Noam Chomsky making the case that Ho Chi Minh's North Vietnam and the Communist-ruled areas of South Vietnam have wonderful systems of village democracy alongside some admitted authoritarian unpleasantness.
Buckley's response that this is "utter nonsense" covers it quite well.
Buckley's response that this is "utter nonsense" covers it quite well.
Even by Noam Chomsky's standards, this argument that Red China had forms of democracy that even America did not is incredible.
As William Buckley notes, concentration camps also developed forms of democracy among the prisoners; the idea such conditions are laudable is obscene.
As William Buckley notes, concentration camps also developed forms of democracy among the prisoners; the idea such conditions are laudable is obscene.
This kind of thing gets a pass: a good word about life expectancy in Red China, or the hospitals in Castro's Cuba. Anyone who defended Franco or Pinochet by reference to their economic records would find a somewhat different reaction. So it goes. 
