McCarthyism Predecessors‐ Red Scare Alien and Sedi7on Acts: • Espionage Act 1917 • Sedi7on Act 1918 • Immigra7on Act 1918 (exclusion/deporta7on of radicals) Regula7on permiGng postmaster to prevent delivery of radical publica7ons, 1918 December 1919 ‐ 259 radicals deported to Russia January 1920 ‐ Palmer Raids, 5,000 arrests of radicals Immigra7on Act of 1920 ‐ aliens punishable for possessing radical literature McCarthyism Before McCarthy 1938 ‐ Dies CommiRee 1940 ‐ Smith Act 1945 ‐ Dies CommiRee made permanent as the House Commi*ee on Un‐
American Ac2vi2es (generally known as HUAC) McCarthyism before McCarthy II 1947 Truman Execu7ve Order 9835 ‐ Government Employee Loyalty‐Security Program 1947 Ta\‐Hartley Act 1949 Hollywood Ten The Hollywood 10
their lawyers
Alger Hiss 1948 Alger Hiss case ‐ accusa7ons directed at State Department Alger Hiss taking an
oath before HUAC
Senator Joseph McCarthy McCarthyism 1950 Senator McCarthy charges that hundreds of State Department employees giving informa7on to the Soviet Union and China 1950 McCarran Act Loyalty oaths proliferate Approximately 10,000 people lose their jobs 1953 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed 1954 McCarthy accuses Army officials of treason 1954 Senate votes 67 to 22 to condemn McCarthy How McCarthyism Operated HUAC: provided informa7on on 60,000 individuals and 12,000 organiza7ons to employers and others, files on a million Employers cooperated by firing those who did not name others FBI, under J. Edgar Hoover, created files on 430,000 individuals and organiza7ons (1960) 1956: Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO): agents as provocateurs Sources of McCarthyism Problem: Communist Party so small barely worth aRacking (40,000 1940) Reasons for McCarthyism: Republican effort to discredit Democrats, New Deal Need to blame successes of Communism (abroad) on internal subversion Effort to undermine radical popular culture of the 30s (the CIO, the Popular Front) Ongoing Efforts of the Le\ 1950 Stockholm Peace Pledge: prohibi7on of nuclear weapons, interna7onal control Jus7ce Department uses 1939 Foreign Agents Registra7on Act to destroy Peace Informa7on Center; W.E.B. DuBois indicted, then fired by NAACP Emergence of independent le\: Monthly Review (1949), Pacifica (1949), Dissent (1954), beginnings of peace movement Why so liRle resistance? The CP’s 7es to the Soviet Union made it vulnerable to cri7cism Wars are o\en followed by periods of poli7cal quiescence Protest seemed less urgent in the context of postwar prosperity The absence of a clear postwar agenda (on the part of both the CP and the Popular Front) Reasons internal to the Communist movement: Uncri7cal, blanket support of the Soviet Union Problems specific to CPUSA: • 1935‐1944 Browder General Secretary. Slogan: “Communism is 20th Century Americanism” in contrast to earlier slogan, “Toward a Soviet America,” associated with William Z. Foster • 1944 Browder calls for turning CP into “poli7cal associa7on,” denounced by Duclos leRer (French CP), expelled from CPUSA • Foster becomes general secretary, predicts crisis of capitalism, war with Soviet Union, fascism: le\ sectarianism • One result: forma7on of People’s Party, Wallace campaign, 1948 • 1956 Khruschev Speech on Stalin’s crimes, 20th Congress, CPUSSR Results of McCarthyism Communist Party survives but much reduced Most Popular Front organiza7ons destroyed Fear pervades le\/liberal arena, intellectual/
ar7s7c circles Peace, civil rights, economic jus7ce movements derailed What was prevented: more social welfare legisla7on, progress on race rela7ons, challenge to the arms race and the Cold War