Why Christopher Hitchens Called Himself a Trotskyist August 11, 2009

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Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/07/28/Uncommon_Knowledge_Christopher_Hitchens__Robert_Service

Author and journalist Christopher Hitchens defends calling himself a Trotskyist. Hitchens says Trotsky "combined in himself the role of man of action and man of ideas," and admires his opposition to Stalin and Hitler as "a person of immense emotional and physical courage."

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Leon Trotsky, one of the leading figures of the Russian October Revolution, remains a controversial figure. For many, Trotsky's assassination in Mexico marked a tragedy in Soviet history, cutting off the possibility of a humane version of communism taking hold in Russia, with Trotsky himself arguing that he would have held back the tides of arbitrary rule and terror. But is that so? In answering this question and others about Trotsky's ideas, political defeat, and exile, Hitchens and Service speak to the very nature of communist ideology. - Hoover Institution

Christopher Hitchens is an author, journalist and literary critic. Now living in Washington, D.C., he has been a columnist at Vanity Fair, The Nation and Slate; additionally, he is an occasional contributor to many other publications.

Peter M. Robinson is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, where he writes about business and politics, edits Hoover's quarterly journal, the Hoover Digest, and hosts Hoover's television program, Uncommon Knowledge.