0:05

[inaudible]

0:06

boomers to millennials is a modern

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us history podcast, providing

0:10

a fresh look at the historical

0:12

events that shaped current generations

0:14

from 1946 to the present.

0:17

Welcome to 1949

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AKA episode four the curse

0:22

of the cold war. In recent

0:24

episodes, we discussed president Harry

0:26

Truman's role in the rise of the cold

0:28

war and his improbable

0:30

comeback victory to win a second

0:32

presidential term in 1949

0:35

a succession of crises which

0:38

shock Truman's presidential administration and

0:40

the American public. Suddenly

0:42

the threat of international communism

0:45

and the danger of potential military conflict

0:47

with the USSR would Allume larger

0:50

than ever. Furthermore, instead

0:52

of struggling to scare Congress into taking

0:54

action against foreign communists as

0:57

he had done with the Truman doctrine speech

0:59

back in 47 the president

1:01

would be on the defensive and his administration

1:04

would stand accused of not doing

1:06

enough to stop the spread of international

1:08

communism. In early 1949

1:11

Truman proposed a new slate of domestic

1:14

legislation that he branded

1:16

as the fair deal, which he hoped

1:18

would be his answer to his popular predecessor

1:20

FDRs new deal. Truman's

1:23

allies in Congress were able to push through

1:25

a social security expansion and

1:27

a minimum wage hike. However,

1:29

despite the democratic congressional majority,

1:32

a conservative coalition that combined most

1:34

of the Republicans with a significant

1:37

minority of Democrats would block

1:39

the path of most other fair deal reforms,

1:42

including Truman's proposal for national

1:44

health insurance. Monumental

1:46

foreign relations developments within

1:48

the first two years of Truman . Second term

1:51

would keep Congress and the nation primarily

1:54

focused on troubling specters of

1:56

external threat rather than

1:58

upon dreams of internal reform.

2:01

The first major geopolitical earthquake

2:03

of 1949 emerged out

2:05

of the far East where a long simmering

2:08

political struggle concluded with an outcome

2:10

that shocked and demoralized Americans

2:13

during the 1930s a multifunction

2:16

struggle for political control. The vast

2:18

nation of China was complicated

2:21

when the empire of Japan invaded

2:23

and conquered much of the region. Two

2:25

main forces competed to control

2:27

China while simultaneously

2:29

resisting the Japanese occupation.

2:32

A nationalist faction led by

2:34

Chiang Kai Shek and a

2:36

communist faction led by Mousay dong.

2:39

According to historian George

2:42

C. Herring during world war II, the U S provided

2:44

military and economic aid to Chiang

2:47

intended to damage our Chinese

2:49

foes and to quote, solidify

2:51

nationalists control over a free China.

2:54

The reasons for U S investment in the region

2:57

had deep historical roots. America

3:00

had a unique and in some ways less transactional

3:03

relationship with China than it had with

3:05

other distant foreign lands. Many

3:07

world powers, most infamously

3:09

the British empire had over the

3:12

previous two centuries schemed

3:14

their way into gaining control of economic

3:16

enclaves in China. Hence one

3:18

of the planets , great Imperial civilizations

3:21

became an feeble and divided

3:23

victim of colonialism. The Americans

3:27

fancied themselves. Opponents of such colonialism.

3:29

Despite having picked up the Philippines

3:31

and a few other colonies. By the mid

3:33

20th century, U S elites

3:35

viewed their intentions in China as more

3:38

pure than those of the other powers involved

3:40

in the region. Since the 19th century,

3:43

American Protestants had viewed the nation

3:45

as the world's last great unchurched.

3:48

He then civilization, and therefore,

3:51

as the biggest and most promising mission field

3:53

on the planet, American missionaries

3:56

entered China and found some receptive converts,

3:59

but other Chinese groups were violently

4:01

hostile to their presence. The

4:03

most strenuous backlash occurred

4:05

during the boxer rebellion of 1900

4:08

when armed bands tried to expunge

4:11

foreign influence from China. According

4:13

to herring, this uprising resulted

4:15

in the deaths of over 200 missionaries

4:18

and around 2000 Chinese

4:20

Christian converts, but the

4:22

U S and other Western nations sent troops

4:25

to protect the Christians, repulse the anti

4:27

foreign forces and demand financial

4:30

reparations from Chinese officials.

4:32

After this Protestant missionary

4:34

work in the far East resumed until

4:37

it was disrupted by the Japanese invasion

4:39

and communist uprisings in China.

4:42

During world war II, the

4:44

nationalist forces of Chiang

4:46

Kai Shek learned to play upon Americans attachment

4:49

to China in order to win American

4:51

political and financial support for

4:53

their regime. Chiang was a convert

4:55

to Christianity and his wife

4:57

had been educated at a prestigious U

5:00

S university. These facts

5:02

became important for a China lobby

5:04

that persuaded prominent Americans to

5:06

back Chinese nationalism. One

5:09

of the most important pro China lobbyists

5:12

was Henry Luce the head of the

5:15

Time-Life media empire. He was the son

5:17

of missionaries who had proselytized in

5:19

China and his publications

5:21

promoted sympathetic portrayals of the

5:23

Chinese people and the nationalist

5:26

cause among the China lobbies. Other

5:28

enthusiasts was president Franklin

5:31

D Roosevelt, who intended Chang's China to

5:34

be one of the four powers alongside

5:38

the USA U K and D USSR that would cooperate

5:40

to govern the post world war two world.

