70 years ago: "Communists" take over a small town in Wisconsin

On May 1, 1950, the Wisconsin branch of the American Legion staged a mock Communist seizure of Mosinee, Wisconsin as an example of what life would be like in a "United Soviet States of America" (see also here, here, and here). "Communist invaders" theoretically sealed off the town; arrested Mayor Ralph Kronenwetter and Police Chief Carl Gewiss; shut down a church; purged the town library; replaced the local newspaper with one of their own; and consigned citizens to a "concentration camp." Mayor Kronenwetter suffered a cerebral hemorrhage hours later, and died within a week.

Hmmm--shutting down churches; censoring libraries and newspapers to reflect the Communist viewpoint; and quarantining healthy people herding ordinary people into concentration camps. Such a thing could surely never happen here and now.