Eric R. Crouse, University of New Brunswick

Abstract

Vigilant Conservative Protestants, eager to defend the "American Way of Life," confronted the threats of Communist expansion in the world and "infiltration" in the United States.  Leaders such as Billy Graham, Carl Henry, and J. Edgar Hoover offered pietistic, aggressive, and virile ideals that shared common ground with early Cold War American expectations.  In an examination of the forces shaping American Cold War culture, one must consider the amplified voices of Conservative Protestants.

[1] The Cold War dominated American life in the 1950s.  With the escalation of Cold War tensions, fears abounded of nuclear war, red global domination, or, at least, that Christianity and the security of the nation were in danger of Communist infiltration.  On many occasions, religious leaders expressed their understanding of the threats that America faced.  The success that Conservative Protestants (including evangelist Billy Graham, religious editor Carl Henry, and F.B.I. director J. Edgar Hoover) had in presenting their anti-Communist message to countless Americans suggests that Conservative Protestantism played an influential role in the shaping of American Cold War culture.  One way better to understand this process is to probe the ways Conservative Protestantism drew motivation and legitimation from dominant American expectations that were religious, anti-Communist, and masculine.  Of course, many Liberal Protestants, Catholics, and Jews likewise represented these dominant American expectations.  What sets Conservative Protestants apart was the profusion of voices that upheld a more consistent and rigorous anti-Communist message in public culture.

[2] One definition of culture is a collection of beliefs, values, and ideals expressed in popular forms and embodied in political and other institutions.1  R. Laurence Moore suggests that in the 'fifties it was difficult "to view religion as something distinct from popular culture."2  Religion found expression in various popular media.  An Atlantic commentator proclaimed: "Faith is fashionable."3  Life magazine tracked the rise of urban revivalists such as Billy Graham who preached to millions of Americans, including 100,000 gathered at one service in Yankee Stadium.4  A senior editor of Reader's Digest, Stanley High, covered revival "Crusades" and wrote: "Statistically, the success of Billy Graham, important and impressive as it is, is only one among many indications that, by every quantitative measurement, religion in the United States is booming."5  A Harper's Magazine writer proclaimed: "In other countries there is a steady attrition of the body of believers; in the United States it grows."6  Hollywood even produced an extravaganza of big-budget biblical films with star casts in movies such as The Robe, The Ten Commandments, and Ben Hur.

[3] Numerous surveys for the 'fifties found between 95 and 97 percent of Americans agreeing that they "believe in God."7  Given that religious identification was vital and few people could understand how anyone could be "against religion," it is no surprise that the majority of Americans did not waver far from church life.  Throughout the 1950s, official church membership ranged between 57 and 69 percent of the total population.  In one poll, as many as 79 percent proclaimed themselves members of a church, inspiring one commentator to remark that religion probably played a greater role in the United States than any other modern industrial state.8 

[4] American political life often demonstrated close connections with religious ideals. Legislation in 1954 added "under God" to the pledge of allegiance, and, without a single dissenting vote in the House or Senate, "In God We Trust" became the national motto two years later.  The 1958 Gallup poll revealed that 80 percent of the American electorate would not "vote for an atheist for President under any circumstances."  Indeed, the time was appropriate for the president of the United States, cabinet members, and members of Congress to gather for a communion service at a Presbyterian church in Washington, which they did on at least one occasion.9  In an editorial, Christianity Today maintained that President Eisenhower "stands - chief representative of a nation professedly 'under God' - as a mirror of men who champion unchanging truth, fixed moral principles, and the dignity of all men as creatures answerable to a divine Creator."10  The New York Times wrote, in 1958, Billy Graham's assessment of Eisenhower: The President had contributed to "a tremendous moral awakening" as a result of "his church going and the things he has said."11 Eisenhower himself stated that "it is only through religion that we can lick this thing called communism."12  The prominence of religion in the 1950s corresponded to society's fear, unrest, and uncertainty about the future - the desire for meaning and security as political and religious leaders proclaimed that Communism and atomic war threatened the United States.13 

[5] As a post-World War II superpower, the United States could not return to the isolationism of earlier decades, particularly since many believed that the Soviets had inherited Nazism's aggressiveness and indifference to moral concerns.14  In 1949, the Soviet Union exploded its first nuclear weapon, and the birth of the People's Republic of China and the German Democratic Republic occurred.  The following year, America was at war in Korea.  American commentators voiced their concerns that the world situation was perilous.  While eventually discredited for his witch-hunting, Senator Joseph McCarthy did capture a sense of the age when he stated that "the fate of the world rests with the clash between the atheism of Moscow and the Christian spirit throughout other parts of the world.15

[6] Although there were Americans who were more anxious about economic, health, and other personal problems than the remote chance of being personally affected by an internal Communist threat, survey data do indicate that the dangers of Communism were real to many Americans.  For example, one national survey in the early 'fifties showed that 91 percent of Americans held that high school teachers who were admitted Communists should be fired and 77 percent approved having their American citizenship taken away.16 

