PM John Diefenbaker: A strong voice at the UN for the “Captive Nations” bloc or more 30 years the profascist Anti- va Stetsko, its longtime ed- When Diefenbaker died, Bolshevik Bloc of Nations (ABN) li- itor (1957-96). She took on the ABN’s cover heralded Fonized John Diefenbaker for sharing her husband’s role as ABN him as “The Greatest their hatred of the so-called “Soviet imper- president (1986-96), presid- Champion of Freedom ium member of the World ium.” ABN praise for Diefenbaker was re- and Independence.” peatedly expressed in ABN Correspondence, AntiCommunist League and the world’s leading propaganda organ for president of the Banderite Having evolved from a the Ukrainian cult of Nazi collaborator, Ste- Organization of Ukrainian Nazi network of East pan Bandera. At least two dozen of its arti- Nationalists in 1991.4 European armies into a cles over a 36-year period, hailed Dief as a In 1992 Slava boast- proNATO bloc of CIA- heroic Cold Warrior.1 The ABN was espe- ed in her keynote address to backed “Captive Na- cially grateful for his use of Canada’s plat- the ABN’s global congress tions,” the ABN exalted in Toronto, that the “ABN form at the UN for a fiery speech in 1960, Dief for his inflammatory during his time as Prime Minister (1957-63). had been able to establish antiSoviet speech at the As Global Affairs Canada says when working relations with var- proudly recounting its own history: “At the ious world leaders.” After UN in 1960. That diatribe United Nations, the initiative closest to ... citing US presidents Reagan cemented Canada’s role Prime Minister [Diefenbaker’s] heart was ... and Nixon, and vice-presi- as a firm ally of the US, denouncing Soviet imperialism.”2 dent Bush Sr., she listed a NATO and the ABN. Upon his death in 1979, ABN Corre- who’s who of notorious US- spondence exalted Diefenbaker on its cov- backed despots and war criminals with USSR at the UN. The BFC is made up of er as “The Greatest Champion of Freedom whom the ABN had worked. The patholog- the Estonian Central Council (ECC) in Ca- and Independence.” The ABN called him ically anticommunist tyrants cited by Stet- nada (pp.28-31), the Latvian National Fed- the highest-ranking government official sko included Ngo Dinh Diem and Nguyen eration in Canada (pp.38-39) and the Lith- in the West to publicly support the inde- Van Tieu (South Vietnam), Ferdinand Mar- uanian-Canadian Community (pp.34-37). Its pendence of Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, cos (Philippines), Rhee Syngman (South 1960 delegation included ECC vice pres. Estonia and other subjugated nations in Korea), Francisco Franco (Spain), Chiang Aksel Luitsalu, a former police chief in Nazi the USSR and satellite countries... He Kai-shek (Taiwan), Narong Kittikachorn Estonia and senior officer of Estonia’s SS. entered into the history of nations subju- Diefenbaker saw eye to eye with the gated by Russian Imperialism and Com- (Thailand) and Nobusuke Kishi (Japan). To munism as the most outstanding defender these far-right ABN allies, Stetsko added a antiSoviet BFC and was glad to decry the of their independence and supporter of few NATO leaders, including Diefenbaker.5 USSR, especially after its anti-Imperialist their liberation struggle.3 A climax in Dief’s “working rela- declaration at the UN on Sept. 23. When The ABN cover used a smiling pho- tions” with the ABN was his UN speech, this Soviet resolution on “Granting Inde- to of Diefenbaker which he signed for Sla- Sept. 26, 1960. In August, he met leaders of pendence to Colonial Countries and Peo- ples”6 came before the UN in December,7 it .... continued from previous page the ABN-linked Baltic Federation of Cana- da (BFC) who urged him to denounce the was supported by the Non-Aligned Move- mat and policy maker during five presidencies. ment and 89 UN member states voted in fa- She has also played key roles in many power- 9. Simpson, op. cit., pp.274-75. vour. While no countries voted against the 10. Ibid. ful institutions sauch as the National Security USSR’s milestone declaration, nine ab- 11. ABN Correspondence, Sept-Oct. 1960, p.2. 