Rating: 
Summary: Suspect America first...
Review: Miss Charen scores some good points off the left-wing naivete and wrongheadedness regarding the Soviet Union. And she is right -- we shouldn't "blame" America first. But anybody who is prudent and thoughtful in the Age of Little Bush would be wise to suspect America first, for our motives are no longer admirable.
Rating: 
Summary: GREAT bagels!!
Review: Charen is often deeply amusing in her attack on liberals. Not so manly as Ann Coulter nor so exquisitely feminine as David Brock, she manages to come in-between them both -- and what a wild time she has. It is clear that her little Teddy and Yoel will be dressed in only the finest yarmulkes. Mona ranks with Midge Decter in her ecstatic pulsations over the Bush regime -- and there is good money to be made therein!
Rating: 
Summary: A Great List
Review: We have to call this a "list" because the author, in her enthusiasm,
names so many "useful idiots," she doesn't have time to provide
fully developed stories about all the people who have worked againast the U.S., even while enjoying all the benefits of this country. The people she names, with some detail and with full
references, were considered "useful idiots" by the Communists.
And, most unhappily, many continue to this day.
But she gives a nice overview of all the liberals, leftists, Communists, and even Democrats, who have applauded the Communists of the USSR whatever they did, and who continued
to give plaudits to the later Communists of Cuba, various Eastern
European Soviet satellite states, as well as the Communist-backed insurgents of Central America. She correctly points out
that even when Stalin was responsible for the murder of multi-millions of subjects--more than Hitler's Germany was responsible for--many Americans continued to support him and to overlook
or disregard those imprisoned or slaughtered by his "Bolshi"
government. When all literate people could read about the
deaths of millions by state-induced famine in the early '30s,
and when Stalin put on a series of "show trials" for the world
to see, as he was making infamous and unbelieveably false
charges against his own party leaders and the survivors of
their own 1917 revolution, all for the sake of killing for killing sake,
and for silencing all potential opposition, the American liberals
continued making excuses for the atrocities and supporting Stalin.
The author shows that the blind support of Communism, and the
constant criticism of their own country, continues to this day,
as she gives quotes from famous network TV anchors and newscasters, as well as the "Hollywood elite," and she shows that their unifying theme is ignorance and a refusal to face facts.
As she reports, the leftist-leaning liberals in the US have never
met a Communist they didn't like.
Even now, most of those ignorant, close-minded liberals refuse
to admit there ever was a "cold war," and they slide along enjoying
all the fruits and benefits of a free society while they support the
exact opposite. One measure of their ignorance is knowledge
that Communists, once they get in power, always imprison or
murder the rich, the idle, the educated, etc., and the very US liberals who mouth such insane support for Communism would be
among the first to be eliminated.
The author does a first-class job of enumerating instances of
liberals who support Communist rulers, but she doesn't purport
to give full details of each Communist failing. For the interested,
she does cite the more full, detailed accounts, and they should
be "must" reading for anyone concerned about freedom. If anyone
has any doubts about how the Communists really operate, there
are excellent accounts available. Read some Solzhenitsyn, as
he recounts his personal experience in the Soviet Gulag, as well
as the experiences of others he has known, and you can't possibly believe there was any good, laudable reason for such
horrible labor and death camps. For your further education, read
some of the Robert Conquest accounts of the Great Famine and
the Great Terror. The facts of Communist repression are far
worse than any novelist could dream up.
This is a very nice list of how the liberals have worked against
their own country for upwards of 100 years, and she show many
of those who continue to work to undermine the interests of the
US to this day.
Very valuable.
Rating:
Summary: An accurate account of what many have always known.
Review: Ms Charen has brought together a near perfect account of the issues that trouble many of us. Why is there so much willful ignorance about the realities of communism? Why do the elites believe in the dream of utopia? And why do church people forgive Castro his crimes? Ms Charen has written a book which needs to be in the hands of every hs student in polisci and it should be discussed with those in favor of government run economies and government imposed social issues. Give this book to a doubted and talk with him about it.
