John Reed was a useful idiot
as Stalin said.
shareThere's plenty of those in the States still.
Look at how your Leftists defend China nowadays.
First off, Stalin never used the phrase "useful idiot" (neither did Lenin, who is usually attributed as using it.)
Secondly, the term "useful idiot" was used to describe non-Marxists who were accused of parroting Soviet propaganda and making excuses for Soviet policies, oblivious to the (supposed) fact that Soviet leaders secretly held them in contempt for their non-Marxist views. This doesn't describe John Reed, an avowed communist who attended proceedings of the Comintern.
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Useful%20Idiot
shareurbandictionary is a site where random people on the Internet write down "definitions" of words and terms.
As I said, Lenin is often attributed as the author of the term, but he did not use it. Neither did Stalin.
Sounds like what they used to call pinkos or commie simps back in the old days.
Reed definitely wasn't a pinko. He was a full on commie.