BY JAMES SPENCE

James Spence

Hoover and Communism

Grade 11

Mr. Houston

March 25, 1999

Thesis: How J. Edgar Hoover, in trying to protect the nation from the Communist threat, contributed to the national hysteria which resulted in the destruction of the lives of hundreds of legitimate Americans and set the stage for the era of McCarthyism.

I. Introduction

A. Description of Communism

B. Backdrop of Cold War relations

C. Conservatism in America

II. J. Edgar Hoover

A. Background

B. Anti-Communism of

III. Methods of destroying subversion

A. Surveillance

B. Informants

C. Propaganda

D. Rumor

IV. Reasons for Anti-Communism

V. Major FBI cases

A.Alger Hiss Trial

B. Rosenberg execution

C. Added to panic

VI. Relationship with McCarthy

VII. Conclusion

A. How Hoover was able to become so powerful

B. Whether his ends justified his means

C. How can individuals combat hysteria?

One of the greatest debates of the modern era has come in the form of the twentieth century question of supremacy: who will prevail, the Bear or the Eagle? This is in reference to the Cold War, which is often thought of as an arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union. However, because the Cold War was so much more than a just a standoff, it has become such a revealing area of debate and study. The nuclear arms race was also a philosophical war between the Capitalist and Communist systems, and really a contest to determine the course the world would take to replace the defunct mercantile-imperialist philosophy which had dominated Europe and its colonies until The Great War. It is imperative to realize that this war of philosophy was by no means limited to the Americans and Soviets, but was played out on an international stage, affecting nearly all nations even if they were not allied with either side. Also, the struggle reflected on all facets of both U.S. and Soviet ways of living, from the military and scientific developments to the running of government and economy, and including culture, athletics, entertainment, and national ideology. Both philosophies seemed to be consistent on at least one point, especially in the earlier years: the very existence of one was a threat to all that the other stood for.

In order to comprehend Cold War studies, a basic understanding of Communist philosophies and doctrines is needed. Communism is a descendent of Marxism, a school of thought developed by the nineteenth century German philosopher Karl Marx. Among other beliefs, Marx set forth the idea that history was merely a documentation of the class struggle of worker against management. He also supported the notion that the nature of man is determined solely by economic factors, thus leaving no room for a belief in God or in the soul. Marx claimed that products were only worth the amount of work required to create them, known as the labor theory of value. Therefore surplus value or profit generated on a product by management, as in the capitalistic supply and demand theory of value was an exploitation of the labor force used to create the product. Borrowing the process of dialectic reasoning from Hegel, Marx then predicted what he believed to be the future of man.

Marx advocated an idea that Capitalism and free enterprise would soon overextend themselves to the point where they would become essentially exaggerated and untrue. At this point, the antithesis of Capitalism, which Marx heralded as Socialism, would begin to cultivate in the minds of many. The two would clash in a revolution, and the resulting system would be a synthesis of both: Communism.

In theory, many Communist principals seem to be utopian. Communistic ideals generally attributed as being summarized by Josef Stalin include some of the following. There would be no private ownership of production; rather, the collective would hold a social regulation of industry and agriculture. There was to be no classes or upper management; instead workers would manage economic affairs as a free association. The state would plan and regulate the economy fully, and prices as well as wages would be determined by the state. No antagonism would exist between factions within society; all that was done would be within the best interest for the masses. Great developments would be made in the fields of the arts and the sciences. Finally, by doing this, the proletariat would be freed from bowing to the elite, so to speak, and in this way the worker would become truly free. [Swearingen, 12-15]

However, it is essential to keep in mind that theoretical Communism and Communism practiced in the Soviet Union, China, or the other socialistic states became two very different systems. The Marxist ideals of a collectively owned system soon gave way to an abuse of power in Russia and dictatorship worse than that which was experienced during the age of the Tsars. Communism on the whole was not popular or successful in the countries that it possessed The new order became the excuse to root out dissension with no mercy, resulting in mass imprisonment and purges, which in terms of numbers are believed to have surpassed the Holocaust. Poverty and depression became rampant. Yet supporters of this new order continued to advocate its supremacy although even in its early stages, Communism did not even come close to the goals that had been set for it.

