One evening in 1950 a Houston couple entered a
Chinese restaurant. The woman, a radio
writer, wanted the proprietor's help in producing a program on recent Chinese
history. Overhearing their conversation,
a nearby man rushed out, phoned the police, and informed them that people were
"talking Communism." The
couple was immediately arrested and jailed for 14 hours before the police
concluded they had no case. At about the
same time a policeman in Wheeling, West Virginia, discovered some penny-candy
machines dispensing goodies with tiny geography lessons. One lesson, under the hammer-and-sickle
Soviet flag, read: "USSR Population 211,000,000. Capitol Moscow. Largest country in the world."
"This is a terrible thing to expose our children to," pronounced the
city manager Robert Plummer when informed.
He quickly had the sinister sweets removed to protect the innocent from
the knowledge of the Soviet Union. The
preceding is an example of the extent to which the national hysteria of the nineteen-fifties
reached. The results of the Cold War
against communism had quite an opposite effect compared to its original
intentions of preserving freedom during the red scare.
The early 1950's was a time of emotional stress
for much of the United States. With the USSR and the USA emerging from the
second World War as major world powers, neither wished to give up their newly
acquired land. Both countries following
imperialist ideas attempted to spread their government across the world. America, insecure about its power to uphold a
democratic government in foreign nations feared a communist invasion from their
Cold War foe, Russia. A hysteria swept
across the United States as American paranoia of a loss of personal rights
increased. President Harry Truman's
thoughts summed up the nation's feelings toward communists with, "The
Reds, phonies and parlor pinks seem to be banded together and are becoming a
national danger." Truman's
declaration that the United States must protect the "freedom of worship, freedom
of speech, freedom of enterprise,"
was an attempt to win over the public's support for anti-communism. Propaganda sprouted across the country,
declaring that citizens would lose their personal rights to communism if it
were allowed to flourish. However the
United States' ideals of preserving the personal rights of its citizens were
reversed on March 25, 1947, as President Truman issued Executive Order 9835
which authorized investigations into the beliefs and associations of all
federal employees. Thus the catalysis
had entered the equation, if the President is frightened the people must be as
well.
President Harry Truman and the United States'
fear of communism was expressed through the Truman Doctrine. Expressed by the President was that wherever
aggression threatened peace or freedom, America's security was involved, and it
would be necessary to "...support free peoples who are resisting attempted
subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures...Every American Communist
is potentially an espionage agent...requiring only the direct instruction of a
Soviet superior to make the potentiality a reality...within the United States,
Communist penetration should be exposed and eliminated..." America feared that the communists would be
able to infiltrate the government system and violently uproot the United States
"free" society. This was the
beginning of the hysteria. Citizens
across the nation were crazed with the notion that they would be invaded and
their personal rights stripped from them.
Truman's personal
attack against the communists was his radical movement of executing Executive
Order 9835. This "...authorized
investigations into the beliefs and associations of all federal
employees." Between the launching
of his security program in March 1947 and December 1952, some 6.6 million
persons were investigated. Not a single
case of espionage was uncovered, though about 500 persons were dismissed in
dubious cases of "questionable loyalty." All of this was conducted with secret
evidence, secret and often paid informers, and neither judge nor jury. In the process of ratting out communists in
order to preserve American citizens' rights, the personal rights of millions of
people were destroyed. As early as 1938
the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) emerged. Within the first few days of its existence,
witnesses charged some 640 organizations, 483 newspapers, and 280 labor unions
with being communistic. Witnesses even
questioned the loyalty of the Boy Scouts, the Camp Fire Girls, and child movie
star Shirley Temple. The HUAC was not
the only organization to seek out communists.
States, counties, cities, even organizations such as, corporations,
educational institutions, and labor unions obliged themselves to hunt for the
reds as well. Loyalty checks were
common, within these personal freedoms were impeded upon, conservatives
ferreted out not communists but liberals, New Dealers, radical labor leaders,
civil rights activists, pacifists, atheists, anyone appearing at all strange or
different, anyone a non-conformist was liable to be accused of being labeled a
communist.
