Why Did President Truman Issue Executive Order 9835 in 1947 and Create Loyalty Review Boards?

1947 order by President Harry S. Truman

Page ane of Executive Lodge 9835, signed by Harry S. Truman in 1947

President Harry Due south. Truman signed United States Executive Club 9835, sometimes known as the "Loyalty Order", on March 21, 1947.^[1] The lodge established the first full general loyalty program in the United States, designed to root out communist influence in the U.South. federal government. Truman aimed to rally public opinion behind his Cold State of war policies with investigations conducted nether its say-so. He as well hoped to serenity correct-wing critics who accused Democrats of being soft on communism. At the same time, he advised the Loyalty Review Board to limit the office of the Federal Agency of Investigation (FBI) to avoid a witch hunt.^[2] The program investigated over 3 1000000 regime employees, simply over 300 of whom were dismissed as security risks.^[3]

The Loyalty Order was part of the prelude to the rise of Senator Joseph McCarthy, Republican of Wisconsin. It was mostly the result of increasing U.S.–Soviet tensions and political maneuvering by the president and Congress.^[4] The order established a wide surface area for the departmental loyalty boards to deport loyalty screenings of federal employees and job applicants. It allowed the FBI to run initial proper name checks on federal employees and authorized further field investigations if the initial inquiry uncovered information that cast someone in a negative light. Executive Order 9835 also was the main impetus for the creation of the Attorney General'southward List of Subversive Organizations (AGLOSO).

Background and Truman's motivations [edit]

Every bit U.S. relations with the Soviet Spousal relationship rapidly deteriorated following World State of war Ii, there were accompanying concerns near regime infiltration past communists.^[4] As the U.Due south. fell from being wartime allies to staunch adversaries with the USSR, American obsession with perceived dangers associated with the Soviet Marriage, and communists in general, began to grow. Much of this obsession was fueled by reports, in and out of the government, of Soviet spying in the United States. Economical tension helped foster a general land of anger and feet in the U.South. and its authorities. As congressional elections approached in late 1946, many American conservative groups attempted to ignite a new Red Scare. The Republican Political party, assisted past a coalition that included the Catholic Church, the FBI and private entrepreneurs, worked to inflame public fear and suspicion. Every bit fear of Communist infiltration in the government grew, it became a central entrada result in the 1946 elections.^[four]

Fresh investigations by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) ensured that the issue would stay on the minds of constituents, and Republicans establish a niche they could employ for an election advantage. HUAC, amid the anxieties of the elections and international tensions, had investigated several declared Communist "front" organizations. These investigations led to fresh questions nigh employee loyalty from the House committee. Republicans, looking for sizable Congressional gains, took full advantage of this atmosphere and made the issue a central theme of the 1946 campaign. Communist infiltration, along with attacks on the Truman administration'south economic policies, were manifested in entrada slogans such every bit "Had Plenty?" and "Communism vs. Republicanism."^[four] Meanwhile, nether the leadership of Republican National Chairman Carroll Reece, the Republican Party made repeated anti-Communist attacks on Truman and Congressional Democrats. Reece often referred to the "pink puppets in control of the federal hierarchy."^[4] Business firm Republican leader Joe Martin pledged to clean out Communists from high positions in the U.Southward. government. The ballot of 1946 produced a huge Republican victory in which they gained control of both houses of Congress for the showtime time since 1932.^[4]

Two weeks later on the sweeping Republican victory, the president announced the cosmos of the President's Temporary Commission on Employee Loyalty (TCEL) on November 25, 1946. News of the TCEL fabricated the forepart page of The New York Times under the headline "President orders purge of disloyal from U.Southward. posts." Truman'due south commission consisted of representatives from six government departments nether the chairmanship of Special Assistant to the Chaser General A. Devitt Vanech, who was close to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover at the time. The commission sought to decide federal loyalty standards and establish procedures for removal or disqualification of disloyal or subversive persons from federal posts.^[iv]

Contemporary observers as well equally historians have characterized Truman'south activeness surrounding TCEL and the 1947 executive order equally purely politically motivated.^[4] The timing of his actions so soon after the Autonomous balloter defeat, and his request that TCEL submit its report past February 1, 1947, take been interpreted as a move to preempt further activeness on the loyalty outcome from the new Republican-controlled Congress.^[four] On February 28, 1947, well-nigh a month before he signed EO 9835, Truman wrote to Pennsylvania Governor George Earle, "People are very much wrought upward nigh the Communist 'bugaboo' but I am of the opinion that the state is perfectly safe so far as Communism is concerned–we have too many sane people." White House Counsel Clark Clifford wrote in his 1991 memoir that his "greatest regret" from his decades in government was his failure to "brand more of an effort to kill the loyalty program at its inception, in 1946-47." He added that the 1946 elections had "weakened" Truman but "emboldened Hoover and his allies" and that the creation of the TCEL was the outcome of pressure from FBI Director Hoover and Attorney General Tom Clark, who "constantly urged the President to expand the investigative authority of the FBI."^[4]

