As anyone who has been masochistic enough to write a dissertation will know, social scientists in training spend much of their days leafing through volumes in search of inspiration. As the pages blurred with blacklists of authors and academics, their lives and livelihoods suffocated by the Red Scare, the story of Mosinee caught my eye. In 1950, the American Legion in central Wisconsin, deciding that President Harry Truman was not taking the threat of communism seriously enough, took matters into its own hands. On May 1—International Workers Day—the Legion staged the fake Communist siege on Mosinee, calling in the national press to capture “14 hours of the most smashing, dramatic demonstration of what communism really is.”
The event was the brainchild of World War II veteran John Decker, who believed that drastic action was required to “elevate the debate to reach minds we hadn’t reached.” Mosinee—a town of fewer than 1,400 at the time—was selected as the site of the coup because a prominent legionnaire owned and edited the town’s newspaper. Two former Communists were brought on as technical advisers to add authenticity to the day’s events.
The “pageant” began with a “Communist Combat Team” of costumed volunteers “arresting” the mayor and chief of police at their homes and placing local clergy and business leaders in a “concentration camp.” The organizing committee issued ration cards and entry and exit passes, erecting roadblocks and questioning those who came through. Local businesses got in on the action, too; the movie theater played propaganda reels; and merchants raised their prices, served only Russian fare, or otherwise made market transactions a nuisance. A sweet shop placed a sign on its shelves: “candy for communist youth members only.”
At the end of the day, according to the official Schedule of Events, the entire town would “cast aside their subversive roles and join in the raising of the American flag.” Boy Scouts would “burn all Communist banners, etc. in a huge bonfire” before the whole crowd would join in singing “God Bless America” and “start peacefully home, thankful to God that they live in AMERICA.”