Hanson started out as a journalist, reporting on China in the late 1930s. But his writing was propaganda for the Chinese Communist Party, and its leader, Mao Tse-Tung. In his advocacy for Mao, whose name is also transliterated as Zedong, he broke no U.S. laws, but he did contribute to what would ultimately become the mass murder of millions of Chinese.
Later in his career, Hanson “served on the staff of Assistant Secretary of State William Benton.” Hanson also joined the CPUSA, the American Communist Party.
In the context of the Cold War, joining the CPUSA was not merely an expression of a political view, but rather it was supporting an organization which declared in its written materials the “inevitability of and necessity for violent revolution.” To join the CPUSA was to endorse, support, and prepare for the violent overthrow of the United States government - including the killing of innocent civilians.
Working in William Benton’s office, Hanson was “one of the numerous group of” communist “suspects once employed in that office.” By 1950, “Hanson headed a division at State that dealt with matters of foreign aid. Most to the present point, he had in the latter 1930s gone on record with some revealing comments about the Communist cause in China.”
Hanson was, therefore, separately, both a criminal and a danger. He was a criminal because he was working for the violent destruction of the American government, including the deaths of innocent civilians. He was a danger because he work to support Mao’s regime and its eventual slaughter of millions of Chinese.
