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Unlike many of the U.S.'s ultraconservative anti-Communist leaders, Schwarz does not argue that domestic softness is the only thing Americans need worry about. Schwarz stresses the external threat and power of Communism. Sometimes he overrates the Reds: to read or hear Schwarz, the Communists have never suffered a setback in their march toward world domination; the free world has never scored the slightest cold war success. Communism is a monolith without internal dissension. Nikita Khrushchev, while describing Stalin as a sadistic, megalomaniacal murderer, in his famous January 6, 1961 speech, was by Communist standards of virtue commending his old boss, not condemning him. Today, there is no such thing as an ideological split between Moscow and Peking; the notion that there is, says Schwarz, is "just a product of our basic ignorance."
But it is on the susceptibility of modern society, especially American society, to exploitation for Communist ends that Schwarz really bears down. He notes that the number of actual, hard-core U.S. Communists has never been great. But they are surrounded by fellow travelers, sympathizers and "pseudo liberals." Most of these liberals "are to be found in the ivory cloisters of colleges and universities"; they are, in effect, the "protectors and runners of interference for the Communist conspirators."
Citing chapter and verse, Schwarz reviews the history of Communist efforts to subvert American society and institutions, to capture the mind of U.S. students ("That is always the first step"), to seize control of labor unions, to set up front groups to enlist the unwary to their causes. Such efforts, in fact, achieved their greatest successes in the 19305 and in the years during and immediately following World War II. But Schwarz, by slurring over dates and by drawing present-tense conclusions from past-tense examples, gives them dramatic currency, leaving the impression that the threat of internal subversion is greater today than at any time in U.S. history.
To Fred Schwarz the anti-Communist role of Government is limited at best, and his lopsided account of cold war history implies that the U.S. Government in spite of all its efforts has had no successes at all against Communism. Wrote Schwarz: "The time has come for people to cease looking for great organizations afar off, and to begin looking for things that can be done close at home. Every man who invites a friend into his home, gives him literature to read, and informs him of the danger, is helping to thwart the Communist program." Citizens so educated and so inspired can carry the fight to the Communist enemy both abroad and at home, and "upon such a foundation the political, legislative and cultural programs necessary can be built."
After Knowledge, What? Presumably, a citizenry well informed about the evils, strengths and tactics of Communism would be equipped to make itself felt in the voting booth, in letters to Congressmen, and other normal methods of political expression, on the specific issues of cold war policy—defense spending, foreign trade policy, foreign aid, atomic testing, fallout shelters, the role of the U.N., etc.