This is in reply to Martin Klein's letter to the editor ("America should beware of scare tactics," AFN, Feb. 10). Klein stated that Adolf Hitler was not a socialist but that he came from the right wing of the political spectrum.
Hitler was a politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). Hitler was a fairly mainstream leftist of his day. It must be remembered that he gained power by the way of a democratic election, not by way of revolution or a military coup. People on the left, as well as some in the media, falsely state that Hitler had a "right leaning" ideology; he was a socialist.
The history has several cases of socialistic societies that "evolved" into dictatorships, which Don Kennedy was eluding to in this commentary in the AFN on Feb. 1, "Socialism can lead to dictatorship." I give you Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin (Sovjetunion), Fidel Castro (Cuba), Benito Mussolini (Italy - yes, fascism was a socialistic movement, i.e. left side of the political spectrum), Mao Zedong (China) and Hugo Chaves (Venezuela), just to name a few well known socialists. Another commonality between these individuals (beside being socialists and dictators), is that they all implemented gun control before they became dictators.
Indeed, history can show us the future.
Per Klype
