Communist Threat Research Articles

The Dawn of South African–Portuguese Cooperation: From 1950 to 1961

ABSTRACT The relationship between Portugal and South Africa significantly shaped the regional politics of twentieth-century southern Africa. Notably, Exercise Alcora, the military alliance between Rhodesia, Portugal, and South Africa, is a well-documented aspect of Cold War history that has recently garnered increased scholarly attention. The availability of previously classified materials has revealed a more complex and nuanced account of the collaboration between Portugal and South Africa, whose early partnership laid the foundation for a broader supranational alliance in the region. This research delves into the genesis and evolution of South African–Portuguese ties, scrutinising the progressively strengthening connections from the 1950s to the early 1960s. It posits that, before the late 1940s, no substantial or well-defined relations existed between Portugal and South Africa. Establishing these ties was neither straightforward nor effortless; instead, it was a multifaceted and labour-intensive process influenced by critical factors. Both nations were united by shared ideological tenets rooted in nationalism. They concurrently experienced a waning of ties with democratic powers, notably Britain and the United States. Moreover, the apparent indifference of these Western states to the communist threat in Africa catalysed closer bonds between Lisbon and Pretoria, marking a significant shift in their geopolitical alignments.

Speaking Truth to a Foreign Power: Anti-Bolshevism and Truth in the Early Cold War, 1945–53

Analysis of the periodical press allows historians to further their understanding of the turn against the Soviet Union in the West after the Second World War, and delineate how anti-Bolshevism was constructed to repudiate wartime partnership between 1941 and 1945. Right-wing periodicals such as Truth were active proponents of opposition towards Communism in early Cold War Britain, articulating concerns about the perversion of democratic values and the threat to liberal societies. The nature of Truth's anti-Bolshevism was reactionary but also reflective, highlighting unease on the Right around the postwar consensus, Labour's domestic programme of state intervention in the planning and management of economic activity, and the general eclipse in Britain's international standing. Truth's attempts to conflate the Communist threat with Labour's democratic socialism also frame the paper as an embryonic staging point in a wider chronology of neo-liberal challenges to the postwar political order. Anti-Bolshevism was therefore multifaceted and could speak to many different constituencies and agendas beyond a commentary on the actual basis of Soviet rule, Communist subversion, and the polarization of postwar Europe.

Claudia Jones and Black Power: A Close Reading of the West Indian Gazette and Afro-Asian Caribbean News

When Claudia Jones was deported to Britain in 1955, the U.S. Government likely expected that the Communist threat she presented was finally neutralized. Yet, from the shores of Britain, Jones continued her radical activism. The West Indian Gazette and Afro-Asian Caribbean News (WIG), created by Jones in 1958, became an effective bullhorn to foster unity and solidarity amongst Black migrants in Britain toward many causes – at home and abroad. She called upon her previously established transnational connections to bring news of international developments to her British audience. The WIG’s coverage of the U.S. Civil Rights and Black Power Movements throughout the 1960s was also significant. Linking the United States and the UK to global changes, Jones kept a finger on the pulse of radical movements across the world and amplified them to her audience in editorials about uprisings in the Congo in 1960, revivals of Garveyism in Jamaica, and revolution in Cuba, for example. Drawing closely from the WIG, this article will analyze some of the continuities that rippled throughout the activism of Claudia Jones into the period of the Black Power Movement, as well as the overlapping activists, their strategies, and the important discussions the WIG was able to platform during its run. It will highlight that the many crossovers observed through the pages of the WIG evidence how a generation of activists may have been influenced by the knowledge transmitted through the life and work of Claudia Jones.

Reconsidering the Ashida memorandum: the relations between the emergency stationing plan and police reform

Abstract This article explores the origins of Japan’s security policy after the Asia-Pacific War. During the occupation, the Japanese government decided on the maintenance of US forces in the country after the Japanese Peace Treaty. To explain the rationale behind this, existing studies emphasize the Japanese government’s external security calculations. Highlighting the interaction between Japanese foreign and domestic policies, this article challenges this conventional claim by arguing that internal security calculations strongly influenced the Japanese government’s decision. With the creation of the Ashida memorandum in September 1947 and the expectation that the General Headquarters (GHQ) would allow for stronger police forces, Japanese Foreign Minister Ashida Hitoshi and his staff sought to restrict the stationing of US forces in Japan only to national emergencies. As opposed to such expectation, however, GHQ’s police reform significantly weakened Japan’s internal security capabilities, forcing Tokyo to depend on US forces for dealing with internal communist threats.

