McCarthyism

BY THE TIME IGOR Gouzenko announced in September 1945 that the Soviets were operating a spy ring in Canada, the uneasy world war alliance between the Soviet Union and the United States, rivals since the late 19th century, enemies since the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, was done. Soviet expansionism and American anti-communism began the clash of the Cold War.

During World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union were joined in the common struggle against fascism despite their long-standing philosophical disagreements. With the war won, the differences overwhelmed the common interest, and the one-time allies split into opposing camps. The Soviet Union pursued an aggressive policy of establishing satellites in the countries its troops occupied, a buffer against the threat from central Europe. The United States and Great Britain read the expansion as an attempt by “monolithic communism” to spread through the world. The “Iron Curtain” fell between east and west. The conflict grew when the enemy, defined by many Americans as an atheistic anti-democratic monolith, spread its tentacles into China. In 1949, the forces of America's ally Chiang Kai-shek fell to the communists under Mao Zedong. The promises of victory and peace after World War II seemed to be in ashes. Americans felt overwhelmed by the spreading tide of communism.

For five years after the war, the threat of communism seemed to grow with each revelation. The culmination of the second Red Scare was the product of a young Wisconsin senator's need for a campaign issue. When Senator Joseph McCarthy alleged that 200 card-carrying communists were in the U.S. government, the era of McCarthyism was begun.

McCarthy did not spring from nowhere. His anti-communism was consistent with government anti-communism. Even the governments of the United States and Canada seemed to be filled with communist infiltrators and sympathizers. The Harry Truman administration began a serious investigation of the bureaucracy, rooting out communists and former communists and demanding loyalty oaths.

The Congress took on the communists too, especially in the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), established in 1938 to investigate persons suspected of being unpatriotic. HUAC used the Alien Registration Act of 1940 as its authority. The Alien Registration Act outlawed the advocacy or abetting of any effort to overthrow the U.S. government, and it required all alien residents over age 14 to register and file a statement of occupational status and political beliefs. Almost half a million registered under this law, which had as its primary purpose the identification and undermining of the American Communist Party and other left-wing political organizations. The House of Representatives authorized HUAC to take on the task of finding out who, if anyone, was trying to overthrow the government.

Under Chairman J. Parnell Thomas (R-NJ), HUAC began investigating in 1947 the motion picture industry. Interviews with 41 friendly witnesses identified 19 Hollywood left-wingers. Bertolt Brecht testified and then departed for East Germany. Ten others refused to testify, citing their constitutional right to remain silent. The committee cited them for contempt, the courts up-held the decision, and the Hollywood Ten served sentences of six to 12 months. The 10 were: Alvah Bessie, [Page 756]Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner, Jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz, Adrian Scott, and Dalton Trumbo.

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