- This topic has 2 voices and 4 replies.
-
Posts
-
Anybody interested in discussing or debating the Red Scare of the late 1940's and early 1950's? For those who may not be familiar with it, this topic includes the infamous House Un-American Activity Committee hearings about the “infiltration” of Hollywood by supposed Communists and the always popular “fellow travelers”, and the governments loyalty program for federal employees designed to weed out anybody who had ever even thought about considering maybe the possibility of investigating or thinking about the fact that may capitalism wasn't God's gift to mankind. Then there was the superstar of the whole thing, Sen. Joseph McCarthy and the famous televised Army-McCarthy hearings. It was also at the heart of the recent movie “Good Night and Good Luck”. It was a period that featured the most harsh suppression of any type of political dissent that this country has ever seen and, while it pales in comparison to what happened to dissenters in Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia or, more recently, in Tiananmen Square in China, it is still a period that anyone truly interested in learning the lessons of history should be familiar with, if for no other reason than to make sure it never happens in this country again.
It was before my time, by I did see 'Good night and good luck' which I found very interesting. It seems everyone was afraid of the good senator and he finally hit a brick wall when he accused the army of harboring communists. It surely was the most harsh suppresion of political dissent this country has ever seen, a close brush with fire. it reminds me of during the last days of WW1 and some time after, the communist witch hunt (not to the extent of the McCarthy era) spearheaded to a certain extent by a young J. Edger Hoover.
It was before my time, by I did see 'Good night and good luck' which I found very interesting. It seems everyone was afraid of the good senator and he finally hit a brick wall when he accused the army of harboring communists.? It surely was the most harsh suppresion of political dissent this country has ever seen, a close brush with fire. it reminds me of during the last days of WW1 and some time after, the communist witch hunt (not to the extent of the McCarthy era) spearheaded to a certain extent by a young J. Edger Hoover.
You might want to read the book "Perilous Times". Don't know the author or publisher off hand and it's on the second floor and I'm in the basement, but if your interested I can get you the info. It covers governmental efforts to suppress dissent from the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 up through the war in Iraq and covers both Red Scares in depth. Reading the book will scare the hell out of you if you have any appreciation of the First Amendment and what its loss would really mean. It also gives one a whole new perspective on current attempts to brand anyone who disagrees with the administration as a "cut-and-runner" and a friend of "the al-Queda types". What I find interesting, and at the same time disgusting, is this is all being done by a group that managed to avoid military service, except for Rumsfeld who spent a few years in the peacetime Air Force. I think if you looked up the definition of the word "chutzpah" you'd find a picture of a number of contemporary politicians accusing Kerry or Murtha of being less courageous than themselves.
You might want to read the book "Perilous Times".? Don't know the author or publisher off hand and it's on the second floor and I'm in the basement, but if your interested I can get you the info.?
I would like to check that out. When you get the time let me know who wrote it and I will see if I can track it down.
Gerald R. Stone wrote “Perilous Times” and it is available from Amazon or at your local bookstore in either hardbound or paperback.
