THE COLD WAR AT HOME

During 1949 and 1950 many Americans felt a sense that the tides of the Cold War were somehow shifting over in favor of the Soviet Union. Many felt that the Soviet Union could never do this alone, and that they had to have large number of spies within the United States helping them. Thus, under President Truman and later under President Eisenhower, there was a tremendous effort made to rid the United States of a perceived internal “communist menace.” As stated in Chapter 19, on the Depression, many idealists had dabbled in communism in the 1930s; this “dabbling” would now come back to haunt them.

The Truman administration began by jailing the leaders of the American Communist party under the provisions of the 1940 Smith Act. This document stated that it was illegal to advocate the overthrow by force of the American government. When some Republicans claimed that the Truman administration was “soft on communism,” Truman ordered the creation of a Loyalty Review Board, which eventually had the legal jurisdiction to investigate both new and experienced federal workers. Three or four million federal workers were examined by the board; as a result of these investigations, slightly over 100 workers were removed from their jobs. Investigations revealed that some of those investigated were homosexuals, who were oftentimes hounded out of office as well.

While the Truman administration was investigating the executive branch of government, the Congress decided to investigate communists in the government and in the entertainment industry. The congressional committee overseeing these investigations was HUAC (the House Un-American Activities Committee). In 1947 HUAC began to investigate the movie industry in earnest. Committee investigators relentlessly pursued actors, directors, and writers who had attended Communist party meetings in the past. Directors of movies made during World War II that cast the Soviet Union in a favorable light (such as Mission to Moscow and North Star) were brought in for questioning. Dozens of writers, actors, and directors were called in to testify about their political orientation. The Hollywood Ten was an influential group of writers and directors who refused to answer questions posed to them by members of HUAC in an open congressional session. Members of the Hollywood Ten were all sentenced to jail time.

The effects on Hollywood were major. Some Hollywood movies of the late 1940s dealt directly with the problems of society (such as The Best Years of their Lives). As a result of pressure from HUAC, Hollywood movies became much more tame. In addition, a blacklist was made of actors, directors, and writers who were potentially communist and whom the major studios should not hire. Many Hollywood careers were ruined by the blacklist; some writers wrote under false names or had “fronts” turn in their screenplays for them. Some of those blacklisted were unable to get work until the early 1960s.

On the senate side, Senator Pat McCarran sponsored several bills to “stop the spread of communism” in the United States. The McCarran Internal Security Act was enacted in 1950; under this bill all communist or communist-front organizations had to register with the government, and members of these organizations could not work in any job related to the national defense. The McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 greatly limited immigration from Asia and Eastern Europe; this would hopefully limit the “influx of communism” into the United States. President Truman vetoed both of these bills, but Congress passed both of them over the president’s veto.

Were There Spies in America?

The trials of Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs indicated to many Americans that there just might be communist spies infiltrating America, In 1948 HUAC began an investigation of Hiss, a former official in the State Department and an advisor to Franklin Roosevelt at the Yalta Conference, An editor of Time magazine, Whitaker Chambers had previously been a communist and testified to HUAC that Hiss had been a communist too. After several trials Hiss was finally convicted for perjury and spent four years in jail. To this day, the guilt or innocence of Alger Hiss is still debated.

In 1950 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were charged with passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. The government had much more evidence on Julius than on his wife, but they were both found guilty of espionage in 1952 and executed. Considerable debate has also taken place on the guilt of the Rosenbergs, although materials released from the Soviet archives after the fall of communism strongly implicated Ethel.