>Recently I've began to wonder if part of the reason the right-wingers
>were so down on the Left/"Commmies" after WW II was because
>Russia/Communists were the main force against fascism for more than a
>decade before HUAC, compared to our industrialists/media that were
>enthralled with Hitler et all...
I'm really surprised that so many lefties even today seem really to think the Communists were 'communists'. They weren't! They were totalitarian opportunists, who created a police state with a rather thin veneer of socialism on. This should be clear from how easily they and the ex-Nazis have found acceptance and good positions in the world of 'free-market' Capitalism.
Russian Communism, German Fascism, US Capitalism -- little to choose between them, really. They're all about exploitation of the many by the few. Only the self-justifying rhetoric is different.