The techniques of freedom : the FBI's 'Responsibilities Program' and the rise of liberal anti-communism in the United States, 1951-1955

Abstract

The 'Responsibilities Program' was the nation's first institutionalized blacklist: moving from the political forum of the HUAC to the administrative forum of a governmental agency. This was an important change in the development of anti-Communism, reflecting the further consolidation of the liberals' control over political and cultural forms in the United States.

Examined under a non-liberal light, the 'Responsibilities Program' clearly precipitated something of an ideological shift in the United States away from democratic principles leaving the liberals -- having fortified themselves behind the walls of the 'vital center' -- the beneficiaries of the new order. Indeed, the resulting ideological entity that emerged in the wake of the RP's fall was antithetical to the well-being of the Constitution's first amendment and to the continued existence of true democracy in America -- that is, a democracy that offers its citizens the right of true 'Choice'. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)