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

I think that liberals would find this book informative. Haynes gives considerable credit to the post-WW II left and organized labor for preventing communists from establishing any insitutional foothold in American society. Unlike others, who in simplistic fashion, dismiss the American left during the late 1940s to mid 50s as being "soft" on communism, Haynes provides a detailed analysis of the efforts of anti-communist liberals to root out the "popular fronters" which in part were members of the CPUSA. Personally, I'm a conservative but somewhat weary of the wholesale bashing of the entire left by the likes of Hannity, Limbaugh, and the rest. By giving the liberals due credit in the fight against communisim, Haynes elevates and legitimizes anti-communism.

That's just one aspect of this brief but very fruitful work. In line with his other writings, he continues to demonstrate that the threat of communisim was real and severe following World War II and not the product of hysteria. He does, however, separate some fact from fiction. For example, despite the presence of communists in the film industry, Haynes concludes that they were not particularly successful in producing much in the way of meaningful propaganda. He also provides a rather comprehensive discussion of the causes of anti-communism during the early stages of the Cold War and separates fact from fiction.

While discussing communism as a real threat, Haynes does not glorify Joseph McCarthy in the process. As William F. Buckley once noted, McCarthy could be summed up as being the "wrong messenger with the right message." He also takes the G.O.P. to task for making anti-communism a partisan issue but does conclude in the end that they were instrumental in exposing Hiss and the Rosenbergs.

Early in his discussion, Haynes provides a very interesting juxtaposition of how we dealt with the issue of a feared Nazi fifth column in America during the war years with the effort to root out communists in the aftermath. He concludes that many of the same people who cried "witch hunt" during the McCarthy era were extremely tolerant of wholesale civil rights violations of those who were both rightfully and wrongfully accused of being sympathetic to Hitler and Germany.

Although only employing two hundred pages of text, Haynes has provided a very rich, fact-based book that is not only informative but an inviting read. Conservatives will, by inclination, gravitate to this work, but I think that liberals would be well-served to examine it as well.

If you know any unreconstructed lefties out there who still think Alger Hiss was innocent buy this and send it to them (after you've read it of course).

The Venona Papers, the papers of the Communist Party-USA, and the KGB files, all of which came out in teh late 90's, have made the correction of history for the cold War era a cottage industry for my Haynes and his co-author Harvey Klehr. They have at least five original works, to date, setting the record straight once and for all.

There are still those out there who are in denial.

› Go to Amazon.com to see both reviews  5.0 out of 5 stars