[7] During these years, anti-Communism was central to the American experience.  In such a climate, those on the left often acquiesced to the forces of anti-Communism.  The label "Communist" described anyone viewed as a radical or "un-American."  Even anti-Communist liberals and individuals innocent of Communist activities might be denounced, degraded, or destroyed.17  Genuine Communists usually found it impossible to hold public addresses, as was the case in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1947, when Communists attempted to speak at a public hall only to be attacked by an anti-Communist mob determined to protect "The American Way" from the influence of "Commies," "rats," "bastards," and "Stalin-lovers."18 According to L. Nelson Bell, (Billy Graham's father-in-law), the avowed purpose and ultimate goal of Communism "is complete domination of the world" and that "America is in the gravest danger in her history."19 

[8] References to the threat of the "reds" were rampant in popular media throughout the United States.  In pulp fiction, Mickey Spillane's tough guy Mike Hammer went from fighting gangsters to focussing on Communist subversion.20  Countless newspaper stories spoke of the dangers of the "reds."  In 1949, the Los Angeles Times warned of the demise of capitalism and the creation of a Communist America - "the United Soviet States of the American Republic (USSAR)."21 In a 1952 letter to the Washington Herald-Times, Robert Palmer urged mothers and fathers to drill the letters "D.B.A.C. (don't be a Communist), in every child's mind" and for news commentators to do likewise every time they broadcast.22  Numerous autobiographies, biographies, and other non-fiction books held similar messages.  Television shows and Hollywood movies, such as The Red Menace, The Red Nightmare, I Was a Communist for the FBI, and numerous others, alerted Americans to the Communist threat.  Many such films castigated labour unions and Communist infiltrators (who allegedly had no real interest in the plight of the downtrodden), lionized law enforcement officials, and promoted the patriotic duty of informing on friends suspected of Communist sympathies.23 

[9] Anti-Communist rhetoric thrived in conservative religious magazines.  There were the Fundamentalist magazines such as Carl McIntire's the Christian Beacon and John R. Rice's the Sword of the Lord, but more influential was the Evangelical bi-weekly Christianity Today, financially supported by ardent conservative J. Howard Pew, the president of Sun Oil Company.  With almost 200,000 copies distributed throughout the United States to clergy and lay people by the late 1950s, the Washington-based Christianity Today sought to influence national policy and it offered hundreds of commentaries, reports, and articles on Communism.24  Reports of Chinese Communist "atrocities" published in Christianity Today included a female evangelist who was tied between two horses sent to run in opposite directions.25 Even in the years before Mao Zedong's disastrous programs, the Great Leap Forward and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, there were abundant reports of a China that had no room for Christian ideals.  In a letter to the editor, Fred C. Schwarz of the Christian Anti-Communism Crusade in Long Beach, California, warned that the Communist program for the Church in China was to enslave, to utilize, and to destroy.26 Within the Soviet Union, Christians risked internment, exile, or worse if they declared their faith publicly or gave religious instruction to their children privately.  In Eastern Europe, the "Red imperialism" of rape and violence and the arrest of church leaders and suppression of Christian worship mobilized Americans to battle Communist activity at home.27 

[10] In the early decades of the century, many Conservative Protestants had been relatively poor rural people, but more white Evangelicals rose to middle income levels after World War II (in step with economic expansion), becoming more visible as a political force. The problem often voiced by Conservative Protestants was that atheistic Communists recognized no fixed principles of morality; a Communist's word, integrity, or intentions could not be trusted, even those stated in international treaties.  In Conservative Protestant circles, Communism was nothing less than a sinister force seeking to subvert Christianity and American freedom and individualism.28 

[11] Conservative Protestant clergy leaders, more than other community leaders, adopted an unyielding position on the dangers of Communist or Socialist views.  A major survey in 1954 indicates that non-clergy community leaders (public officials, industrial leaders, and community club leaders) across the nation were "more likely than the rank and file to give a second sober thought to the dangers involved in denying civil liberties to those whose views they dislike."  Such leaders hardly approved of Communist views, yet at least half of these civic leaders showed a willingness to accord Communists the right to express their views in a speech in a community.29 In contrast, if their reported rhetoric is a true representation of their views, Conservative Protestants demonstrated unmistakable leadership for vigilance; many rank and file Americans who tended to deny Communists any opportunity to spread their message also favoured such a position.  In particular, a vigilant approach corresponded with the position of regular church attenders who were "more likely than others to see the Communist danger as severe."30  While churchgoers, regardless of denomination, adopted a more hard-line position than those less attached to religious institutions, Conservative Protestants showed the greatest disposition to hard-line policies on Cold War issues.31

[12] In addition to religion, gender played an important role in the American response to Communism in an era noted for its "militarized culture."32  Defenders of America had to be aggressive.  After World War II, for example, the federal government, athletes, and physical education teachers promoted "a cult of toughness."  In the Cold War era, Americans required combative values and physical and moral toughness to face the Communist enemy.33  Moreover, Americans had to uphold manliness since there was the belief that a lack of virility or homosexuality, might lead to political subversion.34  Critical of their own movement, some Communist activists despaired of the "failure of masculinity in writers who would not deal with the hard realities of the class struggle."35 

