1950 - Political Events

Political Events

A federal court at New York finds Alger Hiss guilty January 25 of having committed perjury when he denied the allegations made by Whittaker Chambers in 1948. Sentenced to 5 years' imprisonment, he will begin serving time in March of next year after exhausting all appeals (a model prisoner, he will be released after 44 months).

President Truman advises the Atomic Energy Commission January 31 to proceed with development of a hydrogen bomb (see 1946; 1952).

Physicist Klaus Fuchs is found guilty March 1 of having given British atomic secrets to Soviet agents (see 1944; 1946). Attorney General Lord Shawcross of Nuremberg trials fame has prosecuted Fuchs, whom the British hired to do nuclear research in 1941, knowing he was a communist; he was a member of the team that developed the atomic bomb beginning in 1943, his work at Alamagordo and Los Alamos, N.M., made him privy to the bomb's design, construction, components, and detonating devices, and he will serve 9 years in a British prison. His U.S. accomplice, Harry Gold, gets 30 years.

A federal jury at New York finds March 7 that former U.S. Department of Justice analyst Judith Coplon, 28, and United Nations engineering staff employee Valentin A. Gubitchev, 33, were guilty of spying for Moscow. FBI agents arrested them a year ago as they were walking on Third Avenue near 16th Street; slips regarding FBI security reports were found in Coplon's handbag, her job involved the study of Soviet espionage, and the jury of six men and six women rejects her lawyer's arguments that she was collecting material for a book and that she and Gubitchev acted furtively because they were in love and feared that their liaison would bring down the wrath of Gubitchev's wife or cost Coplon her job. KGB controllers spirit agents Morris and Lona Cohen out of the United States in June.

Marshal K. E. (Kliment Yefremovich) Voroshilov, 69, announces Soviet possession of an atomic bomb March 8 (see 1949).

Dresden's Mozart Girls Choir seeks protection as political refugees at West Berlin April 4.

President Truman receives a top-secret paper April 7 from Amherst, Mass.-born National Security Adviser Paul H. (Henry) Nitze, 43, warning that the Kremlin is "inescapably militant" and desires "world domination." Secretary of State Dean Acheson has dismissed George F. Kennan Jr. in January and replaced him with Nitze, a former Wall Street banker who has earlier suggested that the U.S. use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki may have been unnecessary but whose paper "United States Objectives and Programs for National Security" ("NSC-68") urges a U.S. military buildup and will set a lasting course in U.S.-Soviet relations.

Former French president Albert Lebrun dies at Paris March 6 at age 78; former French Popular Front leader Léon Blum at Jouy-en-Sosas March 30 at age 77; former British field marshal Archibald P. Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell, at London May 24 at age 67. He served as viceroy of India from 1943 to 1947.

Turkish statesman Fevzi Cakmak dies at his native Istanbul April 10 at age 74 and the Republican People's Party loses the general election May 14 as the opposition Democrat Party gains an overwhelming victory under the leadership of former prime minister Celâl Bayar, now 67 (or 68), who helped to organize the new party 4 years ago and will serve as president until 1960, giving priority to private enterprise and limiting the state's economic role.

The king of the Belgians Leopold III returns July 22 after 6 years in exile (he was a prisoner of war from 1940 until 1945), socialist demonstrations against him break out July 23 at Brussels, he abdicates August 1 after a 16-year reign, and he is succeeded by his 19-year-old son Baudouin, who will reign until his death in 1993.

Sweden's Gustav V dies October 29 at age 92 after a 43-year reign. His 66-year-old son succeeds to the throne and will reign until 1973 as Gustav VI Adolf.

A tripartite declaration by Britain, France, and the United States May 25 pledges immediate action in the event that any Mideast nation violates Israel's frontiers or armistice lines (see 1949). Five Arab League nations sign a collective security pact June 17, and Egypt July 19 bars ships bound for Israel from using the Suez Canal (see 1951).

