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T W O ' T h o s e P e o p l e W o u l d D o t h e D a m n d e s t T h i n g s " : F a c u l t y P e a c e A c t i v i s t s Faculty politica l activis m di d no t becom e widesprea d unti l th e 1930 s when man y academic s drifte d i n an d ou t o f th e Communis t part y and it s Popular Fron t organizations . Bu t it was a rare professor wh o publicly identifie d himsel f a s a Communist . Radica l facult y activ ism i n the 1930 s consisted largel y of semisecret educationa l forums . Fearful o f losin g thei r job s i n th e mids t o f th e Grea t Depression , Communist facult y generall y shunne d publicit y and , i f compelle d to characterize thei r ideologica l leanings , declare d themselve s t o b e progressive Ne w Dealers . Socialis t an d religious-pacifis t facult y wer e more forthrigh t i n spellin g ou t thei r ideolog y t o student s an d th e general public . The y als o considere d thei r Communis t colleagues * penchant fo r secrec y t o b e anathem a t o th e university' s missio n o f promoting ope n intellectua l discourse. 1 Stalin's Non-Aggressio n Pac t wit h Hitle r i n 193 9 le d libera l an d socialist faculty t o distance themselves fro m Communis t academics . Religious-pacifist facult y repudiate d th e Communis t teacher s i n 194 1 after th e organizatio n abandone d it s antiwa r stanc e an d calle d fo r American militar y interventio n agains t th e Axi s Powers . Disillu sionment i n th e 1939-194 1 perio d provide d man y facult y wit h th e ethical an d ideologica l justificatio n fo r Col d War-er a politica l repression o f Communists. Literar y critic s Lesli e Fiedler an d Lione l Trilling, amon g others , advocate d th e dismissa l o f Communis t fac ulty . With s o many prominen t academic s pronouncin g Communis m to be a great threa t t o democracy , universit y administrator s fel t fre e to fire nonconformists. 2 42 "Those People Would Do the Damndest Things" 4 3 While many of the faculty victims of McCarthyism were Commu nists , a numbe r wer e Quaker s o r committe d civi l libertarian s op posed to governmental loyalty oaths and political investigating committees . Paradoxically, Communist faculty often only had to conceal their activities and remain silent i n order to escape political repres sion . Thei r embittere d colleague s woul d no t d o thi s an d therefor e suffered. Th e slightl y olde r antiwa r facult y activist s i n th e 1960 s refused to forgive the Communists for defending Stalinism and complacently lookin g o n a s civi l libertarian , socialist , an d religious pacifist facult y wer e fired. Younge r activis t facult y wh o embrace d the New Lef t could not understand academe' s ideologica l battle s i n the 1950 s and , further , di d no t appreciat e Communis t duplicity . Mistakenly, the y trie d t o reaso n tha t th e Pekin g o r Hano i regime s were different from , or superior to, the Moscow dictatorship. 3 Contrasting politica l perception s betwee n th e younge r an d olde r generation of faculty fed int o their professional rivalrie s and resent ments . Th e youthfu l professor s wh o flooded int o th e expandin g state universities i n the 1960 s were generally products of elite graduate school s and , a s SUNY-Buffal o activis t an d historia n Michae l Frisch observed, were expected to become intellectual forces withi n their disciplines . Senio r faculty , o n th e othe r hand , Frisc h...

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