[13]There was also the issue of gender equality that Communists promised.  Women would be freed from "slavery" and placed in the workplace and their babies in nurseries, a threatening idea to many Americans, particularly religious conservatives.  As Christian statesman John Foster Dulles pointed out in 1950, the Constitution of the Soviet Union provided women equal rights with men in all spheres of society (including economic and political life) assured by a wide network of nurseries.36  The gendered landscape of American suburbs held that women remain in the domestic sphere and fulfill their role of rearing strong, able, and patriotic offspring, thus alleviating the problem of unsupervised homes which resulted in "a weakening of the nation's moral fibre at a time when the country had to be strong."37 Women had a limited function in public life and church leadership, but their role at home was a noble one.  They were to nurture their children to respect the freedom and opportunities that America offered.  In the 1950s, a major research survey found that on the subject of the limitations of civil liberties women tended to be less tolerant of Communists than men.38  Consequently, an unyielding and masculine response to Communist activity likely received the support of many women.  One Iowa housewife, who suspected another woman of being a Communist, stated: "I just don't trust her. . . . She has more money to spend and places to go than seems right."39  In Modern Woman: The Lost Sex (1947), Freudian analyst Marynia Farnham and sociologist Ferdinand Lundberg claimed that Communist agents used feminism to disrupt the West and terminate its vigour.40

[14] As the Cold War germinated in post-World War II America, Billy Graham, brimming with Evangelical fervour, anti-Communism, and manliness, began to make his mark.  In The Culture of the Cold War, Stephen J. Whitfield noted Graham's influence, stating "he probably remained the most consistently and deeply admired American of his time."41  According to William McLoughlin, Graham's "popularity was part of the grass-roots reaction to the whole traumatic postwar experience," the desire for reaffirmation of ideals and values that had given "meaning and order to American life in the past."42  In 1957, one commentator claimed that his "authoritarianism" and "decisiveness" appealed to many revival listeners.43  Beginning in 1947, Graham's revival campaigns held in major cities and covered by print, and frequently by radio and television, had a far-reaching impact.  While his focus was on a message of sin and salvation, he often highlighted the perilous threat of Communism; it was a vehicle to share Christ and state the necessity for repentance of sins and thus, revival.44  The use of fear and anxiety was genuine, for Graham listed the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and the Communist menace as the three major crises that America faced.45 

[15] At the 1949 Los Angeles crusade, where Graham first received national exposure, he declared that "Communism is not only an economic interpretation of life - Communism is a religion that is inspired, directed and motivated by the Devil himself who has declared war against Almighty God."46  To a Washington revival audience, he stated that this anti-God and anti-Christ "fanatical religion" was seeking to undermine "this great America of ours."47  In North Carolina, he explained that in times of darkness Communists were effective propagandists, promising hope and the building of a better world; it was disturbing that when Communism demanded conversion many would chose this "counterfeit of Christianity."48  Responding soon after the Cuban Missile Crisis, he warned Christianity Today readers that "in spite of a few recent reverses, the Communists have been winning during the last 15 years."49

[16] There were other signs of a cold warrior attitude such as his earlier statement, in I Saw Your Sons at War: The Korean Diary, that the division of Korea at the 38th parallel was a "scandalous" decision by "men who sold us down the river."  Graham supported an American "offensive war" and held that the Truman administration was "cowardly" for not allowing MacArthur to win the Korean War, even if it meant bombing China.50  In 1958, responding to the Eisenhower administration for lessening its commitment to troops in Lebanon to fight Communism, Graham stated: "We hesitate, we vacillate, and weakly back down when the going gets tough."51  Despite his respect for the church-attending Eisenhower, Graham was critical of United States foreign policy that lacked aggressiveness.  Described by a Boston Daily Globe journalist as a "tall, athletic evangelist,"Graham upheld a fighting spirit, and the crusades themselves frequently exhibited signs of an assertive masculinity.52  He preached that only God could hold Communism back, but if called he would willingly "shoulder a gun."53  He also pointed out the manliness of Christ, who "was every inch a 'He-man.'" In fact, "Christ was probably the strongest man physically that ever lived.  He could have been a star athlete on any team.  He was a real man with His strong shoulders [and] squarish jaw."54  As for Graham, he was "fearless" when he faced a crowd.55  It is also notable that revival converts who received the most press attention tended to be manly individuals such as "a hard-boiled police sergeant," tattooed brawler Eddie Dickens, "real genuine cowboy" Sam Means of Texas, New York Giants bad boy Kirby Higbe, war hero and former Olympic track star Louis Zamperini, or Californian racehorse owner and cowboy legend Stuart Hamblin who was described as a "man's man."556  By way of revivals and television, Graham and his blend of piety, anti-Communism, and masculinity, advanced a Conservative Protestant understanding of American Cold War culture.