8 Council, the Council on Foreign Relations, the bit.ly/NCNCgoal stained. All colonial powers except one, the Trilateral Commission, Atlantic Council, Free- 12. ABN Correspondence, Jan.-Feb. 1969, p.2. Dominican Republic, ruled by a US-backed dom House, Thomson Reuters, American Uni- bit.ly/WACL-69 military dictator, Rafael Trujillo, since 1930. 13. Moss Robeson, “Is Paula Dobriansky a Neo- American historian Mary Heiss cites versity in Afghanistan and the National Endow- Banderite?” Covert Action, July 4, 2018. ment for Democracy. bit.ly/CA-Dobriansky declassified US government telegrams to 14. Ukrainian Observer, Jan.-Feb. 1952, p.15. show that its officials conspired to References and notes bit.ly/Dobriansky-1952 undercut Khrushchev’s declaration, [by] 1. See this search of ABN Correspondence 15. Ukrainian Review, 1954, p.72. bit.ly/Dob-54 depicting the Soviet Union itself as a bit.ly/ABN-captive 16. ABN Correspondence, Mar.-April 1982, p.33- colonial power. “Inasmuch as there will 2. WACL Bulletin, Sum. 1973. bit.ly/WACL73-2 35. bit.ly/Dobriansky-1982 be [a] clear majority in [the UN] for any 3. “The National Committee for Free Europe, 17. Ukrainian Observer (Jan-Feb 1952, p.15); statement condemning colonialism,” the 1949,” May 29, 2007. bit.ly/CIA-NCFE Ukrainian Review (Winter 1954, p.72; Fall 1959, Sec. of State...advised the US delegation 4. John Prados, Safe for Democracy: The Secret pp.94-95; Spring 1964, pp.14-16); ABN Corre- to the UN, “[the] best course we can fol- Wars of the CIA, 2006. bit.ly/CIAwars spondence (Mar-Apr 1957, p.14; Sep-Oct 1960, low is to seek [to] turn [the] declaration 5. Christopher Simpson, Blowback: America’s Re- p.2; Jan-Feb 1960, p.16; Mar-Apr 1962, p.3; against [the] Soviets themselves by por- cruitment of Nazis and its Destructive Impact on May-Jun 1962, p.32; Mar-Apr 1966, p.37; Nov- traying them in true colonialist colors.”9 our Domestic and Foreign Policy, 1988. p.126. Dec 1966, p.5; Jul-Aug 1968, p.13; Jan-Feb “It [was] important,” said the State 6. Ibid., p.268. 1969, pp.2,4,27; May-Jun 1970, pp.12-16; Jan- Department, to “secure as much support as 7. Public Law 86-90 “Captive Nations Week” Feb 1979, p.43; Mar-Apr 1982, p.40; Jul-Oct possible” from other countries for the West’s bit.ly/PL86-90 1982, pp.33, 58-62, 87-90; Sep-Oct 1990, p.19.) 8. Edward Lozansky, “Some Notes on the Discus- bit.ly/ABNCor “proposition” that the USSR was a “major sion of the Captive Nations Resolution at the 18. George W. Bush, “Remarks at the Victims of colonial power.” To do this, the US gave pro- Russian Academy of Sciences,” July 15, 2008. Communism Memorial Dedication,” June 12, paganda material on the Baltics and Central bit.ly/FictiveCNs 2007. bit.ly/GWBanticom Asia to UN delegations.10 20 Press for Conversion! Issue # 70 Spring 2021 These are two of the Canadian St. Volodymyr monuments glorifying fascist Ukrainian Ukrainian armies that Cemetery, killed Jews, Russians, Oakville, Poles, Ukrainian Reds, Ontario antifascist partisans and Soviet soldiers.

Since 2012, Ukraine, Canada and the Canada’s Liberal US were the only countries that vot- government, which ed “NO” to a UN resolution to oppose granted safe haven the Glorification of Nazism. to thousands of The Russian motion opposes pro- veterans of these Nazi monuments, place names and fascist armies, still events that fuel “racism, xeno- funds key groups phobia and related intolerance.” that glorify them as ‘freedom fighters.’ “Dief the Chief” put the Tory in inflammatory at the UN The image above shows the apex of a three- In his speech, Diefenbaker said Soviet metre tall monument with the lion symbol of the opposition to colonialism had turned the Nazi Waffen SS Galicia. In July 2020, when This cenotaph honours Stepan Bandera’s UN into a “circus.” With its “gigantic painted with the words “Nazi War Monument,” fascist Ukrainian Insurgent Army and its propaganda drama of destructive misrep- police said this truthful graffiti was a hate crime. many veterans who came to Canada. resentation,” he claimed the USSR had “launched a major offensive in the cold war.” dom from fascism. Having greeted German place, violent far-right dictatorships were be- Decrying Soviet “propaganda” that the US troops as their liberators in 1941, these “free- ing installed and armed, with Canada’s help. had “aggressive designs,” he said it was “re- dom-loving” East Europeans later fled their For example in 1960, UN peacekeep- strained,” “wise” and “conciliatory.” The homelands en masse to avoid their “Judeo- ers from Canada were aiding a vicious re- US, he claimed, offered “a constructive pro- Bolshevik” enemies. Finding safe haven in gime change in Africa. But Diefenbaker’s gramme” for a “world community of peace,” Nazi Germany, some 160,000 East Europe- UN speech painted a rosy picture of the UN “international conciliation and world fellow- ans were soon embraced by Canada, which mission in the Congo (ONUC). A crisis had ship,” while the USSR “now seems bent on had its own antisemitic/anticommunist elites. been sparked by the secession of Congo’s destroying the United Nations.”11 Diefenbaker’s UN lecture extolled mineral-rich Katanga region. Just 12 days After giving the Canadian govern- Canada. “[T]here are few that can speak with before Diefenbaker’s UN speech, a US- ment’s view that the USSR was the world’s the authority of Canada on the subject of backed coup ousted Patrice Lumumba, the worst imperial power, Diefenbaker gloated colonialism,” he declared, “for Canada was first elected leader of the formerly enslaved that “600 million people” had “attained their once a colony of both France and the Unit- masses of this once-captive Belgian colony. freedom” since WWII thanks to the benev- ed Kingdom.” In bragging about Canada’s Larry Devlin, the CIA station chief olent “approval,” “encouragement” and “constitutional processes,”15 Dief’s proud in Congo, has written that Congo was then “guidance” of France and Britain.12 To glo- narrative denied the deliberate eradication “on the front line of the struggle between rify these imperial allies, Dief had to ignore of First Nations’ cultures, as well as the gen- the US and the USSR.” The CIA was there the mass murder they caused when suppress- ocide and land plunder upon which Canada to “defeat” the “threat of communism,” said ing struggles for independence in Asia, Af- is based.16 Little did he know that Canada’s Devlin, who also admitted that one of his rica and the Middle East. In the Indochina Indian residential schools would continue tasks was to have Lumumba assassinated.18 alone (1946-54), where 94,000 French Un- to operate for another 36 years, until 1996. After CIA asset, army chief Joseph ion forces died, France is thought to have Diefenbaker’s self-congratulatory Mobutu, seized power, he ruled a US-backed killed 500,000 Viet-Minh independence speech raised the ire of Soviet nations. For kleptocracy until 1997. His regime was sup- fighters and 250,000 Vietnamese civilians.13 example, Nikolai Podgorny, leader of the ported by the mass media’s use of Cold War Overlooking all this, Diefenbaker Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, said: hatred to frame Lumumba as a Soviet pawn asked “how many human beings have been If Mr. Diefenbaker is really anxious to who posed a Red threat to world peace.19 liberated by the USSR?” and “What of Lith- “take care” of the peoples and to “liber- As former US State Department an- uania, Estonia, Latvia? What of the freedom- ate” them from the political domination alyst William Blum later revealed, the loving Ukrainians and many other Eastern of other Powers, he need not go very far. ONUC was led by Americans in league with 