By harnessing post-war patriotic sentiment, the fear of an increasingly powerful USSR, and the subsequent risk of the formation of a domestic communist fifth column, politicians were afforded a powerful campaign platform. Although Truman was only partially responsible for instigating the Red Scare, he did play a key role in legitimizing the threat and the domestic context he was working in is integral to understanding how he was able to justify such aggressive foreign policy towards the USSR.
Anti-communism had captured the American political imagination since the communist ideology was founded in the middle of the nineteenth century, encapsulated in the “free Russia” movement during the Russian Revolution. During the 1930s and 40s, a small communist party existed in the US. It advocated for labor and civil rights and supported the USSR. The Communist Party U.S.A. was criticized by conservatives, business leaders, and liberals alike. This fear has historically suppressed union activity, complicated civil rights legislation, and renewed a fundamentalist religious fear due to the anti-religious aspect of communism.
In 1938, the House Committee on Un-American Activities was created (HUAC.) HUAC sought to expose communists working within the government. Those who refused to cooperate with the questioning were subject to arrest or fired and blacklisted from their positions. Similar political tests were implemented in other industries. Hollywood, in particular, struggled to cope with the rapid assertions of communist influence in the industry as movie executives scrambled to establish blacklists that barred suspects from employment.
In 1944 and 1945, Soviet spies in Canada, England, and the United States were exposed. There were genuine instances of communist subversion within the government. Former state department employee Algor Hiss was convicted of perjury and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for espionage. However, the Truman administration and concurrent FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover took this communist fear to new heights. In 1947, Truman enacted Executive Order 9835, often called the “Loyalty Order,” which subjected all federal employees to analysis to ensure that they were loyal to the government. This program was severe in a nation that had always espoused personal liberty and political freedom. All government departments were required to create loyalty boards. The Federal Loyalty Review Board kept a list of its perceived subversive organizations, which included the National Negro Congress and the Walt Whitman School of Social Sciences.
Tom Clark, Truman’s attorney general, encapsulated the Truman administration’s hardliner stance on communism by saying, “Those who do not believe in the ideology of the United States shall not be allowed to stay in the United States.” Leftist groups dropped in number and the left side of the political spectrum was silent on a range of key issues, such as free speech and other civil liberties. Ironically, the American dissent from communism led to a proliferation of suppressive practices which resembled those found in communist countries. In the 1951 Supreme Court ruling, for Dennis v. United States, Eugene Dennis, the general secretary of the Communist Party U.S.A, was denied his first amendment rights to free speech, publication, and assembly because his exercise of that right involved a plot to overthrow the government.
Political fear translated to public belief. 70% of Americans believed that the Soviets sought to rule the world according to a 1950 Gallup poll. According to a 1954 opinion poll conducted by Harvard professor Samuel Stoffer, 52% of Americans favored imprisoning all communists. Television shows centered on espionage, churches attacked communists based on their “god-less” principles, and political speeches showcased an obsession with national security. Whether those who propagated the Soviet fear believed in the validity of their claims is unclear. However, it hardly mattered: once this public fear had ebbed and flowed and became an indisputable part of American patriotism, it became infinitely exploitable.
In the 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy (1908–1957) rose to fame for the “blacklists” he would create and circulate throughout the government. He held hearings in the senate where he condemned members of the State Department for their communist ties. Although there was no substantial evidence of serious communist subversion within the government, fear was enough to operate on. These accusations were considered unsubstantiated and McCarthy was eventually censured by the senate in 1954. The height of the Red Scare had ended.
Later, Truman realized that this anti-communist hysteria had gotten out of hand. In regards to the era of McCarthyism (1950–1954), he stated:
I recall the periods of mass hysteria in this country which led to witch hunts. Demagogues and unprincipled individuals have always seized upon crises to incite emotional and irrational fears. Racial, religious and class animosities are stirred up. Charges and accusations are directed at many innocent people in the name of false patriotism and hatred of things foreign.
Although individually McCarthy did much to raise communist fears with his list of secret “Reds” in the government to advance his Senate career, Truman’s establishment of a government-initiated loyalty program was the action that legitimized the Red Fear for the American public: a legacy that would not be forgotten for decades to come.
