ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the complex and uneven nature of ethnic anticommunism at it evolved within the community of Latvian Americans. The community of American Latvians contained many highly educated and opinionated members, who were eager to develop their ideas and articulate political positions. A strong element in the American Latvian anticommunist thought was a conviction that ultimately all totalitarian regimes, particularly the Nazi and the communist ones, were similar. Latvian anticommunists tried to convey that American foreign policy of "peaceful coexistence" was built on mistaken assumptions about the Soviet regime. The next major element of American Latvian anticommunist doctrine was defining the struggle against communism as an opposition to Soviet colonialism. Latvian nationalism contained a certain extent of affinity to the Nazi obsession with ethnic purity, national superiority, and chauvinism. American Latvian anticommunists were very good at quickly and effectively responding to new opportunities in the mainstream political channels.