Iraq's premier Nuri as-Said abrogates his country's alliance with Britain November 27 (see 1948; Baghdad Pact, 1955).

A new 395-article Indian constitution takes effect January 26, making the nation "a sovereign socialist secular democratic republic" (see 1947). Adopted by the Constituent Assembly November 26 of last year and modeled on the unwritten British constitution, it outlines in detail the structure and powers of India's central and state governments and in what manner they shall operate. Cooch Behar is joined to Bengal.

A Sino-Soviet treaty of friendship, alliance, and mutual assistance signed February 14 names Japan and the United States as common enemies and pledges joint action against "Japanese imperialism." Former Japanese foreign minister Shigenori Togo dies in prison July 23 at age 68, having been given a 20-year sentence for war crimes.

Chiang Kai-shek resumes the presidency of Nationalist China following British recognition of the People's Republic (see 1949).

Communist North Korean armored columns clank across the border into the Republic of South Korea June 25, beginning a 3-year Korean War that will involve 16 nations against the communists. Josef Stalin rejected Kim Il Sung's request for assistance last year, but he saw that the United States did not come to Chiang Kai-shek's aid against Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung) and has construed a statement made in January by U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson to mean that the United States would not go to war in support of South Korea; he has supplied his client state with planes, tanks, and other military weapons, UN Secretary-General Trygve Lie urges UN members to support South Korea June 27, and President Truman that day orders U.S. air and sea forces to "give the Korean government troops cover and support." He has resisted sending ground troops to the peninsula, but Seoul falls to the North Koreans June 28. Gen. MacArthur visits Korea June 29 and resolves not only to drive the communists back but also to unite Korea. He takes command of UN forces July 9.

U.S. planes strafe Korean civilians near the village of No Gun Ri some 100 miles south of Seoul July 26, killing about 100 people; members of the Seventh U.S. Cavalry open fire with machine guns on the survivors, forcing them to take refuge under a railway bridge. The shooting continues off and on for 60 hours, killing as many as 300 more civilians (the incident will be hushed up for nearly 50 years, as will atrocities committed against civilians by communist forces). North Korean forces drive the U.S. and other UN troops back to the southeast corner of the peninsula, and it appears that they may have won.

The U.S. X Corps (1st Marine and 7th Infantry divisions, reinforced) under the command of Virginia-born Gen. Edward M. (Mallory) Almond, 57, land at Inchon north of the 38th parallel September 14 and take 125,000 prisoners. (The communist high command has not expected the amphibious landing at Inchon since the 32-foot-high tide there makes the beach accessible for only 6 hours in 24. Gen. MacArthur wins praise for his initiative in ordering the move.) UN forces retake Seoul September 26 but fail to trap the North Korean army. The UN General Assembly sanctions a move across the 38th parallel October 9, ROK troops occupy the North Korean capital of Pyongyang October 19, Gen. MacArthur assures President Truman that the People's Republic will not enter the conflict, but Mao Zedong responds to urging from Moscow and sends Chinese forces cross the Yalu River October 26 with support from Russian pilots flying MiG-15 fighter jets against piston-powered U.S. planes.

U.S. troops reach the Yalu November 21 and expect to be home by Christmas, but some 300,000 Chinese and North Korean forces attack UN lines in sub-zero weather November 26, inflicting (and sustaining) heavy losses. U.S. troops retreat in wild disorder, 15,000 Marines are trapped (3,000 die, 7,000 are wounded), and the U.S. 8th Army abandons Pyongyang December 8 (little is left of the city). Gen. Walton H. Walker is killed December 3 at age 50, and some 200 U.S. vessels converge later in the month on the Korean port of Hungnam, where more than 90,000 North Korean civilians fleeing Chinese invasion forces jam the town along with 105,000 U.S. and South Korean Marines and soldiers. Lt. Col. Bruce Hinton becomes the first F-86 Sabre fighter pilot to shoot down a Chinese MiG-15 December 17 (but the MiG is faster at altitudes above 60,000 feet, can climb faster, make tighter turns, and has heavier armament); U.S. planes and ships bombard Hungnam's perimeter December 22 to hold off the communists while the 455-foot Moore-McCormick Lines freighter Meredith Victory takes aboard 14,000 refugees (the ship is designed to hold 12 passengers and 47 crewmen plus cargo); she arrives at Pusan December 24, is turned away because that city already has too many refugees, and arrives December 25 at the island of Koje Do 40 miles to the southwest.

