Surviving Communism, part five: if the United States becomes a socialist country, the world is finished. That is the plea of Agnes Gibboney, who arrived in America stateless after communist Hungary revoked her family's citizenship, and it is the question Jenny Beth Martin has been building toward for the whole series. Six people who grew up under communism in China, the Soviet Union, Hungary, Romania, and Nicaragua explain why they chose America, what it sounded like from inside their countries when President Reagan called their system illegitimate, and what the world loses if America stops holding the line. Dr. Yuri Yarim-Agaev, a Soviet physicist and Moscow Helsinki Group dissident exiled in 1980, was part of President Reagan's briefings the day before Reykjavik and the day before Moscow. He lays out why Reagan won, and why George H.W. Bush never finished the job. Sasha Gong, a former political prisoner in China and later the director of Voice of America's China service, remembers her interrogators asking whether she listened to enemy radio, and the first English speech she ever understood completely. Ovidiu Frusina, a mechanical engineer from Nicolae Ceausescu's Romania, has a question for the democratic socialist who admits the two systems are not compatible: then why do it here? Captain Onofre Gutierrez, a retired airline pilot who lost everything in Nicaragua, and Manuela Callini, who grew up under Romanian communism, close with their answers for a 22-year-old who thinks the socialists have a point. Learn more at teapartypatriots.org and jennybethshow.com.
Surviving Communism, part five, the last of the panel conversations. Jenny Beth Martin asked six survivors of communism why they chose America, what it sounded like from inside their countries when President Reagan called their system illegitimate, what the world loses if America falls, and what they would tell a 22-year-old who likes what the democratic socialists are saying.
Guests
Sasha Gong is the former director of Voice of America's China service, a former political prisoner in China, and a Harvard PhD.
Dr. Yuri Yarim-Agaev is a Soviet physicist and Moscow Helsinki Group dissident who was exiled in 1980 and was part of President Ronald Reagan's briefings before his Gorbachev summits.
Agnes Gibboney is the founder of Angel Families of America. Her family fled Hungary after the Soviet invasion of 1956, and she arrived in the United States stateless.
Ovidiu Frusina is a mechanical engineer who grew up in Nicolae Ceausescu's Romania.
Manuela Callini grew up under Romanian communism and is now a grassroots activist in Arizona.
Captain Onofre Gutierrez is a retired airline pilot who was born in Managua, Nicaragua, and lived through the Sandinista takeover.
Key topics
• A democratic socialist admits it on a New York Times podcast: anti-capitalist, a world beyond capitalism
• Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate, heard from inside the countries he was talking about
• Yarim-Agaev's four reasons Reagan won: he named totalitarianism the enemy, understood ideology, called the regime illegitimate, and backed the dissidents
• What George H.W. Bush did not finish: no Nuremberg for communism, and a KGB officer as president of Russia
• Lech Walesa's lunch with Bush, and the Chicken Kiev speech
• Gong arrived from China in 1987; Reagan's speech was the first English speech she understood completely
• Radio Free Europe and Voice of America in Ceausescu's Romania
• Reagan's cheap-oil plan against a Soviet budget spending 20 to 25 percent on the military
• Frusina to the democratic socialist: then why do it here?
• Interrogated for listening to enemy radio; years later she ran Voice of America's China service
• Yarim-Agaev: America must not abandon its leadership of the free world
• Gibboney, stateless until 1983: if the United States becomes a socialist country, the world is finished
• Frusina, Gutierrez, and Callini on why America is worth choosing
• Six answers for a 22-year-old sold on socialism: think, learn what you would lose, show me where it worked, you will be equally poor, there is no such thing as free housing
• The series continues: share your own story at Jenny.Beth@TeaPartyPatriots.org
Timestamps
00:00 — Cold open: six survivors who chose America after seeing the alternative
00:31 — The last panel conversation, not the last of the Surviving Communism series
02:43 — The six survivors, from China, the Soviet Union, Hungary, Romania, and Nicaragua
03:18 — A democratic socialist on a New York Times podcast: anti-capitalist, a world beyond capitalism
03:58 — Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate: tear down this wall
05:15 — Yarim-Agaev was part of Reagan's briefings before Reykjavik and Moscow
06:48 — Why Reagan won: he named the enemy, understood ideology, and backed the dissidents
08:38 — What George H.W. Bush did not finish: no Nuremberg for communism, a KGB officer for president
10:49 — Walesa's lunch with Bush, the Chicken Kiev speech, and Gong's first English speech
13:08 — Inside Ceausescu's Romania: Radio Free Europe, Voice of America, and Reagan's oil plan
16:54 — Frusina to the democratic socialist: then why do it here?
17:21 — What happens to the rest of the world if America topples?
18:18 — Gong: interrogated for listening to Voice of America; years later she ran its China service
19:32 — Yarim-Agaev: America must not abandon its leadership of the free world
22:28 — Gibboney: stateless until 1983; if the United States goes socialist, the world is finished
23:58 — Frusina: born again at 23
25:41 — Gutierrez: we lost everything in Nicaragua and started over; only in this country
27:02 — Callini: the people make the government, not the government the people
28:09 — The last question: what would you say to a 22-year-old sold on socialism?
35:13 — Closing: the series continues; share your story; vote for liberty; iwillsaveamerica.com
Links mentioned
jennybethshow.com
teapartypatriots.org
iwillsaveamerica.com
Jenny.Beth@TeaPartyPatriots.org