“Girl Scout Handbook” Subversive?
In one of the more absurd incidents in the anti-Communist Cold War, the Illinois American Legion on this day attacked the Girl Scout Handbook for being “Un-American” and “internationalist.”
The Girl Scouts of America caved in and revised parts of the text of the handbook.
The American Legion was founded on November 10, 1919, a year after World War I ended, and it became one of the leading anti-Communist organizations in the decades that followed.
For some of the anti-civil liberties actions by American Legion members, see April 17, 1927; August 3, 1929; October 2, 1932; and February 22, 1964.
Check out today’s Girl Scouts: http://www.girlscouts.org/
Learn more about the ACLU in the Cold War and other Times of National Crisis: https://www.aclu.org/aclu-history-rooting-out-subversives-paranoia-and-patriotism-mccarthy-era