UUs were accused of being Communists or Pinkos in the ’50s? *Yawn* What could be less surprising than that? But what if you found out that the head of the Unitarian Service Committee had been secretly passing information to the KGB? What if you heard rumours that the editor of the main Unitarian magazine and the head of the UU youth movement (LRY) turned out to be a Soviet sympathiser who was using his position to advance a pro-Moscow line? Join Pamphlet regulars Sean Neil-Barron and Susan Ritchie as they interview amateur UU historian Joshua Leach about the history of UUs and Communism. UUs were some of the first victims of the wave of paranoia and red-baiting that swept across America during the early Cold War. To what extent were they merely innocent victims of this Red Scare. And to what extent were there actually some, well, ‘Scary Reds’ among the leadership at the time? The investigation and debate continue….
A transcript for this episode is available for download on our website at http://www.pamphletpodcast.org/the-red-scare/
Attached media: https://media.blubrry.com/pamphlet/content.blubrry.com/pamphlet/episode4.mp3