Senator MITCH McCONNELL (Republican, Kentucky): I just want to thank my friend from Virginia for, you know, clearing up any notion anyone might have that anything the United States is involved in in incarcerating prisoners would be in any way related to experiences such as those carried out by the Nazis or by the Russians during the Stalin period.

NPR: Senate Debates Treatment of Detainees

And I say, you can condemn Stalin's period, you can condemn political repressions and the old way of life - but you should not touch personalities.

BBC: Georgia divided over Stalin 'local hero' status in Gori

Stalin's apologists during that same period excused his mass murders be-cause communist motives were supposed to be for the common good -- improving the lot of the downtrodden and modernizing a backward empire.

FORBES: Fact and Comment