5:43

However, herring notes that chains

5:45

regime was quote, weak , divided

5:48

internally riddled with corruption

5:50

and lacking in popular support. Closed

5:52

quote, historian James

5:55

T. Patterson recounts that American military

5:57

officials sent to assist Chiang during

6:00

world war II were frustrated because

6:02

he focused more on squabbling with Chinese

6:04

rivals then on repelling the Japanese

6:07

invaders. Despite

6:09

warnings from some state department officials

6:11

about the unpopularity and incompetence

6:14

of Chang's faction, few U

6:16

S officials anticipated that the communists

6:18

would win complete control of the Chinese

6:21

mainland. They had hoped

6:23

that their friend Chang would be running a functioning

6:26

nationalist government. That would comprise much,

6:28

if not all of the vastness of China.

6:31

That abruptly changed in 1949

6:34

when news broke that the civil war was over

6:37

and the communists had one Chiang

6:39

Kai Shek and his nationalists had fled the Chinese

6:42

mainland for the Island of Taiwan.

6:44

This meant that the commies now controlled

6:47

both the world's largest nation by land

6:49

area, the Soviet union, and

6:51

the world's largest nation by population

6:54

size. China now officially

6:56

called the people's Republic of China

6:59

back in Washington, D C now's

7:01

victory was met with furious congressional

7:03

denunciations of Truman administration,

7:06

foreign policy hearing rights

7:08

for quote right wing Republicans.

7:11

Chang's most ardent supporters, the fall

7:13

of China provided a political windfall

7:15

that was ideal to use against the president.

7:18

These conservative legislators demanded

7:21

to know who exactly was responsible

7:23

for losing China. This was

7:25

the language they used, which displayed

7:28

how the cold war was already distorting

7:30

American geopolitical thinking. In

7:33

the late 1930s the

7:35

U S Congress under the sway of a powerful isolationists

7:38

faction had passed neutrality

7:40

acts that according to herring opposed

7:43

the quote notion that the United

7:46

States had the answer to world problems.

7:48

Close quote, just

7:51

a decade later, members of the same Congress

7:53

were acting as though the U S somehow owned

7:55

or controlled the entire non-communist

7:58

world and therefore if any nation

8:00

went red, the U S had somehow

8:02

lost it even when we never really

8:04

had it. The growing

8:06

tensions regarding communists gains around

8:09

the world. By 1949

8:11

led to a new official entrenchment

8:13

of the political division through the heart of Europe.

8:16

This divide began when the

8:19

Anglo American forces and Soviet armies

8:21

had gobbled up and occupied different

8:23

portions of the defeated Nazi

8:26

empire during the second world war.

8:28

West Germany and East Germany now

8:31

officially became separate countries

8:33

rather than just different occupations

8:36

zones and spoiler

8:38

alert, they would remain divided

8:40

for 50 years after the

8:42

Berlin crisis had brought East and West

8:45

perilously close to war in 1948

8:48

the U S and its Western

8:50

European allies had been working toward

8:52

a mutual defense pact that

8:54

would create an official organization

8:57

uniting the allied anticommunist

8:59

forces. In 49

9:01

these efforts came to fruition and the

9:06

North Atlantic treaty organization or NATO was born that

9:09

summer, president Truman signed the treaty making

9:11

the USA a member of NATO. This

9:14

meant that if there was an attack against

9:16

any one of the other NATO member

9:18

countries, the U S was now

9:20

obligated by treaty to defend

9:22

it. The communist block would

9:25

counter by organizing its countries

9:27

into the Warsaw pact during the

9:30

early fifties as a rival Alliance to NATO, the

9:33

two sides then armed and entrenched

9:35

against each other, preparing for

9:37

the distinct possibility of a third

9:40

world war. This

9:42

arms race kicked off with a bang

9:44

and September, 1949 as

9:46

the news broke that the Soviet union had

9:48

successfully detonated its first

9:51

atomic bomb in the four years

9:53

from August, 1945 to

9:55

August, 1949 it's

9:57

nuclear monopoly had given the United

10:00

States a confidence swagger and its conduct

10:02

of foreign affairs. Now

10:05

its greatest geopolitical foe had

10:07

acquired the American's most feared

10:09

weapon. President Truman approved

10:11

us scientific research aiming

10:13

to develop an even more powerful

10:16

super bomb or hydrogen bomb.

