Historical Background
World War II and the Influence of the Cold
War In the United States after World War II, the shadow of the war has not disappeared, and the terrifying atmosphere of the Cold War has followed. On the one hand, the United States confronted the Soviet Union internationally, and on the other hand, it purged the so-called "communist ideology" domestically and attacked the progressive forces.
Strikes prevail
. In March 1945, the U.S. House of Representatives, by a vote of 207 in favor and 186 against, changed its infamous "House Un-American Activities Committee" into a permanent body. At the same time, more than 4.5 million workers took to the streets in just one year with 34,700 strikes due to a sharp rise in domestic inflation in the United States. The House African-American Committee took the opportunity to accuse the trade unions of being "infiltrated by the Communist Party," vigorously inciting the public against communism and the Communist Party, and persecuting progressives.
On March 11, 1945, the FBI excused that there was an article in the magazine "
America" published on January 26 of that year that was similar in content to a secret material in their possession, and cooperated with the strategy Agents of the intelligence agency broke into the editorial office of "America" magazine together and claimed that "more than 1,700 classified and other classified government documents were recovered from the office." On June 6, the FBI raided the editorial office of Maya magazine again, claiming that "1,069 pages of government documents were found, 504 of which were classified." On the same day, the U.S. Department of Justice arrested six people including Xie Weiss, a State Department official who had worked for a long time in the U.S. military observation group in Yan'an, on charges of "stealing top-secret government documents."
It was later found out that the documents used by the magazine "Meiya" were copies of reports from Yan'an kept privately by Xie Weisi, and were not "top secret documents". Most of the opinions in these reports are the insights gained by Xie Weiss and others through conversations with CCP leaders such as Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and other CCP leaders and field investigations by members of the U.S. observation team stationed in Yan'an during the nearly one year in Yan'an, China. For example, in mid-February 1945, in a memorandum written for General Wedemeyer, the commander of the U.S. military in the Chinese theater of operations, Xie Weisi proposed that the U.S. government should pursue a policy toward the Chinese Communist Party similar to that pursued by the Allies toward the Tito partisans in Yugoslavia—that is, a policy similar to that pursued by the United Kingdom. Like Prime Minister Churchill, the decision to provide assistance is based on the performance of all parties in the war against Germany, rather than their ideology; I hope the US government will consider its own perspective when formulating its China policy and not support Chiang Kai-shek's government in fighting a civil war, etc. . After Xie Weisi was arrested, Yan'an "Liberation Daily" published an editorial, which regarded the incident as "a watershed in Sino-US relations."
Expanded "loyalty investigation"
Although the federal grand jury declared in August that the evidence could not be established and Xie Weiss was acquitted, under the influence of the "Mayer" case, the Truman administration began to investigate the federal government on December 17, 1947. , Armed Forces and defense contractors conduct so-called "loyalty checks". The scope of its investigations has even expanded to the point of absurdity. In Pasadena, a 3-year-old girl modeled for a store ad, and her mother was notified that the girl had to sign an affidavit of loyalty before she could get paid. According to statistics, during the "loyalty survey", a total of more than 20 million Americans were subject to varying degrees of scrutiny. Under the influence of the "loyalty survey", American public opinion also turned to the right, teachers teaching social sciences would be fired if they did not scold the Soviet Union and communism in the classroom, the Cincinnati Red baseball team was forced to change its name, and even Candidates for Miss America must state their opinion of Karl Marx. It was at this time that a speech by Senator McCarthy of Wisconsin brought the movement to its zenith.
McCarthyism emerges in the
early years of McCarthy
McCarthy's life On November 14, 1908, Joseph McCarthy was born in northern Wisconsin to a family of Irish-American small farmers. In 1939, McCarthy falsely declared his age to run for circuit court judge in the Seventh District of Wisconsin, becoming the "youngest judge" in the district's history. Since then, McCarthy began a political career full of deceit and lies. Some people commented on McCarthy: "Incomparable boldness and ingenious lies in some respects make his method very different from the general inversion of black and white."
