Host:
Next we’ll hear a talk with Lester Cole and Cedric Belfrage. Lester Cole was one of the Hollywood Ten.
He’s written many screenplays and is now working on a novel. As a member of the Hollywood Ten he
was blacklisted and spend ten months in Danbury Prison because of his political beliefs.
Cedric Belfrage was the co-founder of the National Guardian and its editor until 1955 when he was
deported for his politics and his stand against Joseph McCarthy. He continued writing from Europe, The
Soviet Union, The People’s Republic of China, and Cuba, and has recently written The American
Inquisition 1945 to1960.
Lester Cole:
My name is Lester Cole, and I’ve been given a rare opportunity this morning to introduce a very old and
dear friend to you, an English author and editor named Cedric Belfrage. Recently he wrote a book
published in this country by Bobbs Merrill entitled The American Inquisition 1945 to 1960. It’s a period
with which Belfrage has had personal and rather painful contact. And before going into the book and into
its content, I’d like to ask him a question which has been on my mind. Cedric, how the hell did you get
back into the United States?
Cedric Belfrage:
Well, that’s a good question. You know, things have changed a lot. I was deported from the United States
for my political heresy, as I call it, in 1955, which you – you…
Lester Cole:
I remember well.
Cedric Belfrage:
You well remember, and I’ve been out of the – out of the country for 18 years; I haven’t been allowed to
enter into the country. And the last time I tried to get in – or rather, I didn’t try to get in to stay – but the
last time I – I set foot on American territory was in 1960 when I was flying from London to Havana. That
was when – when planes were flying regularly through New York, and when I got to New York I was
taken off the plane and not allowed to proceed to Havana and put on the next plane back to London
again.
And I did a, what I believe was, a record round trip across the Atlantic. I believe I beat all world records at
that time. And that was what was going on at that time. I wasn’t allowed even to set foot in an American
airport in transit.
Lester Cole:
What was your heresy, Cedric? What was this heretic action that you had taken?
Cedric Belfrage:
Well I – it – it went back a long time. You remember how we, you and I, were both involved in very
intensive and anti-fascist activities in Hollywood when I lived there and you lived there in the ‘30s. Well
those were the activities which were dug up as grounds for deporting me. But I have no doubt whatsoever
that the real reason was that I had started, with my two American friends Jim Aronson and John
McManus, had started the National Guardian in 1948, which…
Lester Cole:
I remember it well.
Cedric Belfrage:
Which opposed the – the Cold War and – and the – all of its concomitants head on. And there – there
came a time when I was summoned before these committees, including Joe McCarthy’s and finally was –
we shipped out. And I think there’s no question that they wouldn’t have been interested in sending me out
simply because I had been what they called a premature anti-fascist in the ‘30s. It was because of what I
was doing at the time, naturally.
Lester Cole:
Well you – the National Guardian at that time took up as one of its great causes the Rosenberg case. And
they were opposed weekly and eloquently to the Korean War. And you were one of editors of the paper
involved in this.
Cedric Belfrage:
That’s correct, yeah. Incidentally, do you – you – you probably don’t remember, but you know you were
on the masthead of the National Guardian as one of the contributors.
Lester Cole:
Well I remember contributing occasionally, but I didn’t remember being on the masthead though.
Cedric Belfrage:
You actually were. And I also – I have various memories of your – of a – of a sort of connection with you
during that whole period although we hardly ever saw each other. But it’s true that I had always thought…
Somebody asked me the other day, a young American and I was rather a – a shock to me. I met a young
American aged about 20 who appeared to be well-educated as education goes now, and he asked me
this same question, “what was it that got you – what – whatever – what was it that was done, that the
National Guardian did, that was – that was mainly responsible in your opinion for your being deported?”
And I said I thought it was probably, it was at least possibly, the fact that we started this tremendous
world-wide campaign to save the lives of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. And he said, “who were the
Rosenbergs?” And this was rather a shock.
It was the first time anybody had ever said that to me, and I realized of course how very old I’ve become.
And there’s no criticism involved, but it is rather weird to feel that one is now living in a time when young
people grow up without even knowing who they were.
Lester Cole:
Well I understand that you’ve been speaking around Universities throughout California recently.
