In June of 1949 the world had not fully entered into the atomic age. It would be two months before the Soviet Union would successfully test it's first atomic bomb altering the balance of power. Prior to August of 1949, most Americans viewed the infiltration and spread of communist ideology as a bigger threat than fears of a nuclear holocaust that would later dominate American thought. Communism was a viewed as a psychological threat rather than a physical threat. In the article "Are We Afraid of Freedom?" published in the Hartford Currant on June 19, 1949, the author argues that fears of communism in the U.S. would lead to suppression of liberty which would be a greatest threat to Americans.
While the arguments put forth in the article may have been true for June of 1949, fears of communism would soon become further entrenched when the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek was overthrown by the communist and Mao Zedong in October of 1949. This, in combination with the Soviet testing of the atomic bomb, would generate greater psychological as well as physical fears of communism for the next 50 years.
"Are We Afraid of Freedom?" Hartford Currant June 19, 1949
Over all of us hangs the threat of communism. Though the cold war with Soviet Russia is not now being fought with arms, it is a deadly war. The overwhelming proportion of the American people have been convinced by three decades of Soviet history, and especially by Soviet actions in the four years since the war, that the masters of Russia plot our downfall. Whatever twisted ideals may lie behind communism, its aim is to conquer the world and make it a police state ruled from Moscow. Where opposing forces are weak, the Communist threat takes the shape of military might. But most dangerous is the insidious penetration of ideas.
How are we to defend ourselves against this double attack? If we stop to think, we know it is silly to fear Russian arms. Despite Russia's vast resources, it is inconceivable that there is a present danger that the Russian Army, Navy, and Air Force-even with the atomic bomb-can conquer us. The real danger is not the armed strength of the Russian national state but the subtle, intangible penetration of ideas.
It is when it comes to defending ourselves against this attack on the mind that Americans differ among themselves. Many among us rush to embrace the seemingly natural way of seeking to stamp out Communist ideas. Hence the current wave of loyalty purges, censorship, suppression, snooping, and intimidation. Yet these are the very stuff of which the police state is made. If we resort to them, we shall fasten upon ourselves the very chains we want to keep off.
The only way to fight dangerous ideas is with ideas that are more magnetic. And we have them, if we will but trust them. They run through our history from the beginning…
Yet now many would, in the name of freedom, turn their backs on freedom. The House Committee on Un-American Activities would examine textbooks in schools and colleges. We laughed at, and scorned, Hitler's book burnings. But in what essential is this different? And so it is in all the other places, whether in the Atomic Energy Commission, elsewhere in government, in labor, and wherever Americans look with distrust upon their neighbors…
Why should we fear communism? It is neither so new nor so fearsome as it seems. All that is new is the technique of fifth-column infiltration. And even that is only a new twist in the old game of conquest. The basic threat of ideas we have met before in our history. It is no defense to persecute individuals for what they think or for their motives, still less because some self-appointed patriot points an accusing finger at them…
Acts of spying or of sedition are punishable now as they always have been. Through it all we shall be strongest if we prosecute individuals, not for what they say or think, but only for what they do. When acts of subversion are proved in court, let punishment be swift, sure, and relentless…
In this land of freedom the danger from communism is not nearly so great as the danger from suppression. To fear communism is to ascribe to it a strength it does not have. It is fantastic to suppose that Americans can be tricked into trading freedom, the hope of mankind that they hold in trust, for communism. Students in our schools and colleges, our people in government or out of it, are not such fools and weaklings as to fall for the dark, conspiratorial philosophy of communism-unless by prohibition we indicate to them that it has a fascination we dare not face. If communism were really as strong as that, nothing we could do, no wall of defense we built, no suppression by methods as ruthless as those of Russia's own secret police, could keep it out.
Text Dependent Questions
1. According to the article, what are the dangers associated with the the fear of the spread of communist ideology in the United States?
2. According to the article, the Russian military was not a threat to America. Do you think this was truly the case? Why or why not?
2. What should be feared more than the spread of communism according the article? Why?
3. Do you think the authors of the article would feel the same if this article was published two months later after the Soviet Union had successfully tested their first atomic bomb? Why or why not?
References
Engel, J. A., Lawrence, M. A., & Preston, A. (Eds.). (2014). America in the world: A history in documents from the war with Spain to the war on terror. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Marcus, E. (1952, April 11). Easter Egg Coloring [Cartoon]. Retrieved from https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/stalin-cartoon-1952-granger.jpg