Forord

Den kolde krig i 50’erne var ikke blot et politisk forhold mellem staterne USA og Sovjetunionen. Det var også en krig på i USA (og Vesteuropa) imod militans i arbejderbevægelsen og venstrefløjen. I USA blev det et forsøg på at ramme alle, der havde tilsluttet sig arbejderbevægelsens venstrefløj under indtryk af depressionen i 30’erne, kampen mod fascismen og anti-Hitler-alliancen mellem efterkrigstidens stormagter.
Senator Joseph McCarthy lagde navn til perioden med hysterisk heksejagt, der også fandt sted i lyset af USA’s manglende succes i Koreakrigen (1950-1953) (se Tidslinjen 27. juli 1953).

I 50-året for det tragiske højdepunkt af McCarthy-perioden med henrettelsen af Julius og Ethel Rosenberg for atomspionage har vi samlet nogle artikler og sites om Rosenberg-sagen og om selve McCarthyismen.

Jørgen Lund og Bjarne A. Frandsen
Juli 2003. Revideret april 2019.

Foreword

The Cold War in the 50’s was not just en expression for the political relation between the US and the Soviet Union. It was also a war in the US home front as well as in Western Europe) against the militancy in the labour movement and the Left. In the US herself it became an attempt to persecute everybody who had joined the left of the labour movement during the years of the Great Depression, in the anti-fascist struggle and during the years of alliance between the later superpowers against Hitlerism.
The period of hysterical witch hunt was labelled after US-senator Joseph McCarthy; and it had its peak in the light of US missing victory in the Korean War (1950-1953) (references at our Timeline July 27, 1953).

In the 50 years anniversary of the tragic highpoint of the McCarthy period with the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for being atomic spies we have collected some articles, documents and sites on the Rosenberg case as well as McCarthyism itself.

(July 2003. Rev. ed. April 2019)