False Communist Quotes to Rile The Feathers of Americans.

"We cannot expect the Americans to jump from capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving Americans small doses of socialism, until they suddenly awake to find they have Communism."These are incredibly deceitful and damning words from Nikita Khrushchev on the cunning of communist takeovers, except there is one glaring issue, he never said this.(1) The American people in the 1950’s were rocked with Red Scare hysteria, socially launching the Cold War into the hearts of the American people. One of the mainstays of anti- communist propaganda was to misquote or put words in the mouths of communist leaders, making them seem devious and further causing fuel for communist witch hunts. Another example of communist leaders with fake quotes is none other than Joseph Stalin himself. Who “allegedly” stated that, “America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold; its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these areas, America will collapse from within.”(2) The conspiracy behind this narrative, is that secret powers are undermining American morals and values, and with this comes the fall of the American way of life into the icy grip of communist control. The fear mongering of the 1950’s through outlets like the John Birch Society needed to scare the American public into believing the Soviet Union and Communism as a reckoner seeking to bring America to its knees through apocalyptic visions of moral degradation and chaos. Using fake quotes from communist leaders with suspiciously sneaky language was the perfect way for American anti-communist leaders to not only fuel the fire of hysterical fear, but also as a means for conservative groups to undermine any progressive advances in society or loosening of societal norms as communist influence. This was apart of the conservative push to prove the fear was justified, all while curbing progressive and American socialist agendas.






1.  Morris K. Udall, “Khrushchev Could Have Said It” (Published May 7th, 1963 under the book The New Republic. Published by University of Arizona)

2. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/false-healthy-body/