> So Frances Bolton grew up without Commies being demonized? Anyone else here
> under, say, age 35 who didn't imbibe the equivalence of Reds and Satan from
> birth?
I don't know about that. I'm 29, and I distinctly remember Reagan, that loathesome monster, babbling on about the Evil Empire and the contras being the moral equivalent of the Founding Fathers. True, it was the parody of McCarthyism and not the thing itself; it's probably significant that the only nation to really take a lot of flak from our popular culture in the late Eighties wasn't Russia, but *Japan* (the secret target of "Rambo", too, I think).
On the other hand, the students who I teach here at the U of O -- 18-22 year-olds, generally speaking -- really do have no idea of what the Cold War was about. And when I tell 'em, they get pissed off at the Right: I gave them a George Will column condemning Alger Hiss as a Commie pinko, and then the facts of the case, and hey presto -- the little light bulbs went on.
-- Dennis