Propaganda played
an important role in turning peoples fears, accusations and irrational behavior
towards communists. The popular image of
a communist was that of a nearly superhuman demon, a devious and highly skilled
fiend, the master of techniques of hypnotic intellectual seduction who would be
more than a match for ordinary "...mortals operating under the lawful ways
of democracy." In a 1954 national
survey, over half of those interviewed agreed that all known communists should
be placed in jail. Civil liberties were
considered much less important than ending the communist threat; fifty-eight
percent of the populace questioned in this survey favored finding all
communists "...even if some innocent people should be hurt." Seventy-eight percent thought it was a good
idea to report to the FBI, neighbors or acquaintances whom they suspected of
being communists. Seventy-seven percent
of those polled wanted to strip admitted Communists of their citizenship, while
fifty-one percent were in favor of imprisoning them, however only three percent
of those polled had ever met and admitted communist. Though ten percent had suspicions about
acquaintances. "He was always
talking about world peace...I saw a map of Russia on a wall in his home...I
just knew. But I wouldn't know how to
say how I knew...She had more money to spend and places to go than seems
right...He had a foreign camera and took so many pictures of the large New York
bridges.." theses are some of peoples reasoning behind their suspected
communist neighbors. The search for
communists inside the United States quickly switched from the salvation of
personal freedoms to the destruction of civil-rights for non-conformist.
Joseph R.
McCarthy, on February 9, 1950 released a statement to the Wheeling Women's
Republican Club, which boosted the national craze to unseen levels. McCarthy's manifestation "I have here in
my hand a list of 205 that were known to the Secretary of State as being
members of the Communist party and who, nevertheless, are still working and
shaping policy in the State Department," brought about a questioning of
the United States government. A statement
by J. Howard McGrath, "There are today many Communists in America. They are everywhere in factories, offices,
butcher shops, on street corners, in private business-and each carries in
himself the germs of death for society...they are busy at work-undermining your
Government, plotting to destroy the liberties of every citizen, and feverishly
trying, in whatever way they can, to aid the Soviet Union," gathered attention towards an investigation
of the national government. In April of
1953 President Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10450, establishing a program
in which all new government employees and workers in firms with government
contracts regardless of position were to be investigated. Any derogatory information, no matter what
its source, was grounds for dismissal.
The lives of government employees were drastically altered in this time
of Red-hunting, however normal citizens were also effected by this craze.
The American
fright of communist overrule effected all walks of life. From the average citizen to government
officials. No one was immune to the
effects of a national hysteria. Cities
put in place "red squads," police patrols whose main purpose was to
rid the United States of communists.
Neighbors would report neighbors, students would report each other and
their teachers. Hollywood was even
susceptible to the evil forces of paranoia.
Americans were
forced into conformity by their own actions.
Their dogmatism forced themselves into a craze. Americans became tolerant of violence
committed against the supposed communists.
In 1951 Congress overwhelmingly passed the McCarran Internal Security
Act, which required communist and so-called communist-front organizations to
register with the government and to clearly label all their mail and literature
as communist. This act also established
a five-member Subversive Activities Control Board, with the jurisdiction to
investigate the thoughts and beliefs of citizens, a most totalitarian
provision. The board set up
concentration camps and authorized the government to lock up communists and
other suspects any time a national emergency was announced. Citizens suspected neighbors if anything out
of the ordinary was noticed. Liberals
were the epitome of evil in the minds of the conservative propagandists, those
with radical views could easily be communists.
A fear of liberals was devastating to Hollywood.
Liberals and
free-thinkers are ingredients to a Hollywood film maker. In the time of this hysteria a blacklist was
initiated. The Hollywood Ten, was a
group of ten film makers who were held in contempt of Congress for communist
affiliations. Film makers were forced to
make movies within tight guidelines or else face possibly being added to the
infamous Black List of movie studios.
Controversy was not to be a topic of discussion in movies or throughout
the nation. The American imagination was
placed on hold as the supposed communist threat bared itself down upon the
nation.
America underwent
a national hysteria throughout the years following the second World War. The United States and USSR the only two
remaining world powers entered a bitter Cold War. America fearing the giant foreign nations
political control began an anticommunist craze.
In an attempt to savor personal freedoms America reacted harshly against
mere hint of communism. The result of
these harsh actions towards communism were the near downfall of American
society. False propaganda exploded the
fears of the citizens whom intern reacted harshly to any notion of
communism. The effect this "Red
Scare" had on America was quite opposite to its original intentions,
rather than preserve the rights of its citizens, it raped them of their ideals,
and liberties.
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