The Cold War Begins
1946
Samuel Marshak wrote several plays based on Russian fairy tales and designed for the juvenile stage, including Twelve Months. Written in a light and witty vein, Twelve Months portrays twelve wise and just rulers of nature, and two girls of opposite type, the one good, whom they help, and the other bad, whom they punish. The play was awarded a Stalin Prize in 1946.
Howard, Miriam, and David move from Garden City to a Happiness Home at 130 Park Avenue in the Incorporated Village of Williston Park, in the Town of North Hempstead, in Nassau County.
When the Marshaks moved from Garden City to Williston Park, there was a lovely hill at the end of Hillside Avenue in Williston Park and Hillside Avenue was a scenic two lane road. By the mid fifties, the hill had been bulldozed away and Hillside Avenue was four lanes connecting with Willis Avenue. There was a working farm there, which stayed a little while longer. The farmhouse is now a fancy restaurant.
William J. Levitt started developing homes in Albertson along the lines of what was done in Williston Park and New Hyde Park.
In the late forties and early fifties, Albertson Dairy was in a beautiful valley. The dairy wagon was pulled by a horse. The Marshaks had an ice chest and the iceman delivered by horse. There were abandoned sandpits, like something out of Star Wars, across the street from the old Junior High School. A truck farm stretched from there to Hillside Avenue. Beyond the sand pits was an open field with an abandoned car, Herricks Pond and Herricks Woods. Where the High School and Hamilton Park were built, there were more woods and Bloody Hollow, where a Revolutionary War battle was fought and Indian arrowheads were plentiful. In downtown Williston Park, on Willis Avenue, was the abandoned Simpson estate which kids called Simpson's Woods. Williston Park kids played in the sand pits and the various woods whenever they could. Sometimes they climbed over barbed wire fences to get to interesting places adults didn’t want them to explore.
Shelter Rock Road was a winding two lane road overhung by trees on both sides. David thought it was the most beautiful road in the world. When the Long Island Expressway came, it was four-laned, straightened and the trees were all cut back from the roadside. There was little traffic in the late forties and early fifties but it got worse and worse as more and more subdivisions were built. HDM
Apartments and commercial development, particularly on Middle Neck Road in Great Neck Plaza, led to persistent traffic problems in Great Neck. That, in turn, led to the Village of Great Neck becoming the first on Long Island to install parking meters, in 1946.
In the immediate post-war years, the TBTA (Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority) funded a $32.5 million extension of the elevated highway, now called the "Queens-Midtown Expressway," out to Queens Boulevard. This segment carried signs for NY 24
February
10 Lucky Luciano deported to Italy
March
21 Strategic Air Command established.
April
1 Robert Joseph Marshak (Bob) is born.
June
12 David’s second birthday
September
9 Jennie Marshak’s 59th birthday
November
29 Miriam and Howard’s fifth wedding anniversary.
1947
The content of Hollywood films has always been regulated in one form or another-, however, between 1947 and 1954 the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) became indirectly involved in this kind of regulation. After the Second World War the United States’ alliance with the Soviet Union ended, the Cold War began, and the “Red Scare” moved into full force. The HUAC members considered it their duty to purge the country of any Communist influences. While numerous industries were investigated by HUAC, because of Hollywoods high profile, it became the best known target of this infamous committee.
Nineteen “unfriendly” witnesses were subpoenaed. These were people whom the committee considered to be Communists. Although only eleven were called to testify, all their lives were deeply affected. German playwright Bertolt Brecht was the only one of the eleven to answer any questions on the stand. He claimed he was not a Communist, but after testifying he immediately left Hollywood to return to East Germany. The remaining ten became the famous so-called “Hollywood Ten”. One director (Edward Dmytryk) and nine screenwriters (John Howard Lawson, Dalton Trumbo, Albert Maltz, Alvah Bessie, Samuel Ornintz, Herbert Biberman, Adrian Scott, Ring Lardner, Jr., and Lester Cole) took the stand and refused to answer any questions, claiming their Fifth Amendment rights.
These ten witnesses knew they had three options. They could claim they were not and never had been members of the Communist Party (this would have meant perjuring themselves); they could admit or claim membership and then be forced to name other members (and this would have meant losing their jobs both because of their former membership and their dubious position as informers); or they could refuse to answer any questions (which is the choice they made). Although most lawyers would agree today that the Fifth Amendment gave them tire right to choose this last option, the committee (and then the courts during appeals) did not agree. All ten were held in (contempt and subsequently served between six and twelve months in jail, although one, Edward Dmytryk, later agreed to cooperate with the committee and did not serve his entire sentence. The remaining nine were blacklisted by the Hollywood film community and found themselves forced to use pseudonyms in order to sell scripts. (“Robert Rich”, for instance, who won the Oscar for Best Screenplay for The Brave One in 1956, was actually the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo.)