Holier Than Thou: Discussion of Hoard and Bland’s “How Am I Responsible?”: Evangelical White Rage and the Interpassive Perpetration of White-Body Supremacy

ABSTRACT This paper presents a brief sociocultural review of the development of the twentieth-century American Christian evangelical movement and its relationship to racism and structural racial inequality. It traces the evangelical movement’s hostility toward the organized civil rights movement, which it linked with the Soviet communist threat to Christianity and to American democracy; its organized legal opposition to the civil rights legislation of the 1960s which challenged its racist and discriminatory policies; and its increasingly powerful and organized political alliance with a Republican Party eager to harness white resentment of Black advancement, in order to gain and maintain power. Against the backdrop of this history, I critique Hoard and Bland’s mischaracterization of Carol Anderson’s (2016) concept of “white rage” as a symptom of Perpetration Induced Traumatic Stress and their formulation of interpassivity as perpetration.

The communist imaginary in Indonesia’s 2014 and 2019 presidential elections

ABSTRACT This article investigates rumours of a communist resurgence as a recurring theme invoked in Indonesian politics. In both the 2014 and 2019 presidential contests, Joko Widodo (Jokowi) was accused of being a PKI (Communist Party of Indonesia) adherent, and a false narrative that he was the ‘communists’ candidate’ persisted throughout the campaigns. Despite the PKI having been banned and effectively defunct since 1966, large amounts of political disinformation that centred on its rebirth and the threat from communists dominated media narratives. The attack was expanded to include many key figures, including political elites and Jokowi’s allies and sympathizers. Using interviews with elite individuals and documentary research, this article argues that the ‘communist imaginary’ was deployed by campaign managers in the elections through the exploitation of constant anxieties regarding perceived villains. Furthermore, it has also been used as an excuse for military, as well as paramilitary factions, to grab greater power within the electoral context, as evidenced by their aggressive speeches and actions. The rumour of a communist threat, I will argue, provides a simple, effective way to distract the public from actual electoral issues.

National Interest and National Identity Affect The Behaviour Of Foreign Policy

There was a time when national identity influenced foreign policy, as in China, which has its Buddhist impermanence derived from its cultural identity. It has the identity of, and is derived from Japan's experience of the war in its own country. National interests on foreign policy actions are stronger than that of national identity. It targets countries without strong national identity clout, such as Western European countries such as Germany, and other countries such as the United States and Indonesia. The existence of strong national identities therefore only reinforces the influence of national interests influencing foreign policy, as has happened in China and Japan. Indonesia has Pancasila as its national identity. It has influenced its foreign policy by recognizing external threats. Moreover, Pancasila's national identity influences Indonesia's interior rather than its foreign policy. During the New Order era, China was known to be a communist threat to Indonesia, and Indonesia cut ties with China. In Europe and the United States, where societies have become multicultural societies, national interests influence foreign policy more than national identity. We should have more influence on our foreign policy to unite our national interests and multicultural societies.

“In God We Trust”—The Contribution of Christian Trade Unions in European Integration

Since World War II, the countries of Western Europe have gradually gone towards economic, social, and political integration. This was influenced by states, institutions, social partners, and churches. The Christian trade unions also contributed to that end. This contribution was the result of the interaction between the laborers’ religion and their desire to act collectively. Those unions followed the social doctrines of the Catholic Church and/or Protestant Churches while strongly disagreeing with socialist or communist unions. During the Interwar period, their members were subjected to the violent actions of the totalitarian governments in many European countries. Those governments eliminated Christian unions and, in some cases, persecuted their leaders. After the war, Christian unions embraced the “Peace Project”, advocating for European and global peace. They also cooperated with many political and social leaders during the formation of the EEC. Christian unions aimed at improving political systems in Western Europe, promoting freedom of religion, and defending the Communist threat. In this article, we describe the ways in which the Catholic and Protestant labor unions tried to promote political, economic, and social cooperation in Europe. To this end, we will examine their pertinent material and actions on the Old Continent. Finally, we will discuss the current challenges faced by the Christian unions and their stance towards neoliberal capitalism and globalization—these new developments in the long history of Christian Europe.

