Mccarthyism Encyclopedia of Popular Culture
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MCCARTHYISM ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR CULTURE McGinley, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Herman Wouk, and others. that even when speech is protected to the extent that it is in the United Circulation and advertising revenues quickly improved, and McCall’s States, it is still vulnerable to attacks from those who wish to limit the solidified its position as one of the trade-designated ‘‘Seven Sisters’’ right of others to disagree with them. of women’s-service magazines. In 1966, McCall’s hired 23 year-old During the early days of industrialization in the United States, Lynda Bird Johnson, the President’s oldest daughter, as a contributor the country played host to a large, active Socialist party. American in an effort to appeal to young, college-age readers. workers began to join labor unions and engage in strikes. The surge of Several years later, the corporation that owned McCall’s was immigrants who brought with them a tradition of radicalism influ- absorbed by Norton Simon, and the publication later became part of enced native workers who felt exploited by low wages and long the women’s-magazine group at the New York Times Company. working hours to protest against the factory owners. By the 1930s, the Robert Stein, who served as editor during the late 1960s, put heavy American Communist party was in full swing. Socialist leader emphasis on research organizations to supplement the editorial staff Eugene Debs called it ‘‘the red decade,’’ and author Daniel Aaron with in-depth information. In 1994, the Times women’s group, which dubbed it ‘‘a time of smelly orthodoxies.’’ The 1930s began with also included Family Circle, Child, and other publications, was sold worldwide depression and ended with storm clouds of war around the to Gruner & Jahr USA Publishing, a part of the German media giant world. In the throes of economic famine, the country was vulnerable Bertelsmann AG. Soon afterwards, Kate White, who had been to differing visions and ideologies created by upheaval and despair. McCall’s editor-in-chief since 1991, left to become editor of Redbook American intellectuals—introspective, disillusioned, and articulate— and was replaced by Sally Koslow. By the mid-1990s, McCall’s was became the voice of a people whose world had ceased to be the reporting a monthly circulation of around 4.6 million. Among the expected bulwark against want, instability, and insecurity. American online services being offered by the publication at the end of the Communists believed that Soviet communism could provide a model 1990s was ‘‘Parents.com,’’ a joint website resource that drew on the for economic stability and social justice. The heyday of the American editorial expertise of McCall’s and three other national publications: Communist party began with a party that was 70 percent foreign-born Child, Family Circle, and Parents. and ended with a party that was 44 percent professional and white collar natives. —Edward Moran A large number of Americans joined the Communist party for social as well as ideological reasons. Clubs, such as the John Reed FURTHER READING: Clubs, provided a home for fledgling writers and artists and those who ‘‘McCall’s.’’ http://www.mccalls.com. May 1999. needed to belong to something in which they could believe. Speeches by Communist party officials frequently centered around the defeat of ‘‘Parents.com.’’ http://www.parents.com. May 1999. fascism and had mass appeal to the disillusioned portion of the Reed, David. The Popular Magazine in Britain and the United States. American population. Richard Crossman writes in The God That London, The British Library, 1997. Failed that such individuals ‘‘had lost faith in democracy and were Tebbel, John. The American Magazine: A Compact History. New willing to sacrifice bourgeois liberties in order to defeat fascism. York, Hawthorn Books, 1969. Their conversion, in fact, was rooted in despair—a despair of Western values.’’ Tebbel, John, and Mary Ellen Zuckerman. The Magazine in America: However, as the 1930s progressed, many Americans began to 1741-1990. New York, Oxford University Press, 1991. reexamine their attraction to communism. A number of events Wood, James Playsted. Magazines in the United States. New York, influenced the decline in communism’s popularity, including the The Ronald Press Co., 1978. Joseph Stalin’s purges within the Soviet Union and the Non-Aggres- sion Pact he signed with Adolph Hitler in 1939. Alfred Kazin spoke for American Communists as a whole when he cried: ‘‘It was wrong to make common cause with Hitler, wrong to expose the world to McCarthyism war.’’ Following World War II, the fear of communism became an entrenched element in American society as the Soviet-Ameri- Despite the fact that Americans pride themselves on constitu- can alliance slowly deteriorated. In 1947 President Harry Truman tional protections for free speech, there have been many attempts to signed an executive order that barred communists, fascists, and other limit speech in the United States. Beginning in 1789 with the First totalitarians from the national payroll. Also included in the ban Sedition Act, Congress has passed laws banning diverse kinds of were individuals who were guilty of ‘‘sympathetic association’’ speech: criticism of the government, speaking out against war, with undesirables or their organizations. The stage was set for associating with the Communist party, obscenity, slander, libel, Joseph McCarthy. ‘‘fighting words,’’ and seditious speech that attempts to overthrow Joseph McCarthy (1908-1957) was born near Appleton, Wis- the government. None of these limits have been so controversial or so consin. He received a law degree in 1935 but was not a success as a damaging as the attempt by Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s to lawyer. McCarthy handled only four cases in his nine months of purge the United States of anyone remotely connected with the practice, bragging that he supported himself by playing poker. While Communist party. His unsubstantiated charges led to wrecked lives practicing law, McCarthy was accused of destroying judicial records. and careers in all walks of life. The inherent irony of McCarthyism— He won his first election by claiming that his 66-year-old opponent the name given to the attempts to seek out and criminalize those was ‘‘73’’ or ‘‘89’’ and was too old to govern. He joined the Marines suspected of sympathizing with communism—was that by the time of during World War II but left early to launch an unsuccessful bid for his ‘‘Red Scare,’’ American Communism was all but dead. The the Senate. He would later falsely claim that he had been wounded lesson to be learned from his hysteria and the ensuing witch hunt is in action. 314 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR CULTURE MCCARTHYISM Senator Joseph McCarthy After winning an election to the Senate, McCarthy paid little running for political office. Constitutional scholars acknowledge that attention to the early days of the so-called Red Scare. But as the Cold both laws were clearly in violation of the First Amendment’s protec- War escalated, Americans felt more vulnerable to the threat of tion of freedom of association. Limiting access to the ballot is always communism. China fell to the communists, the Soviet Union explod- a distinctive threat to democracy. Nonetheless, in Barenblatt v. ed its first atomic bomb, and Alger Hiss and Julius and Ethel United States in 1959, the Supreme Court insisted that its repeated Rosenberg were accused of spying for the enemy. After being refusal to view the Communist Party as an ordinary political party left identified as the worst United States senator in a 1949 poll, McCarthy it without First Amendment protections. Mandated loyalty oaths for mentioned to supporters that he needed a cause to improve his image. government employees, including teachers, also violated protected He found it with the threat of communism and erroneously stated that freedom of association. Following the example of Congress, many 284 communists were employed by the State Department. Despite the states passed their own loyalty oaths. In New York state, as many as fact that none of these individuals remained at the State Department, 58 teachers and 200 college professors lost their jobs. Approximately McCarthy declared on the floor of Congress that he had ‘‘proof’’ of 20 percent of those eventually called to testify before state and widespread communist activity in the government of the United States. congressional investigating committees were college teachers and Throughout the Red Scare, McCarthy never documented a graduate students. single communist in a government job. However, he amassed enor- By 1954, a blacklist was in place in both the fields of education mous power with his false claims. He insisted that the past twenty and entertainment. Few who lost their jobs in either field were ever years of Democratic government had been ‘‘a conspiracy so im- reinstated. The political witch hunt promoted by Joseph McCarthy in mense, an infamy so black as to dwarf any in the history of man.’’ In the 1950s caused great harm and suffering. Beloved entertainers, such 1950, Congress passed the McCarran Internal Security Act, virtually as Charlie Chaplin, were forced out of the United States because of outlawing communism in the United States. This was followed in the hysteria. Producers, actors, and writers, were blacklisted. Without 1954 with the Communist Control Act, forbidding communists from jobs, many were unable to support their families. Most of the people 315 MCCARTNEY ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR CULTURE who McCarthy injured were just people who dared to question the Schrecker, Ellen. The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with capitalist status quo. Many scholars believe that McCarthy, motivated Documents. Boston, Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press, 1994. by a desire for personal recognition, was trying to overthrow the New ———. Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America.