THE COLD WAR AT HOME
Not only did the Cold War shape U .S . foreign policy, it also had a pro- found effect on domestic affairs . Americans had long feared radi- cal subversion . These fears could at times be overdrawn, and used to jus- tify otherwise unacceptable politi- cal restrictions, but it also was true that individuals under Communist Party discipline and many “fellow traveler” hangers-on gave their po- litical allegiance not to the United States, but to the international Com- munist movement, or, practically speaking, to Moscow . During the Red Scare of 1919-1920, the govern- ment had attempted to remove per- ceived threats to American society . After World War II, it made strong efforts against Communism within the United States . Foreign events, espionage scandals, and politics cre- ated an anti-Communist hysteria .
When Republicans were victo- rious in the midterm congressio- nal elections of 1946 and appeared
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ready to investigate subversive activ- ity, President Truman established a Federal Employee Loyalty Program . It had little impact on the lives of most civil servants, but a few hun- dred were dismissed, some unfairly .
In 1947 the House Committee on Un-American Activities investi- gated the motion-picture industry to determine whether Communist sentiments were being reflected in popular films . When some writers (who happened to be secret mem- bers of the Communist Party) re- fused to testify, they were cited for contempt and sent to prison . After that, the film companies refused to hire anyone with a marginally ques- tionable past .
In 1948, Alger Hiss, who had been an assistant secretary of state and an adviser to Roosevelt at Yal- ta, was publicly accused of being a Communist spy by Whittaker Chambers, a former Soviet agent . Hiss denied the accusation, but in 1950 he was convicted of perjury . Subsequent evidence indicates that he was indeed guilty .
In 1949 the Soviet Union shocked Americans by testing its own atomic bomb . In 1950, the government un- covered a British-American spy net- work that transferred to the Soviet Union materials about the develop- ment of the atomic bomb . Two of its operatives, Julius Rosenberg and his wife Ethel, were sentenced to death . Attorney General J . Howard McGrath declared there were many American Communists, each bear- ing “the germ of death for society .”
The most vigorous anti-Commu- nist warrior was Senator Joseph R . McCarthy, a Republican from Wis- consin . He gained national attention in 1950 by claiming that he had a list of 205 known Communists in the State Department . Though McCar- thy subsequently changed this figure several times and failed to substan- tiate any of his charges, he struck a responsive public chord .
McCarthy gained power when the Republican Party won control of the Senate in 1952 . As a commit- tee chairman, he now had a forum for his crusade . Relying on exten- sive press and television coverage, he continued to search for treachery among second-level officials in the Eisenhower administration . Enjoy- ing the role of a tough guy doing dirty but necessary work, he pursued presumed Communists with vigor .
McCarthy overstepped himself by challenging the U .S . Army when one of his assistants was drafted . Television brought the hearings into millions of homes . Many Ameri- cans saw McCarthy’s savage tactics for the first time, and public sup- port began to wane . The Republican Party, which had found McCarthy useful in challenging a Democratic administration when Truman was president, began to see him as an embarrassment . The Senate finally condemned him for his conduct .
McCarthy in many ways repre- sented the worst domestic excesses of the Cold War . As Americans re- pudiated him, it became natural for many to assume that the Com-
CHAPTER 12: POSTWAR AMERICA
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
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munist threat at home and abroad had been grossly overblown . As the country moved into the 1960s, anti- Communism became increasingly suspect, especially among intellectu- als and opinion-shapers .