Promulgation of Anti-Communism in the 1950s

Promulgation of Anti-Communism

In order to promote anti-communism, the anti-communists employed several strategies to spread their beliefs and recruit members to the anti-communist movement. These strategies included legislation like the Executive Order 9385 and the Smith Act as well as using propaganda to emphasize the fact that communists were threats to national security. In addition, the anti-communist party used the process of naming names, as seen with the case of Albert Hiss and in addition to blacklisting alleged communists like the Hollywood Ten and punishing them to the highest degrees, as seen in the example of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. Although these strategies helped gain support for the anti-communist campaign, the communist ‘witch-hunt’ eventually went too far, exemplified when Truman vetoed the McCarran act and Supreme Court Justice William O.   Douglas criticized the growing political conformity of the anti-communist movement.

Legislation was a large proponent of anti-communism, supported by a strongly anti-communist congress, executive and judicial branch of government. President Harry S. Truman jumped on the anti-communist band wagon with his issuing of Executive Order 9835 in March of 1947. This Executive Order functioned to create a loyalty program, requiring all employees of the federal government to take loyalty oaths in order to ensure that the federal government was not infiltrated by communists and preserving national security. However, like many of the anti-communist campaigns, this too wildly in just. For example, the Executive order required only one piece of “derogatory information,” to warrant a full scale investigation of the person accused.   In addition, employment to the person could be denied if any evidence manifested to determine that a person was involved in any activities “disloyal,” to the government of the United States. This was due to the Executive Order’s use of “sympathetic association,” with communism which...