14 His own country could become a good European peoples...?” Ignoring the Holo- field for precisely such activities.17 that department. When UN troops replaced caust and the Nazi devastation of the USSR, the Belgians, said Blum, they “made no ef- Dief’s hyperbole discounted the Soviet de- Canadian Duplicity & Hypocrisy fort to end the secession.” UN leader Dag feat of Nazism across eastern Europe. Ad- Since WWII, the Western world—led by Hammarskjöld “was quite hostile toward mittedly though, the ethnofascists of these America’s overtly-racist, apartheid govern- Lumumba” and “publicly endorsed” his dis- lands, and their proNazi armies, which form- ment—had overthrown many progressive, missal. And, when Lumumba “tried to ed the ABN in 1943, had not wanted free- popular leaders around the world. In their broadcast his case to the Congolese people, Spring 2021 Issue # 70 Press for Conversion! 21 UN forces closed the radio station.”20 the first Canadian to re- Less than a week after the coup, Es- ceive that honour since the ”26 cott Reid, one of Diefenbaker’s top diplo- Second World War. mats,21 said “the UN has demonstrated in His receipt of this the Congo that it can in Africa act as the Imperial Order of Chival- executive agent of the free world.”22 In fact, ry was ironic. In harangu- the top UN “peacekeeper” was instrumen- ing the Soviets from his UN tal in executing Lumumba’s assassination, soapbox, Diefenbaker said which ushered in Mobutu’s dictatorship. the UN’s Congo mission exemplied freeing Africans UN “Peacekeepers” kidnapped from imperial designs: Congo Prime Minister Lumumba Canada’s views on the bit.ly/UNmedal Congo and on the larger Patrice Lumumba (left) was Congo’s first elected prime The ONUC’s chief of staff was the Canad- African problem may be ian army’s Lt. Col. Jean Berthiaume. In 1991 summarized in this way. minister. He was ousted, tortured and assassinated in a CIA- he told a DND historian that in 1960 he was The African Continent backed coup just 12 days before Dief’s UN diatribe. tracking Lumumba. Berthiaume admitted must not become the fo- Lumumba’s capture was directed by Canada’s Lt. Col. Jean telling Colonel Mobutu to capture Lumum- cus of an East-West Berthiaume (left), who won the UN Congo mission medal on ba, instructed him how to do it and even sup- struggle; it must be free plying the troops. Once apprehended, Con- from the direct interfer- July 1, 1960, for leading “Peacekeeping” forces there. ence of the major Pow- go’s Prime Minister was viciously tortured ers. The African nations must be permit- “worthy of admiration” for his “courage to to death. In Berthiaume’s own words: ted to work out their own destinies; when evict the agents of Soviet Russia” and “to I called Mobutu. I said, “Colonel, ... you they need help, the best source is through arrest and imprison Communist agent Lu- were trying to retrieve your prisoner, Mr. the agencies of the United Nations.27 mumba.”30 The ABN demonized Lumumba Lumumba. I know where he is, and I 31 know where he will be tomorrow.” He US control of Congo uranium and Castro as “Bolshevist henchmen.” said, “what do I do?” “It’s simple, Colo- fuelled Cold-War against USSR A member of the ABN’s central com- mittee, Ctibor Pokorny,32 referred to Con- nel, with the help of the UN you have The 1960 UN “peacekeeping” operation in just created the core of your para com- go’s elected government as “the absurd fic- Congo was used by the West’s “major pow- mandos—we have just trained 30...highly tion of the legitimate rule of Lumumba.” ers” to control strategic resources. These selected Moroccans...as paratroopers...” Pokorny was pleased with Lumumba’s as- riches were a valuable trophy for US corpo- To be on the safe side, I put our captain, sassination, calling it “the liquidation of Mario Côté [a Canadian peacekeeper at rate, military and political elites. For exam- Moscow’s agent.” To praise this terrorist act, ONUC