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Anticommunism was a pervasive force in America during the cold war years, influencing domestic politics, the conduct of foreign policy, the nuclear arms race, and a myriad of social and economic circumstances. In this succinct survey, John E. Haynes traces the origins of American attitudes toward communism in the 1920s and 1930s, the rise of a full-blown cause in the years following World War II, and the relative decline of anticommunism as a political issue in the sixties and seventies. As one of a handful of American scholars allowed to review documents in newly opened archives once held by the Soviet Union, Mr. Haynes uses fresh evidence throughout in shedding new light on the U.S. confrontation with communism at home. After describing the buildup of the American Communist party in the twenties and thirties, he focuses on the heyday of popular anticommunism from 1945 to 1960. Along the way he touches on the chief episodes, personalities, and institutions of cold war anticommunism, showing how earlier campaigns against domestic fascists and right-wingers provided most all of anticommunism's tactics and weapons. And he dissects the various anti-Communist constituencies, analyzing their origins, motives, and activities. From the Soviet archives, Mr. Haynes draws on new and indisputable evidence that the Soviet Union heavily subsidized the American Communist party from its earliest days; maintained an underground organization in Washington in the 1930s that reported to American party leaders and in turn to Moscow on U.S. government activities; and placed American party members in the wartime Office of Strategic Services and Office of War Information, the government's chief intelligenceand propaganda agencies. He also confirms much of Elizabeth Bentley's 1940s accusations of Communist infiltration in government.
Sommario
Part 1 Preface vii Part 2 COMMUNISM AND ANTICOMMUNISM 3 Chapter 3 The Soviet experience. Origins of American communism. Red Scare. Heyday of the movement. Part 4 FASCISM AND WORLD WAR II 17 Chapter 5 Threat of fascism and fifth columns. Antifascist response in the United States. Roosevelt's foreign policy. The Nazi-Soviet pact. Part 6 THE ROAD TO THE COLD WAR 37 Chapter 7 Disillusion of the peace. Wartime promises-the case of Poland and domestic repercussions. Communist espionage: Amerasia, Gouzenko, the Rosenbergs. Part 8 THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES 64 Chapter 9 Early focus on fascism. Dies Committee. Postwar Hollywood hearings. Bentley revelations. Chambers and Hiss. Part 10 VARIETIES OF ANTICOMMUNISM 89 Chapter 11 Evangelical Christians. Catholics and ACTU. The Socialist attack. Trotskyism. Lovestone and labor. Part 12 THE STRUGGLE FOR THE SOUL OF AMERICAN LIBERALISM 113 Chapter 13 Popular Front liberals. Niebuhr and Americans for Democratic Action. State politics. Murray and CIO drive against Communists. Part 14 PARTISANSHIP AND ANTICOMMUNISM 137 Chapter 15 Party politics in the anti-Communist era. Rise and fall of McCarthy. Part 16 ANTICOMMUNISM AT HIGH TIDE 163 Chapter 17 Federal offensive against American Communists. Personnel security programs. FBI activites. The literature of exposure. The uses of anticommunism. Part 18 THE END OF THE ANTI-COMMUNIST ERA 190 Chapter 19 Death of Stalin. Decline of the CPUSA. Influence of the Vietnam War. Part 20 Selected Readings 201 Part 21 Index 205
Info autore
By John Earl Haynes
Riassunto
A reappraisal of American communism and anticommunism in the cold war era, focusing on episodes, personalities, and institutions, and based upon fresh evidence that overturns a great deal of received wisdom.