While the Iron Curtain was beginning to fall between the Communist states and the Free World, the United States was becoming the new leader in world politics and in the free Western economy. Part of this was due to the strength of the American dollar in relation to the other currencies in the post-World War II era. The U.S. economy had more than doubled during the course of the war, to become the most powerful industrial nation in man's history. Also, at the time, the U.S. held a virtual nuclear monopoly, and had flexed its atomic muscle in Hiroshima and Nagasaki with astonishing force. The very fact that the US had survived such a damaging depression only twenty years earlier, and had been able to reemerge as a strong nation was in itself a tribute to Capitalism. Therefore when Americans saw nations such as China "lost" to Communist forces under Mao, it was no longer simply a victory for Communists; it was blow to the U.S. as the leaders of the Free World.

Mao's defeat of the Chinese nationalist leader Chiang Kai-sheck, whom the U.S. supported, was made even more threatening to the Western world because it coincided with the exploding of the first Soviet atom bomb. Almost simultaneously the United States had its nuclear monopoly broken by none other than its greatest post-war enemy, and they had lost what had seemed to be a valuable ally and trading partner in a nationalist China under Kai-sheck. Soon after, the army of North Korea under the Communist Kim Il Sung advanced on the 38 parallel, the border between Soviet-controlled North Korea and American-occupied South Korea. This action forced the U.S. and UN to send their own forces into the Far East. [Isaacs, ] To Washington officials as well as a large percentage of civilians, it seemed as though Communist forces were operating under a well-orchestrated and aggressive plan to rid Asia of Western democracies. However exaggerated, this interpretation, sparked a fear in Americans that the "cleansing" of Asia was a part of a worldwide Soviet attempt to destroy Western free enterprise democracy entirely. A belief such as this was compounded by the fact that the "Reds" now possessed atomic weapons and had also advanced on a territory under the American sphere of influence. It was this very fear that conservative leaders took advantage of in the early 1950's, resulting in an era of hysteria characterized by Joseph McCarthy and a longer lasting era of secrecy and power under the guidance of J. Edgar Hoover.

In the period of conservatism that followed the Second World War, FBI Director John Edgar Hoover was arguably one of the most powerful and untouchable figures in Washington. An intensely dedicated man, Hoover had transformed the marginal and deteriorating Bureau of Investigation to which he was appointed director in 1924 into an extremely sophisticated and dominant agency in the field of domestic intelligence. Renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935, Hoover's agency became increasingly more powerful by the late 1940's due both to Hoover's close allegiances to various conservative members of Congress and other Federal agencies as well as his genius for propaganda. While the power of the Bureau grew, Hoover's own reputation and personal authority grew on an even greater scale, to the point where he had virtually nonexistent opposition even from those to whom he reported. With this immunization from outside control, gained a greater ability to launch his own personal crusades against those members of society whom he considered to be threatening to the well being of Americans, even if there was no legal basis for investigation or surveillance. The majority of these persons were liberals or radicals, and included union leaders, civil rights advocates, politicians (i.e. the Kennedys), and anyone associated with Communism. [Powers, 147, 273-275]

Of all the organizations or individuals whom Hoover believed to threaten the nation, few were loathed as much by the FBI director as Communists. One of the earlier examples of such an intense malevolence came early in his career, in his role in the so-called "Palmer Raids" of the early 1920's. These raids received their name from the man who was responsible for orchestrating them, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, one of Hoover's superiors when he himself was acting as the head of the General Intelligence Division of the Justice Department. [Klingamen, 180-181] Hoover constructed a file of supposed radicals, as well as preparing a draft describing the purpose and functions of the recently formed Communist Party of the U.S. Later he used this information in planning the actual raids, the purpose of which being to collect mass numbers of alleged radicals to be held without counsel or hearings until they could be deported. [Powers, 216] Hoover's conclusion concerning the Communist Party at the time was that it was an utter menace:

"These [Communist] doctrines threaten the happiness of the community, the safety of every individual . . . They would destroy the peace of the country and throw it into a condition of anarchy and lawlessness and immorality that passes imagination."

[Klingamen, 181]

This declaration of belief seemed to set the tone for the personal side of Hoover's career for the next fifty years. During the 1930's, Hoover drove the FBI to uncover data on US Communist subversion; by the end of the decade it had grown into an extensive examination into the party, relying greatly on a broad base of informants which came to be characteristic of Hoover's FBI. However the issue which was greatly untouched was that there was not a body of evidence to support such an investigation, nor did the activities of the party fall under any existing criminal ordinance. This seemed to be characteristic of the FBI at the time. Partially because its activities were kept classified, and partially because few dared to oppose an individual such as Hoover, the Bureau often was used to bend the laws of Civil Liberty to overextend Hoover's influence where he did not rightfully have it.

