
You may remember the name Sterling Hayden. He was the actor who played the police chief in The Godfather (1972). He was also the deranged General Jack Ripper in the satire, Dr. Strangelove. But his life had two other earlier chapters that were also packed with drama.
Hayden was in the military and later worked for the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIA, during World War II. He was involved in a daring raid into Nazi-controlled Croatia. He worked with partisans, many of whom were communists, and helped free downed U.S. pilots from fascist forces.
After the war, his background and chiseled looks landed him in Hollywood. His admiration for those communists during the war also led him to join the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). That found him, in short order, in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).
At first, Hayden refused to name names. Unfortunately, at the urging of a paid advisor and his psychiatrist, he relented. In April 1951, Hayden coughed up two names. This much was spelled out in Clay Risen’s new book Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America. The following details were left out.
Hayden found out that his psychiatrist, in gross violation of doctor/patient confidentiality, was working with both the FBI and HUAC. Here is what Hayden had to say in his autobiography, Wanderer, when he confronted his doctor.
“I’ll say this too, that if it hadn’t been for you, I wouldn’t have turned into a stoolie for J. Edgar Hoover. I don’t think you have the foggiest notion of the contempt I have had for myself since the day I did that thing…Fuck it! And fuck you too.” (P. 378)
Both before and after Hollywood notables, HUAC fished in other waters. Black Americans and immigrants were special targets. When Trinidadian jazz pianist and singer Hazel Scott’s name appeared on a “list,” she volunteered to go before HUAC to “clear” her name. She had spoken out against racial discrimination. Being on a list and appearing before HUAC was enough. Her TV program, The Hazel Scott Show, was cancelled.
Lists and their selling became a business. It is one of the strongest parts of the book, Red Scare.
Educators were targeted. The pressures were considerable. Teacher George Fishman was pushed out of his high school job. He worked at a Campbell Soup factory for twenty years before finally fighting his way back into the classroom.
One can’t separate the Red Scare from the Cold War, including anti-communism, racism, and the sacred cow of profits. It’s important for any framework to understand “The Scare.”
The main focus of Risen’s Red Scare ranges from the mid-1940s to the early 1960s, with some exceptions. As fascism is hyper-wed to anti-communism in both the 20th century and 21st century, it is important to note its foundation was set in the pre-Civil War period. In the 19th century, anti-communism was hitched to anti-abolitionism.
In 1850, Texas Congressman David S. Kaufman returned to his alma mater, Princeton (1833), to deliver the annual commencement address. He compared abolitionism to communism and atheism and argued that slaves were well fed, well clad, and not overworked.
Red Scare gives short shrift to the Palmer Raids (1919/1920) and the Congressional Dies Committee (1938). Those are important in that they showed the connection between anti-communism, racism, and, in particular, anti-immigrant bashing.
Risen is more effective at illustrating the connection to anti-unionism and longshore organizing. He dedicates a chapter to Harry Bridges, himself an immigrant from Australia. What was missing was the ruling class penetration of AFL-CIO operations internationally. Imperialism wanted to utilize this brand of anti-communism in defense of its superprofits.
In the 1950s, cooked-up conspiracies like “the communists are poisoning the water” were used to make the political left out to be monsters or evil.
The false dichotomy of evil (communism) versus good (democracy, which is often equated with capitalism) was still perpetuated and kept alive in later periods. Ronald Reagan first used the label “evil empire” in reference to the Soviet Union at a conference of Christian Evangelicals on March 8, 1983. General Secretary of the CPUSA, Gus Hall, labeled it a “whiff of fascism.”
George W. Bush labeled Russia, Iran, and North Korea the “axis of evil.” It was used to justify imperialist incursions into Iraq in the new millennium.
It didn’t stop there. During the 2024 Presidential race, Biden was labeled a “socialist” by Trump, while Kamala Harris was a “communist.” Toni Morrison, in making connections between racism and fascism, said that the latter, “Enlist and create sources and distributors of information who are willing to reinforce the demonizing process because it is profitable, because it grants power and because it works.”
No doubt, Senator Joseph “I have a List” McCarthy and the Red Scare turned into a fishing expedition for a fascist base in the 1950s. At the same time, there are intense fight-backs not included in the book. These battles were also integral to the making of modern America.
In 1940, Charlie Chaplin made the classic anti-fascist parody The Great Dictator. On a vacation voyage to Europe with his family, his re-entry visa was revoked.
In 1934, African American artist Elizabeth Catlett gave leadership to a demonstration against lynching at the Supreme Court. In 1958, Catlett supported striking railroad workers in Mexico. These actions caught the eye of reactionary forces in the U.S. She self-exiled to Mexico.