HQ] in the plane. “[I]t’s simple, ple, the world’s richest uranium deposit, was Pokorny said that if Lumumba “had not been you take a Dakota [military aircraft], send in Congo’s breakaway province of Katan- removed in this way” it would have “led to your paratroopers and arrest Lumumba... ga. Although the Nazis obtained some of this —there is a runway and all that is needed. the gradual bolshevization of the Congo.”33 uranium in 1940 for their nuclear-weapons That’s all you’ll need to do, Colonel.” The ABN also promoted the idea that program, the US military secured access to He [Mobutu] arrested him, like that, and Lumumba had made “a pact with the devil 23 the mine. This uranium, being 65% pure, was I never regretted it. of Communism ... to drive out the Beelze- used in the US atomic bombs that hit Japan. Historian Kevin Spooner notes that bub of colonialism.” This, they said, was be- (Canadian uranium was only 0.02% pure.)28 Canada’s External Affairs Department knew cause Lumumba failed to realize “that Com- The bombings of Hiroshima and Na- that Berthiaume, being “sympathetic” to munism and colonialism are identical.”34 gasaki are supposed by some to have secured Mobutu’s aims, was giving him advice. Using similar rhetoric, Diefenbaker’s the allied victory over Japan that ended These friendly relations with Mobutu were UN speech slurred the Soviet premier as “the WWII. In reality, these US war crimes were seen as useful. When hearing “reports ques- master of the major colonial Power in the the opening salvos of the Cold War. Ameri- tioning Berthiaume’s role in ONUC,” the de- world today.”35 Leaders of Canada, the US ca’s attacks told the USSR that the US would partment said “we can only assume that he and the ABN were united by a narrative that use its monopoly on nuclear weapons to acted in accordance with his instructions” equated communism with colonialism. and “suggest that we let the matter rest.”24 destroy its enemies. This was only possible The USSR, other socialist countries with continued US military control of the ABN praise for Dief’s UN tirade and governments of the Non-Aligned Move- Congo. As historian Susan Williams notes: Five of the ABN magazine’s six issues in ment in Africa and Asia, called on the ONUC America had achieved a global he- 1961 cheered Diefenbaker’s UN speech.36 to free Lumumba. But UN leader Hammar- gemony which was entirely reliant on its Its stories included kudos for his UN ha- monopoly of Congolese uranium — and skjöld refused, saying this would be an “in- which had to be maintained at all costs rangue by a leading profascist West German ternal intervention unauthorized by the ex- against the Soviet threat.29 agency, the Volksbund für Frieden und Frei- isting UN resolutions.”25 heit (People’s League for Peace and Free- The official Canadian government ABN on Congo’s Red threat dom): “Diefenbaker ... dealt Moscow a blow narrative of the ONUC affair (on the Veter- America’s hegemony was invisible to Dief- in its most vulnerable spot,” it said, and “this ans Affairs’ website) does not mention Lu- enbaker and his ABN fans. Besides prais- weak spot in the imperialist system of Mos- mumba, Mobutu, the US or the 1960 coup. ing Dief, the ABN called Mobutu a “states- cow must be attacked again and again.”37 But it does glorify Berthiaume. Under the man” and “freedom fighter” against “Rus- Initiated in 1950 by former leaders of Joseph subtitle “Heroes and Bravery,” it notes that sian colonialism.” Elated that he “cleaned Goebbels’ Nazi propaganda ministry, the to recognize his “impressive efforts” he was up the nests of Communist subversive ac- League was funded by the West German awarded “the Order of the British Empire— tivity” in Congo, the ABN said Mobutu was government and the US Army Counter In- 22 Press for Conversion! Issue # 70 Spring 2021 telligence Corps, a precursor of the CIA.38 References and notes Fighter,” ABN Correspondence, Mar/Apr