At the time of the February strike, Commander-in-Chief Douglas MacArthur was very concerned about the eyes of the American people, as he intended to run for the presidential election the following year from the Republican Party. The Republican Party had a large support base for the labor union, and did not want to crack down on the Japanese labor movement and damage its reputation, so it did not move directly until the strike happen. Moreover, dispatching the army was nothing more than a matter of fact (except in the days of McCarthyism and the Red Scare, the Communist Party is legal in the United States, and the Communist Party of America exists as a political party. General MacArthur once put down the (alleging that they were being manipulated by the Communist Party) while serving in the National Guards.