(Unsigned front page article)
Workers World, Vol. 5 No. 23
November 26, 1963
The United States of America came close to a fascist coup d’etat, and the establishment of a Right Wing, reactionary, totalitarian dictatorship.
This is really the main and fundamental fact to emerge from the assassination of President Kennedy.
That the coup d’etat did not actually come off, can only be explained by the fact that the forces of political reaction, virulent racism and “preventive war” militarism, had failed to coalesce at the critical moment and emerge with “a man on horseback.”
The possibility of a Right-Wing takeover in the United States has long been a subject of deep consideration in the summits of the U.S. ruling class, and has been subjected not only to literary speculation, but also to serious study. (See article on Page 3 in this issue.)
But as recently as October 1962, Homer Bigart, in an exceptionally illuminating article written from Dallas for The New York Times (published in their issue of October 10) revealed the alarming trend of the Ultra-Right.
‘NATIONAL DISASTER AND MAN ON HORSEBACK’
“What they (the Ultras) need,” he quoted an observer in Texas as saying, “is a national disaster and a man on horseback.”
The man on horseback and the military fascist camarilla behind him are still invisible. They are still planning, plotting and conspiring in secret. They are not yet ready to come forward, but the “national disaster” to which they have been hopefully looking forward for a long time, is now an accomplished fact. It has crashed upon the heads of the people with the shock and awesomeness of a thermonuclear detonation. But it has thus far fallen short of the hopes of the neo-fascist detachment of the imperialist bourgeoisie.
Beyond the shadow of a doubt, the scheme of the conspirators is based on the classical experience of the Nazi takeover – the Reichstag fire – which Hitler prepared and utilized to smash the Weimar Republic, and erect his totalitarian regime. The Reichstag fire created the atmosphere of national emergency and disaster. It was called the work of a “Communist agent.” But this was proven to be a monstrous fabrication.
THE REICHSTAG FIRE AND THE NAZI TAKEOVER
The Reichstag fire was intended to inflame public opinion and disorient the mass of the people. And most importantly, it was calculated to paralyze the militant, anti-fascist spirit of the German working class.
In like fashion, the assassination of President Kennedy was utilized to create an atmosphere of panic, confusion and disorientation of the mass of the people amidst a monumental orgy of Communist-baiting.
Aside from any and all considerations of the guilt or innocence of Oswald, his brutal treatment at the hands of the Dallas authorities is in the classical spirit of fascist terror.
“A man is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a jury of his peers.” This has been regarded as one of the most elementary democratic rights in this capitalist democracy. It is regarded as a cornerstone of the legal system said to be prevalent in the United States, and one of the proud features of a so-called free country.
Yet nowhere on radio, television, or the press, was this elementary precept of criminal law mention while Oswald was alive. Perhaps there was an obscure exception here or there. But one would have had to look far and wide to have found it.
The truth of the matter is that this basic right of the accused was summarily eliminated just at the moment when it was most urgently needed to prove the alleged existence of democratic rights. The accused, however, was tried and convicted by the press, radio and TV, all of whom acted in varying degrees as accomplices of the Dallas Police and the forces of neo-fascist reaction behind them.
ULTRA-RIGHTIST PLOT PREMATURE
But the Ultra-Rightist plot for a governmental takeover, however, proved to be premature.
Deep as are the antagonisms within the ruling class over questions of policy, they have not yet matured to the extent where the most substantial section of the capitalist class and the banker-generals who rule on their behalf, was ready to dispense with the façade of bourgeois democracy and throw in its lot with a totalitarian dictatorship.
Moreover, as we said, the forces of political reaction, virulent racism and “preventive war” militants, have failed to coalesce. The fuehrer – the man on horseback – is nowhere yet in sight.
But the basic reason why the bourgeoisie could not utilize the Kennedy assassination to entirely scotch the remnants of democratic rights and civil liberties, is their fear of the masses, who in spite of many years of relentless witch-hunt and repression, constitute the greatest obstacle and the most dangerous opponent in the way of the Ultra-Right.
Beyond the shadow of a doubt, the recent resurgence on such a tremendous mass scale of the Black people, the growth and militancy of certain sections of the working class hit hardest by automation and layoffs, and the development of a spirit of resistance from among college and other youth, made the bourgeoisie hesitate to utilize the assassination for a coup, as many of them no doubt had hoped to do.
TENDENCY TO FASCIST DICTATORSHIP REMAINS
Nonetheless, the tendency of the most rabid, racist and most reactionary elements of the capitalist class, is to turn in the direction of fascist dictatorship. The reason for it lies deep in the evolution of monopoly capitalism and its inner tendency to transform the rule of bourgeois democracy into the rule of naked force.
The evolution of U.S. ruling class politics in general, and military politics in particular, has consistently manifested an undeviating tendency towards dangerous adventurism abroad which needs domestic reaction as a fundamental prop.
This trend cannot be reversed as long as the Morgans, the Rockefellers, the duPonts, the Fords, not to speak of the Gettys and the Hunts and the rest of the financial oligarchies control the destiny of American life. Their aim is super-profits, which can only be obtained by exploiting more and more millions of people throughout the world, at home and abroad.
Peace and freedom are inconsistent with the objectives of monopoly capitalism, which can only thrive in an atmosphere of reaction and preparation for wars.
UNION OF RACISTS WITH UNBRIDLED MILITARY
The Ultra-Right in the U.S. find themselves in the same predicament as the Hitlers and the Tojos. They need frame-ups and assassinations in order to demoralize and destroy the spirit of intransigent resistance by the people.
The merger of the racist reactionaries with the unbridled military who are impatient for adventures in Cuba, in Vietnam, and in nuclear blackmail in general, are a key factor in stimulating and advancing the trend to a Rightist dictatorship. These elements find the remnants of bourgeois democracy and democratic processes in general in the U.S.A. too slow, too cumbersome, and too unwieldy to suit their criminal purposes.
The trend to totalitarian dictatorship can only be reversed by the intervention of an ever larger mass of the million fold working class movement and of unity between Black and white workers against the common oppressor.
As the heavy fog of the preceding days dissipates, the people are sure to slowly and gradually shake off the effects of psychological terror and political confusion which has been aimed at them.
A great and genuine renaissance of critical thinking and militant spirit is sure to follow.
It is therefore the duty of the advance guard of the working class movement to forge the broadest united front of all the political tendencies on a concrete program of struggle against the danger of fascism.
Down with the Ultra-Right plot!
Down with racist terror against the Black people!
Long live socialism – the only true alternative to violence, war, unemployment and poverty!
November 25, 1963
Last updated: 11 May 2026