This anti-Communist influence which Hoover wielded was not limited simply to the judicial system, however. Through propaganda and leaks to conservative journalists, Hoover was able to gain and keep an enormous body of public support for himself as well as his army of "G-men". Propaganda included FBI sponsored literature, radio programs and films glorifying the exploits of Federal Agents in their fight against the Red Menace threatening the American Way. The campaign was also buttressed by pillars of what Hoover believed to be education on Communist coercion and cunning; these came in the form of books written by Hoover with the assistance of other Federal employees. In these studies of both international and domestic Communist "challenges", such as Masters of Deceit and A Study of Communism, Hoover mixed fact with the dominating conservative opinion of the day. Though they were written slightly later than the height of the hysteria of the early 1950's, they reflect the feeling of the need to retain US supremacy, which was experienced by much of the nation in the early periods of the Cold War. [Powers, 216]

In his very scientific and reasoning prose Hoover described again and again, among other ideas, the value of his America and the role and responsibility of the individual in protecting it, as shown in the following passages:

"Freedom is the one value which underlies and is an inherent part of all other values. Only under freedom do other values acquire real meaning . . . Without freedom all other values lose their lustre; some, in fact, lose all meaning."

[Hoover, 190]

"America was founded on freedom. It has grown and prospered . . . under freedom. And, with its deep and abiding faith in the ultimate triumph of freedom, America still holds the key to the future of mankind. With faith in the inherent dignity and worth of the individual, Americans can face the future with vitality and resolute purpose."

[Hoover, 191]

"These limits [on governmental authority] place the ultimate burden of responsibility for the security of the nation squarely upon the shoulders of the individual citizen. In fulfilling his responsibility, the individual citizen must be more than alert to the dangers of Communism and its conspiratorial operations. He must be vitally concerned with the establishment of measures . . . which will remedy . . . factors exploited by Communists to gain support for their cause."

[Hoover, 188]

As it can be determined from the previous selections, Hoover seemed to possess a traditionally patriotic view of the emerging U.S. and was determined to necessary to preserve the "small community values" of home, church, and school. Communism, he advocated, posed a definite and close threat to Americanism; it was "a direct assault on human freedom - the very foundation of our society." [Hoover, 194] In areas where even the FBI's influence could not stretch, Hoover tried to protect Americanism by calling on the patriotic nature of private citizens, not to investigate, but to cooperate, usually by informing investigators of persons whom were suspected of being a Communist or a "fellow traveler." [Swearingen, 31] Hoover added to the increasing fear that Communists were infiltrating all walks of American life in great numbers and that the Red Menace must be wiped out as swiftly and thoroughly as possible. These broad networks of informers who complied were not always as greatly reliable for the Bureau as Hoover counted on.

One major problem which came in prosecuting alleged radicals was that much of the evidence gathered against them was either hearsay or inadmissible in court, which was quickly pointed out by defense attorneys. Frustrated but determined, Hoover tried to get around these proceedings by confidentially offering members of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) evidence and data which was not incriminating and could not hold up in court, but which could provide cause for investigation. This became characteristic of the symbiotic relationship between Hoover and HUAC, as was Hoover's providing of lists of members of Hollywood which included both suspected radicals and benevolent witnesses. Hoover was repaid by HUAC's spotlighting of supposed Communists of prominence among members of state, led mostly by another dogged anti-Communist by the name of Richard Nixon. By far, one of the most infamous of these inquiries was that of Alger Hiss, who had served under Roosevelt as a promising State Department official.

The name of Alger Hiss was first mentioned, among others implicated to being Communist agents, to Hoover in 1942 by Whittaker Chambers, a senior editor of Time magazine and admitted former Communist. At the time, Hiss was working in the State Department monitoring the Chinese opposition led by Chiang Kai-sheck against Japanese invasion, and was attempting to supply as much aid as possible for the Chinese nationalists. A member of President Roosevelt's elite, Alger Hiss was a promising, Harvard educated reformer who later became a leading U.S. delegate in the planning and creation of the United Nations. The FBI set up surveillance on Hiss in 1945, but little if any evidence was recovered to support Chambers's story. It was rumored that Hoover then leaked a story claiming Hiss to be Communist in hopes that he would resign. Hiss later did, but only to accept the position of President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Many years later, Hiss remarked,"The rumor that I was a Communist led me to stay on in my State Department position longer than I had planned. I did not wish to appear to be leaving under fire." [Klingamen, 174] The Hiss case was far from over, however.

