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FREEDOMWAYS     THIRD QUARTER 1973 

exemptions, it does not seem excessive or imprudent speculation to suggest that the Attorney General's list had a profoundly suppressing effect on political dissent.16

As Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, William O. Douglas has perceptively observed: "Discharge for misconduct, inefficiency, unreliability, or a criminal record is one thing. Discharge for political belief is not the traditional Americanism of the First Amendment. . . . Yet in recent years we have witnessed punishment for political heresy."17

Actually, the government became obsessed with "red fever," and it was this obsession that had its impact on the commitment that would be made by the federal government in the area of civil rights. In fact, Barton J. Bernstein has argued that Truman was "never as committed to civil rights as he was opposed to communism at home and abroad..."18 Reinforcing the observation made by O'Dell, Barton Bernstein also maintains: "His [Truman's] loyalty-and-security program, in its operation discriminated against Negroes, and federal investigators, despite protests to Truman, apparently continued to inquire into attitudes of interracial sympathy as evidence relevant to a determination of disloyalty."19

Yet, it was Truman who appointed a Civil Rights Commission in 1946 that came up with the comprehensive and dramatic report, To Secure These Rights. In many circles it was hailed as a far-reaching document and one that spoke forcefully and powerfully to the question of eliminating racism in America. Walter White, Executive Secretary for the NAACP, said the report was "the most uncompromising and specific pronouncement by a governmental agency on the explosive issue of racial and religious bigotry."20 He added that America had been specifically told by the President's committee what was required to get the job done. In many respects, however, the substance of To Secure These Rights became a victim of the Truman Doctrine; from this "containment" policy grew the industrial-military complex that today has a budget of over $80 billion. Fred J. Cook in his work, The Warfare State, convincingly argues that the pervasive influence of militarism today can be traced to Truman's Cold War policy.

Incomplete as this discussion is on the formative stages of the Truman Administration's foreign policy intentions and its influence on domestic liberties, the aim has been to offer a description of the most pronounced ideological theme influencing American foreign

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