Rating:
Summary: Meet The Useful Idiots
Review: Nationally syndicated columnist and television commentator Mona Charen irks the liberal establishment with her revealing look at the fight against communism and Cold War revisionism in "Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got It Wrong In The Cold War And Still Blame America First". Charen begins her book with a brief overview of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Empire, marveling at the speed with which it dissolved as well as with the near non-existent sense of celebration on behalf of the American people. At the heart of "Useful Idiots" is a liberal attempt to rewrite history, to distort the facts of the Cold War, and to revise the positions they once held. Charen points out that although few on either side of the American political aisle predicted the eminent collapse of the Soviet Union, it still happened. And liberals quickly convinced themselves that no one was responsible, that such a collapse would've happened regardless of American policy or president. In effect, no one "won" the Cold War - especially not Ronald Reagan. Today, such liberal political leaders and cultural icons reference their own fight alongside the Cold Warriors as if they themselves were united in a stand against the evils and atrocities of the Soviet Empire. But Charen points out that America's political leaders were not united in opposition to the Soviets. In fact, many of these leaders offered widespread praise for the Soviets, Communist Vietnam and Cambodia, and most forms of communism in general. With "Useful Idiots", she exposes these people who have not only flipped their personal positions, but are attempting to revise history itself. Replete with documented quotes from Clinton administration officials, prominent media figures, college professors, and activist Hollywood entertainers, "Useful Idiots" illustrates for the reader firsthand the hypocrisy of the Cold War communist apologizers. With modern history still being written, few books are as important as this one. And no student of history will want to miss this landmark expose... Britt Gillette
Author of "The Dittohead Guide To Adult Beverages"
Rating:
Summary: And I cried over and over, and over and over again
Review: Mona Charen takes us from the end of the Cold War forward through the present invasion of Iraq, and in the process details the deliberate, willfully imposed ignorance of those who call themselves Liberals. That this condition of necessary ignorance continues almost uninterrupted over such a long span of time is a telling indictment of man's capacity for self-deception. The political figures cited, the journalists in the employ of the major media, both print and broadcast; the major book publishers and the Hollywood moguls; all seem hardened to a worldveiw that makes suspension of rational scrutiny a center piece of their collective form of logical inquiry. As Mona avers, these people breeze right by the road signs of reality as they motor toward an illusion of social justice that validates them as the ultimate interpreters of moral clarity. What's interesting about this is that it's nothing new! The book is so well done with its chronological factual references and clever rejoinders that anyone wishing to connect the dots of America's Cold War burdens will find it a joy. Alternatively, those on the Left who believe in the perfectability of man via a socialist system will find much to grouse about. History hasn't been kind to their original set of assumptions which have (as in the past and continuing thru today) dealt with how to order a society. That most of their core beliefs have sprung from the utopianist musings of Karl Marx and the elyptical guesses of Sigmund Freud gives insight into the errors in their thinking; also their apalling lack of historical knowledge with regard to military history and economics. The problem has been exacerbated by their lack of interest in self examination and their truncation of analysis at the point where they feel good. Mona puts 'em front and center and for that we can thank the ease of research made possible by the internet. This book is a more sober version of Ann Coulter's pair, "Slander" and "Treason." It also finds common cause with Haynes and Klehr's book, "In Denial." One only need study the career paths of Lionel Trilling, Sidney Hook, Whittaker Chambers, George Orwell, Jean Kirkpatrick, the Krystol's, Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell, David Horowitz, and Ronald Radosh to discover that their are some in the Liberal-Leftwing camp who can engage in critical analysis and change their minds. The question is why so many others can't? Perhaps we'll find the answer in some yet to come revelations from the decoding of the Genome. Perhaps it's of a piece with Darwinian selection and adaptation as it relates to the needs for our hunter-gatherer societies of the past, and the present, to blinker out competing theories of operational method in order to sustain a collective work effort insuring the continuing organizational viability of the tribe. Perhaps this same collection of genetic components also allows for a belief in an afterlife as a way to select out those for survival who will cooperate thru their adherence to a model of delayed gratification. How're you going to get people to give up the instant pleasures of today in return for an inordinate and arduous work effort which might, or might not, yield up a greater societal benefit tomorrow? As Charen points out, the Left seems beset with an appalling ignorance of economics and its lynchpin of trade-offs vs solutions. They also seem to unanimously reject the need for incentivising selfish individuals for the common good of everyone. Their knowledge of the works of Adam Smith is selective and spurious. It's as if they live in an allusion more wishful than pragmatic. My question: Can medicine develop a pill or a shot to ameileorate this condition? A great book!
