Harry S. Truman initiated the Federal Employee Loyalty Program on March 25, 1947, with the aim of rooting out all communist sympathizers within the federal government.
The program comprised part of the anticommunist crusade that unfolded in the first decade of the cold war. Fear of internal communist subversion accompanied Soviet advances in Eastern Europe, and led to the belief in the United States that national security was at stake. With the Federal Employee Loyalty Program, Truman hoped to squelch the possible charges that he was “soft on communism.
The program began with fingerprinting more than 2 million federal employees. Along with fingerprinting, loyalty questionnaires sought to determine any questionable background. Agencies sent names to a “national-agency name check” in the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Civil Service Commission, the armed forces and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). The name search sought to uncover any information that might lead to “reasonable doubt” as to an employee’s loyalty to the United States.
In 1950, Congress passed Public Law 733 that permitted the termination of any employee, without due process of law, for reasons of “national security.” A security risk constituted not only someone whose loyalty was in question, but also someone whose character made him or her vulnerable to disclosing classified information under pressure or blackmail. By 1952, more than 40,000 federal employees had undergone investigations, with interviews of neighbors, friends, schoolmates, fellow employees, and former teachers. After 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower demanded that a full investigation for every “sensitive position” in government be conducted. This was soon expanded to include every position in government.
When employees were suspected of being disloyal, they were sent before one of over 200 agency loyalty boards located across the country established by the Truman administration. Employees were given the opportunity to appeal to one of 14 regional boards and also to the 25-member Loyalty Review Board.
The program, however, did not ensure that, once cleared of disloyalty charges, an employee was free from harassment. Many employees found themselves charged and cleared seven or eight times as criteria became increasingly stringent. Eventually, many of those who had undergone investigation numerous times were suspended without pay or simply dismissed.
Many employees reacted to the investigations with fear and suspicion. Some referred to the practices the government was using as “Gestapo methods,” alluding to the Nazi secret service interrogations. The goal of all employees was to avoid an investigation. Many practiced extreme caution, unwilling to discuss any political opinions inside or outside of the office. Employees of the federal government avoided conversational topics such as admitting China to the United Nations, developing atomic energy, supporting civil rights, and debating religion. Since involvement in any organization concerned with any kind of social reform immediately put a federal employee under suspicion, many felt that it was better not to join at all. No one could be sure which group would appear on the attorney general’s list of suspicious or subversive organizations. For a time, even the Consumers Union was on the list.
By the late 1950s, the Supreme Court began to reassert the rights of due process, including the right to crossexamine hostile witnesses. Rulings of the Supreme Court had the effect of restoring more than 100 employees to their jobs and led to dropping proceedings against more than 75 others. Over the course of the Federal Employee Loyalty Program, about 8,000 employees were forced to resign, three went to prison, at least seven were driven to suicide, and one died of a heart attack.
Further reading: David Caute, The Great Fear: The AntiCommunist Purge under Truman and Eisenhower (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1978); Griffin Fariello, Red Scare (New York: W. W. Norton, 1995); Athan Theoharis, Harry S. Truman and the Origins of McCarthyism (New York: Quadrangle Books, 1971).
—Sarah Brenner
World History
