Red Scare or Red Menace?: American Communism and Anticommunism in the Cold War Era

American Ways Series

by John Earl Haynes

As one of a handful of American scholars allowed to review documents in newly opened Soviet archives, John Haynes has used fresh evidence to shed new light on the United States' confrontation with communism at home. In a succinct survey, Haynes traces the buildup of the American Communist party (CPUSA) in the twenties and thirties, focuses on the heyday of popular anticommunism from 1945 to 1960, and follows the relative decline of anticommunism as a political issue in the sixties and seventies. Along the way he describes the chief episodes, figures, and institutions of cold war anticommunism, showing how earlier campaigns against domestic fascists and right-wingers provided most all of anti-communism's tactics and weapons. And he dissects the various anticommunist constituencies, analyzing their origins, motives, and activities. Haynes draws on new and incontestable evidence that the Soviet Union heavily subsidized the CPUSA from its earliest days; maintained an underground organization in Washington in the 1930s that reported to the CPUSA and in turn to Moscow on U.S. government activities; and placed CPUSA members in the wartime OSS and OWI, the government's major intelligence and propaganda agencies. He also confirms much of Elizabeth Bentley's 1940s accusations of Communist infiltrations. American Ways Series.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1995

About the author

John Earl Haynes was Modern Political Historian, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, for twenty-five years.

Reviews

[Owen Krewson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. It gives a clear and concise picture of the actual threat American Communism posed and the response to it. When we learned about the Red Scare in school most of it was focused on McCarthyism and its ridiculous overreach. Which I agree with but it failed to inform what caused it. I think if you polled a random group of Americans I don’t think any would believe you that the CPUSA actually took direct orders and instruction from Moscow. But they did! I got the picture from my schooling that McCarthyism and the Red Scare were dramatic ages of extreme paranoia based on unfounded accusations. Neither were true.
I thoroughly enjoyed the section dedicated to Richard Nixon and the Alger Hiss case. I wish education would also mention this alongside lectures about McCarthyism because it’s the complete opposite. I find this to be a problem still on the right, where loud drunken idiots tend to overpower the well spoken and extremely high IQ individuals like Nixon. But that’s a topic for another day.
Overall, this is a great book about how things were at home during the Cold War. Soviet infiltration of government and espionage were serious and confirmed by the opening of the Soviet archives. I find this to be an essential reading for any anticommunist or anyone interested in Cold War home front politics. There was a strange balance in America’s relationship with communism. There was a serious threat posed due to the CPUSA taking direct orders from Moscow, but the government’s response and how history played out severely crippled their ability to gain serious power. My favorite quote to summarize this is from renowned poaster Lafayette Lee: “Communism and fascism destroyed the Old World, but they did not win here. America has always been something separate, and all the horrors of the Old World are not yours to take on, past or present.”

[Ryan Henderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Haynes has written a highly informative book on Communism in the US during the 1940s and '50s. The only thing that I didn't like was that the writing was at times dry. A very interesting book that sheds light on a crucial time in American history.