Okay
I’m not paranoid. We found out that J.
Edgar Hoover, in his paranoia of “Communist conspiracy,” has made dossiers on
everyone connected with H.A. It seems
Hoover secretly questions the president’s “Americanism” and he, and everyone
associated with him, is suspect. Beware
the clean-cut men in gray suits.
H.A.
was on Meet the Press and almost every question was, in one way or
another, about the infiltration of communists in our society. He simply replied, “If you allow that little
thing to dominate your mind, it means that you have become a red-baiter, a
person who wants to sic the F.B.I. onto your neighbor; its interferes with
everything you want to do.”
However,
fear of communist infiltration is growing.
Spurred by the Whisky Rebels, Conservative Republicans such as Robert
Taft of Ohio and Kenneth Wherry of Nebraska, and William Knowland of California
allied with racist southern Democrats such as Mississippi’s Senator James O.
Eastland and Congressman John Rankin attacked the New Deal as “un-American” and
“unconstitutional” and in foreign policy they said that H.A. would allow the
Communists to take over the world.
Congress
has started investigations to identify and expel communists in the federal
government. To facilitate their efforts
they sought to establish a Federal Employees Loyalty and Security Program. The program would not allow employees under
suspicion to confront their accusers or to know the evidence against them.
H.A.
said that Congress was overstepping its bounds.
He was the President and he was responsible for government
employees. H.A. correctly sees this as
means to discourage the best and brightest from staying, or joining, government
service to advance the New Deal. H.A.
will not allow the New Deal to be stymied.
Again
from the sidelines, Truman said he would issue an Executive Order to implement
the Congressional program and weed out communists in government. Fortunately, Truman is not the president and
innocent employees will not lose their jobs due to red-baiting.
© 2014 Ron Millar
© 2014 Ron Millar
