Useful idiot
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In political jargon, the term "useful idiot" was used during the Cold War by certain anticommunists to describe communists in western countries (particularly in the United States). The implication of the insult was that the communist in question was naïve, and that he or she was being cynically used by the Soviet Union, thus unwittingly betraying his or her home country.
It is also believed to have been coined by Vladimir Lenin to describe western non-Communist reporters and travellers who would endorse the Soviet Union and its policies in the West. Lenin never wrote it in any published document, but it was a commonly used phrase within Communist circles long before anti-Communists used it. Whether or not Lenin actually coined the phrase cannot be proven, but it certainly stems from Communists.
In the United States, the term has today been appropriated as a pejorative used by political conservatives against political liberals. The tone of usage implies that the target of this sobriquet is ignorant of the facts to the extent that they end up unwittingly advancing an adverse cause that they might not otherwise support.
The term gained increased use after the publication of conservative columnist Mona Charen's 2004 book Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got It Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First.