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Yutaka Ozeki

Mrs. Hillesland

AP English 11 Integrated

18 September 2016

The Victims of McCarthyism

Communism in the early phases of the Cold War proved to be a threatening force that

America could not contain nor prevent. Labeled the Red Scare, it was a time in which Americans

viewed Communism as a type of rule that would destroy America and its government. This

common American perspective developed the idea that trials against people like Anne Hale and

Miriam Moskowitz who were accused of being Communists was a justified treatmenthowever,

such accusations were assaults against the First Amendment and destroyed the lives of those

accused; it exemplified the American fear of domination by Communists and that fear deterring

fair judgment.

In America, during the opening phase of the Cold War with the Soviet Union in the late

1940s and through the 1950s, the Second Red Scare broke out. The First Red Scare had occurred

shortly after the end of World War I in 1919, which ended in the 1920s. The Second Red Scare

came from the threat of the Soviet Union holding atomic bombs and that other Asian countries

will be conquered by Communism because of the inability of America to prevent Communist

takeovers, similar to in the Korean War. The Soviet Union was increasing its control and

supporters, thus threatening America, who was their opponent in the Cold War. Communism is a

political belief, but it was seen as a threat to America because their opponent, the Soviet Union,

had their government based on Communism.

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In this era known as McCarthyism, Senate Joseph McCarthy claimed that there were 205

existing members of the Communist Party who worked for the United States Department of

State. And in his speech McCarthy mentioned a quote that when a great democracy is

destroyed, it will not be because of enemies without, but rather because of enemies within

(McCarthyism). Even though not all of those who were accused were Communists, because of

his speech and his one specific quote, it made Americans fear the existence of communist spies

who they now thought were trying to destroy their country from within. This led to accusations

against people, as the fear caused people to hold suspicions against any kind of event that could

be connected to Communism.

The life of Anne Hale, a second grade teacher in Wayland, who was among one of the

1,150 teachers during McCarthyism investigated for the suspicion of being card-carrying

Communists had her career taken away from her because of her accusation. According to the

Boston Globe article How the Red Scare Destroyed a Small-town Teacher, she had once been an

active member of the Communist Party because their ideas for reforming education, ending

racial segregation in housing, and furthering womens rights had appealed to her. But Hale

decreased her activity in the Communist Party over time, and once she moved on to her job of

teaching second grade students at Wayland High School, her membership ceased in the party.

She had lost interest in the Communist Party, and would not have been accused during the Red

Scare if it were not for Margaret Crane, her former co-worker, to point out unusual behaviors and

several reasons for suspicion. The membership in the Communist party is no different than being

a member of the Democratic or Republican party, because people join one of the two parties of

America in which they favor their policies and believe that the party can improve society.

Although her reason for her membership in the Communist Party was not threatening to
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Americas position during the Cold War and she had already ceased her membership before the

Cold War, she was seen as a threat and a disloyal citizen during the Second Red Scare.

When the Wayland School Committee voted to suspend her without pay, Hale requested

for a public hearing that attracted 700 people to attend. According to the research article The Red

Scare in Wayland, by Bob Mainer, Anne Hale had made a long statement prior to the hearing,

stating [I am] willing to speak freely of my own activities, but... unwilling to submit anyone

else to investigation, and I shall therefore refuse to answer any questions regarding other people,

claiming my rights under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, to freedom of

association. Hale stated her right of the First Amendment, which clearly gives enough defensive

evidence that her accusation is unlawful and that if the only accusation against her is holding

Communist beliefs, then that alone is not enough to accuse her as a criminal. Hale took a stand

during her hearing by invoking the First Amendment to address her freedom of association, that

she had the right to be a member of the Communist Party under the law. The public hearing

made the residents suspect that there Communists were hiding in their small town community.

Even the slightest chance of Communism generated suspicion against meetings and any kind of

action that could possibly be threatening.

There was no way to prove if a former Communist Party member was still loyal to the

doctrines of America, nor a way to prove that they were under the strong influence of

Communism and had dangerous principles they believed in. Despite her public hearing, Hale

was dismissed from the school by a vote by the three-member School Committee, with a vote of

2-1. She was thought as unfit for teaching, because she was seen as not loyal and having no

respect for the tradition of freedom by having joined a Communist party in the past. The reason

she was dismissed from her job denies the First Amendment listed in the Bill of Rights, which is
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the freedom of expression. As a citizen, she had the right to classify as a Communist under the

law. But her right was taken away because Americans misjudged Communism as a threatening

weapon that could take over their government, even though it was just a political belief, that had

no threat contained in it. The majority viewed this unfair judgment as a justified treatment for the

small threat of being a Communist. Mccarthyism took away Hales previous life of a teacher in

Wayland, and replaced it with a persecuted life as a Communist. Although she was once again

able to return to the position of a teacher in Wayland in 1968, she was never again able to teach,

because she fell gravely ill and passed away that year at age 60, from a brain tumor.

A woman named Miriam Moskowitz, who was associated as a communist during the Red

Scare, battled to clear her criminal conviction in 2014. She was another person who had her life

taken away by McCarthyism.

In Moskowitzs case, she had absolutely no connection with Communism, unlike Anne

Hale and most of those accused during McCarthyism. Moskowitz was accused because of her

association with Abraham Brothman, a chemical engineer that was suspected of having provided

Harry Gold, although had worked with Brothman for years he was actually a former Soviet agent

who was working for the FBI now after he had been discovered, with documents about secret

chemical processes to be used by the Soviets (By). Her supposed relation to Communism was

that she witnessed a single conversation in 1947 between Gold and Brothman. The evidence

was only presented by Gold, who had to tell lies if he wanted to escape from his sentence of an

electric chair.

Moskowitz and Brothman were both innocent in this trial, and were only victims who

were used by Gold so that he could decrease his sentence from death to imprisonment. The

document that was used as evidence towards Brothman was actually publicly available from
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sources like the New York Public Library, and even from the U.S. Patent Office (By). And

there was no evidence that Moskowitz witnessed a conversation, nor any kind of evidence that

proved her of being a threat. According to the NY Daily News article, the only evidence that was

used against her was the fact that both Moskowitz and Brothman did not take a stand in their

defense because they were having an affair, which would have been bad news for brothman

because he was married. Even though no evidence was presented that could truly classify

Moskowitz as a threat, she had to serve two years in prison and pay a $10,000 fine. Her case

proves that during McCarthyism, most of the people accused did not have any clear evidence

against them that they were a threat, but the fear that Americans held were enough to hold

suspicions towards anyone.

Communism is a misinterpreted political belief, that is only considered as dangerous

because the Soviet Union based themselves on Communism during the Cold War. Miriam

Moskowitz and Anne Hale did not do anything to deserve having their lives ruined by

McCarthyism. It was a violation against their right of freedom of expression, which was caused

by the public view that Communism would destroy America.

Works Cited

Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times. Web. 28 Sept. 2016.

By South Carolina Supreme Court Of Child Homicide Conviction. "Phantom Spies, Phantom

Justice: How I Survived McCarthyism by Miriam Moskowitz." Justice Denied. Web. 21

Sept. 2016.

Gregorian, Dareh. "Woman, 98, Wants Her McCarthy-era Criminal Conviction Tossed." NY
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Daily News. 12 Aug. 2014. Web. 21 Sept. 2016.

"How the Red Scare Destroyed a Small-town Teacher - The Boston Globe." BostonGlobe.com.

04 Feb. 2016. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.

"McCarthyism." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association. Web. 21 Sept. 2016.

"The Red Scare in Wayland." First Parish in Wayland. 26 May 2015. Web. 19 Sept. 2016.