10:18

As a counter measure, us officials

10:20

and the public were alarmed to discover

10:23

that the Soviets had developed nuclear

10:25

weapons technology so quickly in

10:27

part because their espionage network

10:30

had stolen some of America's atomic

10:32

secrets. Now Americans wondered

10:34

whether communist spies would continue

10:36

to be a serious threat to the

10:38

USA as national security. We

10:41

will now step a bit outside the confines

10:44

of the year 1949 in

10:46

order to tell the story of the so called

10:48

red scare during the early cold

10:50

war over the late

10:52

1940s and early 1950s

10:55

revelations about communist espionage

10:57

within the U S and the UK governments

11:00

would lead to a public outcry and a hunt

11:02

for communists or reds

11:04

within almost every major sector

11:06

of American life. However,

11:09

we will save the series of baseless allegations

11:12

made by an opportunistic Midwestern

11:14

Senator named Joseph

11:17

McCarthy for a couple of episodes down the

11:19

road. The panic of 1949

11:22

is a great jumping off point for a discussion

11:24

of this red scare which got its

11:27

start in 1947 and built

11:29

momentum in the years that followed. As

11:32

mentioned in episode two, the federal

11:34

government started investigating the loyalty

11:36

of its employees under the Truman

11:38

administration's policies in 47

11:41

with the intention of kicking out communists

11:43

and other potential subversives. This

11:46

effort was followed up by a series of hearings

11:49

held by the GOP led Congress

11:51

in 1948 investigating

11:53

allegations of communist subversion

11:55

by various figures. One

11:57

key individual accused of Soviet espionage

12:00

had been on the joint U S UK team

12:02

of scientists during world war II attempting

12:05

to perfect the atomic bomb with

12:07

the New Mexico based Manhattan project.

12:11

He was a German born scientist named

12:13

Klaus Fuchs. His last

12:15

name is spelledF , U

12:18

C H. S. and you might want to be careful how you pronounce

12:20

that if you see it in print. Fuchs

12:23

was the son of a socially conscious

12:25

Lutheran pastor. He studied mathematics

12:28

and physics at the university of Leipzig.

12:30

He also became interested in left-wing ideas

12:33

as a young man and joined socialist

12:35

organizations amidst the politically

12:37

chaotic climate of the

12:40

Weimar Republic. When the Nazis Rose to power,

12:43

Fukes fled Germany and

12:45

became a resident of the United

12:47

Kingdom. He soon found work doing

12:49

scientific research at a British university

12:52

and the talented young physicist jumped

12:55

at the chance to assist in the development

12:57

of the atomic bomb in partnership

12:59

with the Americans. But in January,

13:02

1950 UK officials arrested him for

13:05

passing atomic secrets to the Soviets

13:07

during his time in New Mexico during the forties

13:10

according to historian James T, Patterson

13:13

, Fukes was convicted

13:15

and sentenced to prison, but he

13:17

was paroled after nine years and

13:19

quote lived many years thereafter

13:21

as an honored citizen in East

13:23

Germany. Close quote, how

13:26

had someone with red sympathies been allowed

13:28

into a secret us government weapons

13:30

program? One has to

13:32

remember that the Soviet union was our

13:34

ally at the time during world war

13:37

II. So pro Soviet sentiments

13:39

weren't as troubling as they would be later.

13:42

Many talented scientists from this

13:44

era were immigrants or were educated

13:46

abroad and many had the left wing political

13:48

leanings. Had we excluded

13:50

all the brilliant scientists who had flirted

13:52

with ideas outside of the U S mainstream,

13:55

we might have lost the race to develop

13:58

the atomic bomb before the Nazis did.

14:00

With hindsight, we know that security

14:02

measures should have been better, but

14:04

the main allied priority in the middle of

14:06

world war II was keeping secrets

14:09

safe from the access powers, not

14:11

from a potential communist threat. Julius

14:15

Rosenberg was distantly tied to Fuchs via

14:17

the Soviet atomic spy network.

14:20

He was American born the son of Jewish

14:22

immigrants from Russia who had settled in New

14:24

York city's lower East side. He married

14:28

Ethel Greenglass who had a similar background and

14:30

both of them had pro-communist political

14:32

views. Ethel's brother David

14:35

worked as a machinist on the Manhattan project

14:37

in New Mexico. The Rosenberg's

14:40

convinced David to send them classified

14:43

U S nuclear secrets, which they

14:45

then turned over to the Soviets . Both

14:47

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were

14:50

charged with to commit espionage

14:52

on behalf of the Soviet union as

14:55

alleged traders. During the height of the American

14:57

public outrage over the red scare,

15:00

the Rosenbergs would face a far

15:02

harsher fate than Fuchs had

15:04

received. A U S federal district

15:07

court convicted them and sentenced

15:09

them both to death. During 1951

15:12

David Greenglass was given 15

15:14

years in prison for passing them the secrets,

15:17

and he may have spared himself a tougher sentence

15:19

by agreeing to testify against his

15:21

sister, Ethel Julius and Ethel

15:24

Rosenberg were executed via electric chair

15:26

at sing sing prison in New

15:28

York during June, 1953 government

15:32

officials who supported the execution's

15:34

hope they would deter future subversive

15:36

and disloyal activities, but

15:39

the early cold war is most famous. Accused

15:41

spy might be the unfortunately

15:44

named Alger

15:46

hiss. It all began in 1948

15:48

when the house on American activities committee

15:51

or [inaudible] , which was created

15:53

to investigate subversive political

15:55

groups, brought in some admitted

15:57

former communists for congressional

15:59

questioning. One of them

16:02

Whitaker chambers had a disturbing confession.

16:05

He claimed that he had formerly been a spy

16:07

for the Soviet union during the 1930s

16:10

and that some of his fellow members of the communists

16:13

by ring now held prominent

16:15

government positions. One

16:18

of these men he insisted was

16:20

Alger hiss respectable pillar

16:22

of the establishment in the state department.