Cedric Belfrage:
Yeah, yeah.
Lester Cole:
What has been your experience there when you – when you speak of recent history?
Cedric Belfrage:
Well I’ve spoken at several Universities in the East. Some good name dropping I can mention the
University of Harvard, I was there – I was there and several rather impressive places there. And I’ve been
speaking here at USC, and UCLA, and Long Beach, and Monterrey, and yesterday I was speaking at the
San Francisco State University. And I have found that generally speaking, not more than about half of the
kids in these classes know who the Rosenbergs were. It varies. Some of them a little more, and some of
them a little less.
And I find it pretty shocking because it was after all a tremendous event in – in – in American history of
the period when the – of their parents. But I – but when you come to think of it, I realize also that when I
was a kid of their age, I think that the period I knew probably least about was the period of my parents.
And of course the other things further back than that get into the history books and – and the period of the
parents doesn’t tend to quite so much. So that – evidently this has not got in, but I think there are other
good reasons why it hasn’t. And this is what I’m trying to do in this book The American Inquisition, which
is an attempt to give a complete survey of the entire period of those years, and show how this whole –
this whole period of fear and terror in the United States developed, and how it got to its, I think, to its
climax with the Rosenberg case, and then gradually tapered off into what we have now.
Lester Cole:
Well I find the book invaluable in the information that it imparts. It details incidents, and people, and the
way they were caught up in this. How thousands lost their jobs and became homeless, and how many
went to prison, as we both well know. Anyone who, as you say, if the – the period of history least known
to young students today is that of their parents just because it hasn’t been written. This book certainly fills
that – fills that gap, and I feel that it performs a very great service in this respect.
What I found particularly interesting is the way you separate the heretics from the inquisitors. And I think
that some of the people that you – that you show the courage and the strength they had to withstand this
during that period, is something which could be inspiring to a lot of young people today as they seek to
find their way in a Watergate world. There must be – there must be information in this which they would
find valuable and – and in fact inspiring. And – Tell us about – tell us about some of the – some of the
people in here that, as you recall them and as your – your history showed them, how they withstood the
Un-American Activities Committees and the McCarthy Committee.
Cedric Belfrage:
Well that’s one of the things that I consider particularly important; which there have been, after all, several
books lately which have dealt with this various aspects of this period. But I’m always amazed to find that
these books, for the most part, have nothing good to say about the victims of this incredible witch hunt
that went on. And my position is quite the opposite one, and that is that the victims were the important
people of the time, and that they are the people which future generations will be proud of while they will
be heartily ashamed of the Joe McCarthy’s, and the Nixons, and all the others who were – who were, in
fact, doing the inquisiting.
I think that one of the great – one of the great period – people of that period who I deal with a great deal
in this book was W.E.B Dubois, who was a man that I had tremendous admiration for, and who is now
treated by the American media with profound respect as our great black scholar, which of course he was.
He was more than a great black scholar, he was a great – a great American of any taking from any color.
And you know during that period, he refused to ha - take any part in any of this inquisiting that was going
on, and defied it completely, and he was totally black listed.
He wasn’t allowed to write anywhere, he couldn’t even get a letter to the editor printed anywhere. He
couldn’t even get his views printed when he ran for the senate as a Progressive party candidate. Even
then he didn’t get… And the only time he got into the papers was when they put him on trial for
advocating peace, you probably remember that.
Lester Cole:
I do indeed.
Cedric Belfrage:
An abortive trial. Well Dubois was – made some marvelous statements in our paper, which only people in
– in the heretical subdivision of the – of the United Sates ever got to read. And he was absolutely right all
the way through. I have one or two – a couple of quotations here which, from the book, which I always
think were – were very fine. In 1948, he was before a committee and that was, you know, two years
before McCarthy was ever heard of, it’s – it’s an important thing to remember, how early this thing began.
And he said to the committee, “why in God’s name do we want to control the earth? We want to rule
Russia and we cannot rule Alabama. We who hate niggers and darkies propose to control a world full of
colored people. We are daily being pushed into a third-world war on the assumption that we are the sole
possessors of truth and right, and are able to pound our ideas into the world’s head by brut force. What
hinders us from beginning to reason now before we fight? We are afraid.” And that was the essence of it;
we were afraid.