Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America
By Ellen Schrecker
Reviewed by Ina R. Bort
From the New York Law Journal
July 10, 1998
Do we need another book about that Senator from Wisconsin? Need we revisit, yet again, the evils of Cold War anticommunism? Surprisingly, Ellen Schrecker's Many Are the Crimes, the product of 20 years of research and reflection on McCarthyism, suggests that we do. With her innovative interpretation of the red-baiting phenomenon, Schrecker breathes new life into a timeworn topic.
The premise is a clever one. Schrecker contends that the events of the McCarthy era were the result of a "concerted campaign by a loosely structured, but surprisingly self-conscious, network of political activists who had been working for years to drive Communism out of American life." Her book is an exploration of that network, of the subtle, complex and tenacious connections among "federal bureaucrats, labor leaders, businessmen, judges, law enforcement officials, politicians, journalists and professional anticommunists." According to Schrecker, the strength and longevity of the anticommunist movement lay in the unwavering collaboration of these individuals and their agencies.
Given Schrecker's emphasis on the interrelationship between the components of 1950s American society and their unified effort to eradicate Communism from their midst, it is disappointing that she does not devote more attention to the very entity that enabled these disparate bodies to function in concert: the media.
The book does refer to the "crucial role of the press in the anticommunist crusade." Schrecker mentions, for instance, that the "Hearst empire and its stable of right-wing columnists could always be counted on to play up charges of communist subversion." And she tells of cities where the "local newspapers printed the names and addresses" of witnesses subpoenaed to appear before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
Schrecker also chooses one or two effective anecdotes to illustrate the power of the press. One example is its role in the virtual censorship, and commercial demise, of "The Salt of the Earth." That film, written and produced by some of Hollywood's "most energetic communists," told the story of the 1950 miners' strike at the Empire Zinc mine in New Mexico. The strike was led by Clinton Jencks, a man whose alleged ties to the Communist Party would land him before the Senate, the House and ultimately the Supreme Court. By refusing to accept advertising for the controversial film, newspapers and radio stations helped ensure that it was seen by no more than a few Americans.
But these isolated examples are no substitute for comprehensive discussion of the media's role in the anticommunist campaign. The omission seems particularly surprising when one considers how well the topic buttresses Schrecker's interpretation of the 1950s witch-hunt.
Newspapers, radio and — just making its entry into American culture — television made possible the collaboration that Schrecker describes. How else but with daily news reports could the populace be apprised of the ceaseless FBI investigations, Supreme Court cases and committee hearings before the House and Senate? How else could they have recognized that the communist threat, having attracted the attention of the nation's most prominent politicians and judges, was dire indeed? And be reminded, on a daily basis, that the cause required their personal contribution? In the era of McCarthyism, the media was much more than a source of information; it was the vital communication link between the generals and foot soldiers of the anticommunist crusade.
Those generals understood, and skillfully employed, the power of the press. None was more adept than McCarthy himself. Schrecker recognizes this, yet unfortunately devotes only two paragraphs to this fascinating subject.
As explained by historian David Oshinsky in A Conspiracy So Immense, the Senator had an uncanny understanding of how the press worked. Oshinsky attributes McCarthy's mastery of the media to his recognition that the system of reporting (in his own day, if not now) was one which, in Oshinsky's words, "required reporters to present the facts, not to interpret them." All the more so when those "facts" were statements by a high-ranking United States Senator. McCarthy knew that whatever he said would be dutifully reported as truth. He said, therefore, whatever he wished, and as often as he could. Indeed, his "prolific output of juicy stories" made McCarthy, according to Oshinsky, "irresistible to reporters."
Oshinsky also explains that McCarthy, amazingly enough, knew how press deadlines worked. "He knew that every wire service man had to have a lead by 11 o'clock. So he would hold a press conference at 10, make a stupendous charge, and back it up with a mass of documents that could not possibly be analyzed in the next hour." It was tactics like these that kept McCarthy on page one of the nation's leading newspapers for four straight years.
Fortunately, Schrecker does take advantage of recently released FBI files to explore the agency's relationship with the press. She describes a mutually beneficial information exchange between journalists and the Bureau. Internal records reveal, for instance, that the FBI kept track of "the anticommunist writers who have proved themselves to us." These included Walter Winchell as well as the Washington bureau chiefs of the United Press and Chicago Tribune. FBI documents also show that the Hearst columnist George Sokolsky provided J. Edgar Hoover with so much information about the Communists in Hollywood that the Bureau created a "special procedure" for handling it.
But the media provided the FBI much more than information. Schrecker explains that it served as an extremely effective public relations tool. J. Edgar Hoover, with his on-the-record denunciations of "hysteria, witch-hunts and vigilantes," ensured that the FBI remained a "progressive, professionalized law enforcement organization" in the public eye. No matter that, all the while, he authorized — indeed required — his agents to rifle through trash, intercept mail, break into homes and offices and plant illegal microphones and taps.
In a book of broad scope such as this one, it is admittedly easy to find topics that could have used more attention. But all in all, Schrecker has written an impressive book. Many Are the Crimes is clearly the culmination not only of intensive research, but a lifelong devotion to the study of McCarthyism. Schrecker proves adept at weaving the myriad strands of information in her collection into a persuasive and satisfying explanation for what is, and will hopefully remain, "the most widespread and longest-lasting wave of political repression in American history."