16:25

Hiss was born into a prominent Baltimore

16:27

wasp family. He attended

16:30

prestigious Johns Hopkins university

16:32

in his hometown and then earned

16:34

a law degree from Harvard. After

16:36

graduation, he worked for multiple

16:39

federal government agencies. During the

16:42

new deal years, he became a high ranking member of the

16:44

state department during world

16:46

war II. Even joining the U S delegation

16:48

to the Yalta conference where FDR,

16:50

Churchill and Stallen had met to plan

16:53

the postwar world pack in 1945

16:56

but now chambers was accusing

16:58

this well-respected public servant of

17:00

being a trader. One

17:03

of the main congressional prosecutors

17:05

of the case against Alger hiss was

17:07

representative Richard

17:10

Milhous. Nixon, a young and aggressive

17:12

politician who will become a recurring

17:14

character in modern us history.

17:17

And in this podcast, Nixon

17:19

grew up in a lower middle class. Quaker

17:21

family in Southern California. He

17:24

attended local Whittier college

17:26

and earned a law degree from Duke university.

17:29

Nixon worked as an attorney before enlisting

17:31

in the Navy upon the outbreak of world war

17:33

II, he served in the Pacific

17:36

theater before returning to Southern

17:38

California with the intention of

17:40

carving out a career in politics.

17:42

He was gifted with political skill, strategic

17:45

vision, and incredible tenacity.

17:48

But according to historian James

17:50

T. Patterson quote, even partisan allies

17:53

sometimes found him cold and

17:55

excessively ambitious. Close

17:57

quote Nixon first

17:59

one election in 1946

18:02

by upsetting a popular incumbent

18:04

representative Jerry

18:06

Vorhees , one of Nixon's biographers,

18:10

Johnny Farrel writes that in polls of congressional

18:12

staffers and reporters quote

18:15

the handsome Vorhees one top

18:17

10 rankings for diligence and

18:19

integrity. Close quote. However,

18:22

according to Farrel , Nixon proved

18:25

a far more energetic and

18:27

pugnacious campaigner for

18:29

, he's had the smarts to be a good politician,

18:32

and he looked the part, but he was

18:34

a boring public speaker. And

18:36

in 46 spouts of ill health

18:38

hampered him on the campaign trail. Nixon

18:41

publicized for . He's his past support

18:44

of socialist writer Upton

18:47

Sinclair's run for governor during the 1930s

18:50

he also implied that

18:53

[inaudible] was a communist sympathizer because

18:55

he had been endorsed by labor political

18:58

action committee with alleged

19:00

red ties. These

19:02

methods succeeded in helping Nixon

19:05

become part of the Republican wave

19:07

that crashed upon the long democratic

19:09

U S political establishment in

19:11

the 1946 midterm congressional

19:14

elections. The victorious Nixon

19:16

later said quote, of

19:18

course I knew Jerry Vorhees wasn't a communist,

19:21

but I had to when Nixon

19:24

went on to target the golden States

19:27

open Senate seat in 1950

19:30

and he used similar smears

19:32

to defeat liberal Democrat Helen

19:35

Gahagan Douglas, a former actress and wife

19:38

of movie star Melvin Douglas . According

19:40

to Patterson, Nixon called

19:42

her quote pink down to her underwear.

19:45

This gendered form of red baiting

19:48

may have been successful in getting Nixon

19:50

into the Senate, but Kahan

19:52

Douglas did manage to tag Nixon

19:55

with an unflattering nickname that

19:57

would follow him throughout the rest of his political

19:59

career. Tricky

20:01

Dick, but we're getting ahead of ourselves.

20:04

Nixon first made a national splash

20:07

in the house of representatives as

20:09

a member of the famed house on American

20:11

activities committee. When

20:13

the committee began its investigation of

20:15

communist espionage chambers

20:18

wasn't as smooth as hiss and as public

20:20

testimony. He was disheveled

20:22

and sometimes emotionally manic.

20:25

However, his personal narrative was compelling

20:27

to many Republican members of Congress.

20:30

Chambers told of being saved from

20:32

an amoral life span in service

20:35

to atheistic communism by

20:37

his conversion to Christianity. Representative

20:40

Nixon, who always felt disrespected because

20:42

of his humble background, intensely

20:45

resented the snobbish Eastern and

20:47

doggedly sided with chambers and

20:50

against his. During the hearings,

20:52

his indignantly parried, Nixon's

20:54

accusatory inquiries, and

20:56

confidently stated that there was

20:59

no substance to chambers as allegations

21:02

according to Patterson hiss , even

21:04

threatened to Sue chambers claiming

21:06

that his good name had falsely been

21:08

slandered. However, chambers

21:10

then produce secret state department documents

21:13

from his that had been provided

21:15

to him when they had both been part

21:17

of the spiring . This evidence

21:19

made his denials seem less

21:22

plausible. Alger hiss was

21:24

convicted of perjury in early 1950

21:27

and sentenced to five years in prison.