Ministers of a New Medium: Broadcasting Theology in the Radio Ministries of Fulton J. Sheen and Walter A. Maier by Kirk D. Farney

Reviewed by: Ministers of a New Medium: Broadcasting Theology in the Radio Ministries of Fulton J. Sheen and Walter A. Maier by Kirk D. Farney Kathryn M. Galchutt Ministers of a New Medium: Broadcasting Theology in the Radio Ministries of Fulton J. Sheen and Walter A. Maier. By Kirk D. Farney. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2022. 345 pp. In our multi-media saturated times, it is difficult to imagine the singular importance of radio during its golden age, from the 1920s to the 1950s. During that era before television, the essayist E. B. White described radio as having a "godlike presence" in homes across America. In his book Kirk Farney notes that radio had a range of qualities, from intimate to communal, from democratic to authoritative. Yet Farney's study is less concerned with the medium of radio and more concerned with the impact of two men and the messages they spoke to millions during the 1930s and 1940s. The Lutheran pastor Walter A. Maier (1893–1950) and the Roman Catholic priest Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979) were two of the most popular and prominent broadcasters during radio's golden age. Both men came from religious backgrounds that were considered on the periphery of mainstream American Protestant religion. Maier came from a German-American Lutheran background and was a member of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, a synod which some saw as an ethnic and theological enclave. Sheen came from a primarily Irish-American Catholic background and sought to counter the historic anti-Catholicism in American society. Farney explains how Maier and Sheen preached messages rooted in their own religious traditions, yet succeeded in appealing to wider audiences. Both men "combined a traditional theological conservatism with an equally traditional American idealism" (133). Maier and Sheen took to the airwaves after the Modernist and Fundamentalist debates of the 1920s. Both men were vocal critics of modernist [End Page 191] theology. They preached messages of traditional Christian theology, putting a strong emphasis on the doctrines of the atonement, sin, and grace. Given the well-known antagonism between Protestants and Catholics, it is remarkable that the Protestant Maier and the Catholic Sheen asserted such similar teachings about the foundations for faith and life (160). Maier and Sheen also made connections with the difficult times in which they were living, commenting on the economic challenges of the Great Depression, the conflicts and controversies of World War II, and the threat of communism. Both were careful to avoid partisan politics. But they reflected a spirit of American patriotism while also calling on Americans to repent and to avoid a stance of national self-righteousness. Farney notes that Maier and Sheen were critical of racial and ethnic discrimination in America and urged the church to recognize the equality of all people before God (257). Farney could have done more to explain the significance of their stances in the context of American race relations in the 1930s and 1940s. Both men reached out to many beyond their respective religious communities. Farney describes how Sheen received considerable attention for the prominent converts to Catholicism whom he reached, including Henry Ford II and the American Communist Party leader Louis Budenz. Besides the famous, Sheen also reached "the obscure … of all races and incomes" (297). Farney describes Maier's contacts with political, military, and cultural leaders, but did not mention specific converts. More could be done to examine those who made a commitment to Lutheranism because of Maier's "The Lutheran Hour." Among these are Mary Banta, who contributed to the development of True Light Lutheran Church, a Chinese-American congregation in Manhattan and Chris McNair, who lost his daughter Denise in the Klan bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1963. Exploring the international impact of the "Catholic Hour" and "The Lutheran Hour" is another potential area of future research. Farney has written a very significant study of two of the most important radio preachers in American history, examining the similar ministries of a Lutheran pastor and Catholic priest. The parallels ended when Maier died relatively early of a massive heart attack [End Page 192] in 1950 and Sheen transitioned to even greater fame with a...