Bad state senator
In 1946, McCarthy, who was retired from the military, participated in the senator's election. The election campaign, with a slick tongue, was elected to the Wisconsin Senator in November of this year. During his first four years in the Senate, his popularity plummeted due to misconduct and speculative trading in soybean futures, gambling and alcoholism. It is often said that "there is often a bottle of whiskey in Senator McCarthy's briefcase" and that his "a trove of facts and unverifiable figures of a disparate nature confuses the Senate and the whole of America." Especially in the fall of 1949, McCarthy actually defended the Nazis who massacred American soldiers, causing a public outcry. As a result, in this year's polls, McCarthy was named the "worst senator" of the year. At this point, he desperately needed a life-saver to help him keep his seat in Congress.
"Bombarding" the State Department
On February 9, 1950, the birthday of the sixteenth president of the United States, Lincoln, McCarthy decided to "shoot the cannonball at the State Department." Arranged by the Republican National Committee, he flew from Washington to Wheeling, West Virginia, to deliver a speech titled "The Communist Party in the State Department" at the Republican Women's Club of Ohio County, claiming that in his hands he had "a copy of 205 List of people”, “These people are all members of the Communist Party and the spy network.” "The secretary of state knows that these people on the list are Communist Party members, but these people are still drafting and formulating State Department policy." McCarthy's speech was like a thunderbolt, causing an uproar in the United States. McCarthy, who was walking on thin ice before, became a political star that shook the country overnight. After McCarthy became a political star in the United States overnight, McCarthy flew to Salt Lake City, Utah, and Reno, Nevada, to repeat his speech at Wheeling. A slight difference is that at this time McCarthy was also waving a small piece of paper, which was the so-called "spy list". However, according to what he said at the time, the number of people on the list was 57.
On Feb. 11, a triumphant McCarthy called President Truman and Secretary of State Acheson to ask them to speak out about his speech. After receiving the telegram, Truman was furious, and wrote angrily to reply: "I am sure that the people of Wisconsin are extremely sorry that their representative is an irresponsible person like you." However, after writing the letter, Truman did not Instead of sending it out, he put it in the "archive," and he also instructed Lieutenant Secretary Prifoy to call McCarthy and ask him to "publish the list." The rise of the anti-communist wave in
the extreme period of American politics McCarthy, who was overjoyed with McCarthyism, ignored Truman's inquiry, and set off a wave of so-called "waves of exposure and investigation of the activities of the Communist Party in the US government" in the Senate. After the Korean War broke out, McCarthy even used the pretext that someone in the Truman administration secretly "forged with the Soviet Union", "betrayed the Chiang Kai-shek clique" and "helped communism", and called the 20 years of the Democratic Party in power "20 years of treason". And pointed the edge directly at the Truman administration.
On June 14, 1951, McCarthy used Truman's excuse to replace MacArthur, the US commander-in-chief in the Korean War. Minister, General George Marshall, whom Truman called "the greatest man of our time." In this speech of more than 60,000 words, he placed the charge of "traitor" or even "murderer" on Marshall, saying that he strongly opposed the opening of a second battlefield in the Balkans during World War II, making the Soviet Union the first When the Western Allies reached Eastern Europe; blinded Roosevelt at the Yalta Conference and benefited the Soviet Union in terms of territory and other aspects; secretly supported the Communist Party during the conflict between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party as President Truman's special envoy to China to mediate the conflict between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party; The policy was unfavorable to Chiang Kai-shek's clique, "helping the Chinese Communist Party to gain power" and so on. Later, McCarthy also asked his assistants to publish and distribute the book "America Back from Victory: The Story of George Marshall". At the same time, McCarthy also received groundless accusations from Irving Lattimore, Fairbank, Xie Weiss, Ke Leb and Acheson, who was then Secretary of State, who were involved in U.S. affairs with China during and after the war. In the winter of 1951, amid McCarthy's groundless accusations and abuse, Marshall had to voluntarily resign and return to the Leesburg farm in Virginia to retire.
The Anti-Communist Wave in Literature
From 1953, McCarthy gradually extended his grasp to the diplomatic field. In April of that year, McCarthy, with the help of two young assistants, began an inventory of the catalogues of American embassies overseas. In this inventory, the books of 75 writers including the American Communist leader William Foster, left-wing writers Browder and Smedley were all listed as banned books, and even the famous historian Arthur Slesing Jr. The work of personality and humorist Mark Twain is also included in the "Dangerous Books" list. It is estimated that the total number of books excluded is nearly 2 million. Under this influence, libraries in some cities and schools in the United States have also banned or even burned "any suspicious books and magazines".