[17] Another Conservative Protestant who voiced religious, anti-Communist, and masculine ideals to a wide audience was Christianity Today editor and theologian Carl Henry, former professor at Fuller Theological Seminary - "strictly a men's school" that discouraged women from attending classes.57  The exclusively masculine Christianity Today - women writers and topics were conspicuously absent - became the most widely-distributed religious magazine in the United States under the editorship of Henry.  His voice reached a broader audience when television camera crews descended upon Christianity Today's Washington office seeking commentary on various issues.58

[18] The magazine sought to offer a more balanced approach than Fundamentalist thinking, but it still championed free market capitalism and certainly did little to temper its attacks on atheistic Communism; books on Communism were reviewed often and readers, in one issue, were "urged to obtain" and read a list of almost 50 books on Communism.59 Like many other contributors to the magazine, Henry wrote of the dangers of Communism to the Christian faith and the importance of eradicating sin by the redemptive power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.60  America had to maintain its biblical heritage and be on guard against subtle socialistic tendencies, internal threats, and external foes.  He feared the signs of "cancerous collectivism" or "secret totalitarianism" in the United States such as the soaring costs of government, the rise of punitive taxation, greater federal support for education, and plans for socialized medicine.61  In 1960, Henry defended the House Un-American Activities Committee and implored Americans to be vigilant of the monstrous evil of Communism at home, particularly during the post-McCarthy era when Communist agitators taking orders from Moscow were likely to have greater freedom to inflict the nation with subversive influences.62

[19] Like Graham, Henry's response to external Communist threats was aggressively masculine, in keeping with the militancy against Communism promoted by Conservative Evangelicals and Fundamentalists.  Adopting Christian sentimentality or "a sentimental theory of the love of God" meant being soft on Communism.63  For example, Henry was critical of American foreign policy that allowed "a little man, who 'plays the rumba on his tuba down in Cuba,'" to initiate a serious threat to American national security.64  Castro the warrior and revolutionary became "a little man;" this corresponded with the persisting stereotype, in the early 20th century popular press, that Americans were superior and masculine and Latinos were "childlike people of color."65  As Henry saw it, Americans, of course, would have to take action in Cuba; they could not permit Castro to leak Communism, bringing in foreign powers, 90 miles off shore, that "would destroy us."66

[20] Henry asserted that American military support for the Bay of Pigs episode was weak and an embarrassment67 and in the following year, days before the unfolding of the Cuban Missile Crisis, he was disparaging of American pacifism in religious and diplomatic circles and the so-called "better Red than dead" philosophy.  There was even the suggestion that pacifist pickers at Pennsylvania Avenue were aiding Khrushchev.  Concerned that public opinion was being manipulated by Communist sympathizers, Henry contested peace "propaganda" such as "unilateral American suspension of nuclear tests, demilitarization of Germany, and withdrawal of American troops from South Vietnam."  Disputing the pacifist axiom "that war is always evil," he supported the concept of a "just war" and warned of a surprise attack that could result in American surrender to Communism.68  As he stated elsewhere, mixing military might with spiritual focus: "We must arm, certainly.  We cannot allow ourselves to be engulfed by the dictatorship of the Soviet Union."69

[21] J. Edgar Hoover was another cold warrior who voiced an uncompromising position on Communism.  His expertise first secured in the early 1920s received reinforcement in later Hollywood films and popular entertainment that had "enormous influence on public opinion." Viewed as a "folk hero" to millions of Americans, Hoover relished his role as a powerful guard and defender of America and the traditional Christian values that most Americans upheld against the internal threats of Communists.  According to one biographer, Hoover had, throughout his decades of FBI service, "a turn-of-the century vision of America as a small community of like-minded neighbors, proud of their achievements, resentful of criticism, fiercely opposed to change."70  Like other religious conservatives, he championed a romanticized America of the past with its old truths and pieties. 

[22] Hoover initially attended a Lutheran church, but he became a Presbyterian at age fifteen, remaining a church member for the rest of his life.  While his religious life (at odds with some of his law enforcement ethics and methods) has received minimal treatment by historians, his connection to Conservative Protestantism became more public in the late 1950s and early 1960s when he published a number of "revival oriented articles" in Christianity Today that explained how Communists operated against the American religious heritage.71  For example, in 1960 the magazine invited Hoover to present a three-part series entitled "The Communist Menace: Red Goals and Christian Ideals," "Communist Propaganda and the Christian Pulpit," and "Soviet Rule or Christian Renewal?"  He painted a dark picture of Marx as an "intolerant atheist" mixing the ideological acids of an evil philosophy, V.I. Lenin as a "beady-eyed Russian" seizing power with Bolshevik henchmen, and Joseph Stalin as crafty and cunning.  Hoover used nuclear war rhetoric to warn of the Communist foe: "The Communists are today spraying the world with ideological and propaganda missiles designed to create a deadly radioactive cloud of Marxism-Leninism," with the "deadliest" missiles targeting the "Christian pulpit" to be "liquidated, pitilessly, mercilessly, finally."  In rejecting God, he argued, Communism became "a fanatical, Satanic, brutal phenomenon."72