Provisions [edit]

The signature folio of Executive Gild 9835

The Federal Employee Loyalty Plan allowed the FBI to research whether the name of any of 2 million federal employees raised questions about their associations and beliefs and, if "derogatory information" was found, to follow upwards with a field investigation. The results of field investigations were delivered to 150 loyalty boards in diverse regime departments. Those boards conducted their ain investigations and were authorized to use the testimony of confidential witnesses whom the field of study of the investigation was unable to confront. An employee could be fired if "reasonable doubt" existed apropos their loyalty. A loyalty board'south decision was not subject to appeal.^{[ citation needed ]}

The text of the EO provided specific powers pertaining to employee loyalty. Outset and foremost among these was that "in that location shall exist a loyalty investigation of every person entering civilian employment" in whatsoever facet of the executive branch of the U.S. government. Much of the residue of EO 9835'due south content simply reinforced policy surrounding the first statements on loyalty investigations, equally well as seeking to establish a mode in which to get well-nigh with the loyalty investigations. As such, Part II of the EO provided the power to the head of each department or agency to appoint one or more loyalty boards. The boards' limited purpose was to hear loyalty cases. In addition, Role V of the EO outlined criteria and standards for the refusal of (or removal from) employment for disloyalty. Disloyalty for these purposes was divers in 5 categories. These included:^[v]

• sabotage, espionage, spying or the advocacy thereof
• treason, sedition or the advocacy thereof
• intentional, unauthorized disclosure of confidential information
• advocacy of the violent overthrow of the U.Due south. government
• membership in, affiliation with or sympathetic clan with any arrangement labeled as totalitarian, fascist, communist or subversive

Subversive organizations [edit]

EO 9835 facilitated the establishment of the highly publicized "Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations" (AGLOSO). Eventually, AGLOSO would go i of the primal influences in the second American Red Scare, known collectively every bit McCarthyism. The listing came into being subsequently Truman signed EO 9835, both the club and AGLOSO established more than two years before Senator Joseph McCarthy's commencement allegations of Communist infiltration in the U.S. government in early 1950.^[4]

The stated purpose of the list was to lend guidance for federal civil service loyalty determinations. However, AGLOSO essentially became the litmus exam for loyalty and disloyalty in a variety of public and private departments and organizations. The Chaser General'southward list was adopted by state and local governments, the war machine, defence contractors, hotels, the Treasury Department (tax-exemption determinations) and the State Department (passport and deportation determinations). The listing was massively publicized in the federal government's endeavour against Communist infiltration. Despite the widespread publicity, the Justice Department and other agencies refused to release more than small amounts of information on other aspects of the listing also its contents. Included among the surreptitious information were particulars such as how the list was compiled, criteria for listing, why the list was published, and why no notification was given to any of the listed organizations about their designation prior to the list's publication. Little was made at the time of the revelation that AGLOSO was aught new; in fact, the regime had been keeping a hush-hush list to aid in screening for federal employee loyalty since 1940.^[4]

The first official list was published shortly after the March 21 executive order. Co-ordinate to FBI documents, obtained nether the Liberty of Information Deed virtually lx years later,^[4] AGLOSO was born on or almost April three, 1947 when the bureau responded to a March 27 request from the Attorney General for a list of "organizations thought to be destructive." The FBI'south response included 41 groups "thought to be most dangerous inside the purview of the recent Executive Order (9835)." A March 29 FBI document indicated that among the groups on the listing were the Ku Klux Klan, the Communist Party, the Nazi Party and 38 alleged "forepart groups."^[4]

Outcome of the society [edit]

Betwixt 1948 and 1958, the FBI ran initial reviews of 4.5 million government employees and, on an annual basis, another 500,000 applicants for regime positions. It conducted 27,000 field investigations.^{[ citation needed ]} Too those officially terminated as a outcome of investigations, around 5,000 federal employees offered voluntary resignations in light of the investigations. Most of the resignations took places at hearings conducted by Congressional committees.^{[ citation needed ]} According to 1 historian, "By mid-1952, when more than than 4 million people, actual or prospective employees, had gone through the check, boards had … dismissed or denied employment to 378…. None of the discharged cases led to discovery of espionage."^[6]

The executive order said: "maximum protection must be afforded the U.s. confronting infiltration of disloyal persons into the ranks of its employees, and equal protection from unfounded accusations of disloyalty must be afforded the loyal employees." But those protections were accounted inadequate, as objections surfaced regarding the lack of due procedure protections resulting from the departmental loyalty lath procedures. One complaint concerned the lack of opportunity to confront those anonymous informants that EO 9835 protected from being named to the accused.

