Cold War At Home

Second Red Scare• First Red Scare – response to fears of spread of Russian /

Soviet Communism after 1917; successful Bolshevik Revolution, formation of Comintern (Palmer Raids, Soviet Ark, Sacco and Vanzetti…)

• Second Red Scare – response to Cold War with the USSR: again, fear of spread of Communism; a wave of anti Communism swept the country during the late 40s and early 50s

• Reaction to the spread of Communism to China, North Korea / Korean War, development of Atomic Bomb by the USSR in 1949

• Fears about Communist expansion were taken advantage of by unscrupulous individuals like Joseph McCarthy, Richard Nixon, and the Republican Party, for personal and political gain, (Red-baiting / Witch-hunting)

• HUAC• Hiss and Pumpkin Papers• Hollywood Ten• Federal Loyalty Board• Smith Act, McCarren Act• Rosenbergs• McCarthyism

Support for Communism Comes and Goes

• In the US, Communism was unpopular in the 20s – Fear of spread through Comintern, Red Scare

• Relatively popular in the early 30s – recognition of the USSR 1933

• Unpopular in the late 30s – Purges, Nazi-Soviet Pact..

• Relatively popular from 1941 – 1945: USSR is an ally against Nazi Germany, Lend Lease extended to USSR

• Unpopular during the Cold War, 1945 onwards

HUAC• House Un-American Activities Committee: set up in the

30s to investigate whether there were Communists in FDR’s admin – never found evidence that there were any

• Revived again in 1948, during the Cold War, to investigate the Truman admin. which was accused of being soft on Communism; fears of Stalinist spies / Communist sympathizers in the govt.

• Revived at a time when Communist Party membership / support was in decline: membership decreased from 1947 – 80,000, 1950 – 55,000, 1954 – 25,000

Alger Hiss / Pumpkin Papers• The most celebrated case tried by the HUAC was the

case of Alger Hiss (1949).

• The case surfaced when a senior editor of Time Magazine, Whittaker Chambers, a self declared former member of the Communist Party, accused a former govt. employee, Alger Hiss, of having been a former colleague of his in the Communist Party, and of having spied for the USSR and passed on govt. information to Chambers for the Soviets.

• Hiss had been a New Deal administrator / State Dept official, had been one of FDR's advisors at Yalta, and was now President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

• In the 30s, the FBI had suspected Hiss and investigated him but could not find any evidence linking him to the Communist Party

• Now in 1948-1949, the HUAC, under the direction of Richard Nixon, one of the Committee, then a not very well known Republican, began to pursue the case

• Nixon hoped to make a name for himself by exposing a Democrat govt. official

• Hiss was ordered to appear before the HUAC. Truman supported him - declaring him innocent.

• Under questioning he denied that he knew Chambers.

• When he was confronted by Chambers, he conceded that he knew him, but by a different name

• Had been friendly with him and loaned him his apartment when he was overseas on govt. business

• Chambers then brought federal agents to his farm in Maryland, where he took a roll of microfilm from under a pumpkin patch, that contained pictures of State Dept. Papers / Documents that he had passed to the Soviets

• The typewriter the documents were typed on was traced to Hiss

• The event became known as the Pumpkin Papers; the 10 year statue of limitations had passed for an espionage charge; Hiss was instead convicted of perjury – lying under oath – and sentenced to 5 yrs imprisonment

• The Pumpkin Papers affair brought Richard Nixon nationwide publicity and helped him win a Senate seat, and later the Republican Party nomination for the Vice-Presidency

The Hollywood Ten• In 1947, the HUAC turned its attention to possible

Communists in Hollywood / movies. The probe was a way to influence the movie industry and gain publicity for the HUAC.

• HUAC had already subpoenaed the names of party members from the Communist party – knew who in Hollywood was on the list (Approx 300)

• But the govt. had encouraged Hollywood in the early 40s to produce movies favorable to / positive about USSR – US ally against Nazism..

• But now, in the midst of the Cold War, things changed. The HUAC turned the spotlight on Hollywood

• The majority of Hollywood's producers, writers, and actors decided to cooperate with the HUAC’s investigation, but 10 producers, directors decided that their 1st amendment rights were in violation, and pleaded the 5th Amend - remained silent, refusing to answer questions they believed the HUAC had no right to ask.