February
17 VOA begins regular radio broadcasts to Russia from transmitters in Munich, Manila, Honolulu
April
1 Bob’s first birthday
June
6 British referendum on India
12 David’s third birthday
August
14 Partition of India. Birth of Pakistan
September
9 Jennie Marshak’s 60th birthday
November
24 Immediately after the Hollywood Ten went before HUAC, fifty Hollywood executives gathered for a two-day secret meeting. Knowing that they could face huge losses at the box office no matter what the committee’s findings, they debated the best way to handle the situation. On November 24, 1947, they announced as a group that the Hollywood Ten were suspended without pay. Furthermore, they issued a statement that declared, “We, will not knowingly employ a Communist or a member of any party or group which advocates the overthrow of the Government of the United States by force, or by any illegal or unconstitutional method.”
While this statement was purposely worded ambiguously, in the end it served to encourage and condone a ten-year blacklist.
29 Miriam and Howard’s sixth wedding anniversary.
1948
January
30 Militant Hindu kills Gandhi
February
1 Russia begins jamming VOA broadcasts
25 Communist coup in Czechoslovakia
March
2 Truman's Executive Order 9835 establishing the Federal Employee Loyalty Program - FBI would make a name check on 2 million federal employees in 1948 plus approx. 500,000 new applicants each year (4.5 million name checks made 1948-58) - if "derogatory information" found, a full field investigation made and results given to 150 loyalty boards (27000 such field investigations were made 1948-58) - employee could be fired if "reasonable doubt" of loyalty was established by 6 categories:crimes, violent overthrow, breach of official duty or disclosure of confidential information, or membership in or association with any subversive organization - no appeal beyond loyalty boards - no permission to confront a "confidential informant" - 5000 voluntary resignations resulted from investigations before hearings conducted for great variety of reasons - only 378 employees were dismissed or denied employment by boards and none of these were spies. - Truman issued another executive order to keep these investigation files confidential and not disclosed to Congress
8 In McCollum v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of an Illinois statute allowing children to be released from school for religious instruction.
10 Czech Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk killed in "fall" from office window following communist coup Feb. 25.
April
1 Bob’s second birthday
18 Christian Democrats in Italy win election over communists - one of the first victories of the CIA's Office of Special Operations under James Angleton - next month, Kennan proposes creation of Office of Policy Coordination to do covert actions like Italy.
May
16 Israel is born
June
12 David’s fourth birthday
18 “As a first step toward a West German government, the Western powers announced a currency reform, effective 20 June.
To keep the old currency from entering their zone, where it was still valid, the Soviets banned all travel to and from the eastern zone. “
22 “European Command (EUCOM) directed U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) to airlift supplies to Berlin for use by the U.S. garrison there. USAFE delivered 156 tons in 64 sorties.”
24 “The Soviets suspended all ground travel in and out of Berlin.”
Stalin begins the blockade of land routes to Berlin.
28 Yugoslavia expelled from the Cominform - sudden crack in the Soviet bloc
August
4 Whittaker Chambers openly accuses Alger Hiss to be a communist, not only when Hiss was in the Agriculture Department in the 1930's (with Lee Pressman, Nathan Witt, John Abt, Nathaniel Weyl) but also when Hiss was in the State Department in 1944 (Hiss had gone to Yalta with FDR and helped create the UN with Stettinius) - since 1947, Hiss was President of the Carnegie Foundation of International Peace - Chambers said he kept 4 memos written in Hiss's hand and 64 memos copied by Hiss's wife Priscilla.
September
9 Jennie Marshak’s 61st birthday
October
2 NSC directive creates Office of Policy Coordination under director Frank Wisner to conduct covert operations for CIA - Wisner recruits Reinhard Gehlen, former Wehrmacht officer, to carry out espionage against Russia in Eastern Europe - Gehlen warns CIA about the coming blockade of Berlin but is ignored - Gehlen exposes former Nazi officers and recruits underground liberation groups to fight a covert war against Russia in the occupied East European countries
November
29 Miriam and Howard’s seventh wedding anniversary.
December
15 Alger Hiss indicted for perjury.
