"Politics in an Age of Anxiety": Cold War Political Culture and the Crisis in American Masculinity, 1949-1960 Author(s): K. A.

Cuordileone Reviewed work(s): Source: The Journal of American History, Vol. 87, No. 2 (Sep., 2000), pp. 515-545 Published by: Organization of American Historians Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2568762 . Accessed: 30/11/2011 14:15
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"Politicsin an Age of Anxiety": Cold War PoliticalCultureand the Crisisin American Masculinity; 1949-1 960

K. A. Cuordileone
In a 1955 essay the"radical on right" a force American as in politics, sociologist the of to Daniel Bell complained aboutthe"polarization images"' whichmuchpolitical "In "newpolarterms have had he discourse succumbed. these strange times," wrote, as been introduced political into but noneso strange thedivision discourse, surely if that into'hard'and 'soft."' Bell explained, As "presumably is 'soft' one insists one from thedanger domestic Communists small," is whileone is "hard"if one holds that"nodistinction be madebetween can international domestic and Communism." to Bell that an Objecting suchstark dichotomies, stressed liberals longaffirmed had on ecoanticommunist politics and weretaking conservative positions traditional nomicissues. theend,however, couldonlylament In he that"an amorphous, ideothanan "interest-group logicalissue,"rather issue,"had become"a majordividing linein thepolitical "The onlyissueis whether is 'hard'or 'soft."''1 one community." In retrospectappears to of it thatBellwasspeaking a striking feature thepolitical of of to culture histime:thereduction political positions dualistic images-images that often a the of and superseded policy-oriented politics obscured extent thepolitthatwas emerging. the rhetorical he ical consensus Yet polarities pointedto had the entered Cold Warpolitical discourse madeitsmarkon longbefore radical right thepolitical scenein theearly liberal Democrats withsoftness on fifties, charging The M. Communism. hard/soft structured Arthur Schlesinger clasdichotomy Jr.'s sic 1949 statement liberalanticommunism, VitalCenter, seminalbook of The a in conwhoselanguage and imagery, thewordsof Garry Wills,"setup thedesired trasts a decade."2 for
at teaches at of She K. A. Cuordileone history John CollegeofCriminal Jay Justice theCityUniversity New York. the and criticisms JonWiener,David Thelen, Michael Sherry, of Daniel gratefully acknowledges comments MartinDuberman, for readers the Horowitz, Agnieszka Soltysik, Guy Pollio,MichaelLang,and theanonymous on drafts thisarticle. of Journal ofAmerican History earlier
1 in Daniel Bell,"Interpretations American of Politics," TheRadicalRight, Daniel Bell (1955; New York, ed. 1964), 67-70. Jr., Our Purposes Perils theTightrope American and on of Liberalism 2ArthurM. Schlesinger The VitalCenter: (1949; Boston,1962). For a causticcommentary Schlesinger's on professorial toughtalk,see Garry Wills,Nixon Agonistes: Crisis theSelf-Made The of Man (New York,1969), 518-23, esp. 521.

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If Bell failedto appreciate how muchliberals had indulged in-perhaps even initiated-the"polarization images" found of he of characteristic right-wing rhetoric, alsoleft he precisely was"strange" what aboutsuchimagery An unexamined. emotionally driven"symbolic" politicshad supplanted politicsbased on "normal a intramural interest he Yet of conflicts," stressed. Bell,a pioneer thesymbolist approach to thestudy political had no inclination pursue-nor anyrealcategory of life, to for analyzing-a phenomenon whosesources and meanings the maytranscend "status anxieties" "status or that politics" he and others to attributed theradical right.' This article concerned is withwhatBell had difficulty an identifying: excessive preoccupation with-and anxiety about-masculinity early in Cold WarAmerican politics. The "polarization images" pointedto reflects political of he a culture that on put a new premium hardmasculine toughness rendered and less anything than thatsoft and feminine and,as such,a realor potential threat thesecurity the to of nation. The powerof thehard/soft opposition political in in discourse here, the lay thatgavesuchimagery gendered symbolic baggage and And in meaning resonance. the tenseclimate Cold War politics, of thatdiscourse at grewincreasingly shrill, timesbizarre. The strange rhetoric often that supplanted substantive debatein the arenadid indeedinvolve amorphous, political "an ideological issue"-Communism. What remains are unexplored thesources thehard/soft of and preoccupation the kindof symbolic bornof it.A closer a reveals politics thatrelied politics on analysis a complexof sexually-charged for as dualisms; cultural well as politicalreasons, thosedualisms the imprisoned discourse theeraand as a result of its impoverished the politics. exploring nexusbetween By life cultural political in the 1940s and and 1950s,we can beginto understand and how an exaggerated of masculine why cult in toughness virility and surfaced American at political culture, leastuntilevents in and upheavals the 1960s helpeddefuseits worstexcesses the and reconfigure political landscape. Typically read as an attempt restore the liberaltradition integrity to to an and that "tough-mindedness" had been lost in the facilePopularFrontpolitics the of is 1930s, The VitalCenter habitually citedas a turning American liberalpointfor of ism,an unequivocal rejection extremist and of politics an articulation a newliberalanticommunist The realism. occasion a reevaluation liberalism for of is political in "Politics an AgeofAnxiety." in suggested thebook'sfirst chapter title, Schlesinger the stressed "globalchange-of-life" and brought theriseof industry technology, by whichleft civilization man "consumed anxiety fear" and and rendered modern by ever morevulnerable utopian to totalitarian The events surroundpromises. ghastly of ingWorldWar II-by-products of modernity's "reign insecurity"-demanded that liberals admit humanpotential eviland corruption discard the for and their old abouttheperfectibility rationality man.Schlesinger's assumptions and of manifesto
I For a critique thesymbolist of approachof Daniel Bell and others, Michael Rogin,RonaldReagan, see the Movieand Other in Episodes Political Demonology (Berkeley, 1987), 272-300.

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and ideological orthodoxies thepast refashof promised deliverance thenaive from of with of ionedtheliberal tradition accordance thelessons theappeasement in of Adolf Hitler Munich the at and imperativestheColdWar.4 and historian, Democratic party activist, durSchlesinger, a Harvard University of of Services (oss) andOffice ingWorld WarII an officer theOffice Strategic in subWarInformation wrote Vital The Center while charges Communist of (owi), perAlger Hiss,a context reflectedthebook's in version mounted against liberal the not vasive defensiveness. liberalism Communism crucial, least from was Distancing itself for liberals as Schlesinger, assumed Communism "draped so such who that had in of grown and complacent." fat carefully the cast-off clothes a liberalism to terrain was political order Schlesinger's purpose torestore andmeaning a shifting where terminologyLeft Right become the of unstable. Hencethereplaceand had model where ment the left-to-right ideological linear spectrum a circular with of old the of Communism fascism, collapsed and now would under rubric totalitarianism, of at on of and at "meet last themurky grounds tyranny terror" thebottom thecirmeet and cle,and the"vital center" -where liberalism conservatism and achieve at its directly opposite totalitarian enemy, thetopof the consensus-would stand linfor if circle. wasa problematic It of a reconfiguration metaphor, only plotted center.5 this seem beattheabsolute to early would point to the center liberal hiscompetitorsthe and Lestthedifferences between vital the that and and remain Schlesinger adopted rhetoric imagery right left ambiguous, to he testimony the"ageof anxiety" lamented. makes bookan extraordinary his of with historical a of center defense thevital expose theright began Schlesinger's of back weaknesses. "the cumulative Tracing failure theright" to theinadewing's of from feudal the warrior, to only society quacies businessmen, had"rescued who that result toemaswas to it concluded "the Schlesinger hand over theaccountant," of The the of class." author's culate political plotting theconserenergies theruling The a of in States likewise narrative emasculation: is vative tradition theUnited their of who from" social Federalists men "robustness" didnot"shrink were conflict; who into successors hysteria-prone capitalists develparvenu degenerated "terrified," reform hidin of social and tremens"theprospect even at moderate oped"delirium Like of the"womblike comfort" tariffs monopolies. their and "impotent" plutocombat who inNeville Chamberlain's cratic physical England, dreaded counterparts American conservatives theheroic lacked class andrationalized "middle cowardice," of suchas Winston Churchill. instincts a "tougher of breed" ruler, Schlesinger's in United States of is embodied the model manhood anolder, by patrician best one, he that conservatives lacked. who Teddy Roosevelt, proved hadthe"juices" other
I Schlesinger, Mind in a ConservaH. liberalism, Richard Pells,TheLiberal see 1-4. On postwar VitalCenter, Beyond NewDeal. the in American Intellectuals the1940sand 1950s (New York,1985); AlonzoL. Hamby, tive Age: ColdWarPolitics Crisis theLeft: on (New York,1973); MaryMcAullife, Liberalism and Harry Truman American S The and andAmerican 1947-1954 (Amherst, Gillon,Politics Vision: ADA and AmeriLiberals, 1978); and Steven 1947-1985 (New York,1987). can Liberalism, see of confusion thetime, Wills,Nixon xxiii-xxiv, 144-45, 163. On thesemantic VitalCenter, 5 Schlesinger, 506-22. Agonistes,

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While Roosevelt an offered alternative the "greed to of and timidity commercial the all to life," Right unwisely Roosevelt's "strenuous yielded too often rejected life," its"dark and went impulses" its"capitalist libido,"stoodbywhilethe"dynamism" "trickling of capitalism, thusdoomeditself "political out" to and sterility."6 If the conservative all too oftenembodiedan exhausted, has spentmasculine the never In narrapotency, left-progressive had sufficient masculinity. Schlesinger's the he tive, "Doughface" as pliableas his namesuggests; is hopelessly irrevois and cablyfeminine; hencethe "failure the left." of The problem withthe Doughface (the progressive) -the left-wing ideologuepersonified HenryWallaceand the by Left-is thathe engages a willful in of fellow-traveling repression thereal.Sincehe cannot face the "cruelcomplexities life,"he treatspoliticallife as a "soap of opera"-his "defining" is quality his"sentimentality." is "soft, hard"because, He not the the unlike Communist, progressive "believes himself concerned with genuinely thewelfare individuals" of and, unlikethe "radical he democrat" (theliberal), has off"from "cuthimself "useable traditions. . thepragmatic . of tradition themen the to the of the learned facts lifethrough who,from Jacksonians theNew Dealers, A exercise power." "wailer," a "doer," Doughface of not the fears worldof real the menand takes in refuge the"broadmaternal of expanse themasses."7 took the progressive's of Schlesinger politicsas evidence emotional maladjustwhatthepostwar so ment, intelligentsia frequently indiscriminately "neuand called rosis." Schlesinger, progressive politics "anoutlet private For the as for uses grievances and frustrations." of hisneurosis the"fantasy" Proof is worldhe occupiesin which "dreams . . arebetter . thanfacts." likemostdreams, are"notable thedisBut his for tortion facts desire." of by Desireis the operative wordhere,forthe Doughface's attraction working-class to his politics displays "feminine fascination therude with and muscular of power theproletariat." is a frustrated, His immature kindof desire, however: for Compensating his fear realpower, Doughface of the in indulges selfgratifying rhetorical symbolic and political gestures, titillated the "subtle by sensationsof theperfect the "emotional syllogism," enjoying occasional of orgasm passing resolutions againstFranco."Thus does liberalism become a "massexpiatory ritual whichtheindividual relieves himself responsibility hisgovernment's by of for the transforms behavior," evidencing "self-love which from instrument an radicalism of actionintoan expression neurosis." of Giventhat liberal his has imposter a "soft and shallow" ideaof humannature is "endowed" and with"fatal it only weaknesses," is no wonder he is "softened for that up" "Communist and permeation conquest."8 Desire -intractable, unwieldy, mature, immature, normal, perverse-underlies all political in behavior TheVitalCenter. Schlesinger, For totalitarianism proven had
11 6Schlesinger, VitalCenter, -34, esp. 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 24, 26, 28, 30. 7Ibid.,35-50, 159-61, esp. 35, 36, 46, 159, 160. Schlesinger's substitution "radical of democrat" "libfor eral"speaksto theperceived disreputable of connotations thelabel"liberal" wellas to Cold Warliberals' as appropriation thehard-boiled of style ex-Marxists of recruited theliberal into camp in the 1940s and 1950s. On the influence ex-radicals of suchas Reinhold Niebuhron Cold Warliberalism, Christopher see Lasch,TheNewRadicalism America, in 1889-1963: TheIntellectual a SocialType as (New York,1965), 286-349. 8Schlesinger, Center, Vital 35-50, 159-70, esp. 37, 40, 41, 42, 46, 159, 160, 170.