The ABN also printed a report from 1. ABN Correspondence, Sep/Oct 1957, p.3; 1961, p.27. bit.ly/ABN1961ma the Exec. Cttee. of its Canadian branch giv- Nov/Dec 1960, p.4; Jan/Feb 1962, pp.3- 31. D. Donzov, “Poison-Gas - the New Weapon ing “wholeheartedly support” to Diefenbak- 5,19,35; Mar/Apr 1962, p.23; May/Jun 1962, of the USSR,” ABN Correspondence, Mar/ Apr 1961, p.23. bit.ly/ABN1961ma er’s speech. When ABN-Canada’s Romani- p.37; Jul/Aug 1962, p.44, Jan/Feb 1964, p.36; Mar/Apr 1964, p.32; Oct/Dec 1964, p.19, 60; 32. Pokorny appeared regularly in ABN Corre- an rep, Matei Hojbota, mailed its report to spondence. In 1952, as vice president, Slovak Diefenbaker, the PM replied with a copy of Jul/Aug 1966, p.48; Sep/Oct 1966, p.39; Jan/ Feb 1967, p.33; Mar/Apr 1967, p.38; Sep/Oct Liberation Committee, he praised two war his UN speech and said he was “most ap- 1967, p.39; May/Jun 1971, p.9; May/Jun criminals: Slovak President Jozef Tiso and his preciative of the commendation of the group 1972, p.16; Jul/Aug 1972, pp.2-5, 45; Sep/ foreign minister, Ferdinand Durcansky. 39 you represent.” Hojbota also represented Oct 1973, p.6; Nov/Dec 1973, p.12; Mar/Apr “Slovakia Rectifies,” ABN Correspondence, Canada in the Inter-American Confederation 1974, p.25; May/Aug 1975, p.72; Sep/Oct Jul 1952, pp.7-8. bit.ly/ABNjul1952 for Continental Defense against Commu- 1979, p.49; Aug/Dec 1993, p.7. bit.ly/ABNCor In early 1962, Pokorny, as chair of the ABN’s nism. It arose from a CIA-sponsored “Latin 2. Global Affairs, History. bit.ly/DFAIT-history Organizing Cttee., addressed Croatian ethno- American Congress against Soviet Interven- 3. ABN Correspondence, Sep/Oct 1979, cover. nationalists at a Munich rally. The crowd tion,” a Mexico-City confab that took place http://bit.ly/DiefABN heard recordings of Ante Pavelic who led 4. Slava Stetsko, FOIA Research bit.ly/FOIAstet just three weeks before the CIA crushed Croatia’s Ustaše, a fascist dictatorship tied to 5. Slava Stetsko, “ABN: Half a Century of Strug- Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy (1941-45). Guatemala’s elected government in 1954.40 gle,” ABN Correspondence, Jan/Jul 1993, p.5. “Croatian Celebration in Munich,” ABN Canada’s UN speech was also raised bit.ly/ABN_Jan1993 Correspondence, May/Jun 1962. at ABN global HQ in late 1961 during a visit 6. Nikita Khrushchev, “Declaration on the Grant bit.ly/ABNmay1962 to Munich by Arthur Maloney, an MP in of Independence to Colonial Countries and 33. Ctibor Pokorny, “No Compromises!,” ABN Diefenbaker’s government. After Maloney’s Peoples,” Sep.23, 1960. bit.ly/UNantiColonial Correspondence, May/Jun 1961, p.5. “short report” to the ABN Central Cttee. in 7. UN Resolution 1514 (XV), Dec. 14, 1960. bit.ly/ABN1961ma 34. ABN Correspondence, Jan/Feb 1961, p.3. which he cited the PM’s “courageous” undocs.org/A/RES/1514(XV) 8. Australia, Belgium, France, Portugal, Spain, bit.ly/ABN1961jan speech, ABN leaders expressed delight with South Africa, UK and US. 35. Diefenbaker, op. cit., p.109. Canada’s “uncompromising attitude” to “the 9. Mary A.Heiss, “Exposing ‘Red Colonialism’: 36. ABN Correspondence, Jan/Feb 1961, p.3; Russian Communist imperium.” ABN lead- US propaganda at the UN, 1953-63,” Journal Mar/Apr 1961, p.22; May/Jun 1961, p.34; Jul/ ers then discussed with Maloney the “inten- of Cold War Studies, Sum. 2015, pp.94-95. Aug 1961, p.24; Nov/Dec 1961, p.44. bit.ly/ABNCor 41 bit.ly/Heiss-2015 sification of the anti-Communist fight.” 37. ABN Correspondence, Jan/Feb 1961, p.3. In 1967, the Banderite Ukrainian 10. Ibid, p.95. 11. John Diefenbaker, UN General Assembly, 38. Volksbund für Frieden und Freiheit, Wiener Quarterly (UQ), noted that Diefenbaker was Sep. 26, 1960, pp.108-09 bit.ly/DiefUN Holocaust Library bit.ly/VFF-Holocaust the “principal speaker at the banquet” of the 12. Ibid., p.109. Torben Gülstorff, Warming Up a Cooling World Congress of Free Ukrainians. Saying 13. Bernard Fall, The Two Vietnams: A Political War: The CIAS and other Global Anti-com- he was “honored” at their founding event and Military Analysis, 1984. bit.ly/2Vietnams munist Networks during the Era of Détente, with “the coveted Shevchenko Freedom 14. Diefenbaker, op. cit., p.110. 