21:29

However, there would remain a politically

21:31

charged debate among historians for

21:33

decades over whether he had been

21:35

guilty of being a spy or

21:37

whether he was an innocent victim of

21:40

conservatives. Red baiting witch hunt. After

21:42

the fall of the Soviet union, further

21:45

evidence from Soviet archives

21:47

emerged that points in the direction

21:49

of hisses guilt. Dean

21:53

Atchison, the secretary of state by 1949

21:56

who had replaced to the esteemed George

21:58

C. Marshall was an Ivy leaguer like his

22:01

, and he had been eager to vouch for

22:03

hiss and defend his reputation. Atchison

22:06

seemed to share biases common to his class

22:09

who could see lower class people of recent

22:11

immigrants stock as being vulnerable

22:13

to radicalism, but who regarded

22:16

members of high pedigree, old

22:18

stock families as nothing to worry

22:20

about. In fairness,

22:22

Atchison sympathies with his , we're

22:24

deeper than just class or ethnic

22:27

prejudice. He knew the his family

22:29

well. According to authors

22:31

, Walter Isaacson and Evan

22:35

Thomas Algers brother Donald hiss worked

22:37

in [inaudible] law firm. His had

22:39

a very similar background to Atchison,

22:41

so Ashton saw hiss as almost

22:43

a younger version of himself. After

22:46

all, both had been star

22:48

students at Harvard law school and

22:50

had clerked for us Supreme court justices

22:53

both dressed impeccably and

22:55

were known for their aristocratic self-confidence,

22:58

eloquence and charm. Atchison

23:01

thus refused to seriously consider

23:03

that hiss might actually be guilty.

23:06

Unfortunately for Atchison, assumptions

23:09

based upon personal connections or

23:11

social class about who is

23:13

susceptible to being a spy could

23:15

be inaccurate and dangerous

23:18

as the British government would soon learn.

23:21

The men who ran am I six the

23:23

British equivalent of the CIA often

23:25

assumed that radical agitators

23:28

would be products of Britain's industrial

23:30

working class slums. They

23:32

didn't count on the emergence of the Cambridge

23:34

five a group of Soviet

23:36

spies who first met and gain

23:39

their political convictions while students

23:41

at the UKs elite Cambridge

23:43

university, most infamous

23:46

among them was Kim Philby, who

23:48

eventually became a high ranking intelligence

23:50

officer in [inaudible]

23:52

. The transformation

23:55

of hisses public perception from a suave

23:57

all American diplomat to a shady

23:59

probable spy was part of a

24:01

broader pattern that benefited

24:03

the political right, which now channeled

24:06

populist impulses to its benefit.

24:09

Blue blood graduates of Ivy league universities

24:11

had long been beneficiaries of

24:13

an old boy network that gave them a better

24:15

chance of breaking into the key

24:17

institutions of American society,

24:20

ranging from wall street to government

24:22

jobs in Washington DC . For

24:25

example, a great many top officials

24:27

in the recently established CIA

24:30

such as Yale graduate James

24:32

Angleton had come from upper crust backgrounds,

24:36

but some conservative Republicans from

24:38

the Midwest and far West such as Richard

24:40

Nixon and Joe McCarthy were now portraying

24:43

silver spoon backgrounds as

24:45

evidence of pampered softness

24:48

and even quote unquote feminist C

24:50

, they characterize such Eastern

24:52

elites as less trustworthy than

24:55

hardscrabble, quote unquote real

24:57

Americans objectively

24:59

discriminating either for or against

25:01

someone based upon their educational

25:04

background. Social class or

25:06

geographic origin seems both

25:08

morally problematic and strategically

25:11

misguided. Nevertheless,

25:14

regional rivalries and class resentments

25:17

did play a role in the debates of this

25:19

era. On the one hand, Nixon, McCarthy

25:21

and others, suspicious of people

25:23

with fancy educational credentials

25:26

can be seen as promoters of a foolish

25:28

anti intellectual wisdom . People with

25:30

privileged backgrounds may have gained

25:32

expertise that would make them effective

25:34

public servants. Why keep talented,

25:37

well-trained people out of government just

25:39

because they came from an advantageous background.

25:42

On the other hand, the bias of some early

25:44

architects of the cold war such

25:46

as Atchison and his fellow Wiseman

25:49

toward those with elite backgrounds caused

25:51

major blind spots and strategic

25:54

blenders such as Addison's denial about

25:57

his as probable guilt and

25:59

the Anglo American intelligence communities

26:01

. Betrayal by Kim Philby, the

26:04

aristocratic Phil B's pro communist,

26:06

treachery damaged both great Britain

26:08

and the United States because

26:10

there was a close relationship and considerable

26:13

intelligence sharing between the CIA and

26:16

mic six the CIA's James

26:19

Angleton became friends with Kim Philby who

26:21

would take him out for lengthy, boozy lunch

26:23

conversations when Philby was stationed

26:25

in Washington D C according to

26:28

Ben McIntyre's book, a spy among friends Philby

26:31

would act like Angleton's most charming

26:33

and Woody Powell, making sure the

26:35

alcoholic cocktails kept coming.