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thecentrality man'sdeeper, of The Doughface who merely flirts "darker passions." withCommunism seemsto invite the realCommunist permeation conquest; and people,craving longsforit: "evenAmerica its quota of lonelyand frustrated has society. social,intellectual evensexualfulfillment cannot and they obtainin existing For thesepeople,[Communist] is it party discipline no obstacle; is an attraction. The great in as majority members America, in Europe,wantto be disciplined." of the Indeed,totalitarians "enjoy discipline."9 withtotalitarianism ForSchlesinger, central the lessonof thewartime encounter was how effectively and mobilized anxieties emotions the and ideology propaganda of beleaguered oss responded the chalto massman.The former and owi officer of continue the lengein kind(lestdemocracy "paying price"forits"cultivation the lack profounder emotional peaceful rational and virtues" itscomparative of "the and Hence themostluridimagery thetext: in enemy leadresources"). whiletotalitarian realists to ersaresurely hard(shrewd political withno aversion theuse of poweror the or but violence), totalitarian masses appearnotjustsoft emasculated, downright in "totalitarian their for gratificasexually perverse their psychosis," desire "violent "masochistic delight in tion,"their "losingof selfin masochism sadism," or their "No one shouldbe surprised," "at Schlesinger insisted, the accepting correction." for for of indoctrinaeagerness personal humiliation," "thewholethrust totalitarian the of tion. . . is to destroy boundaries individual Quotidiantotalitarpersonality." yielding ian man assumesthe feminine, submissive role in The Vital Center, of its its to faith," "halfrepeatedly the"thrust" totalitarianism, "deepand driving in The camp is concealedexercises penetration manipulation." concentration and "theculmination . .. sadismand of masochism; is theclimax thesystem of it of of has If tension whichkeepstotalitarianism and triumphant." thereader yetto taut politicsintosomething graspthe essential pointabout Communism: "perverts it like of and so secret, sweaty furtive nothing much,in thephrase one wiseobserver in of modern it, Russia,as homosexuality a boys'school;manypracticing but all thecomplete to thosecaught be caned by theheadmaster." herewe come to And sits and demasculinization perversity-homosexuality-that directly oppositethe in "vital center" Schlesinger's model.10 circular revamped Whatever thelanguage TheVitalCenter suggest else of aboutthesexualconmay a toursof theage of anxiety-a subjectto whichwe will return-the textoffers can case of and dualisms strucremarkable study thewayerotic imagery gendered for otherwise boundaries partisan delineate turea historical narrative, fuzzy ideological the to according themanly exigenpolitical purposes, in this and, case,reinvent liberal Genderorganizes The VitalCenter; sexualand bodily cies of Cold War politics. tisthrusts, gashes, outlets, metaphors-passions, climaxes, desires, ecstasies, tears, of wombs-animateitspages.Out of thisadmixture eroticized imagery sues,fluids,
were the argument underlying appeal of fascism that echoesErichFromm's 9Ibid.,40, 54, 104. Schlesinger What Fromm thesexualimpulses. and akinto sadomasochistic for psychological strivings submission domination Erich is machismo. to in predisposition fascism hereenlisted thecause of a newliberal orizedas a psychological Freedom (New York,1941). Fromm, Escapefrom Vital 51-91, esp. 53, 54, 65, 83-85, 88, 126, 151, 245-46. 10Schlesinger, Center,

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~~~~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~
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a This illustration Bertrand Times by Zadig in theNew York Magazineaccompanied 1948 M. but article Arthur Schlesinger entitled "Not Left, Not Right, a Vital Jr. by fist Center." The enormous clenched withitsmighty torch rising aboveand between masses thepolitical and on left the of the right suggests virility thevitalcenter of and itspromise deliverance from and anxiety disorder. the TimesMagazine, 4, Reprintedfrom New York April 1948.

the the a radicaldemocrat, "doer"who displays healthy, emerges "tough-minded" for from mature and and "appetite decision responsibility" gainshis"fulfillment" the exercise power and responsibility. conflict of The betweenthe "doer and the -"a conflict wailer" withineach of us"-has been resolved the now-obvious by of extremism. "The failure nerve over," of is defects political dramatiSchlesinger Postwar leaders a into a comcally proclaimed. virility publiclife, virility bring "Cnew
The vital centeremergesin the book as pact of humanityand not of ruthlessness."

thehomenotonlyof a reinvigorated whoseleaders the demonstrate "resliberalism, of toration radical but and American nerve," also of a secure restored masculinity.11I effort masculinize liberalreform to the tradition and the radical Schlesinger's who rightly democrats it stood to inherit did not prevent liberals(including wereon thedefensive, in by charged theright wingwitha hostof offenses a dubious The obvious challenge rationale. came fromJoe McCarthy, guilt-by-association
"1Ibid.,131-88,esp. 131, 147, 156, 159, 160, 161.

Schlesingerhimself) frombeing accused of softness.In ensuing years,Democrats

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whosetargets wereso often "dilettante the diplomats" working underDemocratic administrations "cringed," who "whined," "whimpered" thefaceof Commuand in nism, "prancing mimics theMoscowparty of line."Beginning withhis 1950 speech to the Ohio CountyRepublican Women'sClub in Wheeling, WestVirginia, he blamedAmerica's "position impotency" eastern of on establishment liberals, the "bright youngmen . . . bornwithsilverspoons in theirmouths" who wereso patently privileged and sissified. Dean Acheson became a favorite target, and McCarthy rarely missedan opportunity highlight prissy to the demeanor the of in "Red Dean of Fashion," that"pompousdiplomat striped pants,witha phony British accent"who spokeout effetely against Communism with"a lace handkerchief, silkglove,and witha Harvard a accent."In venues where vulgarity less gave offense, McCarthy assailedthe"pitiful squealing" "egg-sucking of phonyliberals," themenwho would "holdsacrosanct thoseCommunists queers"in theState and who sold China into "atheistic The Department slavery." lineswerethusdrawn, of waileror a manly antiand in a cruder version thechoicebetween beinga soft to of communist doer,McCarthy posed his own dualistic ultimatum a handful reporters: youwantto be against "If McCarthy, boys, you've to be either Comgot a 2 or munist a cocksucker."' Even whensparedthe rude insinuations a McCarthy, of liberals werestillthe that their objectof criticism stressed psychological intellectual and timidity failand ureof moralnerve. M. an of Richard Weaver, English at professor theUniversity in in Chicago,argued theNational Review 1957 thattheliberal's "altruism" his and of all "idealization comfort" showa "definite toward strenuous idealsof antagonism life." fear" suchmenas Sen. Robert Taft Thus his "inordinate of and Gen. Douglas who reject"cant,sniveling double-talk." witha "moral MacArthur, and Afflicted relativistic that flabbiness" a sentimental, and intellectual and mentality leaveshim in the incapable "rigid of exclusion" histhought processes, modern liberal ultimately his he in "It attribute denounces theconservative. is displays complacency-the very notan unknown to vices is denouncing up on onefrom one the thing havethevery slip This theliberal done by notbeingtruly has rear somepleasing in disguise. circumin weaknesses whichdisqualify for him leadership.""3 and spect, bygiving to certain on was The attack soft liberals who gavein to weaknesses partof theoft-noted, In the of became anti-intellectual heightened temper thetime. somequarters liberal who was, a intellectual with virtually synonymous the"egghead," carping weakling "over-emotional feminine reactions and in to Louis Bromfield, according thewriter of for to anyproblem . . surfeited conceit . with and contempt theexperience more heart." sound and able men. . . . A self-conscious . . . An anemicbleeding prig. of of in muchof thederision intellect the 1950swas a singular Inspiring suspicion
12 America, 1945statements, Eric F. Goldman,The CrucialDecade-and After: see Joseph McCarthy's (New York, America: From Hiroshima Watergate to S. Cold War 1960 (New York,1960), 142; Lawrence Wittner, McCarthy: Biography A (New York,1982), 299; and ofJoe 1974), 95-99; Thomas C. Reeves,TheLifeand Times (New York,1993), 54. David Halberstam, Fifties The of "The Rootsof LiberalComplacency," NationalReview, June8, 1957, in Anthology 13Richard M. Weaver, Jr. in States: 1932-1960, ed. A. J.Heinsohn (Chicago,1962), 54-58. Conservative Writing theUnited

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at E. the left intelligentsia. Merrill Root, an Englishprofessor WheatonCollege, was "inward the subinsisted thatthegreatest danger facing UnitedStates cultural in of liberal version." their and control information, Through influence education intellectuals "render impotent" "soften up fortheeasykill"bypresenting us and us as wantus to see it." If,by "sentimentheUnitedStates"exactly theCommunists of the the had taliz[ing] collectivism," liberal "perverted" original meaning theterm so it liberalism appeared now as liberal, Root assumed, was in partbecausemodern to valuesthat individualistic hopelessly so perversely soft, contrary therugged, hard, the in the sense.Like Schlesinger's had once defined term itsclassical Doughface, in liberalwas-in much right-wing rhetoric-feminine principle, in effeminate 14 in embodiment, emasculating effect. and The inflated the scorn thefemfor the manly bravado, hard/soft dualisms, excessive of in inine, thelanguage perversion penetration so muchpolitical and and discourse of theearly morethanold-fashioned masculine Cold War era reflects posturingin morethanthefears of common political especially times war.It reveals in of life, an affluent increasingly American or and complacent citizenry, eventhe horrible the invective surely anxieties aboutnational security.15 while sexually And charged was a vehicle theexpression festering antagonisms-the of for of class ultraright resentful liberals a eastern establishment and exacting pricefornearly twenty old-moneyed of of the elitedefensive the years postdepression Republican powerlessness, liberal that of status menofeducation culture woninthethirties, and had disdainful thecrude right-wing upstarts nowthreatened status who that (and driven nota little by secret class -those underlying or status anxieties becameenmeshed with self-contempt) anxieties a different of sort. rhetoric reveals growing also a concern Cold Warpolitical aboutthemasculinity of American in thatSchlesinger himself men,a concern voicedin a 1958 article "The Crisis American of Here addressed Esquire magazine, Masculinity." Schlesinger a multifaceted menthathad surfaced popularbooks in discussion aboutAmerican in and publications the 1940s and 1950s. By the timeLookmagazine announced "The Decline of theAmerican Male" in a 1958 series, in the reprinted book form sameyear, concern crystallized a recognizable the refrain: had into American males of had becomethe victims a smothering, collectivist overpowering, suspiciously masssociety-a society thathad smashed once-autonomous self, the elevated male
14 "The Triumph the Egghead,"Freeman, Louis Bromfield, of Dec. 1, 1952, pp. 155-58; E. Merrill Root, "The Quicksands theMind,"in Anthology Conservative of of Writing theUnited in States, Heinsohn, ed. 283-85. of 15A moreextensive treatment therelationship between sexualanxieties Cold Warpolitical and thought and rhetoric appearin myforthcoming will book, K. A. Cuordileone,"Politics an AgeofAnxiety": in Manhoodand American Political Culture theCold War(Routledge). thesexually in On ladenrhetoric a Cold War era statesof man,see FrankCostigliola, for "'UnceasingPressure Penetration': Gender, Pathology, Emotionin George and of Kennan's Formation theCold War," Journal American of History, (March 1997), 1309-39. On thefear 83 of in an affluent, America the 1950s,see Barbara soft Fear Ehrenreich, ofFalling:TheInner Lifeofthe MiddleClass (New York,1989), 29-34. The relevance thenational of security issueis discussed below.