Actor, concert singer, and activist Paul Robeson had his passport revoked, and with it, his concert opportunities disappeared. He was also called before HUAC, though they may have regretted it. Here’s one way Robeson fought back on June 12th, 1956, when asked if he was a member of the Communist Party.
“What do you mean by the Communist Party? Do you mean a party of people who have sacrificed for my people, and for all Americans and workers, that they live in dignity? . . .you gentlemen belong with the Alien and Sedition Acts, and you are the nonpatriots, and you are the un-Americans, and you ought to be ashamed of yourselves.”
Exasperated and flummoxed, the HUAC chair adjourned the hearing.
In the 1950s, communist leaders at various levels were jailed. The CPUSA decided that a good defense was a good offense. From that period into the early 1960s, CPUSA leaders went on speaking tours of U.S. college campuses and spoke to hundreds of thousands of young people across the country.
The Ban the Bomb movement in the 1950s was an integral part of the struggle during the 1950s. This was shown in the movie, The Way We Were. During this same period, Communist and trade unionist Virginia Brodine gave leadership to the movement against nuclear bomb testing and fallout.
A major contributor to loosening the grip of the Red Scare and Cold War on the country was the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s. Students for Democratic Society was an important anti-war and social justice group starting in the early 1960s that would invite communists to speak on campuses where SDS was active.
Hoping for a short historical memory of our class and people, the current crop of conspiracy-wielding fascists have been trial testing to see if a Red Scare 2.0 will fly.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated, “We are staying here to liberate the city (LA) from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.”
What makes “The Scare” work? Here is a short breakdown.
- Conspiracy theories. While Senator McCarthy lost popularity precipitously when he was finally exposed, one-third of the country clung to his coattails. After Trump lost the 2020 election and became a convicted felon, he actively maintained his base of about one-third of the country. Conspiracies run amok among this base. The common thought is that immigrants are stealing Social Security money. QAnon ardently pushes the idea that a secret society of Satan-worshipping pedophiles controls the United States and the world.
- Anti-communism. This is based on a false caricature of communists as unpatriotic, undemocratic, and violent.
- Extreme wealth/monopolies controlling the means of communication, e.g., X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, Hearst Communications.
Unfortunately, the author of Red Scare implies some of these caricatures by referring to communist parties as ultra-left. Among the author’s worst mistakes was labeling Ethel Rosenberg a spy. Declassified material showed conclusively that she was not a spy.
Also confusing was the author’s intermixing of the American Communist Party with the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA).
What is the best way to counter the above? Rely on science, including the science of society, Marxism, and the truth.
The main target of the Scare was workplace organizing. For example, at the time of the Hollywood Ten, there was intense labor organizing on all levels, e.g., technicians, actors, directors, and writers. It was all in the name of extending the profits of the biggest studios.
The author writes that the Scare, at one point, stopped being political and became cultural. Such disjointed, mechanistic thinking derails so many people from seeing the ruling class’s control of the cultural sphere. Politics is about power. There are no vacuums.
When was the last time that you saw peace activists interviewed on a major TV network? The blacklist of cultural workers was itself the epitome of the politics of the extreme right and fascistic wealth at work in all kinds of media e.g. movies, TV, newspapers and books. In the 21st century, up to 90% of all media is controlled by a monopoly.
What’s the truth regarding the Communist Party of the United States? The program of the CPUSA calls for building on the Bill of Rights (amendments) to the U.S. Constitution. It sees advances of the working class as a product of the struggle for peace, democracy, and social justice. Thus, a socialist Bill of Rights would include, for example, universal healthcare. Also, the CPUSA is officially, unconditionally, opposed to capital punishment.
The CPUSA works to maintain active commissions as a way to tap the thinking of conscious working-class forces at the grassroots. They are an integral part of its democracy. An example of this would be their environmental program, which was a product of their environmental commission.
As mentioned here, the main objective of the Scare was to disrupt working-class organizing. That is one reason why organized labor is necessary as a leader of the anti-fascist movement. It is the largest, independent organization, with its own treasury, of the working class.
Here’s an example. When California SEIU officer David Huerta was grabbed by ICE agents, Labor immediately organized protests. They called for a coordinated action on June 9. David Huerta was released that same day.
It will take a similar mass movement on a nationwide scale to blunt a fascist takeover of our country.
Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America
By Clay Risen, 2025.
Simon & Schuster (2025)
ISBN: 9781982141806
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