolling the Red Bell]," Accuracy in Academia, June 9, 2008</ref>