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women a position power thehome, doomed to of in and mento a slavish conformity wholly not unlike experienced men that by living under Communist rule.'6 There were variations these on themes differences and in emphasis explanaand tion, thedread American hadgrown wasvoiced widely but that men soft in read andoften best-selling publications. Whether were they "organization softened men" ethos" H. bythe"group (William Whyte), "other-directed" madeconformist men andself-less anaffluent society by mass (DavidRiesman), left men sexually distorted norms constrain bypuritanical that healthy heterosexual relations ultimately and encourage sexual male "inversion" (Robert Lindner), weakmenandhelpless boys victimized parasitic by women and/or overbearing mothers (Philip Wylie, Edward or to of forces writStrecker), menwhofell prey someadmixture theabove (Look males nowthesubject unprecedented of ers), American were scrutiny. thelanAnd was man to guageof soft/hard in vogue: Whyte's organization succumbed the ethos "softminded" of"togetherness"; Riesman's other-directed personality was type "soft" "limp," the and unlike "hard," inner-directed ofyesteryear.17 type To be sure, such writers Whyte Riesman as be from and must distinguished the who who their about mothers" emasculated huspeevish Wylie, ranted "destroying their bands sissified sons.Riesman Whyte notaddress and and did gender overtly. The Crowd in terms Riesman's Lonely tended speak general, to gender-neutral about in the of shifts American character: rise the"other-directed" major personality type whodeferred theother of fear disapproval hence to out of and loneliness the and decline the"inner-directed" of corresponding personality of thenineteenth type him whose inner of century strong drive sense selfpermitted to forge and ahead without concern peerapproval. theconformity wasalways for debate boldly But lookat Riesman's use aboutmen, oneneedonly and awkward, alternating of genthese deredand gender-neutral to see the difficulty broadcharacter pronouns were sketches to whose male. direcmodels presented an author inescapably Inner beendifficultreconcile nineteenth-centuryofwomwith ideals tion would have to anhood. Ehrenreich suggested, has a of And,as Barbara drawingcharacter portrait woman even an other-directed wouldhavebeenunthinkable, clumsy redunand role for wasbuilt the social aswives mothand dant, "other-directedness into female transformation like looked ers."Indeed,"Riesman's sweeping characterological ofAmerican men."'8 so as feminization nothing much the crises far and The conformity masculinity werenever apart, Schlesinger's and
16 Forthe 1958 article, Mass., 1962), 237-46. seeArthur Schlesinger ThePolitics Hope (Cambridge, M. Jr., of commentary on Male (New York,1958). Fora biting American ForLook's1958 series, Look,TheDeclineofthe see and the Flightfrom The of Dreams Comsee Ehrenreich, Hearts Men:American themaleconformity crisis, Barbara mitment (New York,1983), 14- 51. 17 For expressions concern aboutthestateof themaleselfin the 1940s and 1950s,see WilliamH. Whyte of withNathanGlazerand ReuelDenney,TheLonely Jr., Organization The Man (New York,1956); David Riesman Must You Conform? A American Character (New Haven, 1950); RobertLindner, Crowd: Study theChanging of "The Abdicating Male and Generation Vipers of (New York,1942); PhilipWylie, (New York,1956); PhilipWylie, Him through Women,"Playboy, (Nov. 1956), 23-24, 50, 79; and His 3 How the GrayFlannelMind Exploits (Philadelphia, 1946). Examines American an Problem Sons:ThePsychiatrist EdwardStrecker, Their Mothers' 18Ehrenreich, of Hearts Men,34.

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to theirconvergence. Trying stand above the fray, Esquirearticledemonstrates the crisis attributed masculinity thatso manymenwereexperiencingSchlesinger of and maleself-doubt hysteria by novelists' and depictions evidenced a growing by withproving virility" curious his (a the male hero as "increasingly preoccupied -to a conformist mass of the observation, comingfrom author The VitalCenter) it male] and the sexualambiguity bred. "For a long time,[theAmerican society in in seemed utterly confident hismanhood... easyand definite hissenseof sexual . . . that there but signs something ha[d] identity," bymidcentury were"multiplying of the with[his]conception himself." Echoing conformity critics, gonebadly wrong men"on masssociety's "sinister" of blamedthe"unmanning American Schlesinger mento yieldto an all-consuming of which doctrine "togetherness," compelled group their was men's senseof selfand thusto obliterate manhood. whoseeffect to crush femiall differences: "How can masculinity, In fact, masssociety threatened gender in whichseekssteadily society, and else ninity, anything survive a homogenized or the it?" all who to between individuals compose If the benignly eradicate differences it are man's selfand thegender by distinctions establishes undermined masssociety, is himself the apartfrom group."The keyto therecovonlyrecourse to "visualize" lies of to Whena person begins find eryof masculinity ... in theproblem identity. to soonwhatsexhe is."19 out whohe is,he is likely find rather out While some malewriters for fretted about the insidious matriarchy responsible men's restraint. Critics who blamedwomenforthe cautioned undoing, Schlesinger menwerehopelessly of and immature, hysterical, justplain unmanning American like was "Masculine of supremacy, theneurosis an immature silly. supremacy, white in his so reminded readers thepsychologizing language characsociety," Schlesinger .. teristic thetime.Those "amiable of of matriarchy . are prophets an impending gains, suggested, he and but too pessimistic." Womenhavemadesignificant uneven theunseemly to was aggressiveness tantatendency blamemen'sdeclineon female the mountto an admission that"thefemale was bound to win." For Schlesinger, whichdeceptively feminine feminizing and was always"thegroup," lures enemy even men into its "womblike "aggressive, imperialistic, security" is ultimately yet the forever new and vengeful, developing weaponswithwhichto overwhelm crush "20 recalcitrant individual. In "The CrisisofAmerican returned themes to Masculinity" 1958 Schlesinger of in he first earlier TheVitalCenter. he had said in 1949, man is As articulated years in as and growing "forlornness, impotence fear" "organiza"tense, uncertain, adrift," and abovehim,"ever moreproneto "surrender inditiontowers [his] higher higher to organization, authority" (the group,party, viduality some massive,external thancope withthedifficult of business beingfree(or its collective, womb) rather The it loomslargein bothworks; is equivalent, beingmasculine). wombmetaphor in theplace to whichanxiousman retreats his "flight from anxiety." When,in the The name of the new liberalism, VitalCenter declared boldlythatthe "campaign
19Schlesinger, Politics Hope,237-46. of 20Ibid., 241-44.

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against social anxiety justbegun," campaign theanxiety sought has that and it to relieve an extrapolitical had meaning.2' Concerns about malesoftness surely old as manhimself, are as of expressions a in "crisis" masculinityrecurrent a feature modernity. particular, lateof In the nineteenth- early-twentieth-century society a surge anxiety and American saw of about manhood, bureaucratization, as urbanization, commercialization,social and reform undermined sources masculine older of Critics identity. worried professional that menwere living pampered of ease;that expanding, a life the impersonal bureaucracy doomed many tosedentary, men too unambitious ofpaper lives pushing; that urban lived namby-pamby a boys existence, influence. enveloped female by Luxury andidleness longbeenscorned emasculating. thefear males had as But that were feminine internalizing values provokednewdread critics a as the decried "overcivilization" thenation moralizing of women aggressive by and female reformers who attacked saloons brothels. the and As separate-spheres doctrine waned thefronand tier closed, many turn-of-the-century men responded redrawing by gender and lines turning were what oncenecessary attributesneedof restraint-aggression, in male in passion, combativeness, male strength-into virtues needof cultivation; hence the of vogue martial competitive arts, ethic. athletics, the and warrior The assertion of manliness heavy had ideological import: Roosevelt his presented idealof the strenuous as a solution thepervasive life" to "sissiness" threatened vitality that the and future the nation. of The RoughRiderpresident so (whomSchlesinger reinvented Progressive the reformer mananda redeemer manly admired) asa of virand tues, he justified and imperialism waras a means masculine of regeneration, on 22 anxieties about playing extant manhood helping and them. shape If nota crisis masculinity, a preoccupation maleregeneration in atleast with was wellunderway theturn thecentury. after BullMoosevirility of the And by impulse had runitscourse, problem maleidentity taken in the1920sand the of was up 1930sbyexperts professionals sought foster and who to sex-role proper socialization within family. problem absent distant the The of or excessive maternal influfathers, and ence, the"overfeminization" became ofboys standard in themes academic and as popular the discourse, especiallyexternal World II, War events, Great Depression, newproblems burdens American and for posed males.23 What new, was male in about concerns the1940sandthe1950s? then, Certainly in themes turn-of-the-century malediscourse-the many of affludangers leisure, feminine the of rural ence, corporatization, influence, decline rugged life-resurface with twists postwar new in of crisis. expressionsa masculinity Thebureaucracy (now theorganization) grown a way in had the became less previously unimaginable; issue
Vital Schlesinger, Center, 53, 58, 171. 1, On American masculinity, E. Anthony see Rotundo,American Manhood:Transformations in Masculinity from Revolution the the to Modern Era (New York,1993); MichaelKimmel, A Manhoodin America: Cultural History (New York,1996); ElizabethPleck and JosephPleck,eds., TheAmerican Man (EnglewoodCliffs, 1980); Peter Filene,Him/Her/Serf Rolesin Modern Sex America (Baltimore, 1975); and JoeL. Dubbert, Mans Place: A Masculinity Transition in (Englewood Cliffs, 1979). See Arnaldo Testi, "The Gender Reform of Politics: Theodore Roosevelt theCulture Masculinity," and of Journal American of 81 History, (March1995), 1509-33. 23 L. in A Robert Griswold, Fatherhood America: History (New York,1993), esp. 94-118.
21 22