Threat of Dissent: A History of Ideological Exclusion and Deportation in the United States

Threat of Dissent explores the United States’ history of excluding or deporting individuals (particularly non-citizens) that held ideological beliefs the US government viewed as threatening to American society. It shows how recent events have a long history that extends further back than the Red Scares of the twentieth century. Kraut's work details America's attempts to restrict or punish citizens, non-citizens, visitors, and residents who the US government deemed radicals.Beginning with the Alien Friends Act in the 1790s and concluding with the War on Terror in the 2000s, Threat of Dissent examines case studies of these ideological exclusions throughout different periods of American history. Organized chronologically, Kraut's book opens with the Alien Friends Act, Alien Enemies Act, and Sedition Act to show how Congress's creation of a Board of Special Inquiry, created to hear deportation cases, set the stage for later restrictions on immigration. Although restricting immigrants based on their health or wealth was already common, the Board introduced the idea of restrictions based on a person's beliefs. Kraut argues that President McKinley's assassination was a turning point that led to bans on anarchists entering the United States and anti-anarchist suppressions of speech such as the case of Emma Goldman, who lost her US citizenship. Wars or the threat of war also produced restrictive legislation; the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act was followed by the 1952 McCarran-Walter Act with both laws containing ideologically restrictive elements. The threat of Communism was another important factor that Kraut discussed, both in the wake of World War I as well as in the 1930s during the Great Depression. Kraut concludes her study by bridging the gap between the Cold War and the September 2001 terrorist attacks, with her final chapter discussing the War on Terror and its aftermath. Threat of Dissent brings the discussion to the present by highlighting the Trump administration's attempts to bar certain individuals from entering the country, particularly with the creation of a travel ban.Contributing an important piece to the historiography of both immigration studies and exclusions and deportations, the book achieves its stated goal to “explore the constitutionality of ideological restrictions” and the “intersection of American immigration and First Amendment law and history” (p. 9). Threat of Dissent was not written to provide a survey of restrictions throughout American immigration history, nor does it attempt to address discrimination based on non-ideological factors. Yet the work strongly demonstrates the author's historical knowledge of both the fields of legal and immigration history; Kraut holds a law degree from American University Washington College of Law and a PhD in History from New York University.The book's eight chapters each investigate a different ideological restriction presented to the US courts. While the information itself may not be new, the author's careful archival work is impressive in her recounting of each case study. The chapters themselves are also well organized, and students in particular will find the detailed conclusions at the end of each chapter a welcome addition. The author's clear, concise writing and her success at connecting the past to the present are major strengths of the work.Historians and experts in the field of legal or immigration studies will appreciate the book's careful scholarship, while students and the public will find Threat of Dissent accessible. The author's writing is free of jargon; whenever Kraut does use legal terminology, she includes definitions in parentheses. Additionally, the presence of at least one image per chapter—photographs, political cartoons, pamphlets, and posters—helps the reader visualize the actors involved with the different case studies. This book is engaging and well suited for undergraduate or graduate legal history courses, immigration and ethnicity courses, or as selected readings for either US history survey.

Comparative education as a political project

ABSTRACT This article argues that since World War II, comparative education has worked in the service of two historic blocs: one focused on creating institutions and ideologies in support of internationalism and a second focused on containing the threat of communism. Both versions have supported and justified foreign intervention into domestic education systems, mirroring colonial practices and logics. Once the United States of America became politically and economically hegemonic, the field helped develop mental models and best-practices of ‘efficient’ education systems, justifying international development efforts of Washington and the interests of capital. As the global political economy shifts so too will the political project of comparative education. The article posits future directions for the field on the assumption that a new economic bloc will emerge as East Asia plays a larger role in the global economy.

Instrumentalization of the image of the Ukrainian Cossacks among the american ukrainian diaspora during the USA anti-communist war in Vietnam in the 1960s - 1970s

