Editing Gus Hall (section)

==General Secretary of the CPUSA==
The McCarthy era had taken a heavy toll on the Communist Party USA, as many American members were called to testify to [[United States congressional committee|congressional committees]]. In addition, due to the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Soviet invasion of Hungary]] in 1956, many members became disenchanted and left the party. They were also moved by the Soviet leader [[Nikita Khrushchev]]'s [[On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences|dismissal]] of [[Stalinism]].<ref name="nyt" /> In the United States, the rise of the [[New Left]] and the [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia]] in 1968 created hostility between leftists and the CPUSA, marginalizing it.<ref name="barkan" />

Hall, along with other party leaders who remained, sought to rebuild the party.<ref name="AP Obit" /> He led the struggle to reclaim the legality of the Communist Party and addressed tens of thousands in [[Oregon]],<ref>{{Cite journal |author=Hans A. Linde |year=1966 |title=Campus Law: Berkeley Viewed from Eugene|journal=California Law Review }}</ref> [[Washington (state)|Washington]], and California. Envisioning a democratization of the American Communist movement, Hall spoke of a "[[Popular front|broad people's political movement]]" and tried to ally his party with radical campus groups, the [[Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War|anti-Vietnam War movement]], organizations active in the [[civil rights movement]], and the new rank-and-file trade union movements in an effort to build the CPUSA among the young "[[Baby boomers|baby boomer]]" generation of activists.<ref name="nyt" /> Ultimately, Hall failed to forge a lasting alliance with the New Left.<ref name="nyt" />

Hall had a reputation of being one of the most convinced supporters of the actions and interests of the Soviet Union outside the [[Eastern Bloc|USSR's political sphere of influence]].<ref name="barkan" /><ref>[[David North (socialist)|David North]]: ''Das Erbe, das wir verteidigen'', p. 288 (in German)</ref> From 1959 onward, Hall spent some time in Moscow each year and was one of the most widely known American politicians in the USSR,<ref name="Независимая газета">{{cite web|url=http://www.ng.ru/world/2000-10-18/6_must_die.html|title=УМЕР ГЛАВНЫЙ МАРКСИСТ США|trans-title=The Chief Marxist of the USA Died|last1=Kosyrev|first1=Dmitry|date=October 18, 2000|website=[[Nezavisimaya Gazeta]]|language=Russian|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001206111300/http://www.ng.ru/world/2000-10-18/6_must_die.html|archive-date=December 6, 2000|url-status=dead}}</ref> where he was received by high-level Soviet politicians such as [[Leonid Brezhnev]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Die Menschenrechtspolitik der USA|last=Pflüger|first=Friedbert|publisher=Oldenbourg|year=1983|isbn=3-486-51901-8|page=155}}</ref>

Hall spoke regularly on campuses and talk shows as an advocate for socialism in the United States. He argued for socialism in the United States to be built on the traditions of U.S.-style democracy rooted in the [[United States Bill of Rights]]. He would often say Americans didn't accept the Constitution without a Bill of Rights and wouldn't accept socialism without a Bill of Rights. He professed deep confidence in the democratic traditions of the American people. He remained a prolific writer on current events, producing a great number of articles and pamphlets, of which many were published in the magazine ''[[Political Affairs (magazine)|Political Affairs]]''.<ref name="sks" />

During the 1960s and 1970s, Hall also made frequent appearances on [[Television in the Soviet Union|Soviet television]], always supporting the position of the Soviet regime.<ref name="sks" /> Hall guided the CPUSA in accordance with the party line of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (CPSU), rejecting any liberalization efforts such as [[Eurocommunism]].<ref name="barkan" /> He also dismissed the radical new revolutionary movements that criticized the official Soviet party line of "[[Peaceful coexistence]]" and called for a [[world revolution]].<ref>{{Cite book |first=Donald F.|last=Busky |title=Communism in history and theory: Asia, Africa, and the Americas|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2002|page=167|isbn=0-275-97733-1}}</ref> After the [[Sino-Soviet split]], [[Maoism]] likewise was condemned, and all Maoist sympathizers were expelled from the CPUSA in the early 1960s.<ref name="klehr">{{Cite book|first=Harvey|last=Klehr |title=Far Left of Center: The American Radical Left Today |publisher=Transaction Publishers |year=1988|pages=23–25 |isbn=0-88738-875-2}}</ref>

Hall defended the [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia|Soviet invasions of Czechoslovakia]] and [[Soviet–Afghan War|Afghanistan]],<ref>{{Cite news|title=Legale Minen|date=September 29, 1980|work=Der Spiegel}} (in German)</ref> and supported the Stalinist principle of "[[Socialism in One Country]]".<ref name="wsws" /> In the early 1980s, Hall and the CPUSA criticized the [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] movement in Poland.<ref name="klehr" /> In 1992, the Moscow daily ''[[Izvestia]]'' claimed that the CPUSA had received over $40 million in payments from the Soviet Union, contradicting Hall's long-standing claims of financial independence.<ref name="nyt" /> The former [[KGB]] General [[Oleg Kalugin]] declared in his memoir that the KGB had Hall and the American Communist Party "under total control" and that he was known to be siphoning off "Moscow money" to set up his own horse-breeding farm.<ref>Oleg Kalugin, ''The First Directorate'' (New York, 1994), pp.55–56.</ref> The writer and [[J. Edgar Hoover]] biographer [[Curt Gentry]] has noted that a similar story about Hall was planted in the media through the FBI's secret [[COINTELPRO]] campaign of disruption and disinformation against radical opposition groups.<ref name="Gentry 1991, 443">Gentry, Curt (1991). ''J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets''. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. p. 443. {{ISBN|0-393-32128-2}}.</ref>