Very interesting. The Gipper was more than just anti-Communist. He defended Jews, spoke out against the KKK in the 40s, and helped the Federal Bureau of Investigation in its search for domestic Nazis.

Reagan’s relationship with the FBI started when he was about 32, and it had nothing to do with communists. It wasn’t unusual or at all nefarious. According to a memo in the file, the bureau was on the trail of domestic Nazis, and Reagan reported that he almost punched a man for making hateful comments about Jews at a Hollywood cocktail party.

The bureau initiated contact with many stars and other prominent figures in Hollywood because of the industry’s global influence. Reagan responded without moral anguish or soul-searching. A Screen Actors Guild officer during that era told me, “If an FBI agent appeared at your door, you met with him.”

Like most FBI files on famous people, Reagan’s is mostly filled with press clippings and public information available to anyone. An entry from 1946 describes a Reagan radio broadcast against the Ku Klux Klan. He talked about an incident in Tennessee in which police officers “had beaten a Negro while in a soldier’s uniform and had gouged his eyes out with a billy club.” He said: “A community that is aware of the threat to its people and security by bigoted terroristic groups will be protected from such acts. It is important that every citizen of Southern California be ready to assist all public officials who are attempting to check any further occurrences of this kind and to join with those civic organizations which are laboring to bring better understanding and unity among the different elements of our society without regard to race or creed or color.”

One day the FBI showed up at his home with information that a Communist Party meeting had focused on, “what to do about that son-of-a-bitching bastard Reagan”. Reagan was a Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) union at the time and had resisted communist infiltration of the union establishment. In short, he was pissing off commies.

Reagan believed that Communists had the right to argue their philosophy but had no right to subvert the government and/or Constitution of the United States. How bad did things get in the union establishment? This bad:

The brand of communism Reagan encountered was responsible for, in his words, some “strange and awful things” that began happening in certain Hollywood unions and civic organizations. At one union local meeting when a man opposed the leadership, henchmen dragged him out by his arms as the chairman asked, “Does anybody else want to comment?” Of course, no one else did.

Union leaders would make decisions behind closed doors, denying the membership its right to vote. When a vote did come up, leaders would filibuster until most members went home. Then the few remaining members would vote. In one such case, the full membership was surprised to learn that it had approved an attack on Harry Truman’s Cold War policy.

Reagan’s suspicions that these organizations had come under control of communists would be confirmed in court decisions in the mid-1950s that found particular Hollywood unions and organizations to have been “dominated and controlled” by party operatives during that era.

Reagan was an effective cold warrior because he experienced Communism first hand. He understand how evil it could be. He understood what he was facing. And that made all the difference.