{"id":66,"date":"2017-11-20T16:40:18","date_gmt":"2017-11-20T16:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oldbarnvt.com\/redscare\/?page_id=64"},"modified":"2018-03-19T21:23:43","modified_gmt":"2018-03-19T21:23:43","slug":"table-of-contents","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/redscareinthegreenmountains.com\/index.php\/table-of-contents\/","title":{"rendered":"Table of Contents"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cRED SCARE IN THE GREEN MOUNTAINS: VERMONT IN THE MCCARTHY ERA 1946-1960\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

PREFACE: REFLECTIONS OF A RED-DIAPER BABY<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The origins of this book date back to a conference held in Montpelier in 1988, \u201cVermont in the McCarthy Era.\u201d I was one of three organizers of the event, along with Michael Sherman, then director of the Vermont Historical Society, and the late Richard Hathaway, professor of history at Vermont College. Looking back over the list of panelists, I see that the conference happened just in time; William Hinton, Robert Mitchell, Martha Kennedy, Rabbi Max Wall, and Arnold Schein are among those who have died since then. <\/span><\/p>\n

As stimulating as the conference proved to be, I never lost the sense that we only scratched the surface. The intention of this book has been to both explore some subjects that were not covered at the conference and also to give a greater shape to our findings. <\/span><\/p>\n

CHAPTER ONE –\u00a0 <\/span>1946: THE CONGRESSMAN AND THE PROFESSOR<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>University of Vermont political science professor Andrew Nuquist was looking forward to a thorough airing of the issues when he challenged six-term incumbent Charles Plumley in 1946. Nuquist was ready to challenge the congressman\u2019s votes on agricultural and labor issues.\u00a0 <\/span>Plumley\u2019s growing absences and missed votes were causing worries in the Republican party, and several newspaper editorial pages expressed the thought that \u201cUncle Charlie\u201d was due for retirement. <\/span><\/p>\n

But as Vermont poet Walter Hard put it that summer, <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOf our Congressman\u2019s consistency,
\n<\/span>This much can be truthfully said:<\/span>
\n<\/span>Whoever sets out to seek the job,
\n<\/span>He\u2019s sure to find out he\u2019s a Red.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

CHAPTER TWO: 1948: THE HENRY WALLACE CAMPAIGN IN VERMONT<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Two years before Senator Joseph McCarthy burst on the national scene, Vermont experienced its first major manifestation of that potent mix of super-patriotism, staunch anti-Communism, and fear tactics that characterized the \u201cRed Scare\u201d era. \u00a0 <\/span>The occasion was the quixotic presidential campaign of Henry Wallace in 1948. <\/span><\/p>\n

Bernie Sanders\u2019 presidential run in 2106 drew comparisons with that 1948 campaign, bringing the dimly remembered figure of Henry Agard Wallace back into public view. Wallace had been a person of international renown at the close of World War II, ranking in a June 1946 poll as one of those \u201cmost admired\u201d in the United States. But by the time the Wallace for President Vermont chapter was formed in February 1948, he had become a marginalized and, in some quarters, reviled figure for his political positions.<\/span><\/p>\n

CHAPTER THREE \u2013 1950: A SINISTER POISON: THE \u2018RED SCARE\u201d COMES TO BETHEL<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a question that might stump many Vermont history buffs: who was Ordway Mabson Southard? A May 2001 obituary for this prolific poet and haiku specialist mentioned some of the places he and his wife Mary had lived: Alaska, Mexico, Alabama, Hawaii, and finally British Columbia – but not Vermont.\u00a0Yet it was here in the summer of 1950 that the Southards were the catalysts for an episode that landed Vermont in the national news. Only a passing obituary reference to their political activities (\u201cBoth were highly influenced by Marxist Socialist thought and participated in the Civil Rights Movement\u201d) gives a clue to the events that led to headlines such as the one in the August 3 issue of the Bradford Opinion<\/i>: \u201cReds Infest Bethel, Randolph Center, McCarthy Charges.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

CHAPTER FOUR \u2013 1953: DEFENDING ALEX NOVIKOFF: THE LEGACY OF ARNOLD SCHEIN<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a shabby performance all around\u2026The trustees and the administration disgraced themselves and the University.\u201d The speaker was Arnold Schein on June 11, 1988, as he looked back thirty-five years to one of Vermont\u2019s major Red Scare controversies, involving Alex Novikoff, a biochemistry professor at University of Vermont\u2019s Medical School. Novikoff had taken the Fifth Amendment during a Senate hearing into Communist influence at Brooklyn College, where he had taught before coming to Vermont. He was subsequently fired by the trustees of the University of Vermont. Arnold Schein had never lost his anger at the injustice visited on his friend and colleague. He welcomed the chance to address the \u201cVermont in the McCarthy Era\u201d conference in 1988 and tell the story to a new generation. <\/span><\/p>\n

CHAPTER FIVE \u2013 1953-1954: FROM \u2018PEIPING\u2019 TO PUTNEY: THE HINTON FAMILY AND THE \u201cRED SCARE\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

