ABSTRACT
Nineteen forty-eight marked the end of progressivism as a force in American life. The Henry Wallace debacle showed it had no real political strength. The Nation conceded less to changing times than the New Republic, which endorsed NATO and stopped printing the work of fellow travelers. The Soviets were leading people to a better way through the perfection of their domestic institutions and instinctive support of the democratic side everywhere. Dwight Macdonald wrote in to say that O’Connor was wrong on certain particulars and misrepresented the conference by describing it as a matter of “left-of-center intellectuals” contacting their opposite numbers abroad. Progressives were uplifted by thoughts of Soviet gains and the glorious Red Army, but shed no tears for the victims of Stalinism, still less for innocent German refugees. The Wallace campaign had been a crucial event, but the Korean War was equally so. It drew, finally, a line between fellow travelers and progressives.