[23] Christians were to be alert to the strategy of deceit which included a false Communist claim for tolerance of religion, a Communist plan to agree with Christians on common issues, and the goal to exploit the church for Communist ends.73  His warnings were consistent with Conservative Protestant fears that Liberal Protestants were vulnerable to socialist influences and thus Communist exploitation.  Communism was a deceitful and bitter enemy of religion, but the nation would remain strong as long as Americans looked to the Bible for "inspiration, zeal, and guidance for life."74  Concerning one of Hoover's article, Marion Walger of Baltimore wrote to Christianity Today desiring that Hoover's words "could be put into the hands of every man and woman, and every boy and girl - in America at least."75

[24] Published under Hoover's name but written by the public relations department of the FBI, Masters of Deceit: The Story of Communism in America and How to Fight It (1958) sold over 2,000,000 copies by 1970.  The book utilized strong language to explain how Americans could effectively respond to the red menace.76  Its jeering at Communists and dramatizing of "G-man heroism"77 represented the manly qualities of aggression, bravery and loyalty.  Historian Richard Gid Powers characterizes Hoover as a law-enforcement warrior - "the most feared man the underworld has ever known."  In 1968, Lyndon Johnson wrote to Richard Nixon, stating that Hoover "is a pillar of strength in a city of weak men."  As for his law enforcement philosophy, Hoover was against what he labelled the "cream-puff school of criminology" that expressed any sympathy for Communists and other criminals.  And under his watch, one FBI campaign was the COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program), which included the arresting of homosexual Communists in order to embarrass the Party.78  Hoover's forceful presentation in the public eye might be partly explained as his way to promote his personal manliness and counteract any rumour of his own homosexuality.  But it was also vital for him to take the role of the unyielding defender of American and Christian ideals, a responsibility he took seriously after joining the Justice Department.79 He was no less a cold warrior than Joe McCarthy.80

[25] In assessing the impact of the religious, anti-Communist, and masculine ideals of Graham, Henry, and Hoover on American culture, one might acknowledge the function of traditions that legitimize and even prescribe particular group or societal behaviour.81  One of a number of reasons why early Cold War Americans upheld intense anti-Communism was because of its intimate connection with fundamental values and traits of American society, including the religiosity and masculinity proclaimed by conservative religious leaders.  Given the conservative religious leaders' promotion of an aggressive and virile response, firm anti-Communist activity by rank-and-file Americans was legitimate.  And reinforcement worked both ways.  Hoover, in particular, rarely took risks with anti-Communist activity unless he believed public opinion was supportive.82  Conservative Protestant leaders could promote unyielding anti-Communist attitudes, that occasionally bordered on hysteria, without much challenge from Americans who not only feared Communism for its threat to capitalism, but also its promotion of atheism and perhaps even gender equality. 

[26] Additional ways to help explain the impact that Conservative Protestants had in preserving early Cold War culture in America that was religious, anti-Communist, and masculine can be found in social psychological research on group and societal behaviour.  For example, studies demonstrate that people are more susceptible to persuasion if the speaker is believed to be an expert, has style, self-confidence, and high status, and offers a message that arouses strong emotions.83  Graham the athletic, globe-trotting evangelist, Henry the masculine, learned and respected evangelical journalist of a popular religious magazine, and Hoover the tough FBI national hero all offered credible, emotional, and persuasive messages concerning the threat of Communism.  Their anti-Communist statements also thrived as a result of the tendency of individuals to divide the social world into "in-group" and "out-group" categories, with the former viewed favourably so as to protect and bolster social identity and the latter perceived disapprovingly to the point where all characteristics of that group become negative.84  Applying this "us" versus "them" model of social categorization to Communism in America, one can understand how those who were supportive or sympathetic to socialist causes were assumed to possess only undesirable traits, particularly in the eyes of Conservative Protestants such as Graham, Henry, and Hoover who, because of their strong identification with the in-group, forcefully confronted Communist activity.  Even liberal Protestants, though less hawkish than conservatives, "rejected communism and supported a spirited resistance."85

[27] The warnings of Graham, Henry, and Hoover also reinforced negative stereotypes of left-wing Americans that would continue strongly to persist, until at least the mid-'sixties, due to the construction of social walls between true and patriotic Americans and those allegedly engaged in un-American activities.  It was no surprise that most Americans who sought acceptance and understood and endorsed the goals of the patriotic in-group found motivation to work within the group in order to uphold anti-Communist ideals.86  Conformist and psychological influences that commanded a vigilant and united response to Communism likely played a role in motivating many Americans to embrace religious, anti-Communist and masculine ideals.