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theimpersonality workplace more personality ofthe and the itdemanded menof The likable, groupist, false. middle and class expanded had thanks thepostwar to life and boom, so toodidsuburban andnarrow gender-role which ideals, appeared toundermine autonomy dictating well-adjusted role successful male by the man's as husband-father-breadwinner. Mass culture proffered universalized imagesand as norms, often experiencedbanal feminine wellas coercive. unequaled as and And consumption white-collar generated and work concerns aboutmalephysical fitYet while men on of turn-of-the-century focused thetwin had problems physical the the and characterological flabbiness-bolstering bodywouldhelpdiscipline character-the problem midcentury couldnotbe so readily for males addressed by thecultivation outward of at nowwasa wholesale of loss physical manliness; issue selfAs critics experts their to the and turned attention themalepsyche, American his malleable fragmented, became victim never a as male, psyche and before, pristo of oner a "togetherness" that of ethos seemed reek collectivism. theforces That were of responsible thelossof self for elevated thestatus "isms"-"groupism," to the context which in men's were "momism"-suggests newideological problems in age The often framed. ofself nosmall Loss was concern the oftheColdWar. self wasthenecessary not the sensibulwark simply delicacies coddled and against false bilities Henry that hero he his James's BasilRansom ranted aboutwhen declared but new generation "womanized" alsoagainst sadly conformity's mid-twentieththe in totalitarianism.25 As such, postwar of century corollary: expression a crisis while masculinity, stemming a mixture oldandnewtrends, from of dislocations and now fears, carried unparalleled ideological weight. The tendency male critics the1940sand 1950stoblame in of women men's for too cries of emasculation haditsprecedent in late-nineteenth-century "oversurely The civilization" hands pushy, atthe of women. enemy many for midcenreforming reformer forbidding malecritics lessthefemale was of tury (the image Eleanor the in private Roosevelt and woman the and aside) more assertive, civilizing sphere a the from home. While claims midcentury of male looming matriarchy emanating the were often critics about women's influence themalepsyche on overblown best at anxieties about female roles. Elaine andabsurd worst, do reflect at unresolved they has connections between women's into work tracked Tyler May's complex entry the wartime force, work anxieties female and of about sexuality, therise theColdWar, the in allofwhich of underlay revival domesticitythepostwar years.26 Exaggerated when an already women more domestic ideals dilemma: wielded magnified vexing in domestic that was as power the sphere, power experiencedalltoooverwhelming. Yetdomesticity nota monolith within white was even the class. revival Its middle with the coexisted rise uneasily other trends, including continued of a female (and in work women's married) force, participationreform politics, peacemovements,
24 On postwar preoccupation withmale physical fitness, Jesse see Berrett, "Feedingthe Organization Man: Diet and Masculinity Postwar in America," Journal SocialHistory, (Summer of 30 1997), 805-25. 25Henry James, Bostonians The (1886; New York,1984), 327. Tyler May,Homeward Bound: American Families theCold War in Era (New York,1988). 26Elaine

nessand vigor.24

Cold WarPolitical Culture a Crisis Masculinity and in

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andorganized labor, newawareness female a of achievement capability of and born the wartime experience, a common and assumption, voiced often men's in writings, that women were finally politically, now personally, sexually and emancipated.is It tempting write such account more to off an as imagined real; second than the wave of feminism yetto begin, we areaccustomed thinking this as a had and to of era profoundly conservative for one women. wewould well take But limited, do to male critics their at word assume they and that were if reacting something real, to very immeasurable: a heightening female nourished World WarII self-assertiveness, by and thespaceforfemale it and which autonomy created by postwar affluence, of brought Americans both sexes for greater expectations individual self-fulfillment. Recent has that American women asserted scholarship suggested themidcentury in life themselvespublic inhighly visible nodoubt (and unsettling) Andmale ways. in private As observers thetime at a sexual life. perceivedgrowing equalitarianism Abram a popular writer scholar American roles, Kardiner, and of sex wrote 1954, in "Theinfluence feminismnotlimited those of is to women whoenter All careers. in women are their for from today feministsthat expectations themselves marriage An have changed." exclusive on domesticity-withimplicit focus its of assumption female orconformity-as sine non women's the qua existsubordination of postwar enceobscures other of lives in aspects women's andchanges relations between the sexes revisionist that historians unraveling.27 are Malecritics' on focus mass and features society itssoftening, feminizing (includto ingfemale assertiveness) them elideonepossible led source maleunease of and the of States. Michael Sherry's has S. work insecurity: militarizationtheUnited the war an stressed extent which became ever-present to of preoccupationAmericansduring after and World II, national War a consuming of security source anxiMilitarization itsownconformity; assertion United exacts the ety. of States global itsownburdens frustrations;threat nuclear itsownsense the and of war superiority of dread, Male or impotence. critics eschewed issues; powerlessness, such typically even who with Schlesinger, waselsewhere concerned issues warandglobal of conthem possible flict, notexplicitly did consider as sources themasculinity of crisis. Yetif malewriters located men's within contours mass the typically problems of the that mencoexisted was the society, assumption thelatter softening nation's men doubts American were that the to meet demands alongside nagging prepared nation. of a hypermilitarized Uncertainties thehardness thenation's about of cold in warriors hovered the over manhood cited debate, 1946 surfacing franklya widely Strecker bookbythepsychiatrist Edward of numbers young of warning therising
27Abram Kardiner, and Morality Sex (Indianapolis, 1954), 233. For revisionist historians' challenges the to in assumption thatthedomestic idealwas pervasive thepostwar UnitedStates, Joanne see Meyerowitz, Not ed., in and Gender Postwar June Cleaver:Women America, 1945-1960 (Philadelphia1994); JoanneMeyerowitz, A of "Beyondthe Feminine Mystique: Reassessment Postwar Mass Culture,1946-1958," Journal American of History, (March 1993), 1455-82; Daniel Horowitz, 79 Betty Friedan and theMakingof theFeminine Mystique: TheAmerican theColdWar, Modern and Feminism "'It's Good to Blow (Amherst, 1998); and Eva Moskowitz, Left, YourTop': Women's Magazinesand a Discourseof Discontent, 1945-1965," Journal Women's of History, (Fall 8 1996), 66-98.

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of with men deemed incapable coping soldierly discipline rigor rejected and and by For the ordischarged the from military. Strecker, "immaturity"- endresult such of excessive that American children "enwombed -was mothering left psychologically" to ourgravest menace" a "threat oursurvival" a democratic and as civilization.28 their Political concerns found wayintoprofessional popular and psychology, while language preoccupationsprofessional pop psychology the of and and found their intopolitical to rhetoric maturity way discourse, which Schlesinger's of and womblike retreat witness.29 wasthecrisis bears But real? Wasmasculinity the on isan and as was decline? between Masculinity ideal, insofar there a growing disparity available white men theidealitself theavenues for middle-class to realize that and ideal, there infact "crisis," was a hyperbole Forbetter worse, sources aside. or the of an older male on initiative achievement, and identity-based individual autonomy inpublic andpatriarchal life male in homeandmastery, prerogative authoritythe were male were And to that eroding. while midcentury critics surely reacting trends in were those were in over a century themaking, half trends vastly accelerated the at very when military moment became 1940s 1950s, and magnifiedthe easy security a faint memory. in concern national with World WarII notonly ushered a heightened defense an uneasy sense vulnerability; catalyst rapid of as a for socialand economic and it and relations.30 exaltation thenuclear The sexual racial of change, altered family in of ideals and therevival domestic an emerged partas a defense against unrein and women the1940sand strained tide (female) sexuality therising ofworking the when women into labor 1950s-writ large during war flooded the force expeand some And was of rienced relative autonomy. ifmanhood defined a sense mastery by over then over one's world authority others, cumulative political, and social, economic, a postwar rights civil movement whose andsexual to trends-including challenge white a challenge white to maleauthority dominance implicitly was -undercut an older of ideal manhood. for Butsomething in thisdisjuncture account theshrillness male else of may rhetoric and and emphasis not (political otherwise) the placed juston manliness per it andperhaps wastheinevitable toa perse buton maleheterosexuality, corollary In 1958Schlesinger in fear ceived crisis masculinity: ofhomosexuality. stressed that meant of self, lossofself loss and meant of gender loss thearrival mass of society we of and identity, while have"not quitereached condition sexual yet [a] chaos," wewere approachingAs evidence a masculinity it. theimplication that was fast of he that was a boomnewin our crisis, observed homosexuality "enjoyingcultural in of review 1957hecalled "homosexual an anxiety" "increasingly history";a theater
28 On themilitarization theUnitedStates, see Michael S. Sherry, theShadowof War:The United In of States of sincethe1930s (New Haven, 1995). For criticism excessive see Their mothering, Strecker, Mothers'Sons, 219; and David M. Levy, Maternal Overprotection York,1943). (New and 29On the nexus between professional psychology Cold War politicalculture, Ellen Herman,The see Political Culture the in AgeofExperts Romance American of Psychology: (Berkeley, 1995). 30 See James Patterson, T. Grand The Expectations: United States, 1945-74 (New York,1996); WilliamChafe, The UnfinishedJourney: sinceWorld WarII (New York,1986); and Godfrey America Hodgson,America Our in Time(New York,1976).

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beneath crisis the in if prevalent obsession our theater, notof our age." Lurking of of homosexuality.3" masculinity often specter an expansionist was the culture werenot new in theearly Fearsof sexualchaos in American Cold War novel, theperbut political arenaentirely years, was gay-baiting thepartisan nor in in thathomosexuality becoming evermoreprevalent theUnitedStates ception was The Kinsey spotlight 1948; its in the wasnew. report brought issueintothenational of maleattraction sexualreladatasuggesting and high unexpectedly rates same-sex raised possithe often passedas straight tionsand theobservation homosexuals that thought. his In thanpreviously bility thatthere weremoregaymenin thecountry sense"in the Max Lerner notedthe"uneasy 1957 book,America a Civilization, as an was in early1950s thathomosexuality increasing theUnitedStates, assumption a at Whether malehomosexual voicedbymany observers socialcritics thetime. and of orientation attributed theeffects a self-crushing, was to masssociety, impersonal an increasingly laxity, perthe or secularism moral and matriarchal family, a growing the of on ceptionthatit was dramatically therisehelpsdistinguish sexualanxiety periods.32 thisperiodfrom that earlier of of reputation the 1940s and the 1950s as a Despitethepopular(and deserved) homosexuality have been morevisiblethan may repressive forgayAmericans, era in everbefore. to of WorldWar II was a watershed According historians sexuality, a out for "coming experience" manygaymemgayand lesbianhistory,nationwide menand womenfrom their homesand localneighbersof themilitary. Uprooting a the in themtogether sex-segregated and provided units borhoods, war brought same-sex The relationships. riseof gayand lesbianurban spacein whichto pursue a or enclaves thepostwar in that establish larger at least suggests thewarhelped years in If WarII wasa national out coming noticeable subculture America. World more gay heterosexfor such did by experience so many, surely a watershed notgo unnoticed tense on whosedefinition manhood of rested thetacit ual observers, assumptionalways it -of maleheterosexuality.33 so axiomatic hardly neededarticulation (until now?) of Nor did theissueof homosexuality escapethenoticeof some critics conforother-directed If that onlyexample another of mity. itwas a coincidence Riesman's in there no subtext decipher theworkof the was was to culture fifth-century Greece, MustYouConform? a Robert whose1956 tract devoted chappsychoanalyst Lindner, "sexwhoseriseLindner terto the male homosexual, blamedon the conformist
31Schlesinger, Politics Hope,238, 244, 252-53. of

32 On fears sexualchaosat various see pointsin UnitedStateshistory, JohnD'Emilio and EstelleB. Freedof charged rhetoin (New York,1988). On theuse of sexually A of man,Intimate Matters: History Sexuality America in American Life Hofstadter, Anti-Intellectualism weaponin theGildedAge,see Richard ricas a partisan political 1948), in Kinsey al., SexualBehavior theHumanMale (Philadelphia, et (1962; New York,1966), 184-90. Alfred America a Civilization as thatmale homosexuality on the rise,see Max Lerner, was 610-66. For speculations 68; Friedan, The of 160-64; Wylie,Generation Vipers, Betty Sex (New York,1957), 683; Kardiner, and Morality, "Intellectuals and (1963; New York,1984), 274-76; and NathanGlazerand David Riesman, Feminine Mystique ed. Classes,"in RadicalRight, Bell,119. theDiscontented in Sexual Communities: Makingof a Homosexual The Minority the United D'Emilio, SexualPolitics, 33John Intimate 288-91; Allan Berube, Matters, States, 1940-1970 (Chicago,1983), 23-39; D'Emilio and Freedman, in War Out Fire:TheHistory GayMen and Women World Two(New York,1990). Foran autobioof Coming under A (New York,1991). on see graphical perspective theperiod, MartinDuberman,Cures: GayMans Odyssey

