He supported communism tooth and nail.
While writing screeds against it, and ridding his orginization of all communist members.
That's some fierce support, all right.
If you think the Red Scare began and ended with McCarthy you'd be dead wrong.
I think you said he was hiding from "McCarthy's own social cleansing."
I also think the part of your brain that's supposed to provide statements like, "Oops, I fucked up," blew a fuse somewhere along the lines.
Aside from which, Baldwin even admitted that the best way to present communism in America was his use of free speech, equivocating it with the "class struggle" that typifies communist ideals.
What a monster. He thought speech was a good way to say things.
He didn't abandon communism over the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Rather, he was sickened that the Soviets, who were communists, were collaborating with their arch rivals, fascist Germany.
*rubs temples wearily*
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was the treaty through which the Soviets collaborated with Nazi Germany. The statement you just made essentially translates to, "He didn't abandon communism over the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Rather, he was sickened by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact."
"I know some of you are going to say 'I did look it up, and that's not true.' That's 'cause you looked it up in a book. Next time, look it up in your gut."
-Stephen Colbert