Virginia-born Gen. Matthew B. (Bunker) Ridgway, 55, takes command of defeated UN forces December 25, but Chinese forces cross the 38th Parallel December 28 and UN forces retreat to the 37th as thousands of refugees stream south (see 1951).

The United States recognizes Vietnam's Bao Dai government, supplies arms to Saigon, sends a military mission to advise the Vietnamese on how to use the arms, and signs a military assistance pact with France, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam (see 1949; 1951).

Chinese authorities release former Manchurian emperor Kang Te (Kang Teh, the former Chinese emperor Pu Yi), having undertaken to reeducate him politically. Now 44, he becomes a private citizen at Beijing (Peking).

Chinese Red Army forces invade Tibet from Xiangjing (Sinkiang) October 21 following rejection of Beijing's offer to permit Tibet regional autonomy if she will join the communist system. One Chinese army comes through Ladakh, provoking a protest from India; two other Chinese armies advance from Shanghai and Szechuan and join up at Chamdo. The soldiers destroy Tibetan monasteries, provoking international protests, but Beijing (Peking) proclaims Tibet to be an integral part of China and says that Tibetan issues are a domestic Chinese problem (see 1951).

French forces withdraw from the northern frontier of Indochina November 3.

Former New Zealand prime minister Peter Fraser dies at Wellington December 12 at age 66.

Sen. Joseph McCarthy, 41, (R. Wis.) addresses a Republican women's club at Wheeling, W. Va., in February and claims to have a list of more than 100 "known communists" employed by the State Department. His numbers keep changing (he actually has very few names) but he starts a "witch-hunt" that will continue for the next 4 years, calling the "Democrat Party" the "party of treason." Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, 52, (R. Me.) objects June 1: "The Nation sorely needs a Republican victory," she says, "But I do not want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny—fear, ignorance, bigotry, and smear." The Senate Foreign Relations Committee refutes his charges July 20, calling them a hoax perpetrated on the public; McCarthy accuses Far Eastern scholar Owen Lattimore, 50, of being the "top Soviet espionage agent in the United States" and claims congressional privilege to protect himself from retaliation for his campaign of reckless character assassination (Washington Post political cartoonist Herblock coins the term McCarthyism) (see 1951).

McCarthy Hearings
Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R. Wis.) made reckless charges that "Communists" were taking over the U.S. State Department. (Michael Rougier/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images.)

Red Channels makes sweeping accusations of communist subversion in the American entertainment industry (see Hollywood Black List, 1947; Adler and Draper, 1949). Published anonymously in June, the paperback book written by former U.S. Naval Intelligence officer Vincent W. Hartnett with help from former FBI agents Theodore Kirkpatrick and Kenneth Bierly lists 151 names of alleged "Reds" and will lead to hearings before the House Un-American Affairs (Dies) Committee, Hedda Hopper and other gossip columnists will defame scores of actors, choreographers, playwrights, musicians, producers, directors, and screenwriters, who will be given no opportunity to defend themselves despite flimsy evidence of their connections to any communist cause, and dozens will be barred from employment on suspicion of using the films, stage, radio, and television as vehicles for communist propaganda. Hollywood actress Jean Muir is dropped from the cast of The Aldrich Family August 28 following allegations that she has had communist associations.

The McCarran Act (Control of Communists Act) passed by Congress September 20 over President Truman's veto calls for severe restrictions against suspected communists, especially in sensitive positions and during emergencies.

