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#121 – Truman’s Hysteria

June 15, 2019 By Cameron Reilly Leave a Comment

In 1950 Harry Truman complained about a “great wave of hysteria” sweeping the nation – the Red Scare. He should know. He was really largely responsible for creating it. Between the launching of his “loyalty program” in March 1947 and it’s finish in December 1952, some 6.6 million persons were investigated to see if they were Communist sympathizers. Not a single case of espionage was uncovered, though about 500 persons were dismissed in dubious cases of “questionable loyalty” – which was never defined.

Meanwhile in Hollywood, the FBI were worried that that “so-called intellectuals” might be influencing scripts. Because if it’s one thing you don’t want in a democracy, it’s intellectuals.

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#120 – The Trials Of Harry Bridges

May 31, 2019 By Cameron Reilly Leave a Comment

In his “New Deal”, FDR brought back the ideals of the “Social Gospel“, a 19th century Christian reform movement, to justify the creation of the modern welfare state. For a while, at least, some American Christian leaders were big fans of socialism.

However, starting with FDR, and for the next 25 years, successive American administrations tried every trick in the book to kick Aussie union leader Harry Bridges out of their country. They all failed.

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#119 – Red Scare Part 5

May 22, 2019 By Cameron Reilly Leave a Comment

Manufacturers and the media also used the Dies Committee to silence their critics. Any attempt to criticise the behaviour of industrialists was called “socialism”. Along with communist witch hunts, another tactic industrialists used to protect themselves against the New Deal was the newly invented idea of Public Relations – a fancy name for corporate propaganda.

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#118 – Red Scare Part 4

May 18, 2019 By Cameron Reilly 1 Comment

The Red Scare continues. In 1939, Martin Dies Jr claimed that the Justice Department was investigating 2,850 known communists in government and that FDR had ordered a purge of all those named. But it was all a disinformation campaign launched by Hoover. The President hadn’t ordered a purge – but he HAD secretly ordered Hoover to make a list. As it turned out, the list included Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, Mrs. James Roosevelt (FDR’s mother), and other prominent figures close to the President were listed as financial contributors to two or more of the suspect groups. And then one member of the Dies Committee accused Eleanor Roosevelt of being part of the Communist Fifth Column.

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#117 – Red Scare Part 3

May 2, 2019 By Cameron Reilly Leave a Comment

As Red Fever grew in the United States in the 1930s, Herbert Hoover asked J. Edgar Hoover to help him blame the Bonus March of 1932 on the Communists. In August 1936, FDR invited JEH to the White House to discuss “subversive activities”. Hoover told him the biggest threat to America was an Australian – International Longshoremen and Warehousemen union President Harry Bridges. So FDR secretly authorized the FBI to conduct non-criminal “intelligence” investigations. The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA aka the Dies Committee, as it was run by Democrat Martin Dies of Texas) was created as a temporary committee of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1938, mainly as a way to undermine the New Deal and the labor movement by investigating Communist influence in them. It changed America forever.

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#116 – Red Scare Part 2

April 26, 2019 By Cameron Reilly 1 Comment

In April 1919, US authorities discovered a plot for mailing 36 bombs to prominent members of the U.S. political and economic establishment. One of those was Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer. He decided it was the work of Russian Communists, so he ordered the U.S. Justice Department to launch The Palmer Raids. And do you know who was in charge of the Palmer Raids? A 24-year-old American patriot – J. Edgar Hoover. Within three months after taking office, he controlled files on more than sixty thousand people. Hoover began to prepare for an American counterrevolution. Unfortunately, the Russian Communists had nothing to do with the 1919 bombings. It was the work of Italian anarchists. But that didn’t stop Hoover from turning the Communists into Public Enemy Number One. Even though he would himself say, years later, that the Communist Party’s influence on American life in the 1920s was “virtually nonexistent”. And even though the new Attorney General in 1924 instructed Hoover that the Bureau should not concern itself with the “political or other opinions of individuals”. JEH didn’t let that stop him.

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#115 – Red Scare Part 1

April 20, 2019 By Cameron Reilly 1 Comment

The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having Communist ties. HUAC is best remembered for the Alger Hiss case and the Hollywood blacklists. But the American fear of socialism and communism pre-dates HUAC by a century. In large part, it was rooted in RWG’s trying to prevent social progress. It also had some racist elements. After the Russian Revolution, Americans went to Russia to fight for the Monarchy. In 1919, there was the Overman Committee, a senate subcommittee to investigate Bolshevism in the United States.

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#114 Operation Lea

April 5, 2019 By Cameron Reilly 1 Comment

Finally, on Oct 7, 1947, the French made their offensive into the Viet Bac region: Operation Léa – aka Princess Leia. So-called because it was a smart, feisty, brave diplomat and warrior of a plan. But because he had less troops than he wanted, Valluy scaled down his plans. General Raoul Salan, the guy in charge of the operation, predicted it would all be over in three weeks.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED AGAIN. The Vietminh faded quietly into the jungle. Meanwhile Bao Dai talks to the French about forming an alternative government.

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#113 Toxic Nuts

March 29, 2019 By Cameron Reilly 2 Comments

Ho wonders aloud to a journalist why the Vietnamese were not being given the same opportunity as the Philippines, who had just been given their independence from the US, or India, which had just won its independence from the UK.

All the Americans seem to care about is whether or not he’s a Communist.

Meanwhile French Minister of War Paul Coste-Floret declared, “There is no more military problem in Indochina. The success of our arms is complete.”
And France has Madagascar problems involving toxic nuts.

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#112 Keyser HO-ze

March 23, 2019 By Cameron Reilly 1 Comment

Ho and his team disappear into the jungle north of Hanoi. The French think they have won. George Marshall dithers.

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