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<\/a>\nIt was accompanied by this document:
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<\/a><\/p>\nNote that the law had been enacted in 1935.\u00a0 But there is nothing in the Archives to suggest that in the 18 years prior to 1953, anyone on the faculty had been asked to affirm his loyalty in any way.\u00a0 Suddenly a state governmental board was asserting itself, notably in language — see the second and third paragraphs of James E. Burke’s letter — that could be construed as coercive.\u00a0 Burke provided a stack of blank forms, which were duly, and quickly, distributed to the faculty.<\/p>\n
Twelve of twenty-six faculty did not sign.\u00a0 Seven of those listed had been hired prior to 1935 and were thus exempt, but five — Dale Lash, William Lauman, James Shepardson, David Stevens, and Leon Waskiewicz ’42, for reasons not documented, were not.\u00a0 There is no indication that there was ever any follow-up to this, either internally or from any outside agency.\u00a0 Indeed, by the following June Senator Joseph McCarthy, the de facto <\/em>leader of the Congressional anticommunist crusade, had been publicly discredited, and the Great Red Scare largely collapsed under the weight of its own paranoia.\u00a0 Faculty were never again required to assert their political loyalty.<\/p>\n Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 71, Section 30A was not repealed until 1986.<\/p>\n Chilling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the summer of 1953 was ending, the United States was extricating itself from the Korean War.\u00a0 An armistice agreement had been signed at Panmumjom on July 27, ending active hostilities on the Peninsula but doing nothing to abate the Cold War nor to dampen anti-communist fervor at home.\u00a0 Indeed, what is now remembered as … Continue reading Loyalty<\/span> <\/a><\/a>Here is where the story becomes personal.\u00a0 This writer’s father, a man whom I remember as valuing strong and honest opinion, who mistrusted, if not despised, intellectual coercion of any kind, nonetheless signed the oath.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>