“But his (Truman’s) judgement is cavalier seriously underestimating, as it does, the American capacity for intolerance. It unleashes within America a series of witch hunts that last for a decade. The “Communist threat”, the “Red Scare”, the “Communist Conspiracy” all, in some real measure, overwhelm the sanity Truman took for granted.
“Almost all states introduced loyalty pledges for state employees, especially for teachers…. Most states also passed anti-subversive or sedition laws. A party member in Pennsylvania, Steve Nelson, violated that state’s sedition act and received a twenty-five-year sentence. The penalty for speaking or writing subversive words in Michigan could be life in prison; in Tennessee it could be death. In Indiana the official aim of the state was to “exterminate communists…”
(From ETHAN RUSSELL: AN AMERICAN STORY available here.)
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