When did I turn red?

by Ed Sperry, Col USAF (ret), Stevensville

I’m a conservative. How and when did I get a red label? I guess it isn’t a vital question; however I find it an interesting subject and wonder how it happened. Yes, I’m an old timer and it seems I fought the “Reds” all my adult life.

We fought the Red Chinese in the Korean war. A war that has never ended. In popular fiction we searched for the Red October. We stymied the Red Chinese in the Formosa Straights in 1958. In Europe, we faced the Red Army at the Fulda Gap for the entire Cold War. We endured Chairman Mao and his little Red Book and endless mass killing programs. We watched the Red Army kill some 8 million Ukrainians in the mid-thirties. We countered communist penetration of numerous African nations. We endured years of communist rule in Cuba thanks to the actions of the red USSR. The younger reader should understand that these initials stood for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (Note the word Socialist in the old commie title.) Our atomic secrets were given to the Reds by the traitorous Rosenbergs and they were duly executed. They were Reds! In any maneuvers conducted by American forces our colors were always blue. It is recognized that the world’s Reds were responsible for over a hundred million deaths in the past century.

I only hit upon a few escapades of our encounters with the color Red in the past 100 years. My point is that for most of the last century and the beginning of this century, Red was a term applied to our enemies. By now readers of any age may begin to suspect that the term Red was the same as saying communist and enemy. 

After all this history how in the hell did folks like me get the color Red? Seems to me the folks now leading the party identified by Blue are far more akin to the far left, or Red, than I am. Hope some of you take the time to consider and maybe comment. I really wonder how this swap was engineered.