[28] Upholding an aggressive and self-righteous position against Communism, Conservative Protestants presented a voice that amplified the fears of Americans.  Conservative Protestant leaders knew from the Bible that the forces of hell would never overcome the gates of righteousness, yet their virulent anti-Communism hardly showed assurance in God's providence.  The development of Communist regimes on the world stage created tension at home for action against the threat of the "reds," and Americans were quick to demonstrate their fear and hatred for Communism, often through religion.  Believing that the danger of Communism was real, many Americans were unlikely to show much tolerance for those espousing Communist views.  A sustained challenge to America's perception of Communism, religion, and gender came later with the rise of the counterculture of the 'sixties, moral relativism, and disturbing images of the Vietnam War.

[29] For Conservative Protestants, the time was right to play a greater role in American life and policy.  In the 1950s, more Americans were attending church, the President of the United States did not hesitate to show his Christian colours, and the nation was at war with Communism.  Since they appeared to connect with American culture on the issue of defending America against Communist forces, Conservative Protestant leaders had the best opportunity in decades to shape American culture.

[30] As Americans faced the rise of Communist regimes throughout the world and the threat of Communist "infiltration" of the United States, Conservative Protestants stood on guard with the popular support of many Americans.  The whole traumatic postwar experience demanded reaffirmation of time-tested ideals and values.  Social psychological forces assisted Conservative Protestants in reinforcing American culture with conservative and traditional views.  Moreover, by offering strong, virile, and dynamic leadership, Billy Graham, Carl Henry, and J. Edgar Hoover responded to Communism effectively.  Presented in popular media, their message embodied American expectations that were religious, anti-Communist, and masculine.

This manuscript is a revised and expanded version of a paper entitled "Responding to the Reds: Conservative Protestants, Anti-Communism, and the Shaping of American Culture, 1945-1965" presented at the Canadian Society of Church History, University of Toronto, June 2002.  I would like to thank the two anonymous readers for their excellent comments.

Notes

1. Definition from George Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism: 1870-1925 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980), vii.

2. R. Laurence Moore, Selling God: American Religion in the Marketplace of Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 239-42.

3. Harry C. Meserve, "The New Piety," The Atlantic, 195,6 (June 1955), 34.

4. For examples, see "A New Evangelist Arises, Life, 21 November 1949, 97. "Billy in Dixie," Life, 27 March 1950, 55. Also, "A New Revivalist," Life, 7 May 1951, 73. The last article refers to Pentecostal evangelist Oral Roberts.

5. Stanley High, Billy Graham: The Personal Story of the Man, His Message, and His Mission (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1956), 1.

6. D.W. Broyan, "Unnoticed Changes in America," Harper's Magazine, February 1957, 32.

7. See data presented in Douglas T. Miller and Marion Nowak, The Fifties: The Way We Really Were (Doubleday & Company, Inc.: Garden City, 1977), 90, and William L. O'Neill, American High: The Years of Confidence, 1945-1960 (New York: The Free Press, 1986), 212.

8. See Will Herberg, Protestant, Catholic, Jew: An Essay in American Religious Sociology (Garden City: Anchor Books, 1960), 47, 52.

9. Miller and Nowak, The Fifties, 92.  The communion service took place before the President took his oath for office for the new term.  See "Worship in Washington," Christianity Today, 21 January 1957, 29 and "A Nation Under God," Christianity Today, 4 February 1957, 28.

10. "Eisenhower, Khrushchev Talks Shadowed by a Red Moon," Christianity Today, 28 September 1959, 22.

11. "Graham sees president," New York Times, 7 March 1958. For Eisenhower on Graham, see "The Transcripts of Eisenhower News Conference on Foreign and Domestic Issues," New York Times, 22 March 1956.

12. "President sees editors," New York Times, 10 April 1953.

13. In a 1954 survey, the main reason Americans gave for the rise of church-building in the 1950s was fear, unrest, and concern for the future. See George Gallup, Jr. and Jim Castelli, The People's Religion: American Faith in the 90's (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1989), 9.  On Billy Graham and the threat of atomic war with the Communists, see Paul Boyer, By the Bomb's Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 239.  Also see Daniel Wojcik, The End of the World: As We Know It: Faith, Fatalism, and Apocalypse in America (New York: New York University Press, 1997), 136-7.

14. Andrew J. Rotter, "Christians, Muslims, and Hindus: Religion and U.S. - South Asian Relations, 1947-1954," Diplomatic History, 24,4 (Fall 2000), 607.

15. Miller and Nowak, The Fifties, 38, 91. On the importance of atheistic education in Russia see "New Education Chief Installed by Soviet," New York Times, 15 February 1951.

16. Samuel A. Stouffer, Communism, Conformity, and Civil Liberties: A Cross-section of the Nation Speaks Its Mind (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1955), 40, 43, 86-87.  Of course, there were bound to be those who linked their personal problems to Cold War tensions and Communism in general.  The national cross-section survey "sought to be representative of the American population 21 years of age and over, living in private households.  Excluded were persons in hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, hotels, and military establishments" (237).

17. Richard Gid Powers, Not Without Honor: The History of American Anticommunism (New York: The Free Press, 1995), 245.  For a personal account of this era, see Lillian Hellman, Scoundrel Time (New York: Bantam Books, 1977).

