Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
2025
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
History
First Advisor
Molly Rozum
Abstract
This thesis examines South Dakota House Representative Karl Mundt during the Eightieth Congress and his role in helping to build a movement and consensus over domestic and international communism. I argue that not only did Mundt help facilitate the Second Red Scare that allowed for the “McCarthyism” of the 1950s to thrive, but Mundt also aided in selling a combative diplomacy towards the USSR which intensified relations into a Cold War. As a ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Mundt advocated for the use of soft power, education, information, and propaganda to sell his idealized Americanism to European nations in consideration for US foreign aid. This advocacy put him at odds with many fellow Congressional conservatives, but Mundt sold his internationalist proclivities in conservative terms centered around fighting communism, bolstering private enterprise, and promoting American exceptionalism and Christian morality. In this regard, Mundt helped shift a US conservative movement while rationalizing communism as a legitimate foreign threat. As a ranking member of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Mundt worked within a network of political activists to influence public perceptions of Communists and sympathizers, as well as helped create the legalistic and oppressive foundations to the Second Red Scare. While Mundt was inspired by a South Dakotan conservatism skeptical of communism and foreign bigness, the Congressman was also politically motivated to red-bait political opponents and frame communism as an entirely un-American ideology. In this regard, Mundt helped shift what was acceptable politically for US liberalism. It is apparent that Mundt saw the utility of anticommunism during his thirty-four year career in Congress. This thesis argues that Mundt’s actions during the Eightieth Congress, with its intertwining implications on the Cold War and Second Red Scare, deserves attention in particular.
Subject Categories
American Studies | Political Science
Keywords
Anticommunism Cold War Conservatism Liberalism South Dakota
Number of Pages
201
Publisher
University of South Dakota
Recommended Citation
Zachary, Wattier, "Cold War Karl Mundt: the Utility of Anticommunism during the Eightieth Congress" (2025). Dissertations and Theses. 347.
https://red.library.usd.edu/diss-thesis/347