Excellent History Lesson on Useful Idiots from the BBC(!)

Hat Tip Ace:  An awesome two-part documentary (unfortunately audio-only) by the BBC on people Joseph Stalin labelled "useful idiots".  They discuss Useful Idiots from Stalin's time up to the present.  They define Useful Idiots in the program, but, my quick definition would be Western Intelligentsia that are enamoured of dictators (most cases Socialist/Communist) who apologize for or willfully overlook the horrors those dictators committed because they were pursuing policies the Useful Idiots thought were for the greater good. 

They start with the New York Times Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Walter Duranty,who wrote in the New York Times that there was no mass starvation in the Ukraine, that Russia was an awesome socialist paradise, when in fact hundreds of thousands of people were starving to death, and Duranty knew it.  They continue on through Mao, throw the left a bone by covering Apartheid South Africa and Chile under Pinochet, and end up with Saddam in Iraq and the Iranian theocracy. 

They interview many of the surviving Useful Idiots themselves, some of whom have repented and some of whom still cling to their favored dictators.  Useful Idiots seem to be mostly found on the Left/Liberal side of things as they are prone to favor strong governments to force the desired change on the nation; being so well-educated, they think they can take a nuanced view of things and accept that you need to "break a few eggs to make an omelet" as Lenin said.  Hmm, can we see any cases of this in present-day America?  How 'bout you current New York Times Pulitzter Prize-winning journalist Tom Friedman? How about you famous movie star Sean Penn?  As the reporter says, Conservatives tend to be generally skeptical and independent so are not as naturally drawn to these Strong Men, but it happens.  A Liberal would of course say, "oh yeah, what about Hitler you right wing neanderthal?!"  Any RTP&GGer would quickly slap that shit down by pointing out that Hitler was a Socialist too, and not Conservative at all.

That a government-controlled and generally liberal agency like the BBC would do this, when they have been guilty of many cases of Useful Idiotism themselves, is surprising and admirable. 

Part 1 you can play from the link above.  It covers the worst cases (Stalin and Mao).  The later cases are covered in Part 2, which I can only find as a download version, but is also very worth your time.  There is no coverage of Hitler, maybe because The Left hated him anyway, so didn't apologize for him.  Of course, Stalin and Mao's atrocities dwarfed Hitler's (as horrible as they were).

I think these are Must Listen.  They're about 20 minutes each.