March 21, 1947: President Harry S. Truman issued Executive Order 9835, requiring strict loyalty by all federal employees to the United States. In the order, he argued that all federal workers directly oversaw and maintained American democracy and as a result needed to be heavily scrutinized. This policy also reflected its context within the emergent Cold War. Truman stated that it was necessary since “maximum protection must be afforded the United States against infiltration of disloyal persons into the ranks of its employees.” This executive order also created a list, to be maintained by the Attorney General, that included all organizations believed to be “totalitarian, fascist, communist or subversive, or as having adopted a policy of advocating or approving the commission of acts of force or violence to deny others their rights under the Constitution of the United States, or as seeking to alter the form of government of the United States by unconstitutional means.”
Recommended reading to learn more:
Citations: Harry S. Truman, “Executive Order 9835-Prescribing Procedures for the Administration of an Employees Loyalty Program in the Executive Branch of the Government,” March 21, 1947, online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-9835-prescribing-procedures-for-the-administration-employees-loyalty; Albert Wertheim, “The McCarthy Era and the American Theatre,” Theatre Journal 34, no. 2 (May 1982): 211, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3207451; “[Harry Truman, half-length portrait, facing front],” photograph (location unknown, c. June 27, 1945), https://lccn.loc.gov/96523444.
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