Initially, both the D.C. Circuit Court affirmed the procedures of EO 9835 in Bailey v. Richardson in 1950, and a necktie in the U.S. Supreme Court immune that ruling to stand.^[7] In 1955, the Supreme Court held in Peters v. Hobby that the removal of a consultant to the Civil Service Committee by the commission'southward Loyalty Review Lath was invalid.^[8] The case had little bear on, since by then the Loyalty Review Board was only defending old cases and had been dismantled by a 1953 Executive Guild.

Revocation and Repeal [edit]

The lodge Executive Order 10450, signed by President Eisenhower in April 1953, revoked Executive Order 9835 and extended the restrictions to all other jobs in the US government.^[ix] However, both Executive Order 9835 and Executive Order 10450 were later on repealed when U.s.a. President Nib Clinton signed Executive Order 12968 in 1995 and Executive Order 13087 in 1998. The enforcement of employment suspension for issues such as sexual perversion was also weakened by the US Supreme Court's Cole five Young ruling in 1956^[10] and the Usa Civil Service Commission formally reversed its discriminatory hiring policy against gays and lesbians in 1975.^{[ citation needed ]} In 1977, nether the guidance of Jimmy Carter, Executive Club 9835's provision which enforced the barring of employment of gays in the foreign service, every bit well equally a policy which required the Internal Revenue Service to enforce LGBT education and charity groups to publicly state that homosexuality is a "sickness, disturbance, or diseased pathology," was repealed.^{[ commendation needed ]}

Encounter besides [edit]

• Espionage Human action of 1917
• List of organizations described as Communist fronts by the US government
• Venona

References [edit]

1. ^ Harry S. Truman, Executive Orders The Federal Register, U.Southward. National Archives
2. ^ Hogan, Michael J. (2000). A Cross of Fe: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, 1945-1954. New York: Cambridge University Printing. pp. 254–five. ISBN9780521795371.
3. ^ The Second Reddish Scare Archived 2006-10-18 at the Wayback Auto, Digital History, Post-War America 1945-1960, University of Houston
4. ^ ^{a b c d due east f m h i j thou l m n} Goldstein, Robert Justin. Prelude to McCarthyism: The Making of a Blacklist, Prologue, Fall 2006, Vol. 38, No. iii, U.South. National Archives.
5. ^ Executive Order 9835 Archived 2005-eleven-29 at the Wayback Machine, via Origins of the Cold State of war: Interpreting Primary Sources, University of Houston
6. ^ Ferrell, Robert H. (1994). Harry Due south. Truman: A Life. Academy of Missouri Press. p. 301. ISBN978-0-8262-1050-0.
7. ^ Rabin, Jack, ed. (1995). Handbook of Public Personnel Administration. New York: Marcel Dekker Inc. p. 79. ISBN9780824792312 . Retrieved March 22, 2015.
8. ^ Justia.com: Peters v. Hobby, 349 U.S. 331, accessed Nov 29, 2010
9. ^ National Archives: Executive Order 10450, Section 12, accessed Nov 29, 2010
10. ^ "Cole 5. Young, 351 U.S. 536 (1956)".

Farther reading [edit]

• Harper, Alan D. The politics of loyalty: The White Firm and the Communist outcome, 1946-1952 (Greenwood, 1969).
• Hogan, Michael J. (2000). A Cantankerous of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security Country, 1945-1954. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 254–5. ISBN9780521795371.
• Richardson, Seth W., and Harry Southward. Truman. "The Federal Employee Loyalty Program." Columbia Police force Review 51.five (1951): 546–563. in JSTOR
• Theoharis, Athan. Seeds of Repression: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of McCarthyism (1971).

External links [edit]

• Williams, Marjorie. Clark Clifford: The Ascension of a Republican, The Washington Postal service, May 8, 1991
• Three Vital Court Decisions: Marxists Cyberspace Archive: article describing, amid others, Peters 5. Hobby. New International, Vol.21 No.2, Summer 1955.

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_9835

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