26:37

All the while subtley probing for

26:39

bits of confidential information that

26:42

he would then report back to his Soviet

26:44

handlers. Phil B used

26:46

his high government position and methods

26:49

of false camaraderie to pry

26:51

secrets out of many prominent contacts

26:53

around the world, partly due

26:55

to an unwarranted trust in Philby . Due

26:57

to his uppercrust pedigree and elite

27:00

education, the British missed

27:02

this secret communist in an

27:04

intelligence agency tasked

27:06

with stopping communists. Philby

27:09

was finally brought under suspicion. By

27:11

the mid 1950s the

27:13

agency exonerated him of criminal

27:15

wrongdoing, but maintained enough

27:17

suspicion to dismiss him from [inaudible]

27:20

. Phil B then moved to Lebanon

27:22

after being hired by a prominent British

27:24

newspaper as a middle East correspondent.

27:27

New evidence against him came to light

27:30

in the early sixties but Philby

27:32

was tipped off and he escaped

27:34

arrest by defecting to the Soviet

27:36

union. Like many such defectors,

27:39

Phil B soon found that he liked the idea of

27:41

communism better than the experience

27:44

of actually living under that system. Despite

27:47

his deep disillusionment and decades

27:49

of heavy drinking, there'll be somehow

27:51

lived on until 1988

27:54

dying in Moscow have a heart attack

27:56

just in time to miss the fall of

27:58

the Soviet system that he had betrayed

28:00

his country for and devoted his

28:02

professional life. To one

28:05

more early cold war spy merits

28:07

our attention. Elizabeth Bentley showed

28:09

that international espionage wasn't

28:12

just a man's world. She had a background

28:14

that in some ways resembled that of Alger hiss.

28:17

She came from a prosperous Northeastern

28:19

wasp family and attended

28:22

a quality private liberal arts college.

28:24

However, Bentley would have little interest

28:27

in maintaining the genteel and respectable

28:29

image that his projected as

28:31

a graduate student. During the 30s she

28:33

studied abroad in Italy and

28:36

joined a student group promoting Italian

28:38

leader, Benito Mussolini's fascist

28:40

movement. However, according to biographer,

28:44

Catherine Olmsted Bentley soon ran into academic difficulties

28:47

and she was on the verge of being kicked out

28:49

of her program. She broke

28:51

off the love affair she was having with her professor,

28:54

abandoned her studies in Italy and

28:57

returned to the USA. Bentley

28:59

moved to New York city where she became lonely

29:01

and depressed until she fell in with

29:03

another fringe ideology. She

29:06

joined the communist party and eventually

29:09

became a trusted party operative.

29:11

She was enlisted as a paid asset

29:13

of the communist spy network and

29:15

also became the girlfriend of a high

29:17

ranking Soviet spy master named

29:20

Jacob Golos. However,

29:23

Golos died in the mid forties and

29:25

a grieving and anxious Bentley became convinced

29:27

probably erroneously, that the

29:29

FBI was on to her and that she was in

29:32

danger of having her Soviet spy status

29:34

discovered in a bold

29:36

move beginning another dramatic shift

29:38

in her affiliations. Bentley walked

29:41

right into an FBI office and confessed

29:43

everything she offered to identify

29:46

and provide information about her various

29:49

communist contacts. Bentley testified

29:51

before he wack and named names

29:53

of Soviet spies and communist party

29:56

members. This audacious maneuver

29:58

did save her from serious criminal consequences,

30:01

although it left her nervously

30:03

looking over her shoulder, fearing

30:05

retribution at the hands of the feared

30:08

Russian KGB. Bentley

30:10

later made a living on the lecture circuit explaining

30:13

her latest transfer of allegiances.

30:16

Bentley converted to Catholicism and

30:18

rebranded herself as a tragic victim

30:21

of communist propaganda who had

30:23

repented like Whitaker chambers.

30:26

She cooperated with a writer to produce

30:28

a biography that took advantage of

30:30

the gender expectations of the era. She

30:33

was portrayed as a passive, innocent female

30:35

victim of communism for a time.

30:37

Bentley taught political science at a Catholic

30:40

college in Louisiana, but it

30:42

closed and she eventually drifted from

30:44

job to job. She struggled with

30:46

alcoholism and sometimes abusive

30:48

relationships with men before her death.

30:50

At age 55 Olmsted

30:53

writes that Bentley was no passive victim quote.

30:56

She was a strong woman who defied limits,

30:58

laws, and traditions. She made

31:00

her own decisions and she paid

31:02

the price for them. Close quote, the

31:05

exposure of these spies who had betrayed

31:07

us. National security based

31:09

upon their secret allegiance to communism

31:12

naturally caused widespread alarm

31:14

among the American public. President

31:17

Truman responded to the public outcry

31:19

by prosecuting and convicting the leaders

31:21

of the American communist party as

31:24

being part of a conspiracy with the intent

31:26

to overthrow the U S government. Because

31:29

some Soviet spies had worked within the

31:31

U S government. The Truman administration's

31:33

decision to begin internal loyalty

31:35

investigations was also understandably

31:38

necessary to protect national security.

31:41

However, it's also important to acknowledge

31:44

that the red scare kicked off by these

31:46

revelations caught up and kicked out

31:48

several government employees who weren't

31:50

guilty of genuine disloyalty. People

31:53

were fired from their government jobs simply

31:55

because they once belonged to left wing

31:57

organizations on a list. According

32:00

to Patterson, sometimes the accused were

32:02

not informed by federal investigators

32:04

who exactly they're anonymous accusers were.