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culture thetime, of which constrained heterosexual relations left and them denying" fraught excessive with tension manymen. (Only on theissueof homosexuality for to an was thiscritic's answer the question"mustyou conform?" unequivocal yes. of Homosexuality a "negative" was form nonconformity, Lindner insisted, "despite thebenefits for claimed it as a wayof lifebyitsmany apologists, Plato.")Anxie.g. eties about male homosexuality also found theirway into several 1950s antia from films. conformity The 1955 filmRebelwithout Cause (the titleborrowed earlier thesamename),whichlinked masculinity to the the crisis Lindner's book by riseof juveniledelinquency dramatizing genderrole reversals by the within Jim Stark's also a (James Dean's) troubled family, displayed subtleuneaseabout male homosexuality. Mineo'snearly Sal parentless character, Plato,was depicted excesas of sively needyand immature, even psychotic; name an arguable his marker his Tea film latent homosexuality. and Sympathy (1956), another concerned withmale of male as conformity critical competitive norms, and implied overtly was possi(as ble in a film) thatmaleroles wereso ridiculously thata youngmanmight flee rigid from manhood and thusbegina slidetoward homosexuality.34 was to The belief thatmalehomosexuality an adaptational response theburdens of manhoodand thusa flight from reflected new trend a masculinity amongmidwho in century psychoanalysts beganto locatethecausesof homosexuality external socialphenomena opposedto innate Whilethebelief (as biological-libidinal drives). thathomosexuality a pathology was continued, idea thatit could be culturally the and socially inducedwas popularized psychoanalysts as AbramKardiner, such by whose1954 SexandMorality to the rise tried explain apparent in malehomosexualin recent Kardiner deniedthat suchan increase couldbe explained ity years. biologone hundredper cent in a periodof ically("no biologicalvariantcan increase thirteen the and theindividual culture to and years"). Shifting focusfrom biology he from from society, suggested thatthe large-scale "flight masculinity" stemmed maleroleexpectations twentieth-century disorders and the stepped-up social (from to "instrumental of humanbeings" "universal use anxiety thefear annihilaand of on tion"). Thoughno consensus existed amongmidcentury experts therootcauseof a malehomosexual orientation-most attributed to family it psychiatrists dynamics, thatis,weakfathers strong and mothers that be (patterns could themselves socially induced) -the notionthathomosexuality in largepartan acquiredtrait was that from men's to modern gained audience. life an resulted "adaptive failure" copewith 5 The adaptational thatanymanplagued excessive failtheory implied by adaptive
34Lindner,Must YouConform?, a 31-76, esp. 43, 64; Rebelwithout Cause,dir.NicholasRay (Warner Bros., 1955); Teaand Sympathy, Vincente dir. Minnelli(MGM, 1956). The title thefilm of Rebelwithout Causecomes a from Robert Lindner, Rebelwithout Cause:TheStory a Criminal a of Psychopath (New York,1944). Yetthefilm's in content corresponds morewiththemes Lindner's later For MustYouConform? a moregenerous of reading Tea and Sympathy, GeorgeChauncey's see essayin PastImperfect: History According the to Movies, MarkC. Carnes ed. (New York,1996), 258-61. 35Kardiner, and Morality, Sex 160-92, esp. 160, 164, 190; Lionel Ovesey,"The HomosexualConflict: An Adaptational Analysis," Psychiatry, (Aug. 1954), 243-50, esp. 247; Hendrik Ruitenbeek, TheProblem 17 M. ed., in of Homosexuality ModernSociety on (New York,1963). For commentary thisdiscourse, D'Emilio, Sexual see Politics, SexualCommunities, 140-45.

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ures couldconceivably relinquish and heterosexualityadopt homosexual a orientation.In Look's "The Declineof theAmerican Male" series, writer, one citing "experts," warned men passive fatigued the that left or by many burdens placed now on them those in (including bysexually aggressive women) might a worst-case scenario become sexually impotent, desert families, their and/or retreat homosexinto in uality a "flight masculinity."36 wasthe from Such implication, inSchlesinger's too, references newcultural tothe "boom" homosexuality self-doubt ina in as male grew masssociety. potential The of in consequence a crisis masculinity-homosexual retreat-loomed the over manhood discourse ithadnotbefore. as transhistorical transcultural, and Although surely anxieties aboutsexuality are embedded within complex socialrelations shape their form expression at that and Yet given historical moments. charting time over as as somethingintangibleexpressions virility their of and cultural psychological or raises host questions. a of origins How do we historicize sexual anxieties-their quantity, form, levelof intensity, sources? the of in Determining levelandform anxieties aboutmanhood 1950as opposed 1900is complicated theadvent professional to of by psychology the and mass media, whose experts norms an everto increasingly defined universal sexual audience then and of larger declared "crises" discovery their absence. perpetual upon Even ifTeddy Roosevelt's undiluted torecoverlost call a so, blunt, physical strength andmanly was of in character oneindicator impulses turn-of-the-century American can life, we saythat those impulses qualitatively were different thekindthat from and half later? moretensionSchlesinger others expressed a century Arguably fraught, erotically charged, self-consciously and heterosexual, might midcentury malerhetoric reflecting masculinity suggest society which older the crisis in the a restraintssexuality sexual on in in the and behavior -still largely place 1900despite of down with waning separate spheres-were breaking disconcerting a socispeed, in that an ety would duetime experience unprecedented revolution? sexual thecultural-sexual within milieu which men with Clearly postwar grappled the of meaning manhood changed had profoundly that Roosevelt's By from of time. thelate1940s, and forces encouraging current social, economic, market were a new ofsexual in often modernism, expressed popular media, bumped that fitfully the (as first Kinsey had an on report in 1948)against official ideology insisted allegiance that tothenuclear and From restraint. thedebates thepublication over of family sexual Lolita Christine and ofsex to proliferation and Jorgensen's sex-change operation the manuals thegreater sexual marriage and to female sexual willingnessdiscuss needs, impotence, homosexuality frankly, and more sexual discourse raised midcentury orunconfronted andphantoms men. for issues previously buried, unmentionable, in And in an eraof accelerated socialchange which malewriters werechafing the male of against prescribed roleand all thatcamewithit-the constraints andthetogetherness theconformity induced breadwinning, life, family ethos, by or theorganization overly women-it is notentirely that demanding surprising
36J. RobertMoskin,"WhyDo WomenDominateHim?,"in Look,Declineof the American Male, 3-24, esp. 12, 22.

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theimageof thehomosexual loomedoverthemanhooddiscourse. once a figure At of terrifying buriedenvy, loathing, appearedto havewhatmanymale fear, and he critics(not yet attunedto the cultural trendsthatwould latersanctiona male flight from commitment) seemedultimately desire:freedom to from marital commitment, of sexual ease relations, a kindof power and overhislifethat conventional maleroles precluded.37 If themalehomosexual becamea sexualbogeyman theearly by 1950s,it is perhaps no coincidence he also becamea threat national that to security. John As D'Emilio has shown,fearof homosexuality in surfaced the politicalarena in an unpreceof in dentedfashion. revealed 1950 that When Undersecretary State John Puerifoy mostof the ninety-one employees recently dismissed fromthe StateDepartment werehomosexuals, alarm whathad longbeenrumored about at politicians expressed thediplomatic so confirmed. Conservatives corpsbutnever publicly turned quickly a theissueto their GOP chairman circulated letter advantage. party Guy Gabrielson of to thousands party members that"sexual . our saying perverts. . haveinfiltrated government" were"perhaps dangerous theactualCommunists." spoke and as as He of thenew "homosexual and to angle"in Washington advisedRepublicans express their outrage, since"decency" prevented media from the the especially discussing matter openly. The Republican floorleaderin the Senate,Kenneth too Wherry, a of in calledfor fullinquiry intothepresence homosexuals government.38 The result to unleash was whatD'Emilio has calledtheimageof the"homosexual menace." That imagerested thenotionthathomosexuals on werebydefinition As to morally bankrupt and,as such,politically suspect. Wherry explained theNew York Max Lerner 1950, "youcan't in Post's hardly separate homosexuals from subversives.Mind you,I don'tsayevery homosexual a subversive, I don'tsayevery is and is subversive a homosexual. a man of low morality a menacein thegovernis But whatever is, and they all tiedup together." senator he are The also claimed ment, who thatJosephStalinhad obtainedAdolf Hitler's"worldlist"of homosexuals couldbe enlisted thepurposes subversion. for of Thus Wherry's for call measures to of secure"seaports majorcities and against sabotage through conspiracy subver[a] in sivesand moralperverts government establishments."39 The outcome theSenateinvestigation thereport of was EmploymentHomosexof
37On the cultural from currents Playboy magazineto humanistic psychology encouraged male flight that a from commitment, Ehrenreich, see Hearts Men. of 38 On postwar sexualanxieties and the fearof homosexuality, GeorgeChaunceyJr.,"The Postwar see Sex Crime Panic,"in TrueStories fromtheAmerican Past,ed. WilliamGraebner (New York,1993), 160-78; and "'Uncontrolled Desires':The Responseto the Sexual Psychopath, EstelleB. Freedman, 1920-1960," Journal of American History, (June1987), 83-106. On thepurgeof theStateDepartment thepartisan 74 and political reaction,see D'Emilio, SexualPolitics, SexualCommunities, 40-53, esp. 41. 39 On the "homosexual menace,"see JohnD'Emilio, MakingTrouble: on and Essays GayHistory, Politics, the University York,1992), 57-73. For Kenneth (New see The Wherry's statements, Max Lerner, Unfinished Country: A BookofAmerican Symbols (NewYork,1959), 313-16, esp. 313; and NicholasVon Hoffman, Citizen Cohn:The of Lifeand Times RoyCohn(1988; New York,1992), 130.

