Collateral Damage: Anti-Communism & U.S
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COLLATERAL DAMAGE: ANTI-COMMUNISM & U.S. CULTURAL POLICY A THESIS IN Political Science Presented to the Faculty of the University of Missouri–Kansas City in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF ARTS by DONALD ELWIN ADAMS M.A., Sangamon State University, Springfield, Illinois, 1976 Kansas City, Missouri 2014 © 2014 DONALD ELWIN ADAMS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii COLLATERAL DAMAGE: ANTI-COMMUNISM & U.S. CULTURAL POLICY Donald Elwin Adams, Candidate for the Master of Arts Degree University of Missouri–Kansas City, 2014 ABSTRACT The United States of America has never formally declared a cultural policy nor established a Cabinet-level department of cultural affairs, as many other nations have in the post–World War II era — depriving the American people a foundation and context for transparent, open deliberation over the nature and priorities of public cultural policy. The values that constitute our de facto policy must be discerned through the aggregate of specialized policymaking and action taken by federal, state, and local governments. Our reluctance to declare formal policy is partly due to the nation’s stance in conducting the Cold War — focused around an exaggerated Soviet threat —and its associated domestic anti-communist campaigning. In examining the historic record, “Collateral Damage” tells the story of anti-communism through much of the twentieth century, focusing on its cultural impact. The historical narrative follows from the first mass expression of anti-communist sentiment nationally, in the Red Scare of 1919, through its later expression in the “McCarthy era” of the Fifties, and its legacy since. Various iii approaches to cultural policy emerge throughout; but I focus especially on the contrasting federal cultural programs of the New Deal and those of domestic cultural agencies established in the 1960’s. This story reveals how politicians and policymakers relied upon religious values were for Cold War purposes, rather than crafting secular statements of national cultural values. The study identifies six other significant impacts of anti-communism on U.S. cultural policy since the Sixties: the primacy of the private sector; Euro-centric bias in defining the cultural field; an approach to cultural diversity that marginalizes voices from outside traditional fine-arts contexts; a proscription against engagement with social issues in the arts and humanities; the replacement of democracy with “free enterprise” as the driving spirit in cultural policy; and a U.S. stance in international cultural-policy deliberations that tends to interpret transnational cultural issues in terms of commerce and national security. The study concludes with a suggestion of what a secular statement of national cultural policy might resemble, using First Lady Michelle Obama’s address to the Democratic National Convention in 2012 as an example. iv APPROVAL PAGE The faculty listed below, appointed by the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, have examined a thesis titled “Collateral Damage: Anti-communism & U.S. Cultural Policy,” presented by Donald Elwin Adams, candidate for the Master of Arts degree, and certify that in their opinion it is worthy of acceptance. Supervisory Committee Max J. Skidmore, Ph.D., Committee Chair Department of Political Science Robert Evanson, Ph.D. Department of Political Science Mona Lyne, Ph.D., Department Chair Department of Political Science v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................ III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................... XI PREFACE ............................................................................................................................ XIII CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 1 The Impact of Anti-communism on U.S. Cultural Policy .................................................... 3 The Historic Arc of U.S. Anti-communism .......................................................................... 4 CHAPTER 2: CULTURAL POLICY: BRINGING CULTURE IN ....................................... 9 CHAPTER 3: THE BIRTH OF AMERICAN COMMUNISM ............................................ 15 Awakening Anti-Radicalism ............................................................................................... 17 Bolshevism and Party Realignments .................................................................................. 19 CHAPTER 4: THE RED SCARE OF 1919: “NO COMPROMISE!” .................................. 23 Postwar Anxiety and the Seattle General Strike ................................................................. 25 Suspicious and Spectacular Events ..................................................................................... 29 Legislating Hysteria ............................................................................................................ 31 The Red Summer: Race and Radicalism ............................................................................ 33 “No Strike Against the Public Safety” ................................................................................ 36 Striking Steel and Coal ....................................................................................................... 39 Rights and Associations ...................................................................................................... 42 Justice and the Palmer Raids .............................................................................................. 45 In the Pink ........................................................................................................................... 50 CHAPTER 5: ENTR’ACTE: CULTURAL POLICY IN THE ROARING TWENTIES ...... 54 Immigration Restriction ...................................................................................................... 55 Electronic Mass Media ....................................................................................................... 57 vi The Primacy of Private Philanthropy .................................................................................. 62 Private Interests & Foreign Policy ...................................................................................... 65 CHAPTER 6: A NEW DEAL IN FEDERAL CULTURAL POLICY .................................. 70 New Deal Culture & the Birth of HUAC ........................................................................... 72 The Federal Theatre Project ........................................................................................... 75 Congressional Opposition .............................................................................................. 81 HUAC Targets Federal One ........................................................................................... 82 Federal One Responds .................................................................................................... 87 The HUAC Playbook ....................................................................................................... 91 Anti-communism & Race in the Thirties ............................................................................ 92 Civil Rights Progress During the New Deal ................................................................... 95 Racial Realignment ......................................................................................................... 97 The Trojan Horse in America ........................................................................................... 101 Inventing the “American Way” ........................................................................................ 106 Cultural Policy and American Identity ............................................................................. 113 CHAPTER 7: ENTR’ACTE: WORLD WAR II & THE POSTWAR ORDER ................... 115 World War II’s Grand Alliance and Multilateralist Visions ............................................. 115 Strained Bedfellows: Resurrecting the Soviet Threat ....................................................... 118 Getting Tough with the Soviet Union ............................................................................... 122 Truman’s Doctrine ............................................................................................................ 124 The Hegemon Invents Bipolarity ...................................................................................... 126 The Shadow of Death ....................................................................................................... 130 Time for John Foster Dulles .............................................................................................. 131 CHAPTER 8: DOMESTIC ANTI-COMMUNISM IN POSTWAR AMERICA ............... 133 Witch-hunters Hit Hollywood .......................................................................................... 136 “Tailgunner Joe“ ............................................................................................................... 141 The Man & the Movement ................................................................................................ 150 Witch-hunting Beyond the Spotlights ............................................................................... 152 Promising Loyalty 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