Bradbury’s suspected activity was reported to the bureau by screenwriter Martin Berkeley, who claimed that science fiction writers were prone to being Communists and that the genre was uniquely capable of indoctrinating readers in Communist ideologies. “He noted that some of Bradbury’s stories have been definitely slanted against the United States and its capitalistic form of government,” according to the file.
A popular writer like Bradbury was positioned to “spread poison” about U.S. political ins utions, Berkeley told the FBI. “Informant stated that the general aim of these science fiction writers is to frighten the people into a state of paralysis or psychological incompetence bordering on hysteria which would make it very possible to conduct a Third World War in which the American people would seriously believe [sic] could not be won since their morale had been seriously destroyed.”
Berkeley even compared the appeal of Communist-leaning science fiction writers to scientists who “hold that it is impossible to conceive of war without threatening the isolation of the Universe.” The informant also stated that science fiction writers “have created illusions with regard to the impossibility of continuing world affairs in an organized manner now or in the future through the medium of futuristic stories concerned with the potentialities of science.”
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