32:07

All of this was uncomfortably reminiscent

32:09

of common practices in communist countries

32:12

were informants often denounced people as traders

32:15

to secret police. Of course,

32:18

the United States provided far more

32:20

legal due process to the accused

32:22

than Eastern block governments did, but

32:24

the FBI's activities still sometimes

32:26

trampled on individual rights

32:29

in the name of national security. Patterson

32:31

suggests that quote, by mid 1952

32:34

Truman administration loyalty boards

32:37

had investigated many thousands of employees

32:39

of whom 1200 were dismissed and another

32:42

6,000 resigned. Rather than

32:44

undergo the indignities and potential

32:46

publicity of the whole process. Close

32:48

quote, such scrutiny often

32:50

wasn't limited to government investigators.

32:53

Labor unions and civil rights organizations

32:56

purge their ranks of suspected communists,

32:59

most famously in Hollywood, but also

33:01

in other industries. Employers

33:03

blacklisted politically suspicious people

33:06

making it difficult for them to find work.

33:09

Public academic institutions in

33:11

Washington state and California

33:13

required faculty to take loyalty

33:15

oaths, disclaiming communism.

33:18

Those who refuse these oaths out

33:20

of political objections and free speech

33:23

principles soon found their job's

33:25

gone and their academic careers

33:27

over the federal government

33:29

did not limit itself to outright

33:31

communists in its attempt to

33:33

remove employees at deemed to be

33:35

security risks. The

33:38

red scare was accompanied by what historian

33:40

David K. Johnson has called

33:42

the lavender scare, which

33:44

sought to identify gays and lesbians

33:47

and dismiss them from sensitive government

33:49

positions. The supposed rationale

33:51

for this was that any individual's homosexuality

33:54

made them a black male of risk as

33:56

they supposedly might do anything, even

33:59

compromise national security to prevent

34:01

this quote unquote dark secret

34:03

about them from being revealed to the world.

34:06

However, if you think that being openly

34:08

gay would eliminate this blackmail risk

34:11

and thus protect one from the rationale

34:14

for being fired, you're clearly

34:16

not thinking like the people who are pushing this

34:18

policy. Back in the late 1940s

34:21

generally, a common cultural

34:23

view of the era was that homosexuality

34:26

was sinful, shameful, or at least

34:28

distasteful. Practicing.

34:30

Gays and lesbians were often perceived

34:33

as having poor character for acting

34:35

upon same sex desires. The

34:37

red scare provided an excuse

34:39

for the growing national security state

34:42

to drive them out of the U S government.

34:45

This occurred against the backdrop of the 1948

34:48

publication of a controversial study

34:50

of human male sexuality by

34:52

a biologist at Indiana university

34:54

named Alfred Kinsey. His book

34:56

became a surprise bestseller Kinsey's

34:59

book about sex outsold his

35:01

previous book about entomology

35:04

who could have yest . Many people were

35:06

shocked by the wide range of sexual activities

35:08

that it reported to be relatively common among

35:11

Americans, many of which occurred

35:13

outside the bounds of heterosexual marital

35:15

relationships that were supposed

35:17

to be the norm in the allegedly clean cut

35:19

and pious USA. Kinsey's

35:22

findings included survey data indicating

35:25

that many American men reported having

35:27

at least one homosexual experience.

35:31

James T. Patterson documents that quote, many writers

35:33

disputed Kinsey statistics, contending

35:36

that they were based on interviews with people,

35:38

including large numbers of prisoners who

35:41

may have spun, elaborate tales about

35:43

non-existent sexual exploits.

35:45

Close quote, regardless of the accuracy

35:48

of Kinsey's data, he brought attention

35:50

to existing behaviors that were rarely

35:52

discussed at the time. All . Today's

35:54

socially liberal person is generally tolerant

35:57

of sexual relations between consenting

35:59

adults. Many mid 20th century

36:01

Americans had a very different attitude

36:03

regarding the Kinsey report. They

36:05

were often troubled by the alleged prevalence

36:08

of quote unquote unorthodox sexual

36:11

acts and orientations. In a

36:13

sense, there was a parallel between the growing paranoia

36:15

about communism and the paranoia

36:17

about homosexuality. In both

36:20

cases, many Americans found it

36:22

unnerving that someone who seemed perfectly

36:24

quote unquote normal could secretly

36:27

be part of a circle practicing quote

36:29

unquote abnormal activities, either

36:31

by violating mainstream Christian morality

36:34

with their sexual behavior or by

36:36

betraying the American state with

36:38

acts designed to further the cause

36:40

of an allegedly sinister ideology.

36:43

The excesses of the red and lavender

36:45

scares reflect the growing paranoia

36:47

in the United States about enemies.

36:50

Within in 1949

36:53

Republicans tried to exploit this national

36:55

mood by accusing the very democratic

36:57

administration that launched the cold war

36:59

crusade against communism of

37:02

not doing enough to stop it spread.

37:04

In some ways, the Truman administration

37:07

was a victim of its own success.

