|
The term is now used more broadly to describe someone who is perceived to be manipulated by political movement, terrorist group, or hostile government, whether or not the group is Communist in nature.
==Origins unknown==
The term is purported{{Fact|date=November 2007}} to have been coined by [[Vladimir Lenin]], sometimes in the form "useful idiots of the West", to describe those Western reporters and travellers who would endorse the Soviet Union and its policies in the West. However, no reference to a communist sympathizer or political [[left-wing politics|leftist]] as a "useful idiot" was made in the United States until [[1948]], and not until decades later would the phrase be attributed to Lenin. In 1948, the phrase was used in a ''[[New York Times]]'' article in relation to [[Italy|Italian]] politics, and was not mentioned again in print until 1961. [Citation Needed] Critics of the term allege that the expression "useful idiot" has never been discovered in any published document of Lenin's, nor that anyone has claimed to have heard him say it. In the spring of 1987, Grant Harris, senior reference librarian at the [[Library of Congress]], said "We have not been able to identify this phrase {{interp|''useful idiots of the West''}} among {{interp|Lenin's}} published works."<ref>{{cite book |last=Boller, Jr. |first=Paul F. |authorlink= |coauthors=George, John |title=They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions |year=1989 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=0-19-505541-1 }}</ref><!-- p. 76 -->
The origin of the phrase "useful idiot" is unknown, and it is not clear why it was attributed to Lenin, although he is well-known for his [[polemic]] language.
There is a confirmed instance of Lenin speaking about a sympathetic western leftist in a pejorative tone. In a February 10, 1922 letter to the Soviet Foreign Affairs Commissar [[Georgy Chicherin]] in relation to the [[Genoa Conference]], Lenin wrote:<ref>Handwritten note at the Russian Center for the Preservation and Study of Documents of Recent History, fond 2, opis 2, delo 1,1119. Published as Document 88 in ''The Unknown Lenin'', ed. [[Richard Pipes]], [[Yale University Press]], [[1996]], ISBN 0-300-06919-7</ref>
{{cquote|''[[Arthur Henderson|Henderson]] is as stupid as [[Alexander Kerensky|Kerensky]], and for this reason he is helping us. [...]''
''Furthermore. This is ultrasecret. It suits us that Genoa be wrecked... but not by us, of course. Think this over with [[Maxim Litvinov|Litvinov]] and [[Adolf Joffe|Joffe]] and drop me a line. Of course, this must not be mentioned even in secret documents. Return this to me, and I will burn it. We will get a loan better without Genoa, if we are not the ones that wreck Genoa. We must work out cleverer maneuvers so that we are not the ones that wreck Genoa. For example, the fool Henderson and Co. will help us a lot if we cleverly prod them. [...]''
''Everything is flying apart for "them". It is total bankruptcy ([[India]] and so on). We have to push a falling one unexpectedly, not with our hands.''}}
There is no information as to whether Lenin's disparaging comments about [[Arthur Henderson]] have some relation to the coining of the phrase "useful idiot".
==Related quotes==
|