The purpose of this article is to study the instrumentalization of the image of the Ukrainian Cossacks among the Ukrainian diaspora of the United States in relation to the events of the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s. Two aspects were the subject of attention: the use of the image of Cossacks in the activities of Ukrainians who fought in the US army and the promotion of this image in the reflection of representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora. Consequently, the US war against the communist threat in Vietnam was perceived by the Ukrainian diaspora in the US as a continuation of the age-old struggle against Russia. It is natural that Ukrainians, soldiers of the US army, were perceived in particular as bearers of Cossack traditions. Naturally, the emphasis was placed on the anti-Russian pages of the Cossacks' activities. Modern cosmopolitan historiography often gives the concept of "instrumentation of history" a completely negative connotation. We cannot agree with this. History has always been, is and will be a part of the social and ideological process. The use of the image of Cossacks among Ukrainians in the United States during the Vietnam War had a positive effect on the integration of Ukrainians into the public space of the United States and the actualization of Ukrainian traditions. "Plast" and its magazine "Yunak" became the most important cementing link in the actualization of Cossack traditions. In general, on the example of the war in Vietnam, we can see how modern turning events affect our attitude to assessments of the past. Once slandered by neo-Marxists and other leftists of all shades as "unfair interference in sovereign affairs", now, against the background of Russian aggression, which continues precisely the traditions of the left, Chekist forces, special operations of Lenin-Stalin-Brezhnev, interest in this war is growing precisely as an experience struggle with currently relevant threats, the lost chance to prevent them. Of course, at the same time, there is a reassessment of the participation of ethnic Ukrainians in these events from something shy to heroic, which contains a significant educational potential for modern defenders of Ukraine. This had a positive effect on increasing the self-esteem of the still-living veterans of this war of Ukrainian origin, their due respect, and the involvement of some of them (P. Sodol) as experts in Ukraine's latest anti-Russian war.

The Re-emergence of Fascism and Its Impact on European Democracies in the Immediate Postwar Period

After the end of Second World War, fascist movements re-emerged in many areas of Europe. This forced governments to consider counter-measures from the early days of the Cold War, when communism was seen as the main threat. Nevertheless, even studies produced in recent decades aimed at exploring the immediate postwar history of Europe using a more accurate and comprehensive approach than in the past have failed to pay sufficient attention to this issue. In response, this article aims to place new emphasis on the re-emergence of fascism by comparing the behaviour of the Labour governments of postwar Britain with the attitude of the various Italian executives of the first legislature, characterized by Christian Democracy majorities. Through this comparison, the article will demonstrate how this re-emergence represented a comprehensive challenge to the process of defining a new democratic culture, since it raised questions about the right way to tackle extreme political movements while also preserving essential pillars of democracy, such as freedom of expression and assembly. The comparison also explores how governments attempted to confront this issue with solutions that also had the potential of undermining the communist threat, in a moment when governments believed that democracy was in need of protection.

Y líbranos del mal by Santiago Roncagliolo

Reviewed by: Y líbranos del mal by Santiago Roncagliolo Sandra Chang Raak Santiago Roncagliolo Y líbranos del mal Mexico City. Seix Barral. 2021. 394 pages. IN Y LÍBRANOS DEL MAL, Santiago Roncagliolo’s latest novel, the Peruvian author and winner of the prestigious Premio Alfaguara portrays a fictionalized version of the widely publicized scandals of Sodalicio, a Catholic community in the Andean country. In this novel, unlike other published accounts, Roncagliolo explores an innovative point of view, that of Jimmy, a college-aged young man who doesn’t know of his father’s involvement in that faith community. Through Jimmy, Roncagliolo explores the deeply rooted religious beliefs that are perpetuated from one generation to the next. Roncagliolo’s novel presents at least two different chronologies. The first features Jimmy, who was born to Peruvian immigrants and raised in the United States. The second is the story of Jimmy’s father, Sebastián, which is unveiled while Jimmy cares for his ailing grandmother, Tita, in a well-off neighborhood in Lima. Jimmy learns about Sebastián’s past and discovers multiple testimonies that “collapse[s] the past into the present, making it seem or feel as if it were more ‘real’ and ‘present’ than contemporary circumstances” (LaCapra, Writing History, Writing Trauma). By naming evils from the past and bringing them into the present, Roncagliolo empowers those who, as in Y líbranos del mal, have experienced abuse and violence at the hands of authoritative institutions. Unsurprisingly, however, this is a novel in which circumstances are never entirely clear, nor do they need to be in order to understand the events. This ambiguity permeates the novel in its entirety and reflects the lack of trust, essential to the national character, and an acquiescent personality, key to understanding many Peruvians. Even though Roncagliolo resides in Spain, he accurately captures elements of the Peruvian worldview in the context of a very relevant institution in Latin American society: a traditional, Catholic family. As in previous novels, Roncagliolo reflects on ignominious portions of Peruvian history. In Red April (2006), Roncagliolo criticized the actions that the government of Alberto Fujimori took against the terrorist group Sendero Luminoso. The prequel, La pena máxima (2014), is set in a soccer-filled Lima, crowded with fans that supported the national team in the 1978 World Cup. In the background, however, duplicitous characters swarm the streets of the capital because they are interested in eliminating all communist threats. Y líbranos del mal sparked my desire to learn more about contemporary Peruvian history, particularly the historic events that inform this work of fiction. Unlike Mitad monjes, mitad soldados, by Pedro Salinas, which gathers testimonies from the victims, Roncagliolo’s novel explores the aftereffects of growing up in a society where the Catholic church occupies, indisputably, a very important place. Sandra Chang Raak Western Michigan University Copyright © 2022 World Literature Today

Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical

Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical

A Política dos Estados Unidos para a África desde a II Guerra Mundial até ao início da década de 1960

Despite the so-called American anti-colonial tradition (the legacy of independence, or Spirit of ‘76), between World War II and the beginning of the 1960s, the African policy of the United States was always subordinated to the security priorities of Europe. In fact, at the end of World War II, Europe was threatened with collapse, not only due to the approximately 80 million deaths it caused, but also to the gigantic needs for social and economic reconstruction caused by the massive destruction of its productive, housing and commercial activities, which made it impossible to satisfy the basic conditions of survival. A chaotic situation from which emerged a virtually unstoppable human torrent, through which the populations of the countries involved in the war would seek to conquer a world free from misery and hunger, exploitation and oppression. Faced with this “revolutionary wave”, exacerbated by the political impotence of most European elites largely discredited as a result of their capitulation and collaboration with the Nazi occupier, the US government feared that it could make it possible to implement what it qualified as a communist threat, choosing to help rebuild devastated Europe. What makes it possible to understand the “Europe First Policy” and the consequent subordination of all African perspectives of the foreign policy of the United States to European priorities, an orientation that would begin to be changed between 1958 and 1960, during the Eisenhower administration, who claimed an independent American policy for Africa, when the uninterrupted torrent of the conquest of independence by the colonies was about to submerge the entire continent. In turn, the Kennedy administration ensured the continuity of this policy, despite the apparent support for Afro-Asiatic anti-colonial claims, which highlighted the difficulties of adapting to the political priorities of the decolonization era on the part of European colonial powers, especially Portugal. However, this reorientation has never changed the foreign policy of the United States, which has always focused on defending Europe against all kind of threats.

The Role of the NATO in Collective Security and how it has transformed and evolved over the years

This paper is about how and for what purpose NATO as an organization for collective security was established. To begin with, this paper says that NATO was established to counter and contain the communist threat in the shape of Russia. This was an era of the cold war. However, once the cold war was over and Russian disintegration happened in 1989, NATO didn't disappear but defined for itself a changing role in the changing world. It was because of this newly defined role that NATO survived and outlived its primary purpose. However,since the terrorists' attack on the twin towers on 9/11, NATO has further transformed to undertake military operations in areas that fall beyond its scope of operations. It has been seen as involved not only in military operations but also in humanitarian assistance in countries hit by natural calamities. Data for the paper was collected through secondary sources, including research papers and other collectable materials.

Nazis of Copley Square: The Forgotten Story of the Christian Front by Charles R. Gallagher

