08. Socialist America - Nuclear threats

The Threat of Nuclear War in the Fifties

The Soviets and the USA had of course, made an alliance out of expediency which had immediately dissolved at the end of the war. 

In place of the alliance there developed a rivalry and distrust in which two nuclear powers tried to maintain dominance over the other in what is termed "The Cold War". 

Since the Soviets had developed their own bomb in 1949 any direct confrontation seemed suicidal since nuclear war meant total destruction. 

There was a very real fear of a nuclear attack on America, how real this was is cause for speculation but naturally politicians of both parties often tapped into that fear and ran for office based on how strong they would be against communists. 

President Dwight Eisenhower's military plan relied on nuclear stockpiles rather than land forces. He hoped the threat of nuclear destruction would restrain the Soviets. 

The Hydrogen Bomb
Increasing American fears was the development of the hydrogen bomb, many times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

The hydrogen bomb, was tested on Eniwetok atoll in the Pacific in 1952. The test gave the United States a short-lived advantage in the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. (They got one of their own the following year)

The Movies had a field day with films about the cold war as well as the rise of a spate of science fiction films in which Americans were constantly reminded of some kind of external imminent threat. 

At school, children were taught to hide under their desks in the case of a nuclear attack, practice drills were a common occurrence in the weekly program. 

Duck and Cover 

The civil defense film Duck and Cover, first screened in 1952, sought to help schoolchildren protect themselves from injury during a nuclear attack by instructing them to find shelter and cover themselves to prevent burns. Though "ducking and covering" hardly would have helped to prevent serious injury in a real atomic bombing, these rehearsals for disaster at least gave American citizens an illusion of control in the face of atomic warfare.

Office buildings and schools were designated as Civil Defense fallout shelters. Nuclear warning sirens were erected in cities to warn the surrounding neighborhoods of impending attack. The sirens would be periodically tested.

Radio and television stations regularly interrupted their programming to run warning signals. The prerecorded announcement would say, "This has been a drill..." It is not surprising that Americans were fearful about a nuclear attack.

Nuclear fear led to a new market for fallout shelters. Home economics classes taught girls how to stock such a shelter with food and supplies in the event of nuclear attack. The government created official films on shelters, praising their value and advising homeowners on how to use them.

President Dwight Eisenhower recognized the negative effects of nuclear fear on Americans. He cautioned people that "We do not have to be hysterical. We can be vigilant."

The Red Scare

There already was a "red scare" in the USA during the 1920's. 

The communist party was very active in the 1920's and had far more American members than during the cold war era thirty years later. But perhaps the excesses of Stalin managed put a lot of American's off the idea by the end of World War 2.

Socialist aspirations emerged in the 1950's again, it was a leftist movement that was critical of the exclusivity of the white elites and their self indulgent materialism. 

But predictably, it gained popularity amongst marginalized Americans particularly the Afro-Americans who were completely excluded from the post-war boom and it seemed that in spite of their so called emancipation, the black population was enslaved as much as ever.

From Russia with Love

To many of these oppressed people, Russia had paved the way, Communism seemed a way forward, a viable alternative to white controlled democracy. Socialism could place all Americans on an equal playing field and eliminate racial hatred, segregation and poverty and the marginalization all black people suffered.

Showboat - 1951

In 1926 the daughter of a Hungarian Jewish immigrant, Edna Ferber wrote a story about a floating theatrical company that made its living traveling up and down the Mississippi river and its various tributaries to distant towns, on a "Show Boat" bringing entertainment to the people who had no access to the main cities.

Why was this story written?

Edna Ferber directly tackles issues of segregation and miscegenation in a poignant tale that clearly demonstrates the inhumanity and cruelty of racial prejudice in America.

Was this understanding of the cruelty of racial segregation just a realization of injustice that comes about through education and learning? 

Or did she write this book as a result of being herself part of a persecuted minority? 

Ferber was a remarkable novelist and had another of her books adapted for Screen as well, GIANT, here she chronicles three generations of TEXAS cattle barons and oil Tycoons. 

There is no morality lesson about persecution or segregation here, it is just a great story. 

An epic tale of love and power, Giant was the basis of the classic film starring James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rock Hudson.






But I digress




Back to Show Boat 

A highly successful musical adaptation followed, by Jerome Kern and Roger Hammerstein which played to sold out houses in the West End in London. 

It  featured a rising talent Paul Robeson who played the character Joe, the stevedore who sings "Ol' Man River",
which was expanded from the novel and written specifically for Robeson, who naturally went on to play the part in the film version in 1936.

What were the reasons for its enormous success? Was the  public convicted of the injustice of racial segregation? Why didn't this reflect in the politics of the day? 

The film was so popular but the people who were buying tickets were as racist as ever. How do we explain this?