• Refused to say if they had been members of the Communist Party and refused to give the names of others who they knew were members of the Communist Party

• The Ten were held in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify, and indicted by a grand jury

• The “Hollywood Ten” served jail terms of about one year. Others in Hollywood who supported them were also blacklisted temporarily for eg. – Katherine Hepburn

• All were then fired from their jobs – Hollywood had been intimidated – hoped to recover its image / govt. favor

• In addition to the jail sentences and firings, the Hollywood Ten were blacklisted. Many were unable to find work in the film industry for at least 10 yrs after their release

• Following the HUAC hearing, there was a noticeable increase in the number of movies with an anti-Communist point of view – which is what it was trying to achieve

• The 1947 HUAC hearings in session. On the right, committee chairman J. Parnell Thomas administers the oath; 34-year-old congressman Richard Nixon is seated immediately to Thomas's left.

Protestors opposing the jailing of the Hollywood Ten in 1950

Federal Loyalty Board

• In 1947, Truman decided to set up this Board to investigate his own govt. – to satisfy fears that it contained Communists

• Hoped to produce a clean sheet – and stop the rumor and innuendo – hoped to protect his administration

• But it didn’t work out as he planned: the over-zealous board investigated approx. 3m govt. employees. Approx 3,000 were encouraged to resign or were fired.

• Employees who had criticized any aspect of govt. policy, who possessed books on socialism or communism, who had been known to have attended foreign films, were considered dangerous to the interests of the govt. and were among the casualties

• Also fired were alcoholics and homosexuals who were also deemed to be “security risks”.

• There was no evidence of wrongdoing by those dismissed.

Smith Act and McCarren Act• Some members of Congress felt that the Loyalty Board

was insufficient

• Congress added the Smith Act of 1949 - the first peacetime anti-sedition act: illegal to co-operate with any attempt to overthrow govt.– (under which 11 communists were imprisoned – upheld by Supreme Court in Dennis v US) was not enough.

• Then added the McCarren Act: it did not outlaw Communism but it made it illegal for Americans to engage in activities that could lead to the creation of a Communist govt.

• It also required all Communist Party members to register with the Federal Gov. Communist were, in addition, not allowed to work in defense plants and had to turn in their passports, so they could not travel abroad

• Truman vetoed the Act but Congress overturned his

veto

The Rosenbergs

• In 1950, Klaus Fuchs, a British scientist, convicted of espionage, admitted that he gave the Russians American secrets on the manufacturing of the Atomic Bomb which had been passed on to him by the Rosenbergs, Julius and Ethel.

• Alleged that this elderly NY couple, who were former Communist Party members, had gotten the information from Ethel’s brother who worked on the Manhattan Project… passed them on to Fuchs who passed them on the Soviets

• Arrested, Tried, Claimed innocence, Were offered pardons if they would testify, refused

• Found guilty of espionage, on very little and just circumstantial evidence, sentenced to death, executed by the electric chair in 1951

• Later, evidence from Soviet archives indicates that did pass on information….may explain why the Soviets had the bomb as early as 1949

McCarthyism• Demagogic type character who took advantage of the

fears, suspicion of the time to advance his own career • An unknown Senator form Wisconsin: announced in

1950 that he had evidence that Sec. of State Dean Acheson was knowingly employing 205 Communist party members in his Dept.

• Pressed to reveal names he said that he had evidence against only 57, later increased this number to 81, but he never produced any evidence against anyone

• Congress allowed him to set up his own Senate Sub Committee – the “McCarthy Hearings”.

• By virtue of just been called before the hearings on suspicion of being a Communist Party member, people lost their jobs, status in society, had their reputations destroyed – before a single item of evidence was ever produced…and it was not illegal / crime to be a member of that party

• Destroyed the reputations, careers of 100s of writers, actors, govt. officials, politicians, simply by naming them as suspected communists and ordering them to appear before his subcommittee - no one was safe from his attacks.

• Eisenhower privately loathed him but publicly did not get involved. Hoped the Media would expose him and bring him down…

• The period / episode became known as McCarthyism = guilty until proven innocent, guilty by smears, rumor, accusation - term has entered into our political vocabulary / dictionary.

• Democrats condemned his methods, as did more and more Republicans as time went on. But McCarthyism was sustained by national and international events - the Rosenberg Trial, the Korean War, Soviets development of Atomic Bomb…

• What finally brought McCarthy down was when he attacked the army for harboring Communists, in 1954.

• Taking on the army transgressed the limits of what the Senate and the Public was willing to tolerate.

• The Army fought back. In 35 days of televised hearings, McCarthy was exposed by Army attorney Joseph Welch, for being the loud, irresponsible, bully, without evidence, that he was

• On TV, he paled in comparison with the calm, credible Welch.

• The Senate finally denounced him "for conduct unbecoming a member“ and ended his Committee / investigations

Intolerance / Repression Theme?

• First Red Scare

• WW I

• WWII

• Cold War