June 12, 2007

United States Honors Victims of Communism in Washington

At the dedication today of a memorial to people who lost their lives fighting communist oppression worldwide, President Bush compared the fight against radical Islam to the Cold War battle against totalitarian communism. "Like the communists, the terrorists and radicals who have attacked our nation are followers of a murderous ideology that despises freedom, crushes all dissent, has expansionist ambitions and pursues totalitarian aims" he said at the ceremony.

President Bush delivering his speech at the dedication ceremony

More than 400 people attended the dedication of the memorial, which was held in the intersection of Massachusetts Ave., New Jersey Ave. and G Street. Ambassador Simonyi and Ms. Ibolya Dávid, president of the MDF party (Hungarian Democratic Forum), were representing Hungary at the ceremony.

Hungarian born Congressman Tom Lantos (D-CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said the lessons of the Cold War are and should remain a part of present-day American life. "We are an ahistorical society," Lantos observed in the keynote speech to dedicate the Victims of Communism memorial near the U.S. Capitol grounds. "That is why this monument is so significant to the upcoming generations. (...) The wave of the future is not godless communism, it is not distorted Islamic fascism, but it is free and open and democratic societies." Communism was not the only monstrous phenomenon determined to destroy free and open societies," he noted. "It was my privilege to fight against Nazism and it was my privilege to fight against Communism. And it is now my privilege to fight against Islamist terrorism determined to take us back 13 centuries." Tom Lantos added, "Everyone who has tasted communism, from Albania to Estonia, knows that without the United States this existential struggle would have been lost."

Congressman Tom Lantos during his keynote speech

President Bush and Tom Lantos at the foot of the memorial