Director Cecil B. DeMille gives a speech to the Screen Directors Guild at the Beverly Hills Hotel October 22 demanding the ouster of Joseph Mankiewicz for his alleged leftist leanings (DeMille deliberately mispronounces the names of Billy Wilder, William Wyler, and Fred Zinnemann who have foreign names or accents); right-wing director John Ford tells DeMille that he is wrong, calls for a vote of confidence in Mankiewicz, and suggests that they all go home, which they do. Abe Burrows, Edward Dmytryk, Elia Kazan, Clifford Odets, Jerome Robbins, and others will survive the witch hunt by collaborating with blacklisters, others will serve prison terms or at best have their careers crippled for years by the Red Channels accusations. They will include Bertolt Brecht, Alvah Bessie, Charles Chaplin, Norman Corwin, José Ferrer, John Garfield, Jack Gilford, Lee Grant, Dashiell Hammett, Judy Holliday, Howard Koch, Canada Lee, Ring Lardner Jr., Arthur Miller, Zero Mostel, Larry Parks, Doré Schary, screenwriter Donald Ogden Stewart (who served as president of the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League before and during the war), and Dalton Trumbo (who has moved to Mexico after a year in prison and is grinding out screenplays under a pseudonym) (see Lillian Hellman, 1952).

Gen. Henry H. "Hap" Arnold (U.S. Army Air Force, ret.) dies of a heart attack at his farm near Sonoma, Calif., January 15 at age 63; former Canadian prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King of pneumonia at Kingsmere, Ontario, July 22 at age 75; former U.S. secretary of state Henry L. Stimson at his Long Island, N.Y., estate October 20 at age 83.

Colombia has a presidential election, but Liberals refuse to participate, martial law is imposed, press censorship is imposed, and right-wing leader Laureano Eleuterio Gómez, 61, emerges the winner, having returned from self-imposed exile in Spain (see 1948). Gómez will rule despotically until his ouster in 1953.

Peruvian dictator Gen. Manuel A. Odria resigns June 1 in order to run unopposed for election and is inaugurated July 28 (see 1948). The Korean War gives a boost to Peru's economy by increasing demand for copper and other minerals (see 1956).

Brazil reelects Getulio Vargas president October 3 amidst economic difficulties, notably rising inflation, that have persisted since 1945 (see 1954).

Haiti's president Dumarsais Estimé tries to extend his term, a military junta headed by Col. Paul E. Magloire, 42, seizes control May 10 as it did in 1946, the junta holds a plebiscite, and Magloire is elected president in October (see 1956).

The Puerto Rican Commonwealth Bill signed into law by President Truman October 30 provides for autonomous self-government with continued economic ties to the United States (see 1947), but a small minority of Puerto Rican nationalists has demanded independence, they are enraged by the new law, and President Truman escapes an assassination attempt November 1. White House guards outside the Blair-Lee House, occupied by the Trumans during a White House remodeling, shoot two Puerto Ricans, one fatally, after the Puerto Ricans have killed one guard and wounded another (see 1951).

Rep. Helen Gahagan Douglas (D. Calif.) defeats California's incumbent senator Sheridan Downey in the Democratic senatorial primary but loses in the general election to Republican Richard M. Nixon, now 37, who won his congressional seat in 1946 by charging that veteran congressman H. Jerry Voorhis had communist support. Nixon uses the same smear tactics against Douglas, now 49, who has opposed renewal of funding for the House Un-American Affairs Committee, opposed President Truman's appeals for aid to Greece and Turkey, and opposed contempt citations for the so-called Hollywood Ten. Capitalizing on anti-communist hysteria, Nixon says Douglas is "pink right down to her underwear."

Former South African prime minister Jan Christiaan Smuts dies of a cerebral embolism at his modest farm outside Pretoria September 11 at age 80. South Africa refuses to place South-West Africa (Namibia) under UN trusteeship.

The UN votes December 2 to unite Ethiopia with Eritrea, whose government has been administered by British authorities (see 1941; 1952).

Washington and Madrid resume diplomatic relations at year's end.