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I'm No Communist

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I'm No Communist McCarthyism In this succinct text, Jonathan Michaels examines the rise of anti-communist sentiment in the postwar United States, exploring the factors that facilitated McCarthyism and assessing the long-term effects on US politics and culture. McCarthyism: The Realities, Delusions and Politics Behind the 1950s Red Scare offers an analysis of the ways in which fear of communism manifested in daily American life, giving readers a rich understanding of this era of postwar American history. Including primary documents and a companion website, Michaels’ text presents a fully integrated picture of McCarthyism and the cultural climate of the United States in the aftermath of the Second World War. Jonathan Michaels received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Connecticut at Storrs. He currently teaches history at the University of Connecticut, Greater Hartford Campus. Critical Moments in American History Edited by William Thomas Allison, Georgia Southern University The Louisiana Purchase The Battle of Fort Sumter A Global Context The First Shots of the American Robert D. Bush Civil War Wesley Moody The Fort Pillow Massacre North, South, and the Status of The WPA African Americans in the Civil Creating Jobs and Hope in the Great War Era Depression Bruce Tap Sandra Opdycke From Selma to Montgomery The California Gold Rush The Long March to Freedom The Stampede that Changed the Barbara Combs World Mark Eifler The Homestead Strike Labor, Violence, and American Bleeding Kansas Industry Slavery, Sectionalism, and Civil War Paul E. Kahan on the Missouri-Kansas Border Michael E. Woods The Flu Epidemic of 1918 America’s Experience in the Global The Marshall Plan Health Crisis A New Deal for Europe Sandra Opdycke Michael Holm The Emergence of Rock and The Espionage and Sedition Roll Acts Music and the Rise of American World War I and the Image of Civil Youth Culture Liberties Mitchell K. Hall Mitchell C. Newton-Matza Transforming Civil War Prisons McCarthyism Lincoln, Lieber, and the Politics of The Realities, Delusions and Politics Captivity Behind the 1950s Red Scare Paul J. Springer and Glenn Robins Jonathan Michaels McCarthyism The Realities, Delusions and Politics Behind the 1950s Red Scare Jonathan Michaels First published 2017 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2017 Taylor & Francis The right of Jonathan Michaels to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Names: Michaels, Jonathan, 1951– Title: McCarthyism : the realities, delusions and politics behind the 1950s red scare / by Jonathan Michaels. Description: New York : Routledge, 2017. | Series: Critical moments in American history | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016040754 (print) | LCCN 2016044952 (ebook) | ISBN 9780415841023 (alk. paper) | ISBN 9780203766712 Subjects: LCSH: Anti-communist movements—United States—History— 20th century. | Internal security—United States—History—20th century. | McCarthy, Joseph, 1908–1957. | Subversive activities—United States— History—20th century. Classification: LCC E743.5 .M53 2017 (print) | LCC E743.5 (ebook) | DDC 324.1/3—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016040754 ISBN: 978-0-415-84102-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-415-84103-0 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-203-76671-2 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo and Helvetica Neue by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon, UK Visit the series page: http://routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/_author/criticalmoments/ To Sylvia, Walter and Bob—whatever there is of good in this book owes so much to each of you. Contents Series Introduction viii List of Figures ix Acknowledgments x Introduction 1 1 The Origins of Red Scare Anti-Communism 18 2 The Big Red Scare 38 3 The New Deal 70 4 The Red Scare Begins 105 5 The Red Scare at Full Tide 141 6 Culture Wars 183 Epilogue: Consequences 231 Documents 243 Bibliography 280 Index 301 Series Introduction Welcome to the Routledge Critical Moments in American History series. The purpose of this new series is to give students a window into the historian’s craft through concise, readable books by leading scholars, who bring together the best scholarship and engaging primary sources to explore a critical moment in the American past. In discovering the principal points of the story in these books, gaining a sense of historiography, following a fresh trail of primary documents, and exploring suggested readings, students can then set out on their own journey, to debate the ideas presented, interpret primary sources, and reach their own conclusions – just like the historian. A critical moment in history can be a range of things – a pivotal year, the pinnacle of a movement or trend, or an important event such as the passage of a piece of legislation, an election, a court decision, a battle. It can be social, cultural, political, or economic. It can be heroic or tragic. Whatever they are, such moments are by definition “game changers,” momentous changes in the pattern of the American fabric, paradigm shifts in the American experience. Many of the critical moments explored in this series are familiar; some less so. There is no ultimate list of critical moments in American history – any group of students, historians, or other scholars may come up with a different catalog of topics. These differences of view, however, are what make history itself and the study of history so important and so fascinating. Therein can be found the utility of historical inquiry – to explore, to challenge, to understand, and to realize the legacy of the past through its influence of the present. It is the hope of this series to help students realize this intrinsic value of our past and of studying our past. William Thomas Allison Georgia Southern University Figures 4.1 Senator Joseph McCarthy standing at microphone with two other men, probably discussing the Senate Select Committee to Study Censure Charges (Watkins Committee) chaired by Senator Arthur V. Watkins. Courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ds-07186. 127 5.1 Nevada Senator. Washington, DC, April 24. An informal picture of Senator Pat McCarran, Democrat of Nevada. Courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-117816. 143 5.2 Roy M. Cohn, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing right. Courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-hec-26549. 171 Acknowledgments The acknowledgments required here are few but important: first, thanks are due to my friend and one-time academic advisor, Professor Robert Asher for his patient reading and re-reading of chapters, always followed by critical corrections and insights. Next, I owe a debt of gratitude to my brother, Walter Benn Michaels, who made important suggestions for general readability and logic and who saved me from many, many mistakes. I want to thank Kimberly Guinta—now at Rutgers University Press— who first took me on for this project and also I want to thank Eve Mayer and Ted Meyer of Routledge who helped see it through to completion. Thanks also to Sue Cope for her patient and meticulous copyediting. Then appreciation is due to the Herb Block Foundation which generously made important political cartoons available to us. And finally my heartfelt thanks go to my wife Sylvia who supported me and loved me through the travails of writing a book that, when I began I thought would be quick and easy, but which ended up being not so much so. Introduction t was unusually chilly—snow was still on the street—that first morning Iof May in 1950 when, around 6 am, five armed men burst into the bedroom of Ralph E. Kronenwetter, mayor of the small town of Mosinee (pop. 1,453), Wisconsin. Shouting “You’re an enemy of the people!” they dragged him from his house into the street. Mosinee was now part of the United Soviet States of America, they told him, and the Council of People’s Commissars had taken charge of the town. Not far away the Chief of Police, Carl Gewiss, was subjected to the same rough treatment as was the editor of the local newspaper, the Mosinee Times. A pistol at his back, the mayor surrendered peacefully, but the Chief resisted and was killed. A photograph exists of him, before his death, being interrogated by two members of the new Soviet Police, one armed with a knife, the other with a club. The new town bosses had set up checkpoints at the bridges leading into Mosinee’s downtown where a platform had been set up festooned with a sign that proclaimed “The State must be Supreme over the Individual!” Stepping onto the platform a local man, Joseph Kornfeder, proclaimed to the townspeople—assembled at gunpoint—that the town’s industries were now nationalized, that all political parties save the Com- munist Party were now illegal and that all civic and church organizations were abolished. Private property was now to be “the property of the state by order of the People’s Council of Commissars.” There were those who resisted; they and all of Mosinee’s businessmen were taken to concentration camps that had been enclosed in barbed wire, set up to house “enemies of the people” until their fates were decided.
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