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uals and Other Perverts Government. report's Sex in The operative assumption was who engagein overtacts of perversion theemotional that"those lack stability of normal persons." Becausetheir "moral fiber" allegedly had beenweakened sexual by indulgence becausethey and werecompromised a socially by unacceptable affliction thatleftthemvulnerable extortion, report to the deemedhomosexuals blackmailproneand thusnational security risks. EchoingKinsey's observation theoutthat of to of wardappearance homosexuals notalways did correspond thestereotype the to homoeffete efforts detect and remove male,thereport calledformorerigorous in sexuals government.40 for all of McCarthy, one,understood toowelltheutility thehomosexuality issue, When questions aroseabouthis listof hencehis "Communist queer"epithets. and who the Communists had allegedly infiltrated StateDepartment, McCarthy, lacking to fell and evidence, backon a guilt-by-association strategy stressed his Senatecolthe mental leaguesthata fewcasesinvolved homosexuality revealed "unusual and of aberrations certain in "oneof ourtop intelliindividuals thedepartment," citing is or gencemen"who believed thatpractically every Communist "twisted mentally in thereafter employ imageof the to the physically someway."McCarthy continued homosexual menaceto bolster charge twenty his of of years treason.4' on Otherconservatives thehomosexuality to put Democrats therun. issue used for in Thomas Dewey blamedtheTrumanadministration tolerating offenders sex The New York homosexual subversion government. excitable DailyNewsconsidered the"primary of issue"of the 1950 congressional "The foreign race: policy theU.S., evenbefore inner World WarII, wasdominated an all-powerful, by super-secret, cirin cle of highly misfits theStateDepartment, educated, socially highly placedsexual in all easyto blackmail, susceptible blandishments homosexuals foreign all to by who were "exposing nations."When Rev. BillyGrahampraisedthe patriots the and beneaththewingsof pinks,the lavenders, the redswho have soughtrefuge theAmerican and had Eagle,"liberals, homosexuals, Communists been linkedby of To commonmoralweaknesses. thefarRight, pink-lavender-red the virtue their was from affluent its the trinity inseparable breeding grounds: eastern establishment, theIvyLeague,and theStateDepartment.42 Forsomeobservers, associations havebeensuggested thesexual subsuch may by dramaof itstwoprincipal textof theAlgerHiss case. In manyways,thepersonal Law Schoolgraduate, for actors paradigmatic theeraunfolding. was Hiss,a Harvard in D. New Deal liberal, former official Franklin Roosevelt's StateDepartment, and Chamwas accusedin 1948 by theformer Communist Whittaker party operative to bersof passing classified StateDepartment documents theSovietUnion in the Chambers 1930s. By nowbotha devoutCatholicand an anticommunist, privately
in 40U.S. Congress, Senate,Committee Expenditures theExecutive on Departments, Employment Homoof sexuals Other Perverts Government, Cong.,2 sess.,Nov. 27, 1950, pp. 3-1 1, esp. 4. and Sex in 81 41 Reeves, Lifeand Times ofJoe McCarthy, 240-57, esp. 240. 42 On Republican SexualCommunities, For thestatements New 41. by reactions, D'Emilio, SexualPolitics, see The of 1991), 44York Daily Newsand BillyGraham, Stephen Whitfield, Culture theCold War(Baltimore, see J. 45.

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to confessed theFederalBureauof Investigation thathe had beengayin the (FBI) 1930s,claiming have"conquered" homosexual to his "affliction"thesametime at he presumably conquered Communist his "affliction." thedefense That wouldraise the in issue of Chambers's homosexuality court (whichin any case becamewidely him known)to discredit was doubtful, sincetheFBI had learned thatHiss'sstepson fromthe navyforan allegedhomosexual The FBI'S had been discharged offense. of Priscilla "hints" aboutitsdiscovery thisinformation apparently prevented Hiss's son from testifying altogether. Defenselawyers beggedHiss to let his stepson take Chambers's at thewitness standto refute aboutcrucialfacts issuein the testimony for case. Hiss, however, fearing consequences his wife'sson, nixedthe only the defense that havehelpedhimwinan acquittal.43 strategy might While some observers speculated about a previousinfatuation with Hiss on Chambers's or evena pastsexualrelationship between Chambers and Hiss or part in Hiss'sstepson-something thatmight explain disparities thetwosides'account of is of of thenature their here pastfriendship-what significant is not thetruth of Chambers's selfsuchspeculations, theideological but fallout thecase'ssubtext. sexualaffliction theimagination linked fed and proclaimed that political subversion his the "sexual perversion"; mysterious friendship Hiss in the1930simplicated with in of latter Chambers's murky past.And although sexualovertones thecase did the in notresult explicit accusations Hiss was homosexual, did becometheprothat he treasonous establishment whosesofttotypical weak-willed, effete, eastern liberal, of nesslefthim proneto transgressions a political, moral,and perhaps even of a who sexualnature. And forCold Warliberals suchas Schlesinger, lamented sorthe of did liaisons thePopular Front Hisswas no doubtthemodelfor Doughthe days, and thus forliberalism's ill-fated with face-turned-accomplice-of-Stalin flirtation in Communism the1930s. The connections and between liberals, subversives, homosexuals (and the State in Hiss'sterrain) wereslyly alludedto by McCarthy his 1952 maniDepartment, The America. on festo, McCarthyism: Fightfor CitingtheSenatereport "homosexuin als and othersex perverts" thatelection yearbroadside, McCarthy pointedout that"in addition thesecurity to . who weakand question, . . individuals aremorally the from and .. detract perverted who arerepresenting StateDepartment. certainly of to theprestige thisnation."He proceeded attack Acheson(who had vowednot to turnhis back on his friend that Hiss), stressing it was Achesonwho had sent Hiss to Yalta and thusconjuring a conspiratorial connection betweenpinks, up and reds, lavenders.44 The imageof the effete of was "striped-pants diplomat" theStateDepartment not McCarthy's invention, however; the early1950s the diplomatic by corpshad in The tendency becomean objectof derision ridicule somepolitical and circles. to
43Most accounts theHiss-Chambers of casemention sexuality the issueand itsrelevance thecase.See Allen to Weinstein, Perury:The Hiss-Chambers (New York,1978), 383-84. For an autobiographical Case account,see Witness Whittaker Chambers, (New York,1952). On the FederalBureauof Investigation (FBI) and Alger Hiss's stepson, CurtGentry, EdgarHoover: Man and theSecrets see The (New York,1991), 363. J 44 Joseph McCarthy, McCarthyism: FightforAmerica York,1952), 14-15, 23-24. The (New

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Theepitome the of eastern establishment Alger in liberal, Hiss almost decade Whittaker a after Chambers named first 1957, him a Communist a Soviet as and Hiss espionage agent. wasconvicted perjury 1950. of in TheHisscase on defensive the putDemocrats the for next years. ten
Photograph ElliotErwitt. by Courtesy Inc. ofMagnum Photos,

linkhomosexuality the StateDepartment with wentback to theearly1940s; the notion aristocratic of "sexual misfits" UnitedStates undermining was foreign policy a to clearly reference Sumner of Welles,FDR's undersecretary state, who resigned amid allegations homosexuality. insinuations of Yet about the diplomatic corps

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all speech.TheVital quarters, before Puerifoy even the couldbe heardfrom partisan men at Statewho "pushedcookies" to Center made oblique reference the "effete" their in by sleeves," hailing replacement moreable, and wore"handkerchiefs their a 1951 best-selling of men.The conservative authors Washington expert Confidential, in that the discommunity America" targeted capital's tell-all exposeof the"dirtiest of the purges theStateDepartment, solute"parlor pinks," joked that"until recent accent, weara you there a gag aroundWashington had to speakwitha British was if at "45 orhavea queerquirk youwanted getbytheguards thedoor. to homburg hat, In moreseriously. 1953 John FostooktheStateDepartment's Others reputation the to ambassador theSoviet Charles Bohlen, newly appointed terDulles instructed to would Such a scenario Union,to travel hisposton thesameplanewithhiswife. family man.The presumably quellanydoubtsthatBohlenwas lessthana "normal" whohad beencloseto theRoosevelt Truman and adminHarvard-educated Bohlen, at had beenthesubject a security-clearance of istrations present Yalta, and investigamen.46 life which insinuated be for to tionintohisprivate andsexual preferences, were in the Society, The first advocacy gay organization theUnitedStates, Mattachine Foundedin 1951 by several ex-Communist party memworried some observers. in thescrutiny theLosAngeles of Mirror 1953. Reportthe cameunder bers, society leaders'Communist warnedreaders that partyties,the Mirror ing Mattachine were knownnationalsecurity risksand that,if united,theycould homosexuals The FBI musthave concurred; it tremendous political power." potentially "swing the infiltrated Mattachine under Societyin the 1950s and keptthe organization constantsurveillance. Whatever Edgar Hoover's own sexual orientation (in J. to Mattachine ironic leadersmade theirown arguably response FBI harassment, the on regular mailing list),Hooverusedthe pointbyputting director thesociety's same "logic"thatlinkedmoral,sexual,and political as subversion did otherantiHis to from FBI, hissurveillance the and communists. pledges rootout "sexdeviates" of smearcampaigns sexually suspect political enemies, and his profile the against in Communist hisbookMasters Deceit-all suggest for that Hoover of "maladjusted" he the enemywas sexualas well as ideological. And like otheranticommunists, the Communist "neurotic" "twisted" cited, as and and amongother depicted typical "sexual reasons pleasure."47 whypeoplejoinedtheparty, on other Though Hooverdid not elaborate the natureof thatsexualpleasure, basisof theCommunist critics the erotic lure.The party's pondered psychosexual Kosa notedtheparty's who gains scholar neurotic person appealto thelonely, John fromhis relationship "an almostsexualsatisfaction withthe Communist move45 On theSumner Wellesepisode, Gentry,J see EdgarHoover, 307-10. Schlesinger, Center, Vital 166-67; Lee Mortimer Jack and Lait,Washington (New York,1951), 9-11, 90-97. Confidential 46 A Gentry, EdgarHoover, J. 436; David M. Oshinsky, Conspiracy Immense: World JoeMcCarthy So The of (New York,1983), 287-93. Mirror article and FBI surveillance theMattachine of 47 On theLosAngeles Society, D'Emilio, SexualPolisee SexualCommunities, 124. On J.EdgarHooverand theMattachine tics, 76, Society, Anthony see Summers, OffiThe cialand Confidential: Secret ofJ.EdgarHoover Life (London,1993), 84, 93. J.EdgarHoover, Masters Deceit of (New York,1958), 102- 5.

Cold WarPolitical Culture a Crisis Masculinity and in

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ment." Always attuned thered psyche, to Schlesinger stressed morepointedly the "psychology clandestinity" Communists of that foundenticing, comparing their ability identify to each otheron casualmeeting thewayhomosexuals to allegedly each identify other: theuse of certain "by phrases, namesof certain the friends, by certain enthusiasms certain and silences. is reminiscent . . . thefamous It of scenein wheretheBaronde Charlusand thetailor Proust their Jupien suddenly recognize common corruption."48 Whether was MarcelProust it who provided operative the modelforthehighbrowcrowdor the Hiss-Chambers dramathatfedtheimagination lesserudite of the of observers, threat Communism becameentangled withthethreat an unreof strained sexuality by extension, and, homosexuality. Surely sexually loadedrhetoric and lavender-baiting servedpersonal, partisan, nationalistic or interests those for whosought stigmatize to enemies shoreup their and ownmanly, political heterosexThis was theviewof David Riesmanand NathanGlazer, ual credentials. who in 1955 attributed right-wing attacks "sissified" on liberals an exploitation the to of growing of homosexuality America. fear in The homosexual, authors the observed, thantheNegro." had become"a muchmorefeared WhatMichaelRoginhas enemy morerecently called"political has in demonology" a long,complex history American political sexualfears and fantasies haveoften the culture; underlain demonizationof thoseperceived a threat American as to order civility.49 and As a political rhetoric weapon,sexually charged reliedupon realanxieties clearly of aboutbothCommunism sexuality. whatwas thenature thoseanxieties and Just in and how mighttheybe linked? While similar theirrhetorical expression (for the of are of of and fears an example, imagery penetration), fears Communism thatderive from unrestrained sources and intersect sexuality parallelfears separate national concerns?50 onlyat thepointof heightened security To some observers, was for sexualcontainment necessary the containment of KinCommunism. attacked Indeed,an IndianaCatholicarchdiocesean newspaper werehardly studies sey's (whichshowedthatAmericans chaste)becausethey"pave thewayfor in peopleto believe communism to actlikeCommunists." here, and Yet as elsewhere, deeper a connection beingmadebetween was sexuality, Communism, thatwere not just parallelbut deeplyinterand liberalism, anxieties suggesting twined their in To the was with origins. BillyGraham, word"tolerant" synonymous "51 it "liberal"and "broad-minded. Liberalpermissiveness moral relativism, and
VitalCenter, 127, 163. John Kosa, TwoGenerations Soviet of Man (ChapelHill, 1962), 155; Schlesinger, the Rogin,RonaldReagan, Movie, esp. 236-300. 50 Metaphors during Cold Warand the of gender, sexuality, diseasepermeated and national security discourse wereunderstood crucialto as rigidgender rolesand restrictive policiestoward sexual"deviants" government in S. and Isolation: Sex, tranquillity national and security, according Geoffrey Smith, to "NationalSecurity Personal 14 Gender, and Disease in theCold-WarUnitedStates," International History Review, (May 1992), 307-37. An of between of and analysis Cold War-erascandalmagazines suggests parallels portrayals Communists homosexuin of als: BarbaraEpstein,"Anti-Communism, Homophobia,and the Construction Masculinity the Postwar 20 U.S.," Critical Sociology, (no. 3, 1994), 21-44. see 51 For thestatements theIndianaCatholic by archdiocesean newspaper BillyGraham, Whitfield, and Cullture theColdWar, 186. of 80,
48

