1.4.0 Strategy of Tension

Between 1949 and 1989, the idea of communism as an external threat to the United States served as a religious Myth, that unified the American people behind their ideals of democracy and capitalism. It was a Sacred Story; anyone who questioned the level of threat was either ignored, ridiculed or denounced as unpatriotic. It was used to justify overseas wars in Korea and Vietnam, and political coups in many countries starting with Iran in 1953.

It is worth noting that communism was particularly successful as a religious myth due to it being not a single nation or group but an idea, something that could emerge in any nation, and cannot ever really be destroyed. This allowed the myth to serve for 40 years, with the particular enemy at any time being any selected communist country. It was enough to say that a country was communist, for it to be accepted by the American people as an enemy; a dichotomy was created between "us" and "them".

So, in addition to being a myth in the religious sense, is the myth of a great communist threat also a myth in the pejorative sense?

In the 1990's, evidence emerged that western intelligence agencies and NATO throughout the Cold War had operated a "Strategy of Tension" primarily in countries of western Europe. Terrorist attacks would be carried either by, or with assistance from, intelligence operatives and blamed on communists. The strategy of tension escalated the threat, in the eyes of the public, of communist and left-wing political parties and ideologies. It succeeded in preventing any communist party from being elected in western Europe. It also served as a justification for keeping security, intelligence and military budgets high, by promoting a culture of fear in the general population.

Next Page: Middle-Eastern Terrorism