18. The 1948 report by Robert Myers is printed in Myers, "Anti-Communist Mob Action: A Case Study" in Robert R. Evans, ed., Readings in Collective Behavior, 2nd Edition (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1975), 152-61.

19. "A Layman and his Faith," Christianity Today, 18 July 1960, 19.

20. David Halberstam, The Fifties (New York: Villard Books, 1993), 59-61.

21. "Red says new war to doom capitalism," Los Angeles Times, 7 November 1949; "Reds outline plan for Soviet America," Ibid, 30 October 1949.

22. "Slogan suggestion," Times-Herald, 4 February 1952.

23. See Margot A. Henriksen, Dr. Strangelove's America: Society and Culture in the Atomic Age (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), 69-70.

24. See Mark G. Toulouse, "Christianity Today and American Public Life: A Case Study," Journal of Church and State, 35,2 (Spring 1993), 241-84.

25. See "Red Atrocities," Christianity Today, 22 June 1959, 29. Also, "Conversations with Chinese Christians," Christianity Today, 21 January 1957, 20-23.  Fearing that the Bible would be banished, some Chinese Christians formed an "Eat the Bible Society," whose purpose was the memorization of Scripture. See Hollington K. Tong, "Christianity in China," Christianity Today, 21 January 1957, 10-13.

26. "Delegations to Red China," Christianity Today, 1 April 1957, 17-18.

27.  Harold B. Kuhn, "Christian Surrender to Communism," Christianity Today, 2 March 1959, 9-11.  On the 1956 "rape of Hungary," see "Christian Responsibility and Communist Brutality," Christianity Today, 26 November 1956, 24; "12 Days of Life," Ibid., 35; and Charles W. Lowry, "Judgement on the Christian West," Christianity Today, 7 January 1957, 17, 24.  Also see "Methodists vote Communism fight," New York Times, 23 January 1956, and "Presbyterian group urged to Fight Reds," New York Times, 18 October 1954.

28. See the following articles: "Red China and World Morality," Christianity Today, 10 December 1956, 20-22; "Even the Devil Wears a Smile," Christianity Today, 2 February 1959, 22-23; "Karl Marx: A Study in Tragedy,"Christianity Today, 23 November 1959, 23; L. Nelson Bell, "Christianity and Communism," Christianity Today, 19 January 1959, 19.

29. Stouffer, Communism, Conformity, and Civil Liberties, 26-27.  The clergy were not included in the survey of community leaders due to the difficulty on settling "on a satisfactory objective definition of a single clergyman to represent each city" (19).

30. Stouffer, Communism, Conformity, and Civil Liberties, 142, 203.

31. Milton J. Rosenberg, "Attitude Change and Foreign Policy in the Cold War Era" in James N. Rosenau, ed., Domestic Sources of Foreign Policy (New York: The Free Press, 1967), 157.

32. Michael S. Sherry, In the Shadow of War: The United States Since the 1930s (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995).

33. Donald J. Mrozek, "The Cult and Ritual of Toughness in Cold War America" in Ray B. Browne, ed., Ritual and Ceremonies in Popular Culture (Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1980), 178.

34. Michelle Mart, "Tough Guys and American Cold War Policy: Images of Israel, 1948-1960," Diplomatic History, 20,3 (Summer 1996), 359.

35. Richard Hofstader, Anti-intellectualism in American Life (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1963), 294.

36. John Foster Dulles, War or Peace (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1950), 166.

37. Elaine Tyler May, "Explosive Issues: Sex, Women, and the Bomb" in Lary May, ed., Recasting America: Culture and Politics in the Age of Cold War (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1989), 157.

38. Stouffer, Communism, Conformity, and Civil Liberties, 132.

39. Quoted in Stouffer, Communism, Conformity, and Civil Liberties, 177.

40. See Melvyn P. Leffler, The Spectre of Communism: The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1917-1953 (New York: Hill and Wang, 1994), 121.

41. Stephen J. Whitfield, The Culture of the Cold War (Baltimore: John Hopkins University, 1991), 78.

42. William McLoughlin, Billy Graham: Revivalist in a Secular Age (New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1960), 95-96.

43. Ralph Lord Roy, "Billy Graham in New York -II," Christianity and Crisis, 17,15 (1957), 119.

44. McLoughlin, Billy Graham, 80.

45. "Graham Describes Three Great American Crises," Christianity Today, 8 July 1957, 28.

46. Revival in Our Time: The Story of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Campaigns (Wheaton, IL: Van Kampen Press, 1950), 73.

47. "Graham to end crusade here next week end," Times-Herald, 10 February 1952,

48. Charlotte Observer, 12, 26 October 1958.

49. "Facing the Anti-God Colossus," Christianity Today, 21 December 1962, 6-8.

50. Billy Graham, I Saw Your Sons at War: The Korean Diary (Minneapolis: Billy Graham Association, 1953), 63.  McLoughlin, Billy Graham, 115.

51. Quoted in McLoughlin, Billy Graham, 223.

52. "Billy Graham feels like wet dishrag after sermon," Boston Globe, 8 January 1950.

53. "Evangelist will remain silent on Cohen matter," Los Angeles Times, 16 November 1949.

54. "Sermon No. 13," Charlotte Observer, 5 October 1958.

55. William Martin, A Prophet With Honor: The Billy Graham Story (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1991),  96.

56. Charlotte Observer, 21 & 27 September 1958; Donald E. Hoke, "Harvesting at the Revival - in Columbia" in Revival in Our: The Story of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Campaigns (Wheaton, Illinois: Van Kampen Press, 1950), 49; "Zamperini, hero in war, converted," Los Angeles Times, 1 November 1949; Mel Larsen, "Trusting Revival at Los Angeles" in Revival in Our: The Story of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Campaigns (Wheaton, Illinois: Van Kampen Press, 1950), 14.

57. George Marsden, Reforming Fundamentalism: Fuller Seminary and the New Evangelicalism (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1987), 123.

58. Carl F.H. Henry, Confessions of a Theologian: An Autobiography (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1986), 177-179.

59. "Suggested Books on Communism," Christianity Today, 7 November 1960, 12-13.

60. For example see "The Fragility of Freedom in the West," Christianity Today, 15 October 1956, 8-11 and "Christianity Versus Communism," Christainity Today, 11 May 1962, 11.

61. "America's Future: Can We Salvage the Republic?" Christianity Today, 3 March 1958, 3-7.

62. "'Push Button' Riots Now Promote Communist Goals," Christianity Today, 13 March 1961, 25-26; "Strategy for Disaster: Burn the Fire Truck," Christianity Today, 29 August 1960, 28.  Supportive letters to the editor can be found in "A Growing Threat," Christianity Today, 8 May 1961, 18.

63. For example see "Christian Default in the West," Christianity Today, 27 August 1965, 28-29 and "Christianity and Communism,"Christainity Today, 24 April 1961, 12-13.

64. "Cuba Situation Becomes a Battle for the Hemisphere," Christianity Today, 1 August 1960, 24.

65. On American stereotypes of Cubans see Thomas Patterson, Contesting Castro: The United States and the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 6;

66."Cuba Situation Becomes a Battle for the Hemisphere," Christianity Today, 1 August 1960, 24.

67. "The Fiasco in Cuba and Freedom's Supports," Christianity Today, 8 May 1961, 26.

68. "Peace in Our Time: What Are the Pacifists Doing?" Christianity Today, 26 October 1962, 28-32.

69. "The Communist Surge," Christianity Today, 23 June 1958, 14.

70. Richard Gid Powers, Secrecy and Power: The Life of J. Edgar Hoover (New York: The Free Press, 1987), 3, 201.

71. In 1966, a coloured glass window, 22 by 33 feet, was dedicated by the Capitol Hill Methodist Church as the "J. Edgar Hoover Window."  See Toulouse, "Christianity Today and American Public Life," 270.

72. "The Communist Menace: Red Goals and Christian Ideals," Christianity Today, 10 October 1960, 3-5; "Communist Propaganda and the Christian Pulpit, Christainity Today, 24 October 1960, 5.

73. "Communist Propaganda," 6.

74. "Soviet Rule or Christian Renewal?" Christianity Today, 7 November 1960, 9-11.

75. "Even the Brave and Free," Christianity Today, 9 October 1964, 21.

76. J. Edgar Hoover, Masters of Deceit: The Story of Communism in America and How to Fight It (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1958).

77. Powers, Not Without Honor, 281.

78. Powers, Secrecy and Power, 198, 211, 341, 439.

79.  There were accusations of Hoover being a homosexual, but major academic studies declare that no compelling evidence exists to support this claim.  See, Powers, Secrecy and Power, 171-173 and Theoharis and Cox, The Boss, 108.  Also, Athan Theoharis, ed., From the Secret Files of J. Edgar Hoover (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1991), 330-331, 346-347.

80. Kenneth O'Reilly, Hoover and the Un-Americans: The FBI, HUAC, and the Red Menace (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1983), ix.

81. For example, see Natalie Zemon Davis, particularly the chapter "The Rites of Violence" (of the late 16th century) in Davis, Society and Culture in Early Modern France (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1975), 152-187.  French urban rioters of an earlier period were not necessarily mindless, unstable masses, but crowds that were prompted by moral traditions and clerical  leadership that defended doctrine and purified the religious community.

82. This point is repeated in Powers, Secrecy and Power.

83. Charles Kiesler and Sara Kiesler, Conformity (Reading Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1969), 15; Robert Baron, Psychology (Scarborough, Ontario: Prentice-Hall Canada Inc, 1998), 670-71.

84. Baron, Psychology, 673-74.

85. Kenneth D. Wald, "The Religious Dimension of American Anti-Communism," Journal of Church and State, 36,3 (1994), 499.

86. Kiesler, Conformity, 31, 33.