49 Glazerand Riesman, "Intellectuals theDiscontented and Classes,"119;

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seemed, invited subversion perversion all thatwas normal the and of and sacred: freedom, God, private the and polarity. Communism, insofar as property, family, sex it was thefinal, of and hideousdenouement liberal-progressive inclusivity naYvete, all manand thestate, hierarchies relations-free and overturned "natural" God and man,theindividual thecollective, at a mostbasiclevel,man and woman. and and of mannish Soviet womenand slavish, Soviet Popular depictions hard, emasculated men providedone negative referent againstwhich the United Statescould be its its and civility restored. defined, moralsuperiority imagined, order So too did theliberal a of and a reversal hierarimagination project lossof order chiesontotheenemy; too did liberal so rhetoric deliverance from obliquely promise with chaos,sexualand otherwise. Schlesinger's brandof liberal anticommunism, its opposition between free individualistic man and collectivist virile state-subservient on feminized for man,itsemphasis thehumanpotential eviland corruption underlined by the theologian Christian ReinholdNiebuhr, and its functional, realista tinged is in The rhetoric-freedom christened"fightingfaith" VitalCenter-shared withconservative anticommunism anxieties ideological and appealsexpressed the by latter self-consciously.theend,Schlesinger's In less of images "secret, furtive" sweaty, relations between comrades madea pointthat conservative, avowedly religious anticommunists (typically snubbedby the moresecular, cosmopolitan liberalintellion gentsia)oftenmade: Communism turnseverything its head and destroys the of boundaries individual boundaries establish that identity, gender. When viewedfrom vantage the point of sexuality, anticommunism more was thana defense against Communism liberalism); itsbroadest (or in cultural manifesit tations and mostfeverish imaginings, was a defense America itself-its against its self-indulgence, godlessness, laxityand apathy, lack of boundaries, its its its is creeping sexualmodernism-which whyit could be so readily weddedto family NormanMailer may have overstated case in valuesand sexualcontainment. his 1960 whenhe said that"theexcessive of hysteria theRed wavewas no preparation to facean enemy, rather terror thenational a but of self:free-loving, lust-looting, But atheistic, thatunderlying the implacable."52 it is hardto escapetheconclusion excesses and absurdities anticommunist of rhetoric-of whichthe imageof the was communist-as-homosexual onlythemostlurid-was an anxiety about unsetat tlingtrends home as well as abroad,not leastamongthemsexualmodernism. That creeping it sexualmodernism-whether wasevidenced thedecline masof by the tide womenor assertive culinity, rising of working Alfred wives, Kinsey's portrait of thecollective sinsof thenation, theriseof gayand lesbian sexual or communities in thepostwar UnitedStates-was projected ontoan enemy whosequasi-Victorian culture and rigidmaterial made it an altogether theology of unworthy repository American anxieties frustrations. and To say thatthe specter sexualchaos underlay of certain fears and fantasies of about Communism not to say thatsexualmodernism is causedanticommunism; rather was a sourceof an anxiety gavetheemergent it that opposition Commuto
52

NormanMailer,ThePresidential Papers Norman Mailer(1960; New York,1964), 40. of

in Culture a Crisis Masculinity and Cold War Political

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intensity purpose couldbe immediand that nism ideological anda moral an unity "the equation to for Bell ately viscerally It helped laythebasis what called and felt. the of elevating Communist from level the issue ofCommunism sin," with thereby of extraordia serious matter thelevel a moral worthy to of issue national security with to became entangled nary fervor. themore resistancetheredmenace And that a for fears the medium the homegrown and frustrations, moreit became useful of extra-Communist concerns. Whatever anticommunism else expression so many America in it to mostcertainly onceunleashed theculture served redefine was, in buffer the operating somecasesas an ideological against tideof socialchange, secor social Racial integration, against discomforting postwar trends perceived ills. Jewish commercialism, conformity, rebellion, youth ularism, materialism, apathy, statism among trends that andwelfare were the internationalism, upward mobility, discourto order thus and were infrequently not imagined subversiveAmerican as of was the Sexual disquietagedunder aegis anticommunism. modernism uniquely fears a as less personalized; of being than real inginasmuch it couldbe so readily couldstrike a less heterosexual, thannormal less man, than realwoman, than less or chords a waythat in fears materialismsecularism perhaps of or deepemotional
eventhebombcouldnot.53

If thereputation softness became like kiss the for something thepolitical of death, of of have been Stevenson. Adlai Stevenultimate casualty theanxieties theeramay an that pedigree, wing suspected: IvyLeague sonhadall of theattributes theright with a penchant verbosity, a prior for and association Hiss.(He had style, intellect, in Anticommunism atitshigh was for characterthefirst point vouched Hiss's trial.) from HissandRosenberg the in 1952,andthefallout the cases, "lossof China," of bomb-all ofwhich a Soviet occurred under andthefirst explosion an atomic Democratic meantthatany Democrat fifth successive administration-surely Yet whenSen. Everett wouldhavebeenat a considerable disadvantage. at a time all would drive "lavender lads" Dirksen couldpromise ifelected, Republicans that, Stevenson unusually was vulnerable a campaign to oftheState to out Department, his impugn manhood.54 United States election hard/soft was in imagery presidential Perhaps no other and The "Adelaide" moreconspicuous. New York DailyNewscalledStevenson His were lacein voice." proponents "Harvard he his claimed "trilled" speeches a "fruity face wailed cuff charges, who, liberals," "lace-panty diplomats" inthe ofMcCarthy's and about anticommunism. in "perfumed McCarthy, "giggled" anguish" sometimes Richard M. vice whosawa kindred intheRepublican presidential candidate, spirit a Nixonvictory would "a body be blowto theCommunist that Nixon, predicted
64. observed was long ago thatthe radicalright of Politics," Hofstadter "Bell, "Interpretations American from heartland fueled grievances anxieties and and by in America's modernity emanating engaged a revolt against inAmerican 40-44. Life, and Anti-Intellectualism associated withmodernization socialchange.Hofstadter, 54ForEverett 44. Culture theColdWar, of statement, Whitfield, see Dirksen's

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to on conspiracy" threatened exposethe"pinks, and pansies and punks" theSteventookthehighroadwithhis son campaign staff. And whileDwightD. Eisenhower and his mate tough-minded "Korea,corruption Communism" platform, running himso wellin thepast,implying hisopponent that that usedthestrategy had served the a wasa hopelessly Communist soft "Adlai appeaser," dupe.NixoncalledStevenson of containment."55 "Ph.D. from Dean Acheson's cowardly college Communist was not explicitly the Even when Stevenson charged witheffeminacy, contrast as betweenEisenhower's paternal, military personaand reputation an ordinary left at American Stevenson's and words" thelatter sophistication, and "teacup style, at an oft-noted Stevenson's convention doubt no disadvantage. speech theDemocratic morethanthehumility integrity wantedto project."I weakness he projected and he acceptyournomination," said, adding"I shouldhave preferred hear these to a a manthanmyself."56 whileStevenAnd wordsuttered a stronger,wiser, better by the as to son had served military as a civilian, only working an assistant thesecretary of of thenavy WorldWarII, Ike had led theD dayinvasion Europe,and in during that thepolitical climate thetimethegeneral's of admission he had never registered to votemaynothavebeenmuchof a political liability. for that was nottheinevitable Yetthereputation effeminacy Stevenson acquired it result hispersona; also rested of upona determined effort callhissexuality to into mark question. Indeed,the1952 presidential campaign mayhavebeena high-water in Eisenhower in the history dirty of politics America. maintained dignity, his as the senators and handled innuendoes smears and Nixon,McCarthy, William Jenner The sourceof whatone journalist Stevenson. calledthe "uglywhispering against was had supposedly inforaboutStevenson Hoover's which obtained campaign" FBI, in mationthatStevenson been arrested Maryland had and Illinoisforhomosexual a had to Curt actsand that cover-up ensued. According Hoover's biographer Gentry, theFBI "channeled and anyother this information Nixon,McCarthy, to derogatory of mostnewspaper editors had the story, none and members the press. Although in as who worked thecampaign usedit. But itwas widely could circulated, anyone that attest." and President Receiving reports claiming "Stevenson Bradley University David Owenwerethetwobestknown in and thatStevenson homosexuals" thestate in as Hoover entered governor's in oneofhis the name wasknown gaycircles "Adeline," of AdlaiEwing-Governor Illinois-Sex Deviate."57 files marked special "Stevenson, is The national unconscious impossible measure. to Stevenson's defeats political cannotbe blamedon right-wing liberalism clearly the decline, was on aspersions; were givennot just what ultraconservatives calling"twenty yearsof treason" but a for after successive five whatcooler headswerecalling "time a change" Democratic
in For Anti-Intellectualism inAmerican 55 theremarks theNew York Daily News,see Hofstadter, Life, 227. For ColdWarAmerica, Oshinsky, thoseof Richard Nixonand McCarthy, Wittner, M. see 108; Conspiracy Immense, So 242; and MarquisChilds,Witness Power to (New York,1975), 66-69. 56 On Adlai Stevenson's Anti-Intellectualism in American speech,see Hofstadter, Life,224. On the contrast between twocandidates, Goldman,Crucial the Decade-and After, see 220-34. see to 570n the "uglywhispering campaign"againstAdlai Stevenson, Childs, Witness Power, 66-69. On and . and 181-82. Stevenson theFBI, see Gentry, EdgarHoover, 402-3; and Summers, Official Confidential

