Alexander Solzhenitsyn, No Hero of the Left

A soldier stands in front of a portrait of late Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn as the body of the former Soviet dissident lies in state in the Academy of Science in Moscow August 5, 2008. Russia paid tribute to former Soviet dissident Solzhenitsyn on Tuesday with all the hallmarks of an official lying in state, while Muscovites lined up to honour the Nobel Laureate.
REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

Alexander Solzhenitsyn on the topic of Vietnam:

The most cruel mistake occurred with the failure to understand the Vietnam war. Some people sincerely wanted all wars to stop just as soon as possible; others believed that there should be room for national, or communist, self-determination in Vietnam, or in Cambodia, as we see today with particular clarity. But members of the U.S. anti-war movement wound up being involved in the betrayal of Far Eastern nations, in a genocide and in the suffering today imposed on 30 million people there. Do those convinced pacifists hear the moans coming from there? Do they understand their responsibility today? Or do they prefer not to hear?

When will the anti-war movement, which professes to want peace and end suffering, stand up to true dictators and the real terrorists? When will they protest against evil regimes and oppressive totalitarian governments of the world? Why do they find it so much easier to malign the U.S. as the imperialistic aggressor? The suppressor of freedom and civil rights?

Their heroes are not men like Solzhenitsyn. Their heroes are men like Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Lenin, and Hugo Chavez.

Who is on the side of what's right and good in the world? Honestly....

Aug 5: Alexander Solzhenitsyn's son, Stepan Solzhenitsyn, and a grandson bid farewell at the coffin of the writer and former Soviet dissident in the Academy of Science in Moscow. Russia paid tribute to Solzhenitsyn on Tuesday with all the hallmarks of an official lying in state, while Muscovites lined up to honor the Nobel Laureate.
Sergei Karpukhin-Reuters

Aug. 6: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev lays flowers at the grave of Alexander Solzhenitsyn during the writer's funeral ceremony in the Donskoi Monastery in Moscow. Soviet-era dissident Solzhenitsyn was buried in a sixth century Moscow monastery in a grand ceremony.
Pool-Reuters