During the month of September 1949, headlines in the Brattleboro Reformer<\/i> mirrored those the world over: \u201cCommunists Take Over Peiping,\u201d \u201cMao Tze-tung China\u2019s New Ruler.\u201d This event, which dominated the global news, opened another front in the nascent Cold War and further increased American fears of Communism\u2019s spreading threat. It also created ripples that were felt in Brattleboro\u2019s northerly neighbor, Putney. <\/span><\/p>\n

Putney, then and now a town of approximately 2500, has had a surprisingly wide connection with world affairs, especially during the tumultuous early years of the Cold War. This was due to the influence of the Putney School, and the children of its founder, Carmelita Hinton. When two of Mrs. Hinton\u2019s children, William and Joan, became fervent supporters of the new Chinese government, the resulting headlines catapulted both the small town and the even smaller school into the national spotlight.<\/span><\/p>\n

CHAPTER SIX \u2013 1954: THE VERMONT PRESS AND SENATOR MCCARTHY\u2019S DOWNFALL <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

When the longtime publisher and editor of the Rutland Herald <\/i>Robert Mitchell spoke at the 1988 conference \u201cVermont in the McCarthy Era,\u201d he recalled the time in the early 1950s when Senator Joseph McCarthy commanded the news.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cAt that time it was automatic that anyone who opposed Senator McCarthy or others who exploited fears of subversion was likely to be charged with succumbing to the communist taint itself,\u201d Mitchell recalled. \u201cDuring that period, the Herald<\/i> published more editorials intending to debunk McCarthyism and the internal communist threat than were printed on any other subject.\u201d Mitchell did not stop at anti-McCarthy editorials. The Herald<\/i> also played a pivotal role in supporting the efforts of Senator Ralph Flanders in his battle with Senator Joseph McCarthy, a struggle that dominated Herald<\/i> front pages from March through December of 1954. <\/span><\/p>\n

CHAPTER SEVEN \u2013 1950-1956: BERNARD O\u2019SHEA AND THE SWANTON COURIER<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

As the anti-Communist fervor known as \u201cMcCarthyism\u201d took hold of the national consciousness in the early 1950s, it never gained quite as strong a foothold in Vermont as in many other places. One reason for this can be attributed to several of the state\u2019s forthright newspaper publishers and editors. In other chapters, I have explored the roles of John Drysdale (White River Valley Herald<\/i>) and Robert Mitchell (Rutland Herald<\/i>). But there were several other outspoken newspeople: Gerald MacLoughlin of the Springfield Reporter<\/i>, Bill Slator of the Addison Independent<\/i>, and, in a class by himself, Bernard (\u201cBun\u201d) O\u2019Shea of the Swanton Courier<\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Although O\u2019Shea was known in later years as a perennial Democratic candidate for statewide office, it was at the Swanton Courier<\/i> that he first came to prominence. Bernard O\u2019Shea was a native of Northampton, Massachusetts, and was working on the weekly Berkshire Eagle<\/i> when the opportunity to purchase the Swanton Courier<\/i> arose in 1949. He became its publisher and his wife Sheila the editor; as their son Kevin remembers, \u201cMy father was the dreamer, and my mother the driver.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

CHAPTER EIGHT \u2013 1951-1960: MEANWHILE, ACROSS THE CONNECTICUT RIVER\u2026.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

A recent New York Times article referred to Vermont and New Hampshire as \u201cNew England\u2019s unidentical twins.\u201d Another observer termed the two states \u201cgeographic twins, but cultural aliens.\u201d Historians have long noted the differences between the two states, even before anyone thought to divide our country into red and blue. Going back to the 1950s, both states were considered die-hard Republican, but there was a significant divergence in how each state reacted to the national political climate. <\/span><\/p>\n

CHAPTER NINE –\u00a0 <\/span>1958-1960: THE CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGNS OF WILLIAM MEYER <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Trace the roots of Bernie Sanders\u2019 improbable rise in Vermont, and one is inescapably led to William H. Meyer, the unassuming forester from West Rupert who reshaped Vermont\u2019s political landscape during the waning days of the Red Scare. Ask a Vermonter-in-the-street today to identify Meyer, and chances are that you will be met with puzzled looks. Vermont historians and longtime political veterans, however, know Meyer as the 1958 Democratic candidate who wrested the Vermont seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from Republican control after 104 years.\u00a0 <\/span>And those on the left in Vermont with long memories know of him as an outspoken liberal who espoused nuclear disarmament, critiqued militarism often, advocated for the recognition of \u201cRed\u201d China, and who later became a key figure in the creation of the Liberty Union party. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cRED SCARE IN THE GREEN MOUNTAINS: VERMONT IN THE MCCARTHY ERA 1946-1960\u201d PREFACE: REFLECTIONS OF A RED-DIAPER BABY The origins of this book date back to a conference held in Montpelier in 1988, \u201cVermont in the McCarthy Era.\u201d I was one of three organizers of the event, along with Michael Sherman, then director of the … <\/p>\n

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