今週のテーマは、映画「オッペンハイマー」で印象的だった聴聞会のシーンからの
毎週、レッスン時はA4用紙２ページ分程度の課題レポートをわたしが音読で発表。
担任がその要点を聞きながらボードに写していく。
そのレポート内容に沿って担任との質疑応答やディスカッション・・・という感じ。
わたしがまとめていったレポートは「赤狩りの歴史」について。
今回はこのレポートを作成するのに丸２日（朝から晩までの換算で）かかったかな。
早く済んだほう・・・。
これまではだいたい４～５日かけて、コツコツやっていたけれど
１０月以降に通信制大学の勉強をやることを想定すると、
だらだらしたやり方では両立が難しいと思うので、
レポートは「２日間or25時間」くらいで完成させたい。でもレポートそのものよりも、
レポートを作成するために自分が内容を理解すること＆情報を集めることに
（そのためにたくさん動画を見たり記事を読んだりしている）
一番時間がかかっているので、そこの「内容把握」のための時間を
どう短縮するか？が最大の問題。今回くらいのペースで仕上げられると
かなり時間の圧縮になるので、大学の勉強と両立できる気がする。
テーマの難しさにもよるので、今後も意識して取り組んでみることにしよう。
（※自分用原稿なのでおそらくたくさん文法ミスしてます）
（※ネットから得た情報をソースとしているので、表現を原文そのまま使ってるところもあり）
Communism as an ideology first emerged in the 19th century. And in 1917, when Russia was taken over by a Communist groups led by Bolsheviks, there was a brief but intense period of anti-communist hysteria in the US triggered by terrorist bombings in several cities. Many Americans were terrified that a similar type of communist uprising would occur in the US. Because at the time, the influx of migrants from Eastern Europe, where communism and anarchism were prevalent, was increasing. And this led to the harsh crackdowns on socialist and anarchist movements.
The most prominent events were Palmer Raids, the arrests and deportations of hundreds of communists, anarchists and radicals. In addition, Criminal syndicalism laws were enacted to make it illegal for individuals or groups to advocate radical political ideologies including communism and anarchism. During the 1910s and 1920s, authorities arrested thousands of people for advocating views and opinions that differed from or opposed those of the government. And these were the first Red Scare in the US.
During the first Red Scare in 1919, the Communist Party of the United States of America, or CPUSA was founded. The party had about 12,000 members within the first year, most of whom were foreign born. And by 1928, the party grew its membership to about 28,000, by appealing especially to the working class. It still remained a small fraction of American society. But the Great Depression in the 1930s significantly increased its membership, reaching about 75,000. Some people believed that capitalism had failed and communism could offer equal job opportunities and promise stable life. And there were a lot of meetings or parties held by communist front organizations.
But in fact, not all members were true radicals. During that time, especially in certain intellectual circles, it had become trendy to study communist ideas. So there were quite a few people who attended or belonged to groups related to communism without giving it much thought.
The beginning of the second Red Scare can be traced back to the late 1940s and early 1950s. During WW2, when the US and Soviet Union were allied against Hitler, some American communists actually spied for the Russians. But as the relationship between the two countries got worse after the war, domestic communism came to be seen as a threat to national security. President Truman feared communist influence from the Soviet Union as well as criticism from the Republican party that he was soft on communism.
In 1947, Truman signed executive order 9835. The order was established to root out communist influence in the US federal government. It ordered the FBI to hunt down secret communists in the public service, resulting in about 3 million investigations, and 300 firings of federal employees.
And this criteria that the FBI used to screen federal employees soon spread to the rest of the country. Thousands of other public and private employers were imposing the same political tests on their employees both men and women. In 1949, the Cold War shifted into high gear. China became a communist ruled country as a powerful ally with the Soviet Union.
And the Soviet Union succeeded in testing its first nuclear weapon, which was a shock to American intelligence. They suspected Soviet spies were in their research and development organization, and later it was confirmed. So these events fueled anxiety about communism or Soviet spies in the US.
As I mentioned earlier, during the first Red Scare, there were a lot of people participating in the meetings and parties hosted by communist organizations, like CPUSA with no particular motive. And those were not a big deal at that time. But a lot of those people had grown older and had jobs in the US government.
Their past was thoroughly investigated in the second Red Scare.
The Republican party especially tried to take advantage of this public anxiety to get more votes by accusing the Democrats of being soft on communism and deliberately losing China to the Communist Bloc. They controlled the chairmanships of various committees in the house and senate. One of these was House Un-American Activities Committee, or HUAC.
Its mission was to investigate communist propaganda or subversive activities attempting to undermine or attack the form of government. HUAC mainly focused on universities, labor unions, and the film industry. Some of the congressmen had suspicion that certain screenwriters were using motion pictures to spread subversive ideas to the American public, and movies might be brainwashing citizens with communist ideas.
At the hearings, some of the Hollywood celebrities like Walt Disney and Ronald Reagan testified as friendly witnesses. On the other hand, there were some writers or directors who refused to answer the committee's questions. Those people believed their interrogation by congress about their personal beliefs itself was Un-American activity.
And Joseph Raymond McCarthy, a Republican senator became notorious in the Second Red Scare. He gave a speech at a meeting of the Republican Women’s Club and claimed that he had evidence of 250 communists working in the state department. It drew a lot of media attention and It turned him into an overnight sensation. The US government set up anti-communist panels at every level from small town local government to the white house. Their purpose was to root out secret communists.
MaCarthy and other politicians continued making outrageous accusations without clear evidence, sometimes distorting or fabricating evidence. Hundreds of people working for the government bodies were subpoenaed by investigative committees to testify. If they refused to cooperate, they could be jailed for contempt, or fired and blacklisted. Oppenheimer was exactly one of the victims.
In 1953, MaCarthy turned his eyes towards secret Communists in the military. He claimed that there were communists within the army. However, his allegations were not well-founded and lacked concrete evidence. In 1954, when a famous journalist accused MaCarthy of his illegal methods of Red Hunting in his TV show, public criticism of MaCarthy spread and this led to the drop of his reputation. He eventually lost his presence on the political scene.
These are the brief history of Red Scare and McCarthyism.
