My Latvian father started teaching me about Russian propaganda as soon as I was five years old. He felt propaganda was one thing he had to keep reminding me off my entire life. I cannot help but be reminded of his words during this turbulent time in our country’s history.

As a young child I remember how serious my father would get over this subject. In broken English, father would say, Russians use propaganda to deceive us. Propaganda uses lies to take away our freedom. Propaganda is very dangerous; we must always be careful in recognizing Russian propaganda. Father’s English was poor and it was difficult for him to explain the serious effects of Russian propaganda. As years went by, I really got the message.

I am a person who naturally questions everything, so understanding and identifying propaganda became an intellectual challenge.

By the time I was a teenager in the 60’s, propaganda really showed its ugly agenda in my life. My father’s primary concern was about the influence of Russian propaganda in America. My concern was that American political propaganda was attempting to influence the public that the Vietnam War was legitimate.

The Vietnam War was in my life constantly. I questioned the justification for the war.   The Vietnam War was, at the time, considered the longest war in United States history. My conclusion was the Vietnam War was to become a national tragedy and that the war would never be won. I was infuriated that so many young people were dying for nothing.

I remember watching television news with my father every evening. The Vietnam War on television showed me how impossible it was for our boys to win. Jungle warfare was not something our leaders considered at all. Our leaders in government were fighting the war they way they did during WWII on European ground. The use of devastating bombing missions only accomplishment was to destroy and devastate huge areas of North Vietnam’s natural forests and jungle regions. The North Vietnamese retaliation was a resolve to dig in deeper underground until they had victory.

I always argued this point with my father, who believed firmly that the Russians had to be stopped from occupation of Vietnam, regardless of the loss. Arguing was impossible. My father’s generation was still in fear of Russian aggression and the spread of communism.

Fear is the major factor needed for propaganda to succeed. Propaganda cannot survive without fear.

I told him that the American government was using propaganda to win support for a war that was losing support. Father responded if you don’t support the war, you are a communist. Really I thought. I am not a communist, I declared. I am an American with the right to my own opinion; the right to my opinion makes me a free citizen in a democracy. Father would than mumble under his breath and just wave his hand. He believed “Hippies” were communists, or at least influenced by communists to stop the Vietnam War. Stopping the war meant communism would spread across Southeast Asia  He believed the anti-war movement was a communist movement. My father feared the rise of communism.

It was hard to argue his point of view; after his experiences during WWII in Europe, he found good reason to fear the Russians. I had to make a concession and found I could understand why he was so resolute in his opinion. My argument was it was time to stop blaming Russian propaganda and start blaming our government.

As the Vietnam War dragged on, the nation grew impatient with our leaders and started to demand an end to the war. Too many families had lost their sons and thousands avoided the draft.

Russia didn’t need to influence a nation grieving of their dead children; therefore, Russian propaganda was not a critical factor in bring the Vietnam War to an end. What ended the war was the will of the American people and not Russian propaganda. I wouldn’t dare to claim that Russian propaganda didn’t exist during the Vietnam War; rather, it didn’t have a major impact on the ending of the war.

Russia has never given up on influence campaigns around the globe to suit Russian agendas. You just have to look at what has been happening in Europe with regard to the rise of Nationalism. Russians used the refugee crisis in Europe to create fear among the ethnic populations of the European Union. The older ethic generation of Europeans are fearful of refugees settling down within their societies. The fear of change within their societies fueled Russian propaganda. All of this has empowered Russian goals to destroy western democracy.

It has been established that the Russians interfered with our 2016 presidential election. Russian interference was used to elect Donald Trump to the presidency with success. Russia is still waging propaganda warfare against the United States democracy and continues to do so.

Instead of acknowledging that the Russians interfered with our elections, the Republican Party ignored and downplayed the issue by supporting President Trump, all to save their positions of power within the government. All of this played well for Russian interests.

Since the Trump presidency started, the rule of law has taken a beating by the Trump administration. Continuous lies, corruption on a scale we have never witnessed, the systematic attacks on our governmental institutions, and the continuous attack of Russian propaganda has caused a serious division within our country and has compromised our democracy.

Propaganda use in this highly electronic age of communication is especially problematic, since thousands of potential citizens may be affected. The Internet’s widespread ability to spread propaganda in huge sectors of our society is a serious issue that may not be solved for a long time.

People will read and be potentially influenced by something they may agree with. Just because a person agrees with a point of view doesn’t mean they are correct in their reasoning. Not many people will research an issue to insure they are correct in their assumptions.

It is said, educated citizens make better choices; however, this concept may not be true. Unfortunately, even highly educated people may take the wrong, or perhaps even the immoral stance on certain social issues for completely personal agendas and gains. We see this behavior from Evangelicals, who rejected their moral Christian values to support an immoral agenda from a corrupt and immoral president. If Evangelicals were truly committed to Christianity they would not support Trump’s immoral, cruel, and corrupt governance.

President Trump uses his own form of propaganda everyday to influence his minority base, consisting of the “Freedom Caucus” and the extreme right. Using morally degrading rethoric against his opponents to rile his base has been very effective. Russian propaganda played on unsubstantiated fears of certain sectors of American society. Donald Trump played on the fears in this sector of society, which propelled him to take the presidency.

Russian propaganda had a significant impact on suppressing the Afro-American vote in the 2016 election, which favored Trump. Uneducated, disenfranchised white men voted for Trump out of frustration and unsubstantiated fears about the viability of their economic growth. Trump’s minority base is fearful of refugees entering our country for asylum and changing the demographic face of America.

In contrast, the majority of American citizens are in fear of what Trump is doing to destroy our great nation. Fear from the majority has initiated a huge resistance to the Trump presidency. The Trump resistance uses facts and truth to battle the Trump agenda. Facts and truth is the weapon used to stop the lies, or propaganda.

Fear is the major factor needed for propaganda to succeed. Propaganda cannot survive without fear. Lies will be uncovered and the truth will prevail.

As people of this country, we must seek truth to prevail. Truth upholds our democracy. Truth is our cornerstone.

A nation is not judged by power or might, but by the souls of the people. We must never stop fighting fear within our society.

As Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fear itself”.