The Red Scare saw Americans persecute each other based on little more than suspected ties to Communism. This mass fear swept the country for a decade, ending careers and upending lives all along the way. While today we can look back and see the Red Scare for what it was—a mass movement of suppression inspired by the fear of Communism—Fried gives us the documents and insights to further understand how the Red Scare ever came to dominate the American landscape in the 1940s and 1950s in the first place. Being able to empathize with the consciousness of past generations is important, as it can allow us to further understand our own current time of political and social fear.
In the 1930s, Americans embraced Communism “out of solidarity with the Soviet Union in its lonely resistance to Fascist expansion, Hitler’s in particular.” This makes sense, because while Communism was bad, Fascism was worse. This sentiment remained until the end of the Second World War. It was only after an Allied victory that the citizens of the world were able to stop and collectively take a breath. Unfortunately, this lead to the realization of a new enemy to the United States: the Soviet Union. The Cold War was an ideological battle between Democracy on one side and Communism on the other. The United States was on the side of Democracy, and the Soviet Union (and China, under the leadership of Mao Zedong) was for Communism. While the Cold War would play out over the course of four decades, from the 1950s-1990s, the initial spark was the Red Scare, which blossomed immediately after the close of the war.
There were many reasons why and how the Red Scare came to dominate America’s attention. First was the passage of the Smith Act, which criminalized advocating for the overthrow of the U.S. government by force or violence. This was the first step towards legal prosecution of Communists. The Red Scare was also aided by the 1946 elections, which gave Republicans control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1928.
Then, the movement made a massive step forward on March 22, 1947, when President Truman issued Executive Order 9835, which established ‘loyalty review boards.’ The government became committed to identifying and prosecuting any and all Communists in American society, and the way to do that was the creation of these boards. Over the course of a decade, nearly every public service employee would be dragged before these committees to have their personal lives combed through for ‘subversive’ material and put on public display. “The premise behind the order was that government workers possessed no right to their jobs, that if found disloyal—a term left to review boards alone to define on the basis of a list of organizations the attorney general had arbitrarily drawn up—they could be fired forthwith.” The Truman executive order sought to reassure Americans, but its effect was the opposite: It heightened anxieties and thus invited promises of greater security, which in turn, further heightened the anxiety.
On the one hand, the convictions of people like Julius and Ethel Rosenberg proved the McCarthyists right: There really were Soviet spies living in our country, operating within our government, and sending important information to our enemies. On the other hand, a large majority of the men and women interrogated by the House Un-American Activities Committee were innocent. A tremendous number of people lost their jobs in Hollywood, academia, and government, simply because they could not prove their innocence. Even invoking the Fifth Amendment, and abstaining from answering questions under oath, was viewed as an admission of guilt. This was all backwards; Our judicial system is built on the premise that those suspected of wrongdoing are innocent until proven guilty. The Red Scare turned this system on its head, with the House Un-American Activities Committee viewing its own citizens as guilty until proven innocent. Fear abounded. The trouble was that Communists were universally acknowledged to be devilishly clever at hiding their identities. “They could be anyone, indistinguishable from the neighbor next door. It was therefore necessary to seek information about suspects from any source, however dubious, and lay the burden of proof on them: they had to establish their innocence.” Even the American Civil Liberties Union purged itself of members suspected of ties to Communism (as did the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). Lives and careers were ruined, all because of fear.
In his dissent to the Smith Act, Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black prophetically wrote the following: “So long as this Court exercises the power of the judicial review of legislation, I cannot agree that the First Amendment permits us to sustain laws suppressing freedom of speech and press on the basis of Congress’ or our own notions of mere ‘reasonableness.’ Such a doctrine waters down the First Amendment so that it amounts to little more than an admonition to Congress. The Amendment as so construed is not likely to protect any but those ‘safe’ or orthodox views which rarely need its protection. Public opinion being what it now is, few will protest the conviction of these Communist petitioners. There is hope, however, that in calmer times, when present pressures, passions, and fears subside, this or some later Court will restore the First Amendment liberties to the high preferred place where they belong in a free society.” He was eventually vindicated by a future Court, one that was able to see the Red Scare for the mass mobilization of fear that it was. We must likewise learn these lessons and be vigilant in our own day in age: fear is never the answer, it is only a momentary reaction to a scary stimulus. Don’t let it guide your choices for how to act.