Anti-Communist wave in key sectors
During the most rampant period of "McCarthyism", key departments such as the U.S. State Department, the Department of Defense, important defense factories, the Voice of America, and the U.S. Government Printing Office failed to escape the investigation of the McCarthy Subcommittee on Non-U.S. Activities. At the same time, the left-wing forces in the United States have also been hit unprecedentedly. In 1953 alone, McCarthy's committee held more than 600 "investigations," large and small, and 17 public hearings televised live. Over time, McCarthy's activities provoked more and more public opposition. In Europe, people even compare McCarthy directly to Hitler. Secretary of State Dulles expressed such concerns to President Eisenhower: "Many European leaders seem to think that we (the United States) are moving towards American-style fascism under McCarthy's leadership." British Labour Party leader Attlee even issued such a statement. Question: In terms of US foreign policy, is Eisenhower more powerful or McCarthy more powerful? In the United States, some people have expressed such emotion: the Republican Party is already "half McCarthy and half Eisenhower".
[1] In July 1953, McCarthy's assistant, Matthews, wrote an article in the American Courier, accusing the American Jesus Church pastors of being "severely infiltrated by the Communist Party." The church immediately called the White House to protest Matthews' defamation. Eisenhower wrote back immediately and broadcast to the nation on the radio, denouncing Matthews' "irresponsible attack" and forcing McCarthy to dismiss Matthews. This action was seen as McCarthy's "only high-profile setback" in 1953, and it was also a sign that Eisenhower was ready to "showdown" to McCarthy.
The cessation of McCarthyism
[2] In the "Army-McCarthy Hearing" in 1954, McCarthy encountered his "Waterloo". CNN broadcast the series of high-profile hearings live. When the War Department announced McCarthy's various ultra vires and illegal behaviors and uncovered the shady scene of McCarthy's investigation activities, McCarthy used his usual tricks of gossip and grandstanding, and abused Senate proceedings in front of a national TV audience. procedures, deliberately interfere with the hearing investigation. When McCarthy tried his best to harass and attack a young assistant of Joseph Welch, a lawyer in the Army Department, who was present, Welch, who had always been kind, couldn't bear it any longer. Sir, do you still have a conscience? Don't you even retain a little conscience in the end?"
[3] On December 1, 1954, amid a nationwide outcry, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution that McCarthy condemned. On May 2, 1957, McCarthy died of hepatitis and neuritis caused by drinking too much alcohol.
The impact of McCarthyism on China and
the government
During the most rampant period of "McCarthyism", Sino-US relations were under the freezing cold of the Cold War. Under the influence of "McCarthyism", "anti-communism" became the only choice for the United States. McCarthy's attack on the China issue led to several US administrations of Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson to adopt a very rigid East Asia policy, and no one dared to initiate contact with the People's Republic of China.
On April 23, 1954, the "Army-McCarthy Hearing" scene "Global Times" (8th page on January 03, 2002)
McCarthyism represents a broad political alliance of conservative and xenophobic groups throughout American society, No one can escape their attack. In the Truman administration and administration...even academia who believed in academic freedom had difficulty resisting the influence of McCarthyism.
for Chinese Asians
In the United States, thousands of Chinese and Asian Americans are suspected of being "spies". Not only were they illegally summoned, not allowed to send money to relatives in China, and even forbidden to speak publicly about their hometown, many were imprisoned, expelled, and even assassinated for being accused of "sympathizing with the Communist Party." Qian Xuesen, a famous physicist working in the United States, was also subpoenaed by the FBI for being accused of participating in the activities of the American Communist Party during the war. Since then, Qian Xuesen has repeatedly found that his personal letters have been torn down, his residential phone has been tapped, and his "national security license" has been revoked. This shows that he can no longer work on jet propulsion, or even work in the laboratory. Until he left the United States in 1955, Qian Xuesen was restricted by the US Immigration Service and monitored by the FBI. Due to the restrictions of the US government, when Qian Xuesen returned to China, he not only did not bring back any research materials, but also did not even bring back some personal items.
Edgar Snow, an old friend of the Chinese people, was also persecuted by "McCarthyism" and had to leave the motherland with his wife and leave for Switzerland. On February 19, 1972, Snoke died in Geneva. After Snow's death, his family found his last words when cleaning up his letters: to keep part of his ashes in China because he loves China; to send the other half of his ashes back to the United States to be buried on the banks of the Hudson River in his hometown. .
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