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Stevenson also hurtby his divorce was administrations. thathe was a and rumors womanizer. if the pressdid not report allegedarrests But his becauseno police record could be documented, Stevenson's enemies, onlyby insinuation, if stigmahim "Adelaide" ridiculing "fruity tizedhimby calling his and voice,"amongother feminine attributes. whilesuchinnuendoes And suspicious maynot have costhim theelection, did as they earnhima reputation theconsummate effete liberal "egga in or else head."Lacking record military combat, sports, anything that might have Stevenson "only gentleman an IvyLeague was a shored hismanly with up credentials, in as Hofstadter was nothing his career to background," Richard noted,"and there the this set of corners the sparehim from reverberations history up in the darker in American was Winmind."(Stevenson stilldoggedby innuendo 1956: Walter chelltoldhisMutualRadio Showaudience that"a votefor AdlaiStevenson a vote is for Christine the well-known of Jorgensen," first recipient a sex-change operation.)58 In thefallout from 1952 election, bleeding-heart the the liberal egghead superseded the imageof the pragmatic, of educated,manlyliberalbureaucrat earlier in years. And when the new Republican administration arrived Washington and that"plain" American settled theWhiteHouse-staffing cabinet into his withbusinessmen fromGeneralMotorsand othercorporations, football watching games, and regularly playing gamesof golfin his considerable sparetime-it seemedto in liberals that, Stevenson's quip, theNew Dealershad been replaced "cardealby of ers."After liberal reformer twenty years Democratic rule,in whichtheeducated in had cometo enjoyan unprecedented status American the political culture, funerealmarchforthe egghead-in-politics seemedto smackof a low-blow, philistine of moredefensive attackon the manlycredentials the liberalbraintrust. Liberals thanStevenson at voice bristled theignominious and "egghead" epithet, theloudest "Now business in poweragain," said,and itwouldno doubt was Schlesinger's. is he "thevulgarization whichhas beenthealmost of invariable bring consequence businesssupremacy." Withhisusualrhetorical he denounced "rise climax the to of flair, of a thatnow "burst in thehatred theintellectuals,"hatred forth fullviolence... theword'egghead' seemedalmost detonate pent-up to the of ferocity twenty years of impotence."59 Forliberals encumbered IvyLeaguepropriety, lessonof McCarthyism less the by was fire Whenthelib(and of theinvective heapedon Stevenson) to fight withfire. Post on in eralNew York rana series articles McCarthy 1951 entitled of Inc.: "Smear, The One-Man Mob of JoeMcCarthy," writers the out pointed that"themanwho as crusadesagainsthomosexuals thoughtheymenace the nation flamboyantly for one on his office staff manymonths." liberals vented employed Occasionally, of witha heftier of thesenator's own medicine, did as their hatred McCarthy dose Drew Pearson, who not onlycharged his column in the famous liberal journalist
58 Hofstadter, remark sponsors left uneasyand Anti-Intellectualism in American Life,227. Walter Winchell's costWinchell first his television show;see Gentry, EdgarHoover, 445. J 20 59Arthur Schlesinger "The Highbrow American M. Jr., in Politics," Partisan Review, (March-April1953), 162-65, is reprinted Schlesinger, in Politics Hope,219-29, esp. 224, 226. of

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In September Post withthecaption 1951 theNew York ranthisphotograph A smear tactics "Joe McCarthy's McCarthy: Strange Saga."Assailing his the and ridiculing false demeanor, accompanying tough-talking V. article OliverPilatandWilliam Shannon notedthat by on a had McCarthy employed homosexual his in scandals" staff, amongother "juicy career. McCarthy's with Reprinted permission the from New YorkPost,Sept.4, 1951.

otherswere not so cautious. Pearson'sdubious testimonies found theirway into the Las VegasSun, which in the midst of the 1952 election identified McCarthy: "Joe

affidavits menwho claimed havehad sexwithMcCarthy. from to Pearson preferred within insider circles rather thanput themintoprint, but to circulate affidavits the He is of and if he does he laughMcCarthy a bachelor 43 years. seldomdatesgirls in It is common talkamong homosexuals Mildescribes as window it dressing. ingly

that a convictedhomosexual had been on McCarthy's staffbut also kept a fileof

in Cold WarPolitical Culture a Crisis Masculinity and

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waukee... thatSenator McCarthy often in engaged homosexual activities." Joe has the League Troubled the"homostories," by McCarthy consulted Anti-Defamation a libel aboutsuingtheSunbutin theenddecidedagainst criminal suit.Wheninsinabouthisprivate surfaced a Syracuse life in paper, however, McCarthy sued uations thepaperandwon.60 may not have damagedhim much Though such efforts malignMcCarthy to in of were politically, speakto a climate whichcharges homosexuality made they withsuchease thatno politician-not evenTail Gunner But the Joe-was spared. in 1954. Suspicions taintof homosexuality hoveroverMcCarthy's did downfall of about the sexualorientation McCarthy staff members Roy Cohn and David of as Schineamongobservers theArmy-McCarthy hearings raised, Joseph Alsop as put it in his column,"certainsuggestions to the natureof the McCarthyor Those suspicions-real,inflated, fabricated-surCohn-Schinerelationship." faceddramatically whenSen. RalphFlanders to delivered theSenatea devastating, on himto bothAdolfHitlerand Denattack McCarthy. innuendo-laden Likening nis theMenace,Flanders personal relationship" between spokeof the "mysterious of Cohn and Schine."It is natural thatCohn shouldwishto retain services an the him. to passionate anxiety retain able collaborator, he seemsto havean almost but "Does the assistant have thenraisedthe questionof McCarthy. Why?"Flanders someholdon him,too?Can itbe that Dennis ... hasat lastgotten our intotrouble the at Givenprehimself? Does thecommittee to investigate realissues stake?" plan the of as Senateprotocol, Flanders broached subject homosexuality delihad vailing as that the and "fairies" aroseduring cately he could.The dialogueabout "pixies" of of Army-McCarthy hearings a fitting was token thesexualundertones theentire of the of and years.61 spectacle, undoing McCarthy, thewaning thepeakredscare in "The CrisisofAmerican wrote Masculinity" 1958, Cold BythetimeSchlesinger in two War liberals werebeginning regroup thewake of Stevenson's crushing to American men to defeats. And in a suitable end to thatarticle, Schlesinger urged The a life"to be a meansof maleliberation. remark an was expect "virile political six ominous one.The tidehad begunto shift after almost years Republican of rule. of but The threat domestic subversion perversion runitscourse, thesense and had of of cultural malaiseand nationalsoftness grew;the Sovietlaunching Sputnik of a hardness purpose as served a sobering signthattheenemy possessed superior ever whileAmericans lazed their the waythrough decade,growing moresatedand references the "boring," "banal" nationalpoliticsof to complacent. Schlesinger's wereclearly allusions Eisenhower Nixon'stired, to and spirit-crushing recent years mento reject status the influence thenation;hiscall for on American quo in favor
60 meeting with Sun and the Sept.4, 1951, p. 3. On Drew Pearson, Las Vegas story, McCarthy's New York Post, Joe 310-11; RichardH. Rovere,Senator Conspiracy Immense, So League,see Oshinsky, the Anti-Defamation CitizenCohn,184-86. McCarthy (New York,1959), 68-69; and Von Hoffman, 61 On Joseph speechand the CitizenCohn,225. On Ralph Flanders's Alsop'scolumn,see Von Hoffman, 427, Conspiracy Immense, 451. So "pixie" dialogue, Oshinsky, see

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TheJournal American of History

September 2000

ofa "definite hard-hitting" in and political gave crisis masculinity life the a political in outlet. HereSchlesinger anticipated imagery andothers the he would employ the next presidential election. Republican guard The old the would become standardof men bearer thedullconformitythe1950s, organization responsible of the for a overthenation casting gray, other-directed shadow withtheir corny homilies, groupist mentalities, hopelessly and square personalities; newguard the wouldbe in cerebral, and its discriminating, sufficiently inner-directed- candidate's mind, Schlesinger's familiar lexicon, first-class "a instrument, strong, supple, disciplined." Mailer of in instinctively the understood power sucha contrast hisfamous 1960 Esquire piece "Superman Comesto the Supermart," whichdepicted aged, an infirmed, Eisenhower spent over of until youthpresiding thedesexing America the lifeless andrestored it an ful, inner-directed rescued limp, its to "Superman" body If this liberal superman theantithesis thesoft-minded was of man organization embodied Eisenhower,toowashedifferent Adlai onecrucial He by so in from way. was "a Stevenson balls"in Joseph with of Alsop's unforgettable phrase, capable to were oncepolitical restoring muscularitywhat liabilities: intellectuality, wealth, of F. theablehands suchmenas Schlesinger, Mailer, Alsop, and John Kennedy became justtheincarnation thevirile not of liberal "vital center" whose template ten but to in Schlesinger created years had earlier, theantidote thenation's crisis masculinity. was a on Masculinity clearlyrhetorical terrain which were political images forged battles were andpartisan but the crisis fought, howdecisively masculinity shaped thepolitical of answer necessarily whose is history theerais a question speculative. There a world was the of beyond feverish imaginings some coldwarriors; standing in of was or a political tough theface Stalinism notsimply uniformly born posture outof sexual or but and commitanxiety political opportunism a moral political ment many to for the anticommunistswhom lessons Munich theMoscow of and were trials and real. is deeply inescapably No lessreal(andinescapable) theinhernature language of which colors rhetoric ently gendered itself, inevitably political masculine/ feminine lines. along Butinthe of the soft heady atmosphereColdWar political culture, hard/ dichotof took from omy gradually on a life itsown, existing apart quite tangible political in andstrategic considerations operating a symbolic and in it milieu which often seemed ifthe as manhood thenation, byextension ofitsmale of and that citivery was The hard/soft limited possibility the of zenry, at stake. opposition certainly more meaningful political discourse led to much and it gratuitous posturing;may have influenced outcome national the of elections won (Kennedy bya slim margin). Yetperhaps more a historical of was important by-product thehard/soft dynamic
62 Schlesinger, Politics Hope,246. For thecontrast of between old guardand thenew and thecrafting the of JohnF. Kennedy's imageas "strong, M. or supple,"see Arthur Schlesinger Kennedy Nixon:Does It MakeAny Jr., (New Presidential Papers Norman of Mailer, 25-6 1, 305. Difference? York,1960), 24. Mailer, 63 David Halberstam, TheBest and the Brightest (1969; New York,1972), 34.

adventurous superpotency.62

an Democratic In and politics.63 style, IvyLeaguepedigree, notleastof all a liberal

Cold WarPolitical Culture a Crisis Masculinity and in

545

thatitled Democrats overcompensate previous to for deficiencies transgressions and in and ultimately constrained their behavior a rhetoric whoseorigins in partin lay The Vital Center. The Kennedyadministration's much-commented-upon of cult toughness notarise a vacuum, amida political did in but culture turned that muscularity intoa prerequisite Democrats, for style intoa commodity, failure act and to boldlyand decisively another into failure nerve, of Munich,another another male character defect. And to the extent thatLyndonB. Johnson inherited cult of the toughness, likeKennedy, beholden a rhetoric had reinvented libhe, was to that the eral's to of relationship the"exercise power" and demanded action.Certainly cona stellation powerful of forces geopolitical and interests to political converged shape in state But inasmuch individual as policy making these years. and self-image institutional reputation-andan arguably and unequaled new self-consciousness about leadership style-playeda rolein thatpolicy-making the process, cultof toughness In and virility the shouldnot be underestimated. foreclosing possibility more of within WhiteHouse the searching, effective, open dialogueand decisionmaking the and thenational and security bureaucracy, premium placedon courage hardness the of of mayhaverendered Bayof Pigsinvasion Cuba and theflexing liberal muscle in Vietnam seeming a masculine imperative.64

64 On theKennedy of see Wills,The cultivation a cool, manly realism and toughness, Garry administration's PragKennedy Imprisonment: A Meditation Power(1981; New York,1983), esp. 240-49; and BruceMiroff, on F notedthe (New York,1976), esp. 11-22. Schlesinger matic Illusions: Presidential The Politics John Kennedy of process;see Arthur M. tendency key playersto strike"virileposes" in the Bay of Pigs decision-making of E in House(Boston,1965), 256. On thecultof toughSchlesinger A Thousand Jr., Days:John Kennedy theWhite J. The of Best Brightest; Richard Barnet, Roots and nessin theKennedy-Johnson seealso Halberstam, and the years, War:TheMen and theInstitutions behind U.S. Foreign Policy (1971; New York,1976), esp. 109-11. For a more D. F. of as John Kennedy theDomesticPolitics Forand recent analysis, Robert Dean, "Masculinity Ideology: see 22 eignPolicy," History, (Winter1998), 29-62. Diplomatic