by Terry Scambray<\/p>\n
The Fresno Bee<\/em><\/p>\n Hatred for America is not a recent phenomenon. Despite the opportunities offered in America for all races, creeds and nationalities, a tradition persists that Americans are racist, superficially religious and uncomfortable with foreigners.<\/p>\n One of the episodes in American history used to support this lie is the Sacco & Vanzetti case, enshrined as the most shameful example of American racism, intolerance and xenophobia. However, despite the parade of books, movies and monuments commemorating Sacco & Vanzetti as victims of American bigotry, the truth is that they were assassins and terrorists.<\/p>\n The Crime<\/strong><\/p>\n On April 15, 1920, in South Braintree, Massachusetts, a paymaster and his guard were shot to death by two bandits who took $16,000.<\/p>\n Nicola Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti were convicted and sentenced to death for these crimes. After various legal motions, capped by an exhaustive investigation by a governor\u2019s committee, the verdict was upheld and they were executed on August 23, 1927, amid international, anti-American protests in which several people were killed.<\/p>\n The Evidence<\/strong><\/p>\n When arrested, Sacco carried a loaded Colt automatic along with a variety of spare bullets. Ballistics tests matched his gun to one of the fatal bullets \u2014 a conclusion confirmed by ballistics tests in 1961 and 1983. Also confirming Sacco\u2019s guilt was the fact that some of his spare bullets, though extremely rare, matched the fatal bullet. Also, the bullets found on him matched the brands of the spent shells at the crime scene. Though no more evidence was needed, tests in 1983 revealed that shells found at the crime scene were manufactured by the same machine as the bullets found on Sacco.<\/p>\n Vanzetti, though not tied to the crime by such unequivocal evidence, also carried a loaded revolver like the one that was taken from the paymaster\u2019s guard as he was dying. Also incriminating were the contradictory alibis that Sacco & Vanzetti improvised in order to explain their suspicious behavior.<\/p>\n Yet, despite the obvious guilt of the defendants, how did this case become the bronzed icon known as \u201cThe Case of the Century\u201d, or, as Stalin called it, \u201cThe second most important event of the 20th century\u201d?<\/p>\n A Publicity Stunt<\/strong><\/p>\n Realizing what a lame case he had, Fred Moore, Sacco & Vanzetti\u2019s defense attorney, framed it as a morality play, pitting xenophobic New Englanders against two indigent immigrants with unpopular anarchist ideas. Moore thus pioneered the use of the \u201cOprah\u201d factor, now relentlessly exploited to gain sympathy for a variety of miscreants, including Guantanamo detainees.<\/p>\n But the man who really energized the case as a vehicle of international anti-Americanism was Willi Munzenberg, Stalin\u2019s public relations genius. Munzenberg saw the case as a way to discredit America as the world\u2019s great melting pot which rivaled the Soviet myth of Russia as a worker\u2019s paradise.<\/p>\n He finessed Felix Frankfurter, then a Harvard professor, into writing an article which became the most influential polemic supporting the defendants. Though the article was rubbish, Frankfurter\u2019s prestige mesmerized the\u00a0intelligentsia<\/em>.<\/p>\n Munzenberg had the article circulated worldwide which attracted a host of gullible world class figures like H.G. Wells and others who relished seeing America degraded. So Munzenberg\u2019s lie took root.\u00a0 As Paul Johnson, the peerless British historian writes: \u201cThe Sacco Vanzetti case laid the first of what were to be many archeological layers of anti-Americanism in the world, and destroyed the faith of many innocent people in the American dream.\u201d<\/p>\n The Background<\/strong><\/p>\n Sacco & Vanzetti though portrayed as victims were members of a European anarchist cult which preached that capitalism must suffer a catharsis of violence to pay for its sins, a justification for violence akin to \u201cthe chickens have come home to roost\u201d canard offered by contemporary America haters. In 1920, an anarchist confidante of Sacco & Vanzetti planted the Wall Street bomb which killed 40 people and wounded hundreds, a foreshadowing of the 9\/11 attacks. Like today\u2019s terrorists, these were delusional and barbaric individuals. As liberal journalist William Pfaff says, secular utopianism can produce \u201ca lethal dogmatic idealism served by an intense cruelty.\u201d<\/p>\n The Times<\/strong><\/p>\n The early 20th century was a time of understandable social unrest. Nonetheless, American capitalism yielded endless opportunities. Sacco, for example, had a well paying job and $1,500 in savings. Vanzetti chose to be a peddler, which freed him to preach anarchy. Like today\u2019s terrorists, these were not destitute men.<\/p>\n Even by 1900 the United States was not a nation of rubes. For it then led the world in per capita income, had twenty-two hundred newspapers, a thousand colleges and more high school students than any other country.