2015, p.7. bit.ly/CIAS-VFF Award” for “outstanding service,”42 UQ 15. Ibid., p.109. 39. ABN Correspondence, Jan/Feb 1961, p.23- quoted a Windsor Star article. It said: “At a 16. Richard Sanders, “Fictive Canada: Indig- 25. bit.ly/ABN1961jan press conference held for Diefenbaker ... enous Slaves and the Captivating Narratives The report was co-signed by Wasyl Bezchli- of a Mythic Nation,” Press for Conversion!, fond references were made to a speech giv- bnyk, ABN-Canada’s secretary. He later led 2017. bit.ly/COATweb en by the then prime minister Sept. 26, 1960, an ABN member organization, the World 17. Nikolai Podgorny, Ukrainian SSR, UN Gen- Ukrainian Liberation Front. (This global, To- at the United Nations.” The Star had a pho- eral Assembly, Oct. 4, 1960. bit.ly/PodgornyUN ronto-based, pro-Bandera network of 50 to of Dief receiving the award from Ukrain- 18. Larry Devlin, Chief of Station, Congo: Fighting groups included the League of Ukrainian ian Congress Cttee. of America’s president the Cold War in a Hot Zone, 2008, pp.271, 95. Canadians.) The other co-signer, Lithuanian- Lev Dobriansky, aka “Mr. Captive Nations.” 19. William Blum, Killing Hope: U.S. Military Canadian Jonas Kaskelis, was ABN-Canada’s The Star also heaped praise on Diefenbaker and CIA Interventions since WWII, 2003, longtime president. Both attended the World from Zenon Pelensky, who it called “a jour- pp.156-62. bit.ly/Blum-KH Anti-Communist League’s 1972 congress in 20. Ibid. nalist from Munich.”43 Pelensky was in fact Mexico. 21. This prominent External Affairs diplomat un- 40. Pierre Abramovici, “The World Anticommu- a top Banderite leader who translated for der PMs King, St. Laurent and Diefenbaker ABN president Yaroslav Stetsko during his nist League: Origins, Structures and Actions,” (1939-62) was central to creating NATO and in Transnational Anti-Communism and the 1952 tour in Canada. Pelensky then repre- the UN. He was later a director of the World Cold War: Agents, Activities, and Networks, sented Vassyl Koval at ABN meetings. Ko- Bank’s South Asia/Middle East department. 2014, pp.118-21. bit.ly/WACL-PA val took command of Bandera’s Ukrainian 22. Kevin A. Spooner, Canada, the Congo Cri- 41. ABN Correspondence, Nov/Dec 1961, p.44. Insurgent Army44 (UPA) after Roman Shuk- sis, and UN Peacekeeping, 1960-64, 2009. This issue’s cover was of Stepan Bandera ‘The bit.ly/CdaCongoUN hevych’s death in 1950. Koval led the UPA’s 23. Ibid., p.116. national hero of Ukraine’ bit.ly/ABN1961nov guerrilla war against the USSR until 1954. 24. Ibid., pp.109-10. 42. Editorial, “WCFU: A Symbol of Unity and In 1993, when glorifying its 50th 25. Ibid., p.116. Freedom,” Ukrainian Quarterly, Winter 1967, anniversary as a Nazi-sponsored network of 26. The Canadian Armed Forces in the Congo pp.383-84. bit.ly/UQ-67 fascist armies fighting the Red Army across bit.ly/CdaVetsCongo See also: bit.ly/UNmedal 43. “Ukrainians like Diefenbaker,” Windsor Star, Nov. 18, 1967, p.38. bit.ly/WS-67 eastern Europe, the ABN reprinted a 1964 27. Diefenbaker, op. cit., p.109. 28. Susan Williams, Spies in the Congo: Ameri- 44. Mckenzie Porter, “Hero of the Hunted Men,” article by Stetsko. In it, he paid homage to ca’s Atomic Mission in World War II, 2016, Macleans, May 1, 1952. bit.ly/Mac52 Diefenbaker’s UN homily, calling it an “his- pp.186, 2. bit.ly/SpiesCongo 45. Yaroslav Stetsko, “Light of Freedom from torical speech ... in keeping with the funda- 29. Ibid., p.231. the Forests of Ukraine,” ABN Correspond- mental ideas and principles of the ABN.”45 30. J.C., “Mobutu - The Anti-Communist ence, Aug/Dec 1993, p.7. bit.ly/ABNaug93 Spring 2021 Issue # 70 Press for Conversion! 23