Now that the Winter Olympics are over, all eyes will soon turn to the Summer Olympics. And that’s just what the Chinese want. Like the Germans of the ’30s, they will use the Olympics to showcase their economy — and hide their repressive behavior.
But the rest of us don’t have to help. Lest we repeat the errors of 1936, the United States should lead a boycott of the 2008 Olympics. Anything less will give the Chinese the same kind of propaganda boost that the Nazis enjoyed.”
John J. Tkacik, Jr. Beijing Olympics Boycott: A Wake-Up Call. August 22, 2007 – “Parallels With 1936 The tragedy of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin was not that the free world participated but that nobody used the limelight of the Games to make an issue of Germany’s deepening persecutions of Jews, its remilitarization, its occupation of the Rhineland, or its threats against Austria as it resisted being labeled “part of the German nation.”
The free European countries, as well as the United States, not only failed to use the 1936 Games as a bully pulpit from which to shame Germany’s Nazi leaders; they actually downplayed German violence, threats, and excesses. A broad international boycott certainly would have been preferable to the fawning over Germany that took place.
Similarly, the free world may use the Beijing Olympics as another stage on which to fawn over China’s new wealth and power. This is already happening, as U.S. businesses try to curry favor with the Beijing regime and even U.S. officials downplay China’s emergence as a ruthless superpower.”
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