Maybe it was a new concept that needed time to work itself out in the society.

Paul Robeson
Robeson was born in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1898. His father started life as a plantation slave in North Carolina, but escaped in 1860 and eventually become a pastor. Robeson studied Law and won a Scholarship because he was an outstanding athlete, but after suffering much at the white dominated university he attended, as well as prejudicial treatment in his law firm,  he resigned in disgust and  became an avowed communist and even went to visit the Russians. But Robeson was also able to sing and possessed a fine baritone voice. 

In 1924 the Multitalented Robeson shot to fame when Eugene O’Neill asked him to star in All God’s Chillun Got Wings and The Emperor Jones. 

Showboat in London followed four years later. 

Robeson travelled to the USSR several times during the 1930s; in Moscow, he said: “Here I am not a Negro but a human being for the first time in my life... I walk in full human dignity.” He espoused many of communism’s apparent ideals, noting that “the power of the Soviet Union… would become an important factor in aiding the colonial liberation movement”.

The Ultimate Irony
Robeson played Joe in four notable productions of Show Boat: the 1928 London premier production, the 1932 Broadway revival, the 1936 film version and a 1940 stage revival in Los Angeles.

In 1951 the most famous version of 'Showboat' was made. . . 
BUT where was Paul Robeson. . . ?!

It was one thing to be Black! It was quite another to be Black and and a Communist!

 Robeson would find himself public enemy no.1 in McCarthy's Communist paranoid America. 
  
He was not permitted to perform anywhere in the United States because he had joined the ranks of  'Blacklisted' artists who had shown an affiliation to the communist party and were therefore deemed un-American and a criminalized by the US government. His passport was revoked and he was unable to earn a living and sunk into poverty and obscurity.  In the film William Warfield (an admittedly gifted singer in his own right) was given the role and did a fine job, but Ol Man River was and always will be. . . Robeson's song.

Communism, made a lot of sense - everything to win and nothing to lose. The black Afro-American had nothing to show from a history of discrimination. Rejected and relentlessly trodden upon - what hope did they have for a prosperous future?

 To an average Black American, Socialism certainly looked like a good idea, especially when one considers how democracy was supposed to freedom of choice  for all people but was in fact only for white people. 

McCarthyism
Did indeed expose the socialists in American and the artists and performers who suffered the most were two of the most marginalized and persecuted people on earth, the Jewish and Afro-Americans.

McCarthy provided a means to an end, integration was not moral because they (the blacks) were by nature, degenerate and therefore prone to communism, it was up to the "pure" white Americans to maintain their 'high moral standards'.

This is the belief propagated  by bigoted Neo Nazi Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. 
By equating white Anglo-Saxon Protestantism with "true Americanism," it fueled intolerance for blacks, Catholics, Jews, and immigrants. 

The movement began as a reaction to the emancipation of the slaves at the end of the civil war in the 1860's. It reached a peak in the 1920's before fading out by 1930. But its core beliefs did not die out and the idea that white protestants were the pure people of God and everyone else was excluded was the very justification that McCarthyism and segregation appealed to. 

Not everyone would admit they agreed with the racist policies of the Ku Klux Klan, but they sure were not kicking up much of a fuss about it either, and as soon as the civil rights movements began to gather momentum at the end of the 50's it was no coincidence that the KKK also reared its ugly head again.

This mentality was tacitly encouraged and used by the Political parties who appealed specifically to the white electorate on these values and practices.  

But apparently there was something in the Declaration of Independence that had been forgotten - or ignored.


“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness….”


 But in fact "Democracy" in the USA was far more like the "Democracy" of ancient Greece. . . the place where the concept originated. There was no place for the declaration in ancient Greece in which the Pagan Aristocracy did indeed vote for their representatives but only amongst the elite, the rest of the community and the vast majority of the population was made up of slaves. . . 

 who had no rights at all.

White America WAS the aristocracy and looked down on all other races as inferior, many would never admit this of course.

Racial Prejudice was given a new lease on Life with the Red Scare, It was now OK to be suspicious of Blacks and Jews - and anyone else who had Communist leanings. The fear of being taken over by Communists or being attacked by nuclear missiles was dished up to the public and "evidence" from the likes of Paul Robeson as well as the other Jewish subversives in Hollywood.

The Red Scare 

The Witch Hunt Begins

Back in 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) brought the Cold War home in another way. The committee began a series of hearings designed to show that communist subversion in the United States was alive and well.

In Hollywood, HUAC forced hundreds of people who worked in the movie industry to renounce left-wing political beliefs and testify against one another. Many of the directors writers and actors were Jewish and it was true also many of them had previously had dalliances of various levels in the 1920s  Feeding on the racism of the general public More than 500 people lost their jobs. It was one thing to be a Jew, and another to be a "Jew/Commy". 

