It has long been a truism in modern America that “politics stops at the water’s edge.” Of course, like most truisms and folk wisdom, that is not entirely true in practice. During the Cold War (and in earlier eras as well), there have been serious and deep divides and fissures between the right and the left about how the country should approach power, politics, and influence abroad. In one of the most notable examples, there were partisan divides about the Vietnam War. Democrats and Republicans often disagreed about how to approach foreign policy in Latin and South America. The Iran-Contra scandal and support for the Nicaraguan anti-Communist guerrillas are infamous examples.
Politics most certainly did not stop at the oceans, when in the context of the Cold War, the America right targeted Americans in the Red Scare, Lavender Scare, and through the Cointel Program. Deemed to be “the enemy” because they were supposedly “Communists” or agents of the Soviet Union, in reality, most of the Americans targeted in these right-wing wing witch hunts were only “guilty” of exercising their fundamental Constitutional rights and/or being members of marginalized groups or otherwise disagreeing with mainstream American politics and the elite consensus.
