Introduction
During the 20th century, the United States experienced periods of hardship and success, both economic and political, including several wars. Numerous factors, including these periods of hardship and triumph, influenced the political landscape at home and in foreign policy. With the Cold War outbreak, many American politicians’ rhetoric became more radical; they believed they were saving democracy from the threat of world communism. For most of the twentieth century, international relations were influenced by anti-communism. American society was presented with a picture of a world divided into different camps–freedom and tyranny. Domestically it was divided by the Democrats, who largely aimed for federal control and support for the people, and in contrast, the generally republican approach of ‘rugged individualism. Anti-Communist consciousness was aware of an image of the USSR and China as countries determined to gain more power. At times conservatives in the U.S. government, especially Republicans, used fear of communism abroad to suppress and discredit popular movements such as trade unions, civil rights activists, those protesting against the Korean and Vietnam wars, and liberal counterculture movements at home. Anti-Communist movements have greatly influenced the political landscapes of the U.S.
Discussion
Since October 1917, when the Bolshevik revolution took place, anti-communism has been part of the political landscape, in which conservative forces fought against the left, both communist and non-communist. After 1945, especially at the beginning of the Cold War, anti-communism was spread by every possible means and source–newspapers, radio, television, films, articles, pamphlets, books, speeches, sermons, and official documents – in a campaign of propaganda and indoctrination (Rees, 2015). “Communism” received much criticism and condemnation, and fear.
The strength and forms of this propaganda varied according to place and time. After 1917, anti-communism occupied a prominent, or even central, location in the political life of the USA, whether Democrat or Republican Presidents were in power. Historians distinguish two main peaks of the so-called Red Scare in the United States. The first was in 1917-1920 and was associated with the fear of revolution in the United States. Political scientist Murray Burton Levin described the mood of American society at that time as “nationwide hysteria.” The panic mood was supported by conservative politicians and reporters following a series of bombs and strikes. Communism, socialism, and social democracy were intertwined in articles and speeches from Washington; this was spread by the media of the time. Many ordinary Americans saw socially responsible politics, which was trying to end poverty and increase equality, as having links to communism, and were, therefore, less supportive of it. They made it possible to brand any human rights activist or trade unionist as a “communist.” Thousands of social and political activists were arrested, but only 556 “unreliable” immigrants were deported. In several states, laws were adopted, formally aimed against “revolutionary propaganda,” but limited freedom of speech. In the early 1920s, the first wave of “red panic” subsided. In 1933, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, to support the American Economy, which had suffered from the Great Depression, agreed to establish diplomatic relations with Moscow and strengthen trade relations with the Soviet Union.
In the second wave, despite some warming of relations between the USSR and the U.S. in the 1930s, back in 1934, the U.S. House of Representatives created the so-called Commission to Investigate Anti-American Activities. Together with law enforcement agencies, it monitored politicians, scientists, and artists suspected of sympathizing with the Soviet Union and communism. While before the end of World War II and the Nuremberg Trials, the Commission of Inquiry into Anti-American Activities had to camouflage its anti-Soviet orientation somehow, soon after Winston Churchill’s Fulton speech and the beginning of the Cold War, the masks could be dropped. The Commission initiated massive investigations against dissenters, and President Harry Truman launched the Federal Employee Loyalty Verification Program, which investigated the adherence of government employees to the political course of official Washington.
The economy is another huge area of American politics. The New Deal of the 1930s, whose reforms helped stabilize the U.S. economy and its later versions, was the subject of much political debate, demanding national action and more federal control. The standard of living of most Americans had risen, their purchasing power had increased, and thus manufacturers could sell more goods. Reforms, however, met fierce resistance. Roosevelt failed to pass some laws because the Supreme Court ruled them unconstitutional. The next alternative factor that affected the country’s economy was individualism. It implied the separation of the citizen from the state, which means the refusal of aid. This movement implied the freedom of the individual citizen; each person is an individual with his views and beliefs. Rugged individualism affects modern America as well. Most Americans prefer to solve problems in society on their own, without government interference.
In the 40s and 50s of the 20th century, a movement called McCarthyism emerged. McCarthyism was a movement accompanied by a rise in anti-communist sentiment and political “repression” against “anti-Americanism. McCarthy reached the peak of his career by giving a fiery speech at a paid luncheon at the Republican Party Foundation. The first sprouts of McCarthyism appeared long before Senator McCarthy’s campaign: already in 1917-1920, the United States was gripped by the first “red hysteria,” and an irrational fear of the spread of communism was firmly entrenched in the minds of the American public. Most conservative American politicians, however, perceived any economic changes under Democrat Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal as socialist and even communist and used the thesis of “infiltration by communists and other subversive elements” beginning in the 1930s. As tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union rose after World War II and the outbreak of the Cold War, 1953-1954 was a period of rampant McCarthyism, aided in no small part by the passivity and connivance of the Republican government and President Hoover himself. As the McCarthyist campaign intensified, many Americans hoped that with a Republican president in the White House, the persecution would end, but it did not. McCarthyism cast a shadow over American democracy and complicated U.S. relations with allies. Liberals under Kennedy held values that, under McCarthy, could be described as communist.
After World War II, the Allies formed an international coalition led largely by the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union. After the war, however, this alliance quickly split into two opposing camps. The Communist, led by the Soviet Union, and the democratic capitalist, led by the United States. The rivalry between these two sides became known as the Cold War. During this period, the U.S. government played a leading role in supporting global anti-communism as part of a policy of containment. There were numerous military conflicts between communists and anti-communists in different parts of the world. Among those where anti-communist forces received U.S. support was the Korean War of 1950-53, the Vietnam War of 1954-75, the Soviet-Afghan War, and Operation Condor; these wars cost American lives, diverted attention and funding from efforts to address poverty in the United States, and affected the popularity of presidents. President Truman, for example, lost public confidence after he supported the Korean War, and the subsequent distraction from domestic politics led to the election of Republicans in 1951. Kennedy stated, “I can’t give the Communists such a piece of territory and then get people to re-elect me” (Kotlowski & Johns, 2011, p. 358). The disastrous Vietnam War affected the tenure of four presidents.
Conclusion
Thus, the anti-communist movements of 1917-1980 undoubtedly affected the political landscapes of the United States. Political persecution of people suspected of sympathizing with Communist ideas peaked in the U.S. in the early 1950s, but the ground for persecution had been prepared for decades. Even after the official condemnation of McCarthyism, the pressure on dissenters did not disappear but took other forms.
Just as the New Deal changed expectations for federal participation in Social Security, the Cold War and anti-communism led to expectations that the United States should participate in world affairs as the only country capable of maintaining a balance of power with the USSR. It was a struggle between the United States and the Third World. It is worth noting that anti-communist movements have been identified as the main targets of American policy. The real problems of domestic politics were relegated to the background. Poverty and inequality flourished in those years. Racism was still present, though not as prevalent as in the 19th century. This factor was most significant because if attention had been paid to the country’s most important problems, its development would undoubtedly have accelerated.
References
Rees, R., Shuter, J., Beinart, W., Edward, T., & Rick, R. (2015). Paper 1 & 2 – searching for rights and freedoms in the 20th Century. Pearson Education.
Kotlowski, D. J., & Johns, A. L. (2011). Vietnam’s Second Front: Domestic Politics, the Republican Party, and the War. The Review of Politics, 73(2), 358.