Subversives in Government
| Author | Francis Biddle |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271625530000109 |
| Published date | 01 July 1955 |
| Date | 01 July 1955 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
51
Subversives
in
Government
By
FRANCIS
BIDDLE
I N
the
opinion
of
many
American
&dquo;liberals&dquo;-if
I
may
be
excused
for
using
a
word
which
is
now,
as
it
has
so
often
been
for
the
past
two
hundred
years,
in
disrepute-Americans
for
a
dozen
years
or
so
have
been
suffering
from
a
curious
sort
of
disease.
That
it
is
hard
to
define
makes
it
no
less dis-
cernible.
That
it
seemed
to
many
so-
cial
psychologists
to
evidence
imma-
turity,
growing
pains,
the
unstable
state
of
adolescence,
a
sort
of
spiritual
jit-
ters,
was
at
first
a
comforting
diagnosis,
until
they
began
to
realize
that
we
were
not
growing
up.
The
jitters
did
not
stop,
they
increased.
The
fears
spread.
It
was
all
very
well
to
explain
them
in
psychological
and
historical
terms,
to
say
that
with
the
loss
of
our
cherished
isolation
we
found
ourselves
suddenly
standing
stripped
of
our
comfortable
assumptions
in
a
tight
world
of
con-
flicting
nations,
a
new
world
heretofore
hidden
from
our
sheltered
vision,
of
which
we
had
suddenly
become
the
cen-
ter.
We
had,
in
a
sense
for
the
first
time,
bitten
into
the
knowledge
of
evil
which
was
part
of
the
daily
diet
of
the
Old
World.
We
were
afraid-but
of
what?
Not
so
much
of
Russia,
appar-
ently,
as
of
ourselves.
Was
it
true,
as
Senator
McCarthy
had
said
in
1951,
that
&dquo;the
crimson
clique
in
the
govern-
ment
had
engineered
the
Communist
victory
in
China&dquo;?
Were
Americans
betraying
Americans?
Was
there
a
clear
and
present
danger
of
revolution
in
our
country?
Generalities
are
dangerous.
Motives
are
mysterious
and
conflicting.
Yet
some
conclusions
must
be
reached
be-
fore
we
can
take
the
next
steps.
We
must
try
to
see
our
direction,
steadily
at
least,
if
it
is
impossible
to
see
it
whole.
So
let
us
say,
to
start,
that
in
some
fields,
among
certain
people
in
our
country,
since
1938
(to
take
as a
convenient
date
the
year
when
the
House
Committee
on
Un-American
Ac-
tivities
was
organized),
there
has
been
conviction
that
the
government
of
the
United
States
is
&dquo;infiltrated,&dquo;
as
the
expression
goes,
with
Communists;
that
in
certain
states
the
fear
took
the
form
of
believing
that
young
Americans
were
being
taught
Communism
on
campuses
of
colleges
supported
by
their
parents
and
the
public
generally;
that
in
many
universities,
as
Dean
Millicent
C.
Mc-
Intosh
of
Barnard
said,
pupils
had
be-
gun
to
believe
that
anything
identified
with
peace,
freedom
of
speech,
or
ne-
gotiations
to
resolve
differences
was
identified
with
Communism,
and
were
&dquo;becoming
afraid
to
advocate
the
hu-
manitarian
point
of
view
because
it
has
been
associated
with
Communism.&dquo;
Terror
of
Communism
was
at
the
base
of
it
all.
But
the
terror
has turned
backward
and
inward.
It
was
no
longer
terror
of
a
foe
that
could
be
seen
and
met,
objective
and
measurable,
but
of
the
inner
treachery
of
the
mind,
the
worm
of
treason
feeding
in
our
own
breasts-a
cankerous
growth,
deep
and
dark.
Were
we
doubtful
of
our
insti-
tutions
as
we
had
begun
to
doubt
them
when
the
false
heroes
of
fascism
and
nazism
for
a
short
while
had
shone
with
a
spurious
glow
of
accomplishment,
and
efficiency
and
good
roads
seemed
tempt-
ing
in
the
light
of
the
slow,
careless,
and
so
often
corrupted
steps
that
dogged
the
progress
of
a
democracy
which
no
longer
met
the
needs
of
a
changing
world?
Most
of
us
did
not
care.
Between
in-
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