Red scare or red menace?

by John Earl Haynes

Anticommunism was a pervasive force in America during the cold war years, influencing domestic politics, the conduct of foreign policy, the nuclear arms race, and a myriad of social and economic circumstances. In this succinct survey, John E. Haynes traces the origins of American attitudes toward communism in the 1920s and 1930s, the rise of a full-blown cause in the years following World War II, and the relative decline of anticommunism as a political issue in the sixties and seventies. As one of a handful of American scholars allowed to review documents in newly opened archives once held by the Soviet Union, Mr. Haynes uses fresh evidence throughout in shedding new light on the U.S. confrontation with communism at home. After describing the buildup of the American Communist party in the twenties and thirties, he focuses on the heyday of popular anticommunism from 1945 to 1960. Along the way he touches on the chief episodes, personalities, and institutions of cold war anticommunism, s