Essay On J. Edgar Hoover's The Menace Of Communism

In his famous 1950 speech “Communists in the State Department” Joseph McCarthy asked his audience, “Can there be anyone who fails to realize… that this is the time for the show-down between the democratic Christian world and the Communist atheistic world?” McCarthy was talking about the second Red Scare, which was an era marked by a rampant fear of communism; an ideology which would later be dubbed “McCarthyism” after the senator himself. Although the fear was very real, the Communist threat the public was constantly looking over their shoulders for was not as dangerous as it seemed. In reality, speeches and legislation made by the government increased the public mania over the Red Scare due to their aggressive and inflammatory manner.
Before

the government began their anti-communist campaign, Americans were relatively unconcerned about communism in the United States. Polls from the 1940s reflect this trend, showing how many Americans believed communists deserved the same rights that all Americans had access to. For example, the Public Opinion Quarterly poll of 1946 on July fourth of that year revealed that almost 50% of those interviewed felt that members of the Communist Party should be allowed to speak freely on the radio. This poll demonstrates the lack of fear of communism because Americans were willing to allow communists to influence the masses through the radio. Similarly, on May first of the same year 27% of Americans weren’t even sure what communism was, saying there was no difference between it and socialism, and 48% felt there “might be a difference, but [they couldn’t] define it”. This poll shows the lack of concern Americans had over Communism because the majority of those interviewed willingly admitted that they were unsure of what exactly Communism was or its difference from Socialism. Had Americans been absolutely terrified of Communism, they would most likely have been more familiar with the ideologies and the full purpose of the Communist Party. However, as time went on, Americans began to feel that communists were a danger and needed to be removed. Richard M. Fried, a former history professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago and author of multiple books about the Cold War in America, writes in his book Nightmare in Red that “In 1947, 61 percent [of those interviewed] would outlaw membership in the [Communist Party].” This is a rather dramatic change in opinion from 1946 when half of those interviewed thought communists should be allowed free speech. Then, from 1948 to 1950, The Public Opinion Quarterly reports that the support for legislation requiring individuals with communist beliefs to register with the government increased from 63 to 67 percent. Although the increase is only slight, it reveals that a slowly growing majority supported laws requiring communist registration with the government, which infringed on Americans freedom of beliefs. Doubtless, the numbers reflect an increase in public desire to rid America of communists, and government actions were influential in the issue.
Inflammatory speeches made by government officials were a key factor in increasing public mania against Communism.

One such influential speech was J. Edgar Hoover’s “The Menace of the Communist Party”, in which Hoover’s insinuations that communists had infiltrated the government increased public fear of Communism. J. Edgar Hoover was the long-standing head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and thus a well-known and respected individual, whose spring 1947 speech was probably listened to intently by many. In his speech Hoover claims, “... [The Communist Party] stands for the destruction of our American government; it stands for the destruction of American democracy; it stands for the destruction of free enterprise…” Hoover’s claims that the Communist Party’s goal is to destroy America struck fear in the hearts of his audience, putting them on edge, making them wonder what could be done to protect them. Hoover also implied that there were communists in the government: “... It is well known that there are many actual members who because of their position are not carried on [Communist] party rolls.” Here, the audience again felt threatened, and defensive, because if a government official said there were members of the Communist Party in the government, that meant the United States was certainly at risk. Then, in the October following Hoover’s speech, when asked whether legislation should be passed to keep Communists out of the government, 64% of those interviewed said there should be a law keeping Communists from public office, and 36% said a law should ban suspected communist sympathizers from the government. This Public Opinion Quarterly poll shows that Hoover’s speech, and others similar to his, have inspired greater fear in the hearts of the public, making them feel there is a great need for legislation keeping communists out of the

government.
The House Un-American Activities Committee report from 1948 may also have encouraged extreme anti-Communist sentiment, because the committee’s position as the official voice on Communism made their aggressive comments seem like law. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was a government organization created to investigate groups and individuals who may have had some connection with the Communist Party or the USSR. The House Un-American Activities Committee was primarily helpful and did not often jump to conclusions in their investigations, however, their report from 1948 included multiple inflammatory phrases which may have encouraged radical anti-Communism. For example, while justifying the need for legislation regulating the Communist party the HUAC report says that their investigations determined that because of its quickly growing strength in Europe and the United States the Communist Party was an “Immediate and powerful threat to the security of the United States and to the American way of life”. By describing the threat that the Communist Party posed as “immediate” and “powerful” the HUAC created an unnecessary sense of urgency, causing the public to believe communists were on the verge of taking control of the government, when in fact communist populations in the United States were quite small and posed little threat. The report also proclaims, “An attack must be made on the communist problem on all fronts if we are to meet it successfully”. This claim pushes listeners to believe that they should try to push communists out of their communities themselves, rather than leave it to the government. This sense of responsibility and patriotism caused many Americans to slander each other and push people with more radical views to the side. One such example of this is posed in Dr. Ellen Schrecker’s book Many are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America, in which Schrecker, a professor of history at Yeshiva University and author of multiple books on Communism in America during the post-war years, tells the story of her sixth-grade teacher, a man who she says was forced to resign due to pressure from accusers in the community claiming he was a communist. In Schrecker’s own words: “[My teacher] may well have been the most typical of McCarthy era victims -- someone eased out of a job quietly, with no publicity, no fuss.” As Schrecker says, her teacher was not the only victim of an overblown anti-Communist ideology, many were silently removed from their jobs or communities out fear of a person’s political beliefs, a fear which was only fanned by government actions.