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The Death of Communism

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The Death of Communism

The United States longest and bloodiest war was the Vietnam War, which was fought from 1959 until 1975.(Communist Manifesto 1) In this war 57,685 Americans were killed, and their were over 2 million Vietnamese deaths.(Communist Manifesto 3) One of the main causes of the war was a commonly held American belief called the Domino Theory. This theory stated that if the U.S. allowed one country to fall to communism, those around it would fall, and then those around it, eventually taking over the whole world. However, the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 allows to approach communism in a new light.

The Communist Manifesto has three sections. The first is an outline of the history of the bourgeois and the …show more content…

It states that communist do not form a separate working class party, that they do not have interest separate from the working class as a whole, and they do not seek to mold the proletarian movement. Marx states that "the distinguishing feature of Communism is not the abolishment of property generally, but the abolishment of bourgeois property."(Marx 7) Marx is arguing that the capitalist societies of the time have done away with property for nine-tenths of the population already, and the only way to remove class distinctions is to abolish private property.

The final section of the Communist Manifesto, Marx attacks various countries attempts at socialism and proclaims that communist "disdain to conceal their aims."(Marx 8) He finishes with a call to arms: "Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Working men of all countries, unite!"(Marx 9)

The Communist Manifesto was written in a time when people were starting to realize all the injustices the industrial revolution and modern industry had created. However, this situation no longer exists. Gone, are the bourgeois and proletarians; a middle class has risen up; communism has begun to fall.

Marx describes the rise of the bourgeois by saying "the place of manufacture was taken by the giant, Modern Industry, the place of the industrial middle class, by the industrial millionaire, the

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