<\/p>\n And as for America being xenophobic, between 1880 and 1920, she assimilated 24 million immigrants, accepting 900,000 yearly between 1900 and 1914. As one historian writes, if assimilation \u201cinevitably resulted in frictions and various shadings of discrimination, it was nevertheless a remarkable social accomplishment. What other nation has done as much?<\/p>\n Or even come close?<\/p>\n Terry Scambray lives and writes in Fresno, California.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sacco and Vanzetti case set a precedent for anti-Americanisms. by Terry Scambray The Fresno Bee Hatred for America is not a recent phenomenon. Despite the opportunities offered in America for all races, creeds and nationalities, a tradition persists that Americans are racist, superficially religious and uncomfortable with foreigners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[85,736],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-Pf","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":868,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/appeasement-bode-war-not-peace\/","url_meta":{"origin":3177,"position":0},"title":"Appeasement Bode War Not Peace","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Scambray New Oxford Review A review of\u00a0The Wages of Appeasement: Ancient Athens, Munich, and Obama's America\u00a0by Bruce S. Thornton. (Encounter Books, 2011 pp. 283) Winston Churchill famously said, \"An appeaser is one who feeds the crocodile hoping it will eat him last.\" In\u00a0The Wages of Appeasement: Ancient Athens,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":149,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-orientalism-of-barack-obama\/","url_meta":{"origin":3177,"position":1},"title":"The Orientalism of Barack Obama","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Scambray New Oxford Review Of course the documentary movie,\u00a02016: Obama's America, was timed by the conservative, Dinesh D'Souza, to discredit the president. Nonetheless, there can't be much doubt that the president's vision of America is driven by his attitude toward the perceived sins of European colonialism and his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Retrospective"","block_context":{"text":"Retrospective","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/retrospective\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7842,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-truth-about-science-and-religion\/","url_meta":{"origin":3177,"position":2},"title":"The Truth About Science and Religion","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Scambray \/\/ American Thinker \u00a0 In 1925 the renowned philosopher and mathematician, Alfred North Whitehead speaking to scholars at Harvard said that science originated in Christian Europe in the 13th century.\u00a0 Whitehead pointed out that science arose from \u201cthe medieval insistence on the rationality of God, conceived as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Retrospective"","block_context":{"text":"Retrospective","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/retrospective\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo via www.drroyspencer.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/God-and-scientist.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6547,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-truest-lies\/","url_meta":{"origin":3177,"position":3},"title":"Our Truest Lies","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"If the truth doesn't deserve social justice -- well, tell a noble lie. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0National Review Online\u00a0 At the end of John Ford\u2019s classic Western,\u00a0The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, the editor of the local paper decides not to print the truth about who really killed the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mainstream Media"","block_context":{"text":"Mainstream Media","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/mainstream-media\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Aaron_Alexis-FBI_Image-236x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1706,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/it-takes-an-army\/","url_meta":{"origin":3177,"position":4},"title":"It Takes an Army","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Rodney Stark argues the Crusades were defensive wars by Terry Scambray The New Oxford Review A review of\u00a0God\u2019s Battalions: The Case for the Crusades\u00a0by Rodney Stark (Harper One, 2009, 260 pp.). 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(Brazos Press, 2007) Most people think that science and religion were entangled in the past, to the detriment of science, but that the modern, experimental science of the last 400\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3177"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3177"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8259,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3177\/revisions\/8259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}