A ndrew F effer . Bad Faith

Between 1938 and 1941 the United States entered what might have turned into a full-scale “red scare,” one equaling the post–World War II scare and that in many ways provided a miniature prefiguration of the latter. The major events on the national and international levels that touched off the 1938–1941 scare were, first, the massively publicized activities of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, chaired by reactionary Texas Democratic representative Martin Dies, and second, the August 1939 so-called “nonaggression pact” between Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia, followed by their joint invasion of Poland and the outbreak of World War II soon thereafter, which vastly discredited the American Communist Party (ACP) when it performed an overnight political somersault, switching from vehemently advocating all-out opposition to Nazi Germany to defending Russia’s new “friend.” Among the national reflections of the 1938–1941 scare were congressional passage of the 1939 Hatch Act, banning federal employment...

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