37:10

In 1947 it had tried

37:12

to scare the hell out of the American people.

37:14

Regarding the communist threat, helping

37:17

to create an anticommunist frenzy,

37:19

a monster that it was now losing control

37:22

of secretary of state. Dean

37:24

Atchison had approved the language of the Truman doctrine.

37:27

However, according to Isaacson

37:29

and Thomas, he knew it was unrealistic

37:32

for the U S government to literally enforce

37:34

the doctrine that it would support every

37:36

democratic government in the world threatened

37:38

by outside pressures or armed minorities.

37:41

Atchison had thought such over the top language

37:44

necessary to sway the conscience

37:46

of the nation and had calculated

37:48

that spreading the notion that commies halfway

37:50

around the world were a threat to us.

37:52

National security was necessary

37:55

to win over formerly isolationist

37:57

politicians. Now

38:00

to the indignation of the famously egotistical

38:03

Atchison , he and original cold warrior

38:05

was being accused by conservative politicians

38:08

of being soft on communism or

38:10

even of being some kind of pinko Soviet

38:12

sympathizer because he had defended

38:15

his, which he later admitted had been

38:17

a mistake and he had failed to

38:19

prevent us from losing China. For

38:21

example, herring notes that congressional critics

38:24

such as Nixon charge that left

38:26

leaning diplomats and Atchison state department

38:28

quote had undermined support for Chang

38:31

. Thus ensuring and eventual enemy triumph.

38:34

Closed quote, according to Isaacson and

38:36

Thomas, some in the China lobby

38:38

wanted the U S military to assist Chang

38:40

in an invasion of the Chinese mainland.

38:44

Future engagements in Korea and Vietnam

38:46

would demonstrate to Americans that

38:49

will land war in Asia was no picnic

38:52

yet Atkinson's most zealous to tractors.

38:55

In light of our total victory in world war

38:57

II assumed that the U S state

38:59

department could have easily stopped Mao

39:01

before and that the U S army

39:03

could expeditiously saved China from

39:05

communism. In 1949

39:09

Isaacson and Thomas recount that a friend told

39:11

and embattled and exasperated at JSON,

39:14

the by assuming that basic facts would appease

39:16

his Inquisitor's on the China matter. He

39:18

was quote, persisting against

39:21

overwhelming evidence to the contrary

39:23

in the belief that the human mind can be moved

39:25

by facts and reason. Close quote,

39:28

Atchison offered to resign fearing he'd become

39:31

a political liability for president

39:33

Truman. The president insisted

39:35

that he remained on as secretary of state,

39:38

noting that only the most right wing faction in

39:40

Congress took insinuations of

39:42

Addison's personal disloyalty. Seriously.

39:45

However, the Truman administration now faced

39:47

constant suspicion and scrutiny

39:50

that threatened to push its officials toward hawkish

39:53

and risky foreign policies in

39:55

order to protect themselves from domestic

39:57

political criticism. The

40:00

cold war and the red scare agitated

40:02

the American people into a national state

40:05

of fear and paranoia that

40:07

was beginning to eclipse the spirit of optimism

40:10

that had accompanied the

40:12

prosperous years following the S A's victory in world

40:15

war II. Americans had hoped

40:17

for a postwar world that lived

40:19

up to the promises of the four freedoms,

40:21

championed by FDR,

40:24

freedom of speech, freedom of worship,

40:27

freedom from want, freedom from fear,

40:29

but now many feared that their

40:31

freedoms were being threatened in some

40:33

cases by the machinations of a global

40:36

communist conspiracy. In

40:38

other cases, by an increasingly aggressive

40:40

government and corporate targeting of

40:42

people based upon political suspicions,

40:44

some feared that their neighbors might be communists

40:47

betraying their nation, while others

40:49

feared that their neighbor might ruin their lives

40:52

by falsely accusing them of being communists.

40:55

Some folks were probably worried about both

40:57

of these things at the same time. To

40:59

top it all off. The Soviet communists

41:02

now had the capacity to build

41:04

atomic bombs raising

41:06

the prospect of an arms race,

41:09

nuclear weapons that could, if

41:11

both sides developed large stockpiles

41:14

and then use them against each other, bring

41:16

an end to the civilized world.

41:19

This pervasive anxiety that was gripping

41:21

postwar America truly

41:23

was the curse of the cold

41:25

war. The one constellation

41:28

thus far was that the U S government

41:30

had at least avoided direct military

41:32

conflict with international communism,

41:35

but unfortunately this

41:38

was about to change in the year

41:40

1950 from

41:51

boomers to millennials is produced by

41:54

Aaron Rogers logo design

41:56

by Kamie Schafer and Aaron

41:58

Rogers , written and narrated by Logan

42:01

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42:07

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too. If you have comments

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42:24

the audio quality in episode three about

42:26

1948 was not up to our

42:28

usual standard. We apologize,

42:30

but thanks to support, we have been able to improve

42:33

our microphone and it should not happen again.

42:36

Esteemed listeners. Yes, that means

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you. Please do us a favor and tell

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if you enjoy our historical storytelling,

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please join us next time as we begin to

42:48

describe why the 1950s

42:50

were a far more turbulent decade than most

42:52

people realize, and as always,

42:55

thank you for listening.