Fighting the 'Red Menace': fearing Communism's spread from overseas, the U.S. government waged a decades-long battle at home.

• Author: Price, Sean
• Position: Times Past

For much of the 20th century, America was preoccupied with a threat that seemed to loom within its borders, at the same time it challenged nations around the world: Communism.

To prevent Communists from infiltrating American life, the federal government--Republicans and Democrats alike--waged a periodic war against domestic Communism and those suspected of sympathizing with it. Many alleged Communists were arrested, deported, or called before Congress and effectively prevented from working. Some Americans felt these were legitimate tactics in the face of a dire threat; others considered them "witch hunts" that ruined innocent lives.

POLICE RAIDS

The anti-Communist battle began on November 7, 1919, with authorities kicking in doors in New York and 11 other U.S. cities. Federal agents and police burst into homes and meeting halls, rounding up immigrants and others suspected of having Communist ties.

The raids were initiated by A. Mitchell Palmer, the attorney general under President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat. By the time the roundups--later known as the "Palmer Raids"--ended in 1920, hundreds of immigrants had been deported for being "Red"--a color originally symbolizing radicalism and anarchy, and later identified with Communism. Thousands of others--both immigrants and American citizens--spent time in jail.

What prompted the raids? In 1917, with World War I still raging, Communists took over Russia and renamed it the Soviet Union. They called for the overthrow of capitalism and implemented a totalitarian government that attempted to control all facets of society.

After the war ended in 1918, Communism threatened to sweep across Europe. At home, labor strikes and social unrest hit some American cities, with many blaming "Reds."

While it was not then--and has never been--a federal crime to belong to the Communist Party, officials prosecuted some suspected Communists under wartime sedition and espionage laws, which outlawed speaking against or interfering with the government or the military.

CAPITALISM THREATENED

Membership in the Communist Party in the U.S. was actually tiny during the 1920s--about 20,000. The Great Depression, which began in 1929 and made millions of Americans jobless and hungry, gave the party a boost because it seemed to call into question the capitalist system.

Though still a fringe group, Communists began to gain a greater voice in the labor movement, in Hollywood, and in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. Many...