A Global History of the Cold War, 1945–1991 by Philip Jenkins

Author:Philip Jenkins
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030813666
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Red Scare or Red Menace?

We might regard these exceptions as extreme or marginal, but even the core Western nations experienced varying degrees of repression, and at times, events that have been characterized as witch hunts or show trials. All those countries recognized a quite authentic danger of subversion or penetration from the Eastern Bloc, so that observing and restraining potential internal enemies was considered to be essential. The dilemma was in deciding how far such highly targeted operations might spill over into poisoning social values and democratic rights, as it certainly did on occasion. Because of that country’s cultural power, many of the most celebrated instances occurred in the US, although similar things happened elsewhere. American history in this era is sometimes described in terms of anti-Communist paranoia, but while paranoia certainly did exist, there was also a genuine threat.

In the 1930s and 1940s, many thousands of Americans joined the Communist Party for a variety of reasons, many of which seem laudable today. They supported international peace and disarmament, campaigned for the civil rights of racial minorities, or favored labor movements and economic equality. In modern language, they were progressives, a label that became a Communist buzzword in the 1940s before entering general usage. In many areas, a Communist social sphere offered a wide range of social and cultural activities. At the same time, the US Communist Party (CPUSA) was compromised in its subservience to Soviet policy and its close cooperation with Eastern Bloc agencies and intelligence. The Party had a special category of clandestine members, and some worked directly with Soviet spies. The Soviets heavily funded the Party and its activities. A Soviet-oriented party genuinely was dangerous in the world as it developed after 1946, with the ever-growing likelihood of war. It was not difficult to imagine domestic Communists serving as spies or saboteurs against the US war effort. That prospect was all the more perilous given the strong Communist presence in labor unions, in key centers of war production, and major cities.

From 1947 onward, US authorities at all levels of government passed ever-harsher laws against Communism and undertook investigations of Communist organizations and fronts. In 1947, President Truman’s Executive Order 9835 introduced a systematic loyalty program to identify and remove subversives from federal employment. The list of presumed subversives was systematized in the Attorney General’s List of Subversive Organizations, with its wide range of Communist-associated front groups. As in contemporary Europe, labor unions were a principal ideological battlefield. When the Taft-Hartley Act reformed US labor relations, it penalized unions whose officials would not publicly reject Communist Party membership. That was a blow to the more radical and militant union association, the Confederation of Industrial Organizations (CIO), where Communists remained powerful at all levels. This was sensitive because the labor movement was such a critical source of votes and funds for the Democratic Party. By 1949, CIO leaders had removed most Communists from positions of power and expelled several stubbornly leftist unions.

Anti-Communist investigations reached new heights in 1949–1950. In

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