Rating: 
Summary: Tired of Hearing Liberal-Bashing
Review: Conservatives like Mona Charen always treat liberals like some sort of step-cousin that can do nothing right. They act as though every single advancement in history was the result of a conservative idea, an odd sentiment when one considers that conservatives, at one time or another in history, opposed civil rights for minorities, free market economies, and a liberal society that protects the very 'freedoms' of which they so pretentiously speak. Basically, conservatives are interested in retaining their wealth and making sure that no one else gets richer; they favor a backwards society. If we didn't live in a liberal society, conservatism as a view would not exist--conservatives like Charen steal all the issues that liberals have left behind in their progression towards better ideas. Furthermore, enough with the Cold War bashing! Those 'brave' conservatives who 'stood tough' against the 'horrible' communist regimes endangered the world--even Kennedy tried this conservative approach, and look where it got us: on the brink of war. If someone had really gotten tough with the USSR, civilization would still be in the fallout of a nuclear war (of course, conservatives treat war like some sort of lapdog). This book, like so many others written by Bush-era conservatives, is garbage suited for the mind of an 8-year old. Enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: THANKS TO THIS "IDIOTS" THE DICTATURES ARE ALIFE
Review: There are not a lot there that speak out the truth, but finally few are doing it: Thanks to these "idiots" there are still dictatures in Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, etc., and thanks to these " idiots" we soffered the communist dictatorial regimes for more than a half a century. Why these "idiots" don't go and live as Russians or Vietnamise or Cubans in those countries? It is true that the Iron Curtain came down, but if this "idiots" wouldn't have existed, that would have happened much faster, like it happened for the nazism dictature. In the reviews I read Dr Lloyd's review. I would invite him to take away his reviews and then go and live in North Korea as a Korean or go and live as a Cuban in Cuba and then I will invite him to rewrite his reviews. I would have invited people like him to go to Iraq and live as Iraqis, but thanks to the determination of people of good will in USA and in the World that dictature doesn't exist anymore. I wish there are more books like this that denounce what we, people that love democracy have soffer under the communism regimes and that denounce the crimes of the leftists in Western Countries that helped with their words and propaganda the communist dictatures to survive for long time and kill and torture. I hope somebody, soon will publish the speach that A. Solzhenicki gave at the Harvard University in 1972 and denounced the so-called "pacifists" (for me they are criminals) in a very eloquent way on how the dictatures live thanks to these "idiots".
Rating:
Summary: Raise your kids and shut up, Mona
Review: Any conservative mom who works syndicating anti-democratic blather (I refer to democracy, not Democrats, here), as well as appearing on the chat shows while the au pair minds the kids, is just peachy in old Mona's eyes, whereas any liberal mom who works is driving our future generation into the ground. Talk about a double standard. I mention it because after slogging through this book and piles of Mona's columns, she's not the only one of these so-called "at home" conservative pundit-moms think it's A-OK for them to work, but not for other women.
Rating:
Summary: Well thought-out and NOT a hate fest
Review: I held my breath before reading this book. Although Ms. Charen and I share most political views, I often find her column strident and over-the-top. Secondly, we've weathered a rash of poorly written conservative books recently by folks like Ann Coulter and Bernard Goldberg, that make conservatives look like....well, like idiots. Thankfully, I was able to quickly exhale. Here, Charen does a stellar job of explaining how, from the time of the Russian revolution, American liberals (and some conservatives) fell easily into the hands of Communists as what Lenin is to have called "Useful Idiots": people the movement can use without their knowledge to promote Communism's spread. People like the staff at our "newspaper of record" which not only boasted a Pulitzer prize for telling us there was never a Stalinist famine in the Ukraine, but also minimized the Khmer Rouge killing fields and, after finally acknowledging them, blamed American bombing for engendering them (although Vietnamese bombing had preceded American bombing in that area, and all bombing had ceased 20 months before the terrible genocide begun by the Khmer Rough). People like showpeople brought in for their own glittering entertainment in "humanitarian" Nicaragua at the same time Moskito Indians were being slaughtered by that Communist regime. Charen's arguments here are indeed devoid of attack and sarcasm. They are thorough and balanced. Along with conservative "heroes", she does not shy away from conservatives who got it wrong, or from liberals who got it right: the AFL-CIO and the late Patrick Moynihan, for example. Especially satisfying to this reader were Charen's arguments about the Elian Gonzalez controversy, about which we have henceforth vehemently disagreed. Charen postulates that keeping Elian here wouldn't have been tearing him out of a willing father's arms; it would have been acknowledging the signals that father gave about his wishes; or as best he could, given the surveillance he was under and the naivete of the American press. Her argument is compelling, citing witnesses who were ignored by that press such as the nuns who visited with Elian's grandmothers. Although the title might be misunderstood as an attack by the author herself, this may be the most user-friendly conservative apologium of 2003. One might want to create a new book cover if giving as a gift to a liberal friend, you know, like we did in grade school. Suggested titles: "Communism is Bad, Mm'kay?", "We Are All Americans", "Liberal and Conservative Group Hug", etc.
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