The Hiss controversy resurfaced in early August, 1948 when Whittaker Chambers came before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) and testified that he had known Hiss in the mid 1930's as a Communist spy from a subversive organization in Washington. Hiss was in New York at the time, and sent a telegram requesting that he be allowed to defend himself in person. When Hiss came before the HUAC investigators, he made a much better impression than did the mumbling Chambers. His polished, matter of fact denial of Chambers's accusations led most to believe that Chambers's story would be dismissed and Hiss's name would be cleared. [Isaacs, 107-108]

However, mostly due to Richard Nixon's growing personal disfavor with of the genteel and confident Hiss, the Committee was pushed to investigate further. After both Chambers and Hiss were examined and questioned throughout the month of August, discrepancies began to emerge in Hiss's testimony, the most significant being Hiss's admission to knowing Chambers in the past under the pseudonym George Crosley. These discrepancies gave Nixon the confidence to stage a dramatic televised confrontation between Hiss and Chambers which, after five hours of questioning, eventually led to a breaking in Hiss's credibility. A short time later, Hiss sued Chambers for defamation of character. The suit backfired on Hiss when Chambers also implicated him to be an espionage agent for the Soviet Union and was able to produce evidence which was found incriminating enough for Hiss to be convicted of perjury.

This evidence which Chambers held ncluded microfilm of copied State Department documents, written both on Hiss's Woodstock typewriter and in his handwriting, which Chambers claimed Hiss had given to him. Chambers had hidden them in a hollowed out pumpkin, thus giving them their infamous nickname, the "pumpkin papers". Hiss served forty-four months of his five-year sentence, beginning in 1951. When he was released he found, like many other suspected Communists that he had been "blacklisted" and had difficulty holding the few jobs he could get. President Truman, who had once stood on Hiss's defense, later remarked when reading the evidence against him, "That son of a bitch. He betrayed his country. " [Isaacs, 109]

Hiss's conviction stimulated the country's anti-Communist to new heights. The realization that such a respected diplomat, along with other respected men and women, could be proven guilty of sedition gave a sense of validity to the charges made by those such as Hoover. Also, it brought an impression of cynicism on the American populace that even those who had been most highly revered in the past could still be suspected of sabotage. Most significantly, the Hiss affair led to an increase in panic among Americans which resulted in the further blurring of the line between actual Soviet agents and leftist political radicals, especially among traditionalist conservative organizations such as the American Legion or the Chamber of Commerce. The nation was burning higher into a destructive hysteria, and every Communist exposed was another branch added to the pyre.

No single spotlighted Communist burned so brightly in the nation's eyes as the Rosenbergs, however. In the aftermath of Hiss being imprisoned, the FBI uncovered an alleged espionage ring through the arrest and questioning of the German-born nuclear physicist Klaus Fuchs. A series of arrests and implications by various suspects, most notably David Greenglass, led the Bureau to Greenglass's brother-in-law, Julius Rosenberg, whom Hoover believed to be at the center of the spy ring. Rosenberg was an electrical engineer accused of passing on U.S. atomic secrets concerning the Manhattan Project to the USSR during the Second World War. These secrets included classified articles concerning atomic bomb testing in Los Alamos, as well as information on a trigger device used in deploying the weapon dropped on Nagasaki, and data on satellite research. Rosenberg was arrested and questioned in July of 1950, but contrary to the other purported members of the espionage conspiracy, Rosenberg remained steadfast and refused to implicate anyone else. But because Hoover believed that extracting information from Rosenberg was the means of identifying the entire faction, and thus Julius's wife Ethel was arrested, despite the lack of any evidence against her, in the hopes that she would act as a lever to push her husband into confession. However this plot too was foiled, and Julius kept his silence. [Crimelibrary, 4-5]

In April 1951, the Rosenbergs were put on trial, and, based mostly on testimony from Greenglass, convicted in less than one day of espionage during wartime. Although the US had been allied, however reluctantly, to the Soviet Union when the data was smuggled, few took any notice because of the intense anti-Red sentiment in the national atmosphere. It was believed later that Julius Rosenberg transferred the secrets not to aid the Communist forces, but to hinder the U.S. from holding a nuclear monopoly. Nevertheless, the Rosenbergs' crimes were condemned by their quite liberal judge, Irving Kaufman, as "worse than murder," because of their aid to the nuclear threat that the Soviets now posed America. [Klingaman, 327] Because of their "diabolical conspiracy to destroy a God-fearing nation," Kaufman sentenced both to death by electric chair, becoming the only actual executions resulting from the Red fear that gripped America. [Isaacs, 113] The couple were put to death on June 19, 1953, despite petitions for clemency from many, including Pope Pius XII and Albert Einstein. Both proclaimed their innocence until the end, insisting that they had become "victims of growing neo-facism." [Klingaman, 327]

