At an anti-Vietnam War rally on the UCLA campus in 1969, I heard a young man proclaim over the microphone, “The United States is the most oppressive country on the face of the Earth.”
At that time, Brezhnev presided in the Soviet Union. Mao ruled in China. Castro ruled in Cuba, Franco in Spain, Kim Il-sung in North Korea, and Mobutu in the Congo. These and dozens of other dictators would have thrown any government critic into jail promptly. Many would likely have done the same to those of us just attending a rally against a government policy.
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My immediate reaction was, Please let this guy be an “outside agitator.” That’s because I couldn’t imagine a UCLA student being this ignorant.
As an 8-year-old, I saw Russian tanks rumble on the street in front of my home in Budapest. They destroyed buildings as close as one block from where I lived. Every intersection near my house was occupied by a Soviet tank, some by several. A short time after the Red Army crushed the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, my family walked over frozen farm fields in the dark of night, hoping to avoid border guards and escape communism and foreign rule. We lived in a dozen refugee camps and finally arrived in the United States two years after that perilous night.
In recent years, hypercritical false narratives of U.S. history have become all too common. The 1619 Project promoted by the New York Times “aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery… at the very center of the United States‘ national narrative.” Universities have repeatedly asserted, by way of concession, that the land on which their campuses stand was “stolen” from Native Americans. Our role in foreign wars has been condemned by critics who claim that this nation sacrifices young lives to enrich oil companies.
The role of the U.S. in inspiring worldwide freedom and equality has been discounted. Critics have emphasized America’s shortcomings and conspicuously ignore its many virtues. “Systemic racism” and white supremacy get priority over this nation’s leadership in promoting freedom and defeating the twin evils of fascism and communism.
Recent events in Ukraine have rekindled my memories of 1956: vast hordes of Russian soldiers invading a neighboring country, brutalizing vulnerable people. I see again buildings turned to rubble, young men gripping Molotov cocktails to hurl at tanks, and especially the faces of child refugees peering into an uncertain future. They remind me of the time I lost the security of my home, all my friends, toys, and books. They take me back to the time I was a child turned into a refugee by events I barely understood.
My parents had lived under fascist, Nazi, and communist rule. As someone whose family escaped a country where speaking your mind could land you in prison and face torture and death, I was inoculated against a one-sided, negatively-biased version of American history.
While appreciating the need to strive for an even more perfect union, I have always been grateful for all the good this nation has produced. Mugged by the reality of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, I hope that some of America’s harsh critics will now look at our nation from a more nuanced and balanced perspective. Striving to live up to the lofty ideals in our founding documents is admirable, but failure to appreciate the good fortune of living in the U.S. stems from ignorance and ingratitude. Ukraine is sending us a wake-up call that we should heed.
Andrew Kadar is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer.
