Edmund A. Walsh, S.J., and Catholic anticommunism in the United States, 1917--195

During the years 1924--1952, when anticommunism came to occupy a key focus in American public life, no Catholic leader addressed Soviet Communism more extensively than Father Edmund A. Walsh, S.J. (1885--1956), founder of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. During these years Walsh wrote four books, dozens of articles, and delivered nearly two thousand lectures on this subject. Walsh had a multifaceted career as an educator, diplomat and activist, but communism was his main concern. This dissertation is the first extended scholarly study of Walsh's entire anticommunist career.;Historians have tended to depict American anticommunism as the unwarranted hysteria of outsider groups clamoring for acceptance. This same argument has been applied to Catholic anticommunism, traditionally depicted as an attempt by American Catholics to prove their patriotism in the aftermath of the hostile anti-Catholicism of the 1920's. This argument does little justice to a movement more complex and multifaceted than previously assumed. Although few scholars would deny that American Catholics played a significant role in the anticommunist movement, detailed studies of their participation are still rare.;This dissertation remedies that deficiency through a study of Walsh's anticommunist career. Between 1924 and 1952, Walsh was unique among Catholic anticommunists as a premier interpreter of Soviet political theory and practice, whose influence extended far beyond the boundaries of the preconciliar Catholic world. It will be argued here that his anticommunism was an expression of confidence rather than insecurity.;Chapter One argues that the founding of the foreign service school was a significant if overlooked expression of Catholic confidence in the interwar years, which grew out of Walsh's self-understanding as a patriot, Jesuit and internationalist. Chapter Two is an analysis of the development of his anticommunism during his diplomatic and relief work in Russia and during his anticommunist activity throughout the rest of that decade. Chapter Three is a study of the Depression era, an era which featured Walsh's opposition to the diplomatic recognition of the Soviet Union. Chapter Four focuses on the war years, when Walsh was recognized as the foremost religious interpreter of geopolitics in world diplomacy. Chapter Five is an analysis of Walsh during the Cold War years, a period during which he reached his apex of influence as a consultant on Soviet geopolitics and a leading advocate of the national security state. A brief epilogue underscores Edmund Walsh's career in light of the historical trends in American Catholic anticommunism after his death.