That Hoover or the FBI had intentions of actually terminating the Rosenbergs is doubtful; in fact, it was documented that Hoover had expressed an aversion for capital punishment for Ethel, whose part in the plot seemed relatively insignificant. [Crimelibrary, 4] However in both the private circles of Washington and in the public communities, the massive wave of Communist panic had nearly reached its crest, and along with it took the reason and rationality of countless accusers. Soon after the sentencing of the Rosenbergs, a man seeking to advance his own political career rode this wave of hysteria, turbulence, and confusion to its peak; this man's name was Joseph McCarthy.

Unlike Hoover, Joe McCarthy was an individual seeking to make a name for himself who exploited the anti-Communist nature of the country to boost his career. McCarthy used prosecution of Reds to increase his political influence while Hoover did just the opposite; he capitalized on his enormous political power to carry out what was nearly an obsession of suppressing radical interests. Though the two were initially friends and allies in McCarthy's early days in Washington, as soon as he began to make condemning accusations with little evidence, Hoover attempted to distance himself and the Bureau as much as possible. He offered support to McCarthy only in the form of data, which the FBI issued on plain, unwatermarked paper with untraceable origins. As McCarthy's accusations grew wilder in 1952 and 1953, Hoover was known to have told President Eisenhower that McCarthy was too much of a liability and was actually hindering Hoover's own investigations. One of Hoover's most trusted aids, Deke DeLoach later called McCarthy a "roaring lion . . . calling for heads to roll," [DeLoach,352] as well as a "man of limited intelligence and little principal," whose tirades "damaged serious attempts to monitor Communism in this country." [DeLoach, 269]

McCarthy's use and exaggeration of the threat of infiltration brought the wave of hysteria to its greatest during the backdrop of the Korean War. With nearly no evidence but a large body of support, McCarthy made damaging charges of treason and Communist influence on hundreds of state officials. As time went on, his claims became more and more outrageous, even going so far as to accuse the Democratic Party of protecting Communists and referring to the Roosevelt and Truman administrations as "twenty years of treason." [Bowen, 119] Even as McCarthy began to over reach himself by attacking his own GOP party, and later the US Army, few stood up to him. Even President Eisenhower refused to challenge McCarthy, though it was known he held a strong contempt for him, citing that he refused "to get into the gutter with that guy." [Bowen, 118]

The attempt by McCarthy to take on the Army was the beginning of the end for the Senator. Joe's allegations of subversion at Fort Monmouth and condemning of veteran General Ralph Zwicker as "unfit" and "ignorant" was an assault on general-turned-president Dwight Eisenhower's most sacred institution. Early in 1954, the President allowed his staff to instruct the Army to prepare a case counter charging McCarthy and his protege Roy Cohn with blackmail. In the Senate subcommittee hearing that followed, McCarthy's badgering of witnesses and bullying tactics were revealed to the nation by way of television. As the proceedings went on and the council for the army began to disprove his wild accusations, a frustrated McCarthy began to lose all discretion and control, at one point making coarse, smearing remarks concerning a young lawyer named Fred Fisher. At this point the counsel for the Army and mentor of Fisher, Joe Welch, in contrast to his previously calm and even soft manner rose against McCarthy in animosity. [Bowen, 119-126] As he spoke the following words, the then dreadfully high wave of upheaval and delirium which had been rising in the republic reached its peak and crashed on the sands of reason and calm reflection, to begin its slow recession back into the sea of ignorance:

"Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really judged your cruelty or your recklessness. Fred Fisher is beginning what looks to be a brilliant career with us. Little did I dream you could be so reckless and so cruel as do an injury to an injury to that young lad . . . Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"

[Bowen, 130]

Though the hysteria of the nation faded with McCarthy, who was later censured for his actions, the concern for Communist infiltration was still recognized. Through the guise of the FBI's COINTELPRO (Counter-Intelligence Program), which Hoover instituted in 1956, he continued to observe and arrest suspected Red spies and other threatening radicals. Throughout his extensive career, Hoover maintained his belief in the threat which the Communist Party posed to the US as a tool of Soviet influence:

"Since its inception, the Communist Party, USA, has been unswerving in its allegiance to the Soviet Union, which is committed to the goal of world domination by Communism. Because the United States is the principal deterrent to further Communist expansion, the Communist Party, USA, is, and will continue to be a serious threat to our internal security."

