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b_b  ·  4093 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Mind-blowing literature?

There is no doubt that he is writing from a very distinct point of view (basically a staunch Neoliberal one), and he doesn't try to hide this fact. But that doesn't necessarily mean that he is incorrect on his version of history. After all communism hasn't worked anywhere its been tried. I suppose the difficulty for the reader lay in separating fact from conjecture from opinion.

One has to also remember how ravaged his native homeland, Poland, was by the Communists. This plus the fact that stated the goal of the Bolsheviks was for a world government might make it difficult to have a lot of sympathy for their worldview. I think your comment in another thread yesterday that started "Dear Person Born in 1992" stated what I am trying to say quite well. Namely, that the world was minutes from MAD for a half century, and we therefore have to try to read everything from that time period in that light. Even if Pipes was responsible for the CW dragging on longer than it had to, he probably did it out of genuine love of the West and fear of the Soviets.