Name: 50 years ago, Mosinee staged a mock communist takeover
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50 years ago, Mosinee staged a mock communist takeover

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Get local news delivered to your inbox!Please subscribe to keep reading. You can cancel at any time.Loading&amp;hellp;{{title}}{{description}}{{banner}}(renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax){{tagline}}{{special_title}}{{html}}You have permission to edit this article.© 2022 Lee EnterprisesShare This50 years ago, Mosinee staged a mock communist takeoverShare thisAssociated PressMOSINEE - The headline 50 years ago screamed "Mosinee Seized byReds!" and for a day this small industrial town was in the nationalspotlight for staging a mock communist takeover designed to "teachAmericans the meaning of good Americanism."There was a coup to oust the mayor; Russian flags hung alongMain Street; townspeople who sang religious songs were arrested andushered to a mock concentration camp; a menu at a local restaurantwas changed to Russian fare.It was all dramatically designed to warn of the threat ofcommunism and its danger to America as the Cold Warintensified.Michael Kronenwetter was only 8 on May, 1, 1950, when Mosinee'scommunist day attracted media attention from many Midwestnewspapers and Life magazine, then the equivalent of what CNN istoday."I remember the feeling - the paranoia that was around at thattime," Kronenwetter recalled. "The sense that, 'Gosh, it couldhappen here' was very strong. We really thought that they werepoised and ready to take over, if we let them."Grace O'Connor, a former high school English and Latin teacherin Mosinee, remembers much about the day, promoted as the "MosineeAmericanism Plan."Students wore "communist youth" attire - a white top and darkpants or skirts, she said."They even changed the menu at the restaurant," said O'Connor,now 85. The new menu featured Russian rye bread and borscht, a hotsoup made with beets and cabbage, she said.The city became part of the "United Soviet States of America."Two ex-communists were brought in as consultants. "That was reallya big deal at the time - ex-communists tell all, you know,"Kronenwetter said.Francis F. Schweinler, editor of the Mosinee Times and an activemember of the American Legion, organized the mock takeover of histown by the "Reds," as communists were routinely called backthen."The basic idea behind the event is stated quite simply - toteach Americans the meaning of good Americanism by demonstratingwhat privileges and rights we would lose if communism took over,"Schweinler wrote at the time.For its role in the coup, his newspaper printed a pink editionnamed "The Red Star." It featured a picture of Soviet leader JosefStalin and "instructions" for the city's citizens."Legion Now Is Entirely Dead" read the headline for onestory.The Wausau Daily Herald, then called the Wausau DailyRecord-Herald, printed an edition with a huge picture of Stalin andthe banner headline, "Mosinee Seized by Reds!"The mock takeover was three months after U.S. Sen. JosephMcCarthy, R-Wis., gave a speech in Wheeling, W.Va., charging thatthe State Department employed 205 communists.The mock takeover even had a real tragedy. Hours after he wasremoved from his home in slippers and a robe, Mosinee Mayor RalphKronenwetter, Michael Kronenwetter's uncle, suffered a major heartattack and died a short time later.An unfortunate coincidence, perhaps aided by the stress of theday, Michael Kronenwetter said.James Lorence, a history professor at the University ofWisconsin-Marathon County, said nationalist pageantry was commonduring the late 1940s and through the 1950s."The domestic red scare - anti-communism at home - was a directreflection of the Cold War abroad," he said. "Communism seemed tobe a threat here in the United States."Get local news delivered to your inbox!SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Wednesday afternoon's drawing of the Illinois Lottery's "LuckyDay Lotto Midday" game were:{{title}}{{summary}}You don't have any notifications.Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.Topics

Get local news delivered to your inbox!Please subscribe to keep reading. You can cancel at any time.Loading&amp;hellp;{{title}}{{description}}{{banner}}(renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax){{tagline}}{{special_title}}{{html}}You have permission to edit this article.© 2022 Lee EnterprisesShare This50 years ago, Mosinee staged a mock communist takeoverShare thisAssociated PressMOSINEE - The headline 50 years ago screamed "Mosinee Seized byReds!" and for a day this small industrial town was in the nationalspotlight for staging a mock communist takeover...

50 years ago, Mosinee staged a mock communist takeover

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