[Hoover, 157]

When looking back to the era of this nation's strife and hysteria over the issue of the Red threat, one issue which remains fascinating is the ability of J. Edgar Hoover to exist as such a paradox. Hoover was a man who advocated the traditional values of America and stood opposed to all that threatened these beliefs, especially Communism. Hoover saw the United States as finally assuming the greatness and glory which he believed that it was destined for; however, he did not want reformist or liberal thinkers to tamper with what he considered to be the correct national mentality which was held by most at the turn of the century. It is important for one to keep in mind that Hoover was born in a different era than most of his colleagues, but his comprehension of American values did not adjust throughout many decades of national rethinking and reexamination. However some of the most significant values held to be American were and are the right to hold unpopular beliefs, the right to criticize, the right to privacy, and above all the idea that law, not power or fear, governs man. In his quest to destroy what was a real but overly exaggerated threat in the form of Communist and Soviet subversion, Hoover did not see or perhaps did not believe that he was threatening the American way nearly as greatly as those whom he tried to destroy by inflicting his will above the rights of citizens.

Yet despite this disregard for rights, the public did not seem to be wary of Hoover or the FBI's culmination of power. Through his propaganda campaigns, Hoover gave a feeling of security, as though he was the last stand between decent Americans and the mysterious, evil Red forces threatening their very existence. People bought into this in mass numbers probably because Hoover seemed to be a powerful monolith of morality and stability in a nation and a world which were rapidly moving away from traditional institutions and into areas of the unknown. Hoover's methods were not questioned to a significant degree both because they were kept highly confidential and because people really did not want to question what seemed to be one of the few true American heroes left in a world turned upside down by revolution, ideology, technology, and war. Hoover through his public influence created for the American people a vision of an existence where nothing was what it seemed, all was an image. The investigation of private citizens through advanced FBI methods revealed a small but highly publicized group of Communists posed as ordinary or even respected citizens; it seemed that all were to be suspected as a potential enemy. In struggling to discern which traditional beliefs and convictions were accurate and which had become defunct, many looked to grandfatherly men of the past such as Hoover, an individual who appeared to hold an intimate knowledge of both secular and moral law, for guidance and security. Hoover used this trust to help set in motion the wave of hysteria which even he probably did not predict, in the hopes of eliminating a serious but also limited threat.

In examining Hoover, one must ask whether or not the ends of a common well being and security for most was justified by the means of invading the privacy of the liberal minority. After all, Hoover did seriously reduce a threat of Soviet influence and duplicity which was real indeed, yet also greatly over-exaggerated as the national panic became worse. Soviet Communism posed a real risk to the US, both in war and in ideology. Yet in destroying this risk, Hoover sacrificed the careers and reputations of many innocent and harmless Americans, using methods which could be considered violations to the Constitution. Was the protection of national security against a risk to American rights so great as to warrant the infringement upon these rights by the opposition to the risk?

This is a question that Americans grapple with to this day, and is one which really can produce no clear answer. Ideally, the rights of the individual should come above all else; realistically, however, it could be reasoned that the internal threat was great enough so as to justify some bending of the rules by the FBI. In either case though, the distinction can be at least be made that Hoover went too far in both his investigation of and embellishment of the Communist Party and its backers, a liberty that he took for which there is little justification other than for the gain or retention of FBI power.

The most effective way in which an individual can combat another panic of this type is to above all at least attempt to keep a rationality and discernment about himself when examining any rumor or scandal, especially if it has the potential to create an atmosphere of pandemonium. Americans especially show an inclination toward the desire to sensationalize events, often embellishing in order to label the event as something extreme. For example, much of Hoover's opposition indicated him to be a facist; though Hoover was conservative, to relate his FBI to the Hitler's gestapo was overblown. Rather than being swayed by popular opinion or national frenzy, it is essential to first gather unbiased information and to make a judgment based on calm reflection rather to be caught up in a moment of fervor. It took the courage of one man and his calm reflection to finally break McCarthy. In other words, one should always offer sober questioning to the public judgment. Panic is fostered on complacent ignorance coupled with unbridled emotional judgment. The greatest weapon one can have against it is a rational, inquisitive, and collected mind, as well as the courage to cut through sensationalism with reason to expose the truth, no matter the risk, in order to preserve the lives of forthright individuals from the most far reaching and staining form of judgment: the verdict of public opinion.