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UC Santa Cruz UC Santa Cruz Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Cold War Comrades: Left-Liberal Anticommunism and American Empire, 1941-1968 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2z1041sr Author Cushner, Ari Nathan Publication Date 2017 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ 4.0 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ COLD WAR COMRADES: LEFT-LIBERAL ANTICOMMUNISM AND AMERICAN EMPIRE, 1941-1968 A dissertation presented in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in HISTORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS with an emphasis in AMERICAN STUDIES by Ari. N. Cushner September 2017 The dissertation of Ari Nathan Cushner is approved: _________________________________ Professor Barbara Epstein, chair _________________________________ Professor Eric Porter _________________________________ Matthew Lasar, Ph.D. _____________________________ Tyrus Miller Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Copyright © by Ari N. Cushner 2017 CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii INTRODUCTION Cold War Liberalism and the American Century 1 Midcentury Left-Liberal Anticommunism 6 Sources 14 Original Contributions 16 Methods 19 Literature Review 25 McCarthyism and Left-Liberal Anticommunism 28 New York Intellectuals and Neoconservatism 38 Cold War Anticommunism and American Empire 43 Chapter Outline 45 CHAPTER ONE Tragedy of Possibility: From a People’s Century to Cold War Empire 47 Henry Wallace and the Popular Front 51 Free World Association 56 Union for Democratic Action 65 Cold War (and Critics) 68 The 1948 Election 78 End of the People’s Century 90 CHAPTER TWO Following The New Leader: Left-Liberal Anticommunist Routes 95 “The Real Center of Anti-Communist Thought and Activity” 97 Norman Thomas (1884-1968) 113 Sidney Hook (1902-1989) 123 Arthur Schlesinger Jr. (1917-2007) 138 CHAPTER THREE Coming Together: Origins of the Left-Liberal Anticommunist Coalition 150 Committee for Cultural Freedom 151 The Waldorf Conference and Its Discontents 158 First They Took Manhattan: Americans for Intellectual Freedom 161 Towards a Defense of Cold War ‘Cultural Freedom’ 166 CHAPTER FOUR Speaking for Freedom: Left-Liberals as Cold War Propagandists 171 Left-Liberals and Cold War Propaganda 175 iii Then They Took Berlin: The Congress for Cultural Freedom 181 Chairman Hook’s Congress and the Committee 183 Mr. “Henry J. Laphorne” Goes to Washington 191 Left Wing of the CIA: Making the American Committee for Cultural Freedom 198 Enter, Comrade Thomas 202 CHAPTER FIVE Holding the Center: Left-Liberal Anticommunism in the Age of McCarthy 212 “Enemies from Within”: McCarthy and McCarthyism 213 “Combating Unintelligent Anticommunism” 220 Fractured Front: Breaking the American Committee for Cultural Freedom 233 CHAPTER SIX Falling Apart: Liberalism, the New Left, and Neoconservatism 251 Breaking the Silence 256 Things Fall Apart 260 Left-Liberal Anticommunism Revisited 269 CONCLUSION Beyond the American Century (?) 284 Reheating Cold War 288 After Empire 291 BIBLIOGRAPHY 340 iv ABSTRACT Ari Nathan Cushner Cold War Comrades: Left-Liberal Anticommunism and American Empire, 1941-1968 This dissertation examines the underappreciated history of what is commonly known as ‘cold war liberalism’ in relation to the rise of United States global power at the end of World War Two. More accurately described as ‘left-liberal anticommunism,’ this ideological orientation was produced through an alliance between three distinct species of political-intellectuals: democratic socialists personified by Norman Thomas, New Deal liberals typified by Arthur Schlesinger Jr., and anti-Stalinist leftists (former Trotskyists) embodied by Sidney Hook. These factions came together in the early 1940s, united in resistance to what remained of the pro-Communist ‘popular front’; the initial phase of their partnership culminated in the successful derailment of Henry Wallace’s 1948 presidential campaign. In the early 1950s their union was reconsolidated around a renewed effort to thwart Stalinist subversion at home and Soviet expansion abroad; the left-liberal anticommunist coalition concurrently helped shape a CIA-sponsored counterpropaganda campaign that came to be known as the ‘cultural cold war.’ In the mid 1950s this alliance of cold war comrades became fractured over the issue of McCarthyism, as a group that included former Trotskyist ‘New York intellectuals’ refused to join a condemnation of the Wisconsin senator’s redbaiting. With the defection of many on this proto- ‘neoconservative’ flank, which was becoming fixated on anti-Stalinism, those who remained in the left-liberal anticommunist camp cemented a commitment to the civil v rights and labor movements, while redoubling their support for Cold War foreign policy. The final iteration of their alliance, framed by the promotion of ‘rational’ as opposed to ‘obsessive anticommunism,’ lasted through the late 1960s, when it finally collapsed under the strain of an increasingly radical New Left and neoconservatives coalescing in opposition. Before disintegrating, the left-liberal anticommunist coalition pursued a domestic agenda of progressive reform attached to the legacy of the New Deal. Yet their utopian ideals were tempered by the realities of a global power struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. By articulating their advocacy of social and economic justice from a standpoint of ‘anti-totalitarianism,’ left-liberal anticommunists unwittingly hastened the demise of a once-robust social- democratic tradition, while helping sustain the development of post-1945 American empire. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are countless souls to whom I am enduringly thankful for guidance and encouragement, particularly my patient and empathetic advisor and chair, Barbara Epstein, plus wise and gracious committee members Eric Porter and Matthew Lasar, Others at UCSC helped me navigate hurdles, intellectual and otherwise, including Gopal Balakrishnan, James Clifford, Angela Davis, Carla Freccero, Donna Haraway, Daniel Wirls; Sheila Peuse, Anne Spalliero, Marti Stanton, Melanie Wylie; and from the old American Studies department: Ann, Warren, and Raven Lane. Colleagues and friends read my work or helped in other ways, including Josh Brahinsky, Ranak Gandhi, Josh Haner, Adam Hefty, Rebecca Hodges, Allan Lumba, Todd Ormsbee, Trevor Sangrey, Don Sullivan, Rania Sweis, Brandon Wolfe-Hunnicut, Zack Whale, Jason Wozniak, Janet and Emerson Stafford. For pointing me in the right direction I am indebted to scholars Chris Chekuri, Anthony D’Agostino, Trevor Getz, Jon Judis, Michael Kazin, Tony Michels, Doug Rossinow, and fellow participants at the Heidelberg University Spring Academy in 2012; the 2013 BU American Political History Graduate Conference; and GWU–UCSB- LSE International Graduate Student Conference on the Cold War in 2013. I received invaluable assistance from NYPL’s Manuscripts and Archives Division—especially Thomas Lannon; Columbia’s Rare Book and Manuscripts Library; and NYU’s Tamiment Library. I was sustained by love from my father John, sister Aviva, partner Kira; Wonder and Ralphie. I dedicate this work to the memory of my mother, Judith Cushner, who made it, and so much more possible. All deficiencies should be without question attributed solely to me. vii ABBREVIATIONS ACCF American Committee for Cultural Freedom ADA Americans for Democratic Action AFL American Federation of Labor ACLU American Civil Liberties Union AIF Americans for Intellectual Freedom CIA Central Intelligence Agency CCNY City College of New York CCF Congress for Cultural Freedom CFR Council on Foreign Relations CIO Congress of Industrial Organizations CPUSA Communist Party of America ERP European Recovery Program MoMA Museum of Modern Art NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NCASP National Council of Arts Sciences and Professions OPC Office of Policy Coordination PCA Progressive Citizens of America SDF Social Democratic Federation SPA Socialist Party of America UDA Union for Democratic Action VoA Voice of America viii INTRODUCTION Cold War Liberalism and the American Century Whereas their nation became in the 20th Century the most powerful and the most vital nation in the world, nevertheless Americans were unable to accommodate themselves spiritually and practically to that fact. Hence they have failed to play their part as a world power. —Henry Luce, “The American Century,” February 1941 When the Marshall Plan will have brought about a strengthening of Europe… then we can perhaps hope for a stable agreement with the USSR. But to argue…that somehow an international miracle can be achieved by two men sitting around a table…is to play into the hands of both the isolationists and the Communists. —Arthur Schlesinger Jr., 1948 Everything’s perfect about the past, except how it led to the present. —“Homer J. Simpson,” 2011 Among the many uncertainties as Donald Trump took office in January 2017 was the question of his willingness to maintain what publishing magnate Henry Luce, in a widely-read 1941 Life editorial, dubbed “The American Century.” Speculation about a return to the policies of ‘isolationism’ notwithstanding, the likeliest scenario was that the United States under Trump would continue being what Luce described as “a dominant power in the world.”1 Yet the mere thought of an American president not embracing a policy of keeping the United States at the center of international affairs was unprecedented