The Backlash Against the Anti-Communist Trend

Perhaps it may surprise you that there was actually a fairly substantial backlash against the anti-communist actions of the United States government, and not only coming from the suspected communists themselves. I will refer to this backlash as anti-anti-communist trend; however, it is important to note that this does not equal pro-communism. Rather, it just means that many individuals protested the actions of the United States government, claiming the investigations went too far. However, even critics feared being labelled communists. They were forced to couch their criticisms in anti-communist rhetoric to appear anti-communist themselves. Even critics of Hollywood blacklisting never wanted to be considered pro-communist; through their criticism, they had to ensure that they still portrayed themselves as anti-communist. However, the federal government, individual citizens and critics alike agreed that American containment, namely a strong domestic life of American virtues, would be the antidote to the menace of communism.

Through the personal statement of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, it seems that even Hoover himself wanted to ensure that his agency did not officially overstep its rights in the crusade against communism. He stressed that the FBI is purely an “investigative agency” - its job was to get the facts, not to establish policies or to make prosecution decisions (Hoover 1947, 1). Hoover recommended that Americans live their lives with “old-fashioned Americanism” (Hoover 1947, 11). While he also expressed that communists should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, it is interesting to note how Hoover stressed that the FBI was purely an investigative agency whose job was not to recommend policy or prosecution. Hoover wanted to ensure that all are aware that the job of the FBI was merely fact gathering, unlike some of the other government agencies. According to Hoover, “anyone who opposes the American Communist is at once branded a ‘disrupter’, a ‘Fascist’, a ‘Red baiter’, or a ‘Hitlerite’” (Hoover 1947, 2). Like other critics of the decade, Hoover wanted to ensure that he presented himself as a virulent anti-communist while still arguing that the job of the FBI was not to engage in a witch hunt.

In a similar manner, in a 2010 article discussing gossip columnist, noted Republican, and vehement anti-communist Hedda Hopper, University of Auckland Associate Professor Jennifer Frost reports that when Hopper formed the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals (MPA) in 1944, many Hollywood conservatives joined, including director Cecil B. De Mille, studio head Walt Disney, actors Adolphe Menjou, Robert Taylor, and John Wayne, union leader Roy Brewer, and novelist Ayn Rand.  But at this same time, conservative Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright Elmer Rice stated that the MPA followed “orthodox Red-baiting and witch-hunting lines…[its members’ views were] tinged with isolationism and anti-unionism and off-the-record of course…anti-Semitism and Jim Crowism” (Frost 2010, 178-79). Rice’s statement was one of the bluntest and most passionate disapprovals of the anti-communists. His stance discredited the typical depiction of Hollywood as a place where everyone had to be an outspoken anti-communist if they hoped to work and live in peace. Instead, individuals were allowed to speak out against vehement anti-communism without being persecuted as communists themselves, but only as long as long as they couched their arguments in the anti-communist rhetoric of the day. American citizens joined the Hollywood critics in boycotting the investigations of the federal government, claiming that they probed too deeply (and oftentimes with incorrect assumptions) into their personal lives.

Another noteworthy instance of protest against the actions of the United States government toward communism came from British filmmaker Karel Reisz. Reisz, although as a Brit obviously an outsider to the fine workings of American politics and society, argued that the anti-communist films produced by the Hollywood machine during this time were actually doing more to hurt the cause of anti-communism than to help it. He stated that “against the dynamic, growing force of Communism, Hollywood, as powerful shaper of public opinion as any in the western world, has put up the weakest of counter attacks” (Reisz 1953, 132). Reisz proposed that Hollywood was purposefully producing films that portrayed anti-communism as a kind of game which no one could win, or a farcical, entertaining thriller where the bad guys could be easily combated through a strong domestic home life. Reisz argued that Hollywood did not take communism or anti-communism seriously, but rather “sidetrack[ed] the real issues by dangling an attractive picture of domestic bliss before the spectator”, thus undermining the seriousness of anti-communism and of the western cause as a whole (Reisz 1953, 137). This view opposed the traditional notion that Hollywood, instead of joining the United States government in the fight against communism, portrayed their actions as a winless game or the plot of a B-movie thriller. Moreover, Reisz’s statement and Hoover’s prescription to the menace of communism reflected the widely held belief that a strong domestic life could do more for the American crusade against communism than any investigation of the federal government.

This is not to say that Hoover’s statement regarding the actions of the FBI, the actions of more conservative individuals, or the Hollywood production circle were pro-communist. However, there was sizable criticism of the anti-communist crusade led by the United States government, a movement not usually discussed in the context of the relationship between Hollywood and the Red Scare. It is important to note that the protestors almost always gave the same solution to their problems with the federal government and the Red Scare: a strong domestic and private life led in the American way. This assertion came from all aspects of American society, from individuals in Hollywood and in other American cities, to prominent members of the federal government. Americans throughout the country believed that the best solution to both combat communism and to tone down the intensity of the anti-communist investigations would be to maintain a strong domestic home life steeped in traditional American values – this would prove to be communism’s kryptonite.