File under "You Learn Something New Every Day"
Dalton Trumbo, martyred member of "The Hollywood Ten," named names:
In 1944, Dalton Trumbo voluntarily invited FBI agents to his Hollywood home, and voluntarily "named names" to the FBI--not of Communists (of course), but of people of various political views whose crime was the following: they had written him asking to buy copies of his novel "Johnny Got His Gun."
Trumbo was a talented writer, and "Johnny Got His Gun" is one of the greatest anti-war novels ever written. It describes the thoughts, feelings and ultimate fate of a hideously wounded soldier. The novel was published in the summer of 1939, and it was a big hit with the CPUSA during the period of the Hitler-Stalin Pact (August 1939-June 1941), because of its denunciation of the horrors of war. Since Stalin and Hitler were now friends, this was the "peace movement" era of the Party: despite Hitler's attack on Poland, and his war with democratic Britain and France, the constant theme of the CPUSA was "Peace." That is: absolutely no American support should be given to those nations which were fighting Stalin's friends the Nazis. So it was natural that during the period of the Hitler-Stalin Pact, the Party did everything it could to promote and publicize "Johnny Got His Gun." But Hitler's surprise attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 made the novel an acute embarrassment. The Party line changed instantly from "Peace" (with HITLER) to "fight the anti-fascist war!" The largest "peace demonstration" in American history had to be cancelled. No novels on the horrors of war were wanted now; the Party slogan was "Defend the Soviet Union!" Trumbo did what he could to suppress the novel.
Conversely, though, "Johnny Got His Gun" became a big hit with right-wing isolationists, as well as sincere pacifists, after Dec. 7, 1941 and the entry of the USA into the world war. A number of such people--some real fascists and anti-Semites, who saw the war as a plot perpetrated by Jews, but also some sincere isolationists and pacifists--wrote to Trumbo between 1941 and 1944, asking where they could buy copies of his book.
In 1944, Trumbo voluntarily invited FBI agents to his house, showed them the letters he had received, and turned those letters over to the FBI. And not only did he "name names." He followed up the invited FBI visit with a letter to the Bureau, urging that the people who had written him asking for copies of his book be dealt with. Trumbo was acting here in conformity with then-current CPUSA policy, which was--since the Soviet Union was under attack--to denounce to the U.S. government anyone who opposed the war. Needless to say, Trumbo did not notify the people whose names he had named to the FBI of what he had done; nor did he tell them that the FBI was now in possession of their letters to him (The information on this unlovely incident can be found in Dalton Trumbo, ed., "Additional Dialogue: Letters of Dalton Trumbo, 1942-1962" (New York, 1970), pp. 26-31).
In 1944, Dalton Trumbo voluntarily invited FBI agents to his Hollywood home, and voluntarily "named names" to the FBI--not of Communists (of course), but of people of various political views whose crime was the following: they had written him asking to buy copies of his novel "Johnny Got His Gun."
Trumbo was a talented writer, and "Johnny Got His Gun" is one of the greatest anti-war novels ever written. It describes the thoughts, feelings and ultimate fate of a hideously wounded soldier. The novel was published in the summer of 1939, and it was a big hit with the CPUSA during the period of the Hitler-Stalin Pact (August 1939-June 1941), because of its denunciation of the horrors of war. Since Stalin and Hitler were now friends, this was the "peace movement" era of the Party: despite Hitler's attack on Poland, and his war with democratic Britain and France, the constant theme of the CPUSA was "Peace." That is: absolutely no American support should be given to those nations which were fighting Stalin's friends the Nazis. So it was natural that during the period of the Hitler-Stalin Pact, the Party did everything it could to promote and publicize "Johnny Got His Gun." But Hitler's surprise attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 made the novel an acute embarrassment. The Party line changed instantly from "Peace" (with HITLER) to "fight the anti-fascist war!" The largest "peace demonstration" in American history had to be cancelled. No novels on the horrors of war were wanted now; the Party slogan was "Defend the Soviet Union!" Trumbo did what he could to suppress the novel.
Conversely, though, "Johnny Got His Gun" became a big hit with right-wing isolationists, as well as sincere pacifists, after Dec. 7, 1941 and the entry of the USA into the world war. A number of such people--some real fascists and anti-Semites, who saw the war as a plot perpetrated by Jews, but also some sincere isolationists and pacifists--wrote to Trumbo between 1941 and 1944, asking where they could buy copies of his book.
In 1944, Trumbo voluntarily invited FBI agents to his house, showed them the letters he had received, and turned those letters over to the FBI. And not only did he "name names." He followed up the invited FBI visit with a letter to the Bureau, urging that the people who had written him asking for copies of his book be dealt with. Trumbo was acting here in conformity with then-current CPUSA policy, which was--since the Soviet Union was under attack--to denounce to the U.S. government anyone who opposed the war. Needless to say, Trumbo did not notify the people whose names he had named to the FBI of what he had done; nor did he tell them that the FBI was now in possession of their letters to him (The information on this unlovely incident can be found in Dalton Trumbo, ed., "Additional Dialogue: Letters of Dalton Trumbo, 1942-1962" (New York, 1970), pp. 26-31).
posted by Kate Marie | 4:36 AM | Permalink
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3 comments
3 Comments:
Wow. The story behind the story we all had to read in school during the Vietnam War. Ms. English teacher never mentioned Trumbo being a commie.
Either she didn't know (entirely possible, unfortunately) or she figured being a member of the ACP simply meant being for peace and brotherhood and equality . . . so Trumbo was a communist, yes, but we're all communists deep down, aren't we?
So you read "Johnny Got His Gun" in high school, huh? I've never read it, but I'll bet it was better than having to suffer through "A Separate Peace," which just wasn't a very good novel.
"A Separate Peace" was also required. The worst, though, were those required during the unit on "mass media" and just about everything in "popular literature" (pop lit), which CIV took to coast through to graduation without breaking into a sweat.
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