I actually can’t remember how much non-leftist resistance the red scares got while they were going on. But certainly after the fact they have been portrayed as merely irrational, politically motivated witch hunts.
Edit: And there were definitely members and allies of CPUSA who had no idea they were part of or working with a Soviet front and defended the Party because of that belief. CPUSA did whole lot of solid civil rights organizing—work that no one else (at least no other groups with significant white participation) was doing at the time. When I say the CPUSA was a Soviet front that doesn’t mean that it was exclusively a Soviet front.
I actually can’t remember how much non-leftist resistance the red scares got while they were going on. But certainly after the fact they have been portrayed as merely irrational, politically motivated witch hunts.
Edit: And there were definitely members and allies of CPUSA who had no idea they were part of or working with a Soviet front and defended the Party because of that belief. CPUSA did whole lot of solid civil rights organizing—work that no one else (at least no other groups with significant white participation) was doing at the time. When I say the CPUSA was a Soviet front that doesn’t mean that it was exclusively a Soviet front.
I’d be interested to read more about this if you have any good pointers—thanks!