SALT LAKE CITY — The headline shouts from the magazine cover: “Explosive Revival of the Far Left.”
It’s only days before Super Tuesday and I’m in my fifth-floor office at the Deseret News. I begin reading the magazine:
“Swarms of young people on college campuses and in cities across the nation are joining new radical groups. Some are almost peaceful; others are so militant that even the American Communist Party deplores and disowns them. Their hero is Fidel Castro. Their program is protest,” states the article. A deeper read reveals the agenda. These student agents of change believe the U.S. should go socialist.
Then I’m interrupted.
“What are you working on?” comes the question.
“My Inside the Newsroom column. I’m looking at the election, socialism and how we’re covering the candidates. I’ve been reading about Castro and his influence.”
“Ah yes. Bernie took a few hits this week about Castro,” my co-worker said, assuming I was referencing the front-running candidate’s week.
Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, the self-described democratic socialist, drew criticism this week for saying Fidel Castro isn’t all bad. He was speaking with CNN host Anderson Cooper in a “60 Minutes” interview, talking about his views and his platform. That’s when the late Cuban dictator’s name came up.
“But you know, it’s unfair to simply say everything is bad,” Sanders said. “When Fidel Castro came to office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing? Even though Fidel Castro did it?”
Sanders’ Democratic opponents pounced, calling it wildly inappropriate to praise the man who incarcerated thousands and has a half-century record of human rights abuses.
So did voters in Florida, including Lourdes Diaz, the president of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus in Broward County. Diaz told the New York Times: “I’m totally disgusted and insulted. Maybe this will open people’s eyes to how super, super liberal and radical Bernie is. I’m not going to defend him anymore. I’m over it,” said the Cuban-American.
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, of Florida’s 25th Congressional District, tweeted last week, “Today I’m introducing a resolution to condemn Senator Bernie Sanders’ blatantly false, irresponsible, ignorant and hurtful comments on Fidel Castro.”
Democratic Utah Rep. Ben McAdams Friday announced his backing of the resolution: “I support this resolution. As a strong capitalist and fiscal conservative, I find Senator Sanders’ statements on the Castro regime wrong-headed and unacceptable.” McAdams is supporting Michael Bloomberg for president.
In fairness to Sanders, he prefaced his remarks by saying he opposed the authoritarian regime of Castro before noting the literacy gains. But as the Times wrote: “... though as a candidate he likes to compare his policies to those of Denmark, in the past he has expressed praise not only for Mr. Castro in Cuba but also support for the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.”
Which brings me back to the magazine story. The cover is distracting, but not because of the headline about the radical left. It’s tough to get past the full cover photo of 30-year-old Brigitte Bardot, the French “sex kitten-turned actress” whose smoky eyes and super close-up graced this cover of the Saturday Evening Post.
Date of the issue: May 8, 1965, and the cost then was 25 cents.
While browsing the stacks at Old Seattle Paperworks, located in Pike Place Market in Seattle, I found the magazine tucked in with other vintage magazines and enough issues of dated newspapers with historic headlines to keep browsers entertained for hours.
I was intrigued by what “the revival of the far left” looked like in the years before the Vietnam war exploded. Communist sympathizers were growing older and the new radicals seeking socialism wondered “whether there could be a publicly owned modern economy that was also democratic and humane.” Yet that simple statement was greatly overshadowed by this one: “Their principal hero is Fidel Castro, and after that Ahmed Ben Bella of Algeria, Mao Tse-Tung of Communist China and Ho Chi Minh of North Vietnam.”
What is the definition of socialism in 1965 compared to 2020? I would not endeavor a comparison. The desire by some for radical change, however, seems the same. It’s one of the reasons President Donald Trump was elected and it’s why Bernie Sanders has support.
Is it fair to talk about Sanders and Castro in the same column, or in the same sentence? Bernie Sanders is no Fidel Castro. Not even close. But tossing around the term socialism and seeking radical change is not without consequence and is not without precedent. It’s worth exploring the programs of all the candidates. And hey, he brought it up.
Deseret News reporter Matt Brown today online and in print Sunday on Page A1 takes a look at Sanders’ rise to front-runner status for the Democratic nomination. He finished second in South Carolina Saturday and is polling well in Super Tuesday states.
As for Brigitte Bardot, the headline on her article in this issue of the Saturday Evening Post simply says, “Bardot: I want to live forever.”
In her interview on the set of “Viva Maria,” she said,
“I try to do my best, to be always prepared, but I am not an actress” Bardot said. “Lady Macbeth does not interest me. I am just Brigitte Bardot. In the movies or out, I do not think I will ever be anything else.”
Ironically, that movie involves her in a “zany 1910 revolution,” making the Saturday Evening Post that week an unintended themed edition. It cost me $30, but hey, I’m a capitalist.
As to Bardot’s goal to live forever?
She is now 85 years old and apparently living on an island.
Vive la France!