Chapter 01: Wilson Condemns the Paris Commune and Opposes the Russian Communists, 1919–1921 (Part I)

The year 1871 was destined to be written into the annals of human history. In that year, the Paris Commune revolution erupted in France. Some have called it “the great attempt in which the proletariat, for the first time, destroyed the old state machinery and established a new type of state power of its own.” Yet this attempt ended in failure. On May 28, the last remaining 147 Communards were executed by government troops against a wall in the northeastern corner of Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Living in relative seclusion in London, Karl Marx followed every day and every development of the Paris Commune with close attention. He was first exhilarated, then deeply disappointed. On the third day after hearing of the Commune’s defeat, Marx wrote The Civil War in France. In this work, he comprehensively expounded the achievements of the Paris Commune, summarized its experiences and lessons, and attempted to draw theoretical conclusions from the Commune’s very limited practical experience—especially lessons concerning the “dictatorship of the proletariat” and the “overthrow of political power.” His conclusion was that “the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery and wield it for its own purposes.” The proletariat must, through revolutionary violence, destroy and smash the old state machinery and implement the dictatorship of the proletariat. In The Civil War in France, Marx gave concrete and vivid form to what had previously been only a theoretical concept—the “dictatorship of the proletariat.” After the Paris Commune, humanity was never again to enjoy lasting peace.

By the time of the Paris Commune, twenty-three years had passed since Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto in 1848. It was only natural for Marx to regard the Paris Commune as the first offspring of the communist spirit advocated in his Communist Manifesto. He had every reason to credit the Commune’s achievements to himself, and at the same time, he could hardly avoid attributing its failure to the ruthless repression carried out by the government.

The Paris Commune was a touchstone of human civilization. It tested and exposed the shallowness and malignancy of Marx and Engels, the authors of The Communist Manifesto, and at the same time revealed the far-sighted vision of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. In 2005, the American magazine Human Events invited fifteen scholars and public policy leaders to select the “ten most harmful books” of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and The Communist Manifesto ranked first. The Communist Manifesto, which advocates the “violent overthrow of all existing social systems,” seeks not only to abolish freedom and justice but also to abolish religion and morality. The Communist Manifesto is a manifesto of terrorism, and organizations that take it as their political program are, naturally, terrorist organizations.

Even twenty years after the Paris Commune, in 1894, Wilson still strongly condemned the Paris Commune of France. He pointed out that “the French Revolution is the source of evil and corruption.” At the time, The New York Times also observed that “the Commune is an explosive force buried beneath society.” Wilson recognized the destructive impact of the violent revolution advocated by the French Revolution on human civilization.

On the French Revolution, Marx’s praise and Wilson’s denunciation stand worlds apart. Wilson was the 28th president of the United States. Before being elected president, he served as president of Princeton University and governor of New Jersey. Wilson could be described as an American version of the ideal of “those who excel in learning enter public service.” He authored the renowned work of political science Congressional Government as well as many widely read political essays. In Congressional Government, he pointed out a defect of the American political system, arguing that the complex system of checks and balances was the source of America’s political problems. Dispersed power, he said, made it impossible for voters to clearly see who should be held accountable for mistakes. He also remarked, “I merely state the facts and diagnose the problem; I do not prescribe the remedy.” Wilson famously observed, “The operation of a constitution is becoming more difficult than the making of one.”

Wilson held distinctive views on communism. He recognized the disaster posed by The Communist Manifesto as a new political “virus.” His tenure coincided with the period when the communist specter, after haunting Europe, moved from Britain to Germany and finally took root in Russia. In 1917, the October Revolution broke out in Russia. The following year, in 1918, Wilson warned that “the Bolshevik spirit is lurking everywhere.” He was absolutely correct. Like today’s coronavirus, the communist virus spread from person to person—first to Russia, then from Russia to China. In 1920, the communist virus entered the Republic of China, thereafter poisoning the Chinese nation. Unlike the natural spread of a virus, however, communism’s entry into China from the Soviet Union was the result of systematic dissemination in Asia by the Communist International beginning in 1920.

The scholar Xu Zerong, who studies the history of the Republic of China, argues that the primary reason the Communist Party was able to overthrow the Republic of China on the mainland was the full support of the Soviet Union. Xu Zerong states: “From either 1919 or 1921 to 1949, the Chinese Communist Party received, on average, one million silver dollars per month. The money provided by the Soviet Union was in cash and did not even include the discounted value of weapons and supplies—which was far greater.”

Before Wilson, communism was merely an ideology; after Wilson, communism became a system of state governance. Wilson lived at a pivotal moment and became the first president in American history to witness the establishment of a communist system. He therefore also became the first anti-communist president in American history.

In fact, Wilson’s opposition to communism did not arise overnight. As early as 1894, he had condemned the Paris Commune of 1871, stating that “the French Revolution is the source of evil and corruption.” At the time, The New York Times also remarked that “the Commune is an explosive force buried beneath society.” Wilson described the Bolsheviks as “barbarians,” “terrorists,” and “tyrants.” He said they were engaged in a “cruel,” “large-scale terrorist” campaign, marked by “bloodshed and terror,” carrying out “indiscriminate slaughter” through “cunning” and “savage oppression.” The Bolsheviks, characterized by “violence and brutality,” were, in his words, “the most perfect conspirators in the world,” and Bolshevism was an “ugly, poisonous thing.” Wilson warned that the Bolsheviks were promoting an “expansionist” ideology and sought to export it “to the entire world,” including to the United States. Wilson and his State Department firmly maintained that the United States should not establish diplomatic relations with the Bolsheviks or attempt to find common ground with them.

As early as June 1918, Wilson dispatched U.S. troops to intervene in Russia’s Far East, in order to prevent the Bolshevik regime from taking over the weapons and supplies previously provided by the Allied powers to the Tsarist and Kerensky governments, and for other reasons as well. The Allies sent large numbers of intervention forces into Russia. Wilson aided forces fighting against the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War. He supported a naval blockade of a Red Army–controlled area within Soviet territory and even joined a multinational Western coalition. Wilson sent an intervention force of 15,000 troops to escort Czech and Slovak prisoners of war along the Trans-Siberian Railway during their withdrawal and to take control of port cities such as Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok.