Irresistible Revolution: Marxism’s Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military was written by a former lieutenant colonel in the United State Space Force, Matthew Lohmeier, and published in 2021. The book is, roughly, three-fifths about the history of Marxism as an intellectual project and two-fifths about the author’s personal experiences in the U.S. Military
The opening chapter, Transforming American History, provides a brief account of the controversies and figures involved in the 1619 Project and the 1776 Commission in the context of cultural war. There is a struggle over the meaning of America presently underway that is at the heart of a social and political polarization that threatens to permanently fracture American civil society. Lohmeier describes it as a contest over the meaning of America highlighting how civil rights icons Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King, Jr. recognized the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution as “deep wells of democracy” with the Marxist view which holds these documents in contempt. This is framed via reference to George Orwell and the power one gains via dictation over official truth and a broader account of slavery is briefly touched upon, highlighting how president of the National Association of Scholars Peter W. Wood’s historical research shows slavery was a worldwide phenomenon as early as the 14th century – far before the 1619 period cited by the 1619 Project.
In Chapter Two, America’s Founding Philosophy, Lormeier provides a historiography of American political economy as embodied in the Founder’s ideology that is instructive in highlighting how, in contrast to the claims made by those on the left, that women and blacks were never conceived of us being innately inferior but inherently equal as human beings but historically unequal due to the conditions of the society. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were enablers of the means by which historically unequal groups could achieve legal equality. Their Transitional Program then, to borrow a Marxian turn of phrase, was not delineated in a strategic set of actions to be taken to achieve a quasi-utopian outcome but by their ability to reference to the Declaration, the Constitution and legal literature to enable to legitimize what was already granted to them “by God”.
In chapter 3, Marxism’s Goal of Conquest, Lohmeier shares knowledge he learned while taking courses within the U.S. military to give context to the schools of thought in Europe that Marxism developed from. He explains how the writings of a wide-number of political conspiracists positively valued collectivism, which made it fundamentally difference from the individual rights framework of the Constitution. In relating their communalist concepts to historical precedents, such as the Cultural Revolution in China, wherein ‘forced equality’ became a government mandate it becomes appear how this collectivist approach which holds no respect for individual rights becomes a cudgel to legitimize and legalize sorts of abuses. Marx’s relationship to Hegel and the secret social orders in not-yet-united regions of Germany organized against the Kings and Princes are described, as was the view that Universal Revolution – one which inverted the current system of values in the home, economy and nation – was necessary and how the most strategic way to achieve this was through corruption and unseen influence.
In Chapter 4, Marx, Marxism and Revolution, Lohmeier provides a more thorough biographical account of Marx as well as focused analysis of Marx’s writing. From the context provided in the previous chapter we see the how writings and actions of Marx, those that influenced his thought, and his contemporary comrades in political arms all viewed the individual with disdain. History is class struggle, nothing more, and the bourgeoisie that prevents the dictatorship of the proletariat from being enacted are akin to devils keeping man from reaching heaven. A few examples of how the Communist Manifesto has been used by practitioners such as Lenin and Mao to justify atrocities are cited – but the majority of the chapter is devoted to explicating in detail the rhetorical and political innovations of Marxism. Marxism is a totalitarian legitimization of social destruction and replacement with something that – due to it’s “collectiveness” – is claimed to be an improvement.
In Chapter 5, Marx’s Many Faces, provides several historic accounts that highlight how Communist societies have treated outsiders, examples of communist infiltration into social bodies, and modern examples of this collectivist language making its way into U.S. institutions. One such example of the first category is the processes that American service-members had to go experience following capture in the Korean and Vietnamese War – prolonged, tortuous interrogation combined with efforts to indoctrinate. An example of the middle category – subversions – is that of William Montgomery Brown’s entrance at the behest of the Communist Party into the Episcopal church and his training to become a Bishop. Such efforts, as described in Color, Communism, & Common Sense, were coordinated at a national level with guidance at the international level from the Kremlin in Soviet Russia. An example of the last is reflected in Critical Race Theory, which is shown not only to have many of the same rhetorical and political elements as that of Marxist thought – but that many of it’s early developers and current advocated openly avow such a worldview.
In Chapter 6, The New American Military Culture, Lohmeier’s descriptions on how Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) concepts and practices have been made necessary components of armed services training and how policies linked to them have affected combat readiness is insightful. He focuses on the way in which normative social values are promoted via mandatory training that teaches an iteration of ‘anti-racism’ that functions to smuggle in Marxist, revolutionary values. He highlights how how “Servicemembers are allowed to support the BLM movement. They are not, however, allowed to criticize it.” (Lohmeier 121). As a personal account of the impact of such training on troop morale, retention rates and the way that political controversy has come to inform hiring, firing and promotions the book is insightful. It’s impact on morale (teaching as it does that people within a racially diverse unit represent oppressors and oppressed), professionalism (teaching as it does that people from historically oppressed groups should be ascend professionally because of that rather than traditional metrics of merit, and combat readiness (teaching as it does that the U.S. is an immoral country), and other factors is shown to be real and concerning. Accounts are shared, for example, about how cadets cite how the transformation of the merit-based system that they elected to join becoming a racialized organization as the reason for their decision not to re-enlist; about lieutenant colonels adopting the language of radical extremism and saying that if elections don’t go his way the system should be “burned to the ground”; and lowered recruitment numbers amongst other examples. Citing a 40-page June 25, 2020 policy proposal written by officers commissioned at West Point, he shows how the new demands for “racial inclusion” – influenced by Robin DiAngelo and Ibram X. Kendi – was nothing more than Marxism using racial language and mirrored more the Port Huron Statement than a document written by those supposedly trained to understand American values, i.e. individualism and meritocracy.
Chapter 7 closes the books primarily with comparing the contemporary U.S. context, to historical precedents for the type of ideological warfare now running unchecked, from the Civil War in Yugoslavia to the actions of the Red Guards following the Communist Party’s capture of China. Lohmeier highlights examples of laws advocated by the Democratic Socialists of America – whose worldview is influenced by Marxism – as well as interpretations of historic events such as the January 6th Protests at the U.S. Capital Building.
As a whole, my primary criticism of Lohmeier’s book is in the descriptions of actors and networks in the U.S. that are currently involved in political and ideological activism. In the first chapter, for example, he describes how (1) materials written by an author (Hannah-Jones) that had received a fellowship to study in Cuba, (2) produced by a foundation started by Howard Zinn and (3) promoted by a group whose roots trace to the United States Social Forum made their way into a suggested reading list for high school students and enlisted personnel. And yet there is no mention of the fact that Zinn was a founding member of the Cuban and Venezuelan-directed Networks of Artists and Intellectuals in Defense of Humanity, nor the relationship of Black Lives Matter’s founders, executives and elders’ relationship to the World Social Forum and the Cuban and Venezuelan. Because of this lack of intelligence-based analysis, amorphous descriptions of the groups involved in the force as being a “potent cultural force” seem to be merely creatures of individual choices responding to national issues even though they are not.
Lohmeier’s focus of the book primarily being on “Marxism’s Goal of Conquest” – however – this is understandable. Assessed from this vantage point the book is a success – though I do wish that more focus would have been given on examples of how DEI/crypto-Marxism has impacted U.S. military culture.