While I have spent much of my adult life unlearning what I was taught in schools, media, and films about the history of my country, I never came across the details of this infamous attack on working people until now. I am most grateful to this author.
After WWII the US ruling class was ready to roll back the many gains that working people made during the 1930s when the economy was in shambles and working people were rioting and threatening the system. The gains were actually quite modest having been carefully crafted by the astute guidance of the FDR administration, but were seen by many in the governing class as a threat to their rule. The reaction was swift and deadly by both capitalist parties. Loyalty oaths, anti-communist witch-hunts, and anti-labor legislation were the weapons used to put working people in their subservient place.
The realization that working men and women were now wielding genuine power —power that translated into independent political and economic clout — was scaring the wits out of the Establishment. It was that fear that precipitated the legislation.