Reviewed by: Nazis of Copley Square: The Forgotten Story of the Christian Front by Charles R. Gallagher Sean Brennan Nazis of Copley Square: The Forgotten Story of the Christian Front. By Charles R. Gallagher. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2021. 313 pp. $29.95. During the years leading to and during the Second World War while the U.S. military engaged in combat with the Axis powers, within American society there was also the threat of far-right organizations who were sympathetic to—if not openly supportive of—Hitler’s regime, its aspirations of European conquest, its desire to defeat, and the threat of “Judeo-Bolshevism.” This is the subject of Charles Gallagher’s impeccably researched study of the activities of the Christian Front from the mid-1930s to the early 1940s, in New York City and Boston, two of the centers of their activities. While the temptations to make constant comparisons between the supporters of this organization and more recent historical events, Gallagher, for the most part, maintains his focus on the historical context of this organization, avoiding the easy trap of presentism. Gallagher spends his first two chapters establishing the historical and theological foundations of the Christian Front, how its name [End Page 91] emerged in opposition to the Popular Front governments in Mexico in the 1920s and Spain in the 1930s, the communist members of which were notorious for their persecutions of the Catholic Church, as well as the specter of the militantly atheistic Soviet regime. He then provides a deeper explanation of the theology of the Mystical Body of Christ, which argued that persecution of Christians anywhere was an assault on Christians everywhere, as well as the idea of “Judeo-Bolshevism,” a form of anti-Semitism that viewed Jews in America and Europe as inherent supporters of Communism, a view that led some to advocate and even prepare for the overthrow of the American government to purge it of Jewish and Communist agents, who were often viewed as one and the same. While he is not the main figure of the book, the notorious Detroit-based radio priest, Father Charles Coughlin, with his message of anti-Semitism, anticommunism, social justice, and hatred of Franklin Roosevelt’s administration, was an enormous spiritual inspiration to many of the unsavory yet complex figures depicted by Gallagher. The author convincingly demonstrates how the insular Irish Catholic communities of New York and Boston were fertile ground for recruitment into the Christian Front’s various organizations, not only due to the belief of many in “Judeo-Bolshevism” but also a hatred of Great Britain for its long and cruel rule of Ireland. In later sections of the book, Gallagher discusses how the Christian Front expanded its supporters to include Protestants, women, and even some African Americans. Nor does he reduce the support of Catholic clergy for the Christian Front to just Coughlin, pointing at numerous members of the Catholic clerical hierarchy were openly sympathetic to its goals and worked to protect its most notorious members when they could. The main figure in the first third of the book is John Cassidy, a failed applicant to the FBI who then turned to transform the Committee of American Christians Against Communism, which he led, into a paramilitary organization with recruits and weapons from the New York National Guard. Although Cassidy’s organization was eventually raided by the FBI and he and other leaders were placed on trial, their acquittal following the suspiciously botched prosecution gave second life to the cause of the Christian Front. The focus of the book then shifts to Boston and a failed businessman named Francis Moran, who became a disciple and then agent of Father Coughlin’s Union Party, which attempted in 1936 to challenge both the Republican and Democrat parties for the loyalty of American voters. While rejecting the paramilitary tactics of Cassidy, Moran became a constant propagandist throughout Boston and the northeastern United States advocating American neutrality in any future European conflict, and eventually a tacit alliance with Hitler against the Communist threat. This led to a relationship with a sinister character named [End Page 92] Herbert Scholz, an SS officer who served as the director of the...

Coronavirus meets the clash of civilizations

Conspiracy Theories (CTs) are a global phenomenon, but some societies are better equipped than others to resist them. This article discusses the characteristics of the China-related COVID-19 CTs in the Brazilian Facebook, based on 28,312 posts published from January 2020 to June 2021. We argue that, in Brazil, the spread of CTs was facilitated by a widespread political and knowledge institutions’ legitimacy crisis. The rise of the extremist politician Jair Bolsonaro to the Presidency provides evidence in this regard. In consequence, the boundaries between fringe and mainstream politics become porous. This article discusses which agents disseminate China-related COVID-19 CTs, and which topics receive more attention. We found a significant presence of actors belonging to mainstream politics and the media among the CTs’ main disseminators. Additionally, the CTs circulating in the Brazilian social media environment reproduce concerns about China’s growing presence in the global arena, which originate elsewhere. Still, they add a specific emphasis on the Communist threat. We sustain that this emphasis relates as much to Brazil’s internal politics as to China itself.

‘World enemy bolshevism’: gender, journalism & the continuities of ideological conflict in Germany, 1933–1955

ABSTRACT This article uses memoirs, newspapers, and archival documents to analyse how four German women journalists became entangled in ideological conflict between Nazism, communism, and liberal democracy from the 1930s to the 1950s. Using the concept of a ‘long’ Cold War, it demonstrates how from the Third Reich to the Federal Republic of West Germany, the experiences and autobiographical writing of German women journalists who had been arrested and imprisoned by the Soviets contributed to Germany’s national identity as both a victim and a bulwark of (potential) Soviet aggression. Publishing their experiences provided these female journalists with a unique and historically specific political agency: their words echoed contemporary discourses about the supposed communist threat and how women and ideas about women were inherent in such rhetoric.