March 8 panel brings together victims of communism from five countries

Human Events and the Liberty Forum of Silicon Valley are hosting a five-person discussion panel next Tuesday, titled "Paying the Price – Understanding the Life of a Political Dissident." It'll be a conversation with five members who've experienced communist regimes at their zenith in the 20th century.

It'll be both an in-person and virtual event on March 8 at 10 pm EST, 7 pm Pacific Time. The discussion is sponsored by the Victims of Communism Foundation and moderated by Human Events managing editor Brent Hamachek. The registration page says the venue is the Elite Event Center in Santa Clara, California.

Hamachek outlined the inspiration to put on the event in the first place:

"After I gave my talk in July, Peter Palecek, a real-life dissident and now a panel member, came up to me and shared his thoughts on how important the message was. He said that the story I told at the end about a contemporary American dissident woman who was forced to run barefoot on rocks brought tears to his eyes because it brought everything back to him.  He also said that everyone in the world needed to hear the message.  I felt like we needed to do something like this.  I’m grateful to the Liberty Forum of Silicon Valley for making it become a reality."

The five guests who, despite coming from various backgrounds, share the same theme of living under a particular kind of authoritarian governmental rule:

Frank de Varona was born in Cuba and spent his early adult years as a member of the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. He spent a few years in prison as punishment for that, but ultimately managed to return to America and had a successful 38-year long career as a teacher for the Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

The panelist's work as a prolific author and writer has led Varona to discuss what prevalence socialism has had recently here in the United States.

Peter Palecek was born in Czechoslovakia back in 1939, the same year of the Nazi takeover. The Gestapo arrested Palecek's mother during their time in charge. When the communists took over in the country, Palecek's father ended up being sent to a prison camp. Meanwhile, Palecek himself grew up to become a critique of the ruling party and was targeted with surveillance by state forces.

Peter Wolf escaped from East Germany in 1959. The book "Because I Can" captured Wolf's recollections from growing up in East Germany before escaping.

Sutton Van Vo grew up during the tensions in Vietnam during the 20th century. They served as a major for the South Vietnamese army, but then spent over a decade in various prisons throughout the country after the Communist takeover.

Back in 2017, he denounced an 18-hour, 10-part documentary published by Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) about the Vietnam War as  "pure propaganda" for their depiction of the conflict. The panelist's main critique was how PBS didn't spend enough time or attention talking about South Vietnam's role.

Tatiana Menaker, who hails from Leningrad in the Soviet Union, ended up writing for an "underground Christian feminist magazine" that eventually led her to arrest. Escaping the Soviet Union, she and her partner fled to America. In a 2016 profile by The Atlantic, they labeled her a "hardcore Republican" who helmed a tour guide business while raising three kids. Eventually Tatiana became outspoken against the Marxism she witnessed as a student at San Francisco State University.

A similar discussion of the onslaught of far-left ideology and the sociopolitical state of the world took place during the "Tocqueville Conversations" conference in France last year. Alexis de Tocqueville's present-day descendant Jean-Guillaume hosted this meeting of the minds to debate American politics.