Changes

The book was published in 1939, during the [[Nazi-Soviet pact]], when the Party line was to keep the U.S. from interfering in Hitler and Stalin's division of Europe. The book was serialized in the Communist newspaper ''The Daily Worker.'' Upon the collapse of the pact, Trumbo, like the Party line, reversed course, becoming fanatically pro-war. He "immediately scurried to withdraw the book from circulation, and bookstores were ordered to send their copies back to the publisher."<ref>Ron Radosh, "[https://pjmedia.com/ronradosh/2015/11/26/trumbo-train-wreck Red Star Falling: The Trumbo Train Wreck]," PJ Media, November 26, 2015</ref> When fans wrote to Trumbo requesting copies of the book, he "named names," turning them in to the FBI, writing:

The book was published in 1939, during the [[Nazi-Soviet pact]], when the Party line was to keep the U.S. from interfering in Hitler and Stalin's division of Europe. The book was serialized in the Communist newspaper ''The Daily Worker.'' Upon the collapse of the pact, Trumbo, like the Party line, reversed course, becoming fanatically pro-war. He "immediately scurried to withdraw the book from circulation, and bookstores were ordered to send their copies back to the publisher."<ref>Ron Radosh, "[https://pjmedia.com/ronradosh/2015/11/26/trumbo-train-wreck Red Star Falling: The Trumbo Train Wreck]," PJ Media, November 26, 2015</ref> When fans wrote to Trumbo requesting copies of the book, he "named names," turning them in to the FBI, writing:

{{cquote|I share with the men of your organization a sincere desire to see an end to all such seditious propaganda as criminal slander of the Commander in Chief, defeatism, pacifism," etc.<ref>Dalton Trumbo (Helen Manfull, Ed.), ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=uJpbAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Additional Dialogue; Letters of Dalton Trumbo, 1942-1962]'' (M. Evans/Lippincott, 1970), p. 30. Cf. Trumbo, Dalton. ''Johnny Got his Gun.'' 1939, introduction.</ref>}}

{{cquote|I share with the men of your organization a sincere desire to see an end to all such seditious propaganda as criminal slander of the Commander in Chief, defeatism, pacifism," etc.<ref>Dalton Trumbo (Helen Manfull, Ed.), ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=uJpbAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Additional Dialogue; Letters of Dalton Trumbo, 1942-1962]'' (M. Evans/Lippincott, 1970), p. 30. Cf. Trumbo, Dalton. ''Johnny Got his Gun.'' 1939, introduction.</ref>}}

Trumbo was a member of the [[Communist Party of the USA]] (CPUSA) throughout the 1940s and '50s. He was no friend of free speech. He wrote to Herbert Biberman, a fellow Communist screen writer, that "whenever a book or play or film is produced which is harmful to the best interests of the working class, that work and its author should and must be attacked in the sharpest possible terms."<ref>Larry Ceplair and Christopher Trumbo, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=2SbJBQAAQBAJ Dalton Trumbo: Blacklisted Hollywood Radical]'' (University Press of Kentucky, 2014) ISBN 0813146828, p. 277</ref> Calling Stalin “one of the democratic leaders of the world,” Trumbo moved to prevent a film being made that was to be based on Leon Trotsky’s biography of the Soviet leader.<ref>Ron Radosh, "[https://pjmedia.com/ronradosh/2015/11/26/trumbo-train-wreck Red Star Falling: The Trumbo Train Wreck]," PJ Media, November 26, 2015</ref>

Trumbo was a member of the [[Communist Party of the USA]] (CPUSA) throughout the 1940s and '50s. He was no friend of free speech. He wrote to Herbert Biberman, a fellow Communist screenwriter, that "whenever a book or play or film is produced which is harmful to the best interests of the working class, that work and its author should and must be attacked in the sharpest possible terms."<ref>Larry Ceplair and Christopher Trumbo, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=2SbJBQAAQBAJ Dalton Trumbo: Blacklisted Hollywood Radical]'' (University Press of Kentucky, 2014) ISBN 0813146828, p. 277</ref> Calling Stalin “one of the democratic leaders of the world,” Trumbo moved to prevent a film being made that was to be based on Leon Trotsky’s biography of the Soviet leader.<ref>Ron Radosh, "[https://pjmedia.com/ronradosh/2015/11/26/trumbo-train-wreck Red Star Falling: The Trumbo Train Wreck]," PJ Media, November 26, 2015</ref>

When fellow Communist screenwriter Albert Maltz published a defense of artistic freedom, arguing that literature should not be judged solely on the politics of its author, Trumbo participated in a Party inquisition, browbeating Maltz for his heresy until he publicly recantated. According to University of Maryland Professor Art Eckstein, Maltz, who also later was brought before HUAC (and went to jail for refusing to testify), told historian Gerda Lerner "that his appearance before HUAC in 1947 was simply nothing compared to the real and psychologically-destructive trauma of his criticism/self-criticism sessions before the Communist Party in 1946." Eckstein continues:

When fellow Communist screenwriter Albert Maltz published a defense of artistic freedom, arguing that literature should not be judged solely on the politics of its author, Trumbo participated in a Party inquisition, browbeating Maltz for his heresy until he publicly recantated. According to University of Maryland Professor Art Eckstein, Maltz, who also later was brought before HUAC (and went to jail for refusing to testify), told historian Gerda Lerner "that his appearance before HUAC in 1947 was simply nothing compared to the real and psychologically-destructive trauma of his criticism/self-criticism sessions before the Communist Party in 1946." Eckstein continues:

{{cquote|Dalton Trumbo was also part of the savage Communist Party inquisition against the director Robert Rossen in 1949, because of Rossen's film, "All the King's Men."  Party Headquarters in New York thought that his film was too much an attack on one-man rule--i.e., Stalin.  The confrontation with his Hollywood inquisitors over the nature of his art drove Rossen right out of the CPUSA ("Take the Party and shove it!").<ref>Art Eckstein, "[http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=9274 Fountain of Lies]," FrontPageMagazine.com, March 14, 2005</ref>}}

{{cquote|Dalton Trumbo was also part of the savage Communist Party inquisition against the director Robert Rossen in 1949, because of Rossen's film, "All the King's Men."  Party Headquarters in New York thought that his film was too much an attack on one-man rule--i.e., Stalin.  The confrontation with his Hollywood inquisitors over the nature of his art drove Rossen right out of the CPUSA ("Take the Party and shove it!").<ref>Art Eckstein, "[http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=9274 Fountain of Lies]," FrontPageMagazine.com, March 14, 2005</ref>}}