Editing Useful idiot (section)

== Select usage ==
In 1959, Congressman [[Ed Derwinski]] of [[Illinois]] entered an editorial by the ''[[Daily Calumet|Chicago Daily Calumet]]'' into the Congressional record, referring to Americans who travelled to the Soviet Union to promote peace as "what Lenin calls useful idiots in the Communist game."<ref>{{USCongRec|1959|A5653|date=30 June}}.</ref> In a speech in 1965, American diplomat [[Spruille Braden]] said the term was used by [[Joseph Stalin]] to refer to what Braden called "countless innocent although well-intentioned sentimentalists or idealists" who aided the Soviet agenda.<ref>{{cite book |last=Braden |first=Spruille |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z3sWAAAAYAAJ |title=Diplomats and Demagogues: The Memoirs of Spruille Braden |publisher=Arlington House |year=1971 |isbn=9780870001253 |pages=496}}</ref>

Writing in ''The New York Times'' in 1987, Safire discussed the increasing use of the term ''useful idiot'' against "anybody insufficiently anti-Communist in the view of the phrase's user", including Congressmen who supported the anti-[[Contras]] led by the [[Sandinistas]] in Nicaragua and the [[Labour Party (Netherlands)|Labour Party]] in the Netherlands.<ref name="safire"/> After United States president [[Ronald Reagan]] concluded negotiations with Soviet leader [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] over the [[Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty]], conservative political leader [[Howard Phillips (activist)|Howard Phillips]] declared Reagan a "useful idiot for [[Soviet propaganda]]".<ref name="they-never-said-it">{{cite book|title=They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes|first1=Paul F.|last1=Boller|first2=John H.|last2=George|year=1989|publisher=Barnes & Nobles Books|isbn=9781566191050}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|title=The Right Against Reagan|first=Hendrick|last=Smith|magazine=[[The New York Times Magazine]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/17/magazine/the-right-against-reagan.html|date=17 January 1988|access-date=12 March 2018}}</ref>

''[[The Economist]]'' published a 2023 article titled "[[Vladimir Putin]]'s useful idiots"; it describes "useful Idiot narratives" pushed by ''[[Putinversteher]]'' that support Putin's aims and denigrate his perceived enemies.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.economist.com/europe/2023/07/03/vladimir-putins-useful-idiots |title=Vladimir Putin's useful idiots |magazine=[[The Economist]] |date=3 July 2023|access-date=12 August 2023}}</ref>