American Anti-Communism: Combating the Enemy Within, 1830-1970

250 Pages·1990·3.932 MB·English

by  M.J. Heale

AMERICAN ANTICOMMUNISM
The American Moment
Stanley I. Kurier, Editor
The Twentieth-Century American City
Jon C. Teaford
American Workers, American Unions, 1920-1985
Robert H. Zieger
A House Divided:
Sectionalism and Civil War, 1848-1885
Richard H. Sewell
Liberty under Law:
The Supreme Court in American Life
William M. Wiecek
Winning Is the Only Thing:
Sports in America since 1945
Randy Roberts and James Olson
America’s Half-Century:
United States Foreign Policy in the Cold War
Thomas J. McCormick
American Anticommunism:
Combating the Enemy Within, 1830-1970
M. J. Heale
The Culture of the Cold War
Stephen J. Whitfield
M. J. HEALE
American
Anticommunism
COMBATING
THE ENEMY WITHIN
1850-1970
THE
JOHNS HOPKINS
UNIVERSITY PRESS
BALTIMORE AND
LONDON
© 1990 The Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
The Johns Hopkins University Press
701 West 40th Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21211
The Johns Hopkins Press Ltd., London
(S)The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Heale, M. J.
American anticommunism : combating the enemy within, 1830-1970 / M. J. Heale.
p. cm. — (The American moment)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8018-4050-3 (he). — ISBN 0-8018-4051-1 (pbk)
1. Anti-communist movements—United States—History. 2. United States—Politics
and government. I. Tide. II. Title: American anti-communism, m. Series
E183.H43 1990
973—dc20 90-36391 CIP
For my wife, Lesley

CONTENTS
Editor’s Foreword ix
Preface xi
PART ONE
THE RED MENACE IN
INDUSTRIAL AMERICA 3
1. An Ambiguous Legacy (1830-1870) 5
2. The Specter Emerges (1870-1900) 21
3. The Antianarchist Offensive (1900-1918) 42
4. The Big Red Scare (1918-1920) 60
5. One Hundred Percent Americanism (1920-1929) 79
PART TWO
THE RED MENACE IN
GLOBAL AMERICA 97
6. The Red Menace Reaches Washington (1929-1938) 99
7. From Popular Front to Communist Front (1938-1948) 122
8. The Republican Offensive (1948-1952) 145
9. The Anticommunist Consensus (the 1950s) 167
10. The Ebbing of Anticommunism? 191
Bibliographical Essay 203
Index 225

Editor’s Foreword
T h e decline of communism has been the signal political event as the
twentieth century neared its close. Powerful, entrenched communist
governments fell like dominoes in Eastern Europe, and even in the
Soviet Union the Communist Party surrendered its monopoly of power.
Failure abounded. And the result significantly reduced the likelihood of
confrontation between Russians and Americans, the military paladins
of rival economic ideologies.
The Marxist vision of a classless, socialist society never appealed
much in the United States, even to racial and newly arrived ethnic
underclasses. Yet for nearly a century and a half, anticommunism has
been a divisive, painful sideshow of American politics, exploited by po­
litical and economic elites who characterized Marxism as a frightening
threat to American ideals of boundless opportunities and riches.
British historian Michael Heale offers a special vantage point to the
political history of anticommunism in the United States. His account is
cool and detached, yet the analysis and understanding are especially
insightful. He recognizes that anticommunism has been more than a
response to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and that it appears as a con­
stant thread in the American political and social fabric since the late
nineteenth century. Heale exposes the cynical rhetoric and purpose of
anticommunism, but always with a keen appreciation of its impact.
Communism no longer threatens the United States; sadly, however,
anticommunist rhetoric persists in our political language, as witnessed
by periodic controversies over flag desecration, fluoridated water, and
school prayers, among others. It remains to be seen whether the new
post-communist age will purge such an anachronism from our symbolic
politics.
Stanley /. Kutler
THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
MADISON, WISCONSIN