There are two different aspects of Communism (there are more, but I’m going to discuss just two). There is Communism the political philosophy, which essentially combines the philosophy of socialism with the concept of government ownership of all capital assets (yes, that’s a drastic oversimplification), and there is Communism, the geopolitical movement, led by the USSR along with (later) the People’s Republic of China. The two are related, but they are by no means the same thing.

There can be little doubt about the threat posed by Communism, the geopolitical movement. They subjugated virtually all of Eastern Europe and parts of Asia and certainly would have taken a great deal more if they had thought they could get away with it. And there is no underestimating the danger of their nuclear arsenal. That being said, their strength was no where near what ours was and technologically they were way, way behind us. But, due to our own propaganda, you probably didn’t know that if you were alive at the time (as I was), most people in the late 50’s, the 60’s, and even into the 70’s thought we were playing catch up.

Oh, and by the way, it was the USSR take over of Eastern Europe that was most responsible for the Cold War, not our support of the White Russians. We more than made up for that when we saved their butts in WWII.

Unlike Communism the geopolitical movement, Communism the political philosophy was never any real danger to the US. It is after all, an idea, and as such we should have been free to discuss it, to debate it and even to embrace it if we so chose. The true danger to our democracy does not come from ideas, even the idea of Communism, it comes from people who want to suppress ideas. Men like Joseph McCarthy who did his best, using anti-Communist fear and hysteria, take away many of our basic freedoms. Thanks to him, and others like him, people who were Communists, or associated with Communists, or even were just accused of one of those things were blacklisted from holding jobs and worse.

Voltaire said, “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.” Unfortunately, for several decades, beginning in the 50’s, we fell well short of that ideal.