Many of these “blacklisted” writers, directors, actors and others were unable to work again for more than a decade.
The most famous case of Jewish suspicion and hatred was witnessed at the execution (legitimized lynching) Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953, both put to death in the electric chair for espionage. 

It was one thing to be a Jew. . . But a Jew Communist!

They had been accused of heading a spy ring that passed top-secret information concerning the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. 

Many people believed that the Rosenbergs were the victims of a surge of hysterical anticommunist feeling in the United States, and protested that the death sentence handed down was cruel and unusual punishment. 


Most Americans, however, believed that the Rosenbergs had been dealt with justly.

McCarthyism reaches its monstrous apogee 

HUAC also accused State Department workers of engaging in subversive activities. Soon, other anticommunist politicians, most notably Senator Joseph McCarthy (1908-1957), expanded this probe to include anyone who worked in the federal government.

Thousands of federal employees were investigated, fired and even prosecuted. As this anticommunist hysteria spread throughout the 1950s, liberal college professors lost their jobs, people were asked to testify against colleagues and “loyalty oaths” became commonplace.

The Lavender Scare
As we have established, upper and middle class Americans were enjoying an unprecedented time of prosperity such as their ancestors had never known. 

The desire to protect and hold this wealth and good living was justified by alluding to a certain view of Christianity. This version of Christianity was exclusively for the white middle class Americans, wealth was gift from God bestowed upon his people who in exchange were expected to uphold its conservative morality. Just as the Israelites in Canaan were expected to live apart from the pagans who surrounded them, white Americans became convinced they too were the chosen people who expected to live their exclusive lives free from any interference from minority groups of a certain color, political persuasion or . . .

sexual orientation. . .

To justify the horrendous genocide of the native American tribes a century before, there were those who drew a parallel to Biblical episodes describing the Israelites wiping out the Canaanites in the promised land to make room for God's people. 

Perhaps by the 1950's there was an element of chagrin and guilt over this dreadful legacy, but it was slipping away into a distant memory and had no bearing on everyday life in industrialized 20th Century America. 

But there there was something that was and it provoked a violent reaction in the neo-conservatives of the postwar era. 

The Homosexual purge of the 50's dubbed "The Lavender Scare".

The average nuclear home in the USA was homogeneous conservative and avowedly heterosexual. It upheld traditional moral values regarding family and marriage based on Judeo-Christian traditions  Homosexuality was a sin and a mental that was regarded as criminal behavior. Any homosexual in the 1950's had no choice but to keep his predilections firmly in the closet.

The conservatives dominated the media and any kind of activity that threatened their exclusive family orientated suburban lives was ruthlessly persecuted. Homosexuality was even more vilified than Communism, which viewed in the light of the whole red scare scenario is saying a lot!

Watch Out For Homosexuals-50s Public Information Film


This just sets the stage for a different type of explosion that was looming on the American panorama. The peaceful prosperous and free democracy that was so important to the propagandists of the day was teetering on the edge of precipice that it was about to plunge into during the next chaotic era 1960's 

The Beat Generation and Allen Ginsberg’s America
by Sean Wilentz

Introducing  Alan Ginsberg

Ginsberg arrived at Columbia in 1943, a young idealist with strong socialist convictions

He was also anti authoritarian and a homosexual . . .

But . . . he was also white and educated and therefore 

a complete traitor to his class. . .

He fell in with another student, Lucien Carr, who introduced him to his older friend (and fellow St. Louis native) William S. Burroughs and to a Columbia dropout, Jack Kerouac, who was living on Morningside Heights with his girlfriend, having been honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy on psychological grounds. 

In conversation with Ginsberg, Carr formulated the aesthetics of what he called, borrowing from William Butler Yeats, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and, above all, Arthur Rimbaud, the “New Vision”—a Left Bank bohemian transcendentalism, at once Edenic and decadent, based on shameless self-expression, an unhinging of the senses, and renunciation of conventional morality.

This was the Birth of the Beat Generation. . .

Allen Ginsberg Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs

When we see all these events through the compressed lens of  hindsight, it is obvious that not all was well in post war America. We've discussed a few literary observations about racism and the plight of the negro. We have also seen some expressions from amongst the black community itself. 

But there was precious little commentary in the world of Art, the middle class of suburban dwellers was notoriously poorly educated on matters of culture, the only contribution that expressed strong doubts or cynicism about the status quo came from a group of young city dwellers who gravitated to New York 's Greenwich village shortly thereafter across the continent in San Francisco

 They generally were not communists, blacks, Jews or immigrants (Americans seemed to have  conveniently forgotten they were ALL once immigrants). 

These were regarded as traitors of their own white Aristocracy and came to be remembered as . . .

The Beat Poets.