Since the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, which established a Communist government in Russia, Americans viewed the Soviets as a threat to all capitalistic countries. The revolution left Americans and the government in fear of communism taking over. This view led to anti-Communist hysteria, also known as the Red Scare of 1919. Another anti-Communist movement came about in the 1940s and 50s. This Second Red Scare became known as McCarthyism due to Joseph McCarthy's actions during his campaign.
US citizens faced many domestic changes during the 1940s to 1950s anti-Communist crusade, also known as the Red Scare. During this time, the Soviet Union and its Communist government began to spread. People in the US feared that communism would take over the country, and this fear led to people becoming suspicious of everyone around them. If someone said anything remotely suspicious, they could be turned in, lose their jobs, and get blacklisted, which made it almost impossible to find new work. During this time, people unofficially lost their freedom of speech and other civil liberties.
During the 1920s like most people A. Mitchell Palmer fear was communism (the Red Scare). Communism is a belief that is based on one political system and a dictator ruling the government. He was afraid the communism would ruin America’s values by using crime and jeopardizing the government. In Russia people didn’t have basic rights and Americans were afraid the same would happen to them since after WW1 Russia had a lot of influence. Most communist were German and Russian during the time.
This kind of hysteria caused the Red Scare, which was a period that Americans thought communists were working to destroy America. This mass fear of communism ruined people’s lives and made them turn against their own family and friends. Joseph McCarthy played an
Sparked by an increase in communist sympathies during the Great Depression due to upset over the failure of the democratic system to assist its people in difficult times, American fear of communism reached its high point during the 1940s and 1950s. Fear of communist subversion, often called the Red Scare, reached all areas of society and resulted in paranoia throughout the United States, exemplified through both actions and events. The McCarthy hearings, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, capitalized on the overwhelming hysteria encapsulating the United States when McCarthy claimed he had the names of communists in the government. Built on a series of lies and exaggerations, McCarthy proceeded to interrogate innocent government officials and
This paranoia led many Americans into accusing other Americans of being communist. This
During this time period, not long after the end of World War II, the USSR (Soviet Union) was on the rise, which led to the Cold War. The Cold War led to increased tension between the United States, and the Soviet Union due to competition and heavy conflict of interest. The involvement of the Soviet Union led to the dramatic fear of communism among the public after witnessing the horrific environment within the USSR. This helped develop McCarthyism, the idea of investigating, and accusing someone in power of being associated with communism. Joe McCarthy himself, the founder of his very ideal also gained much popularity within this time period due to many Americans fearing the rise of communist leaders and communism itself.
McCarthyism turned Americans against each other after WWII by claiming that Communists had infiltrated many areas of American life and government. In fact, “According to a local newspaper McCarthy dropped a bombshell: ‘The State Department is infested with Communists,” (para 3). In other words, this is the beginning of McCarthy turning Americans against each other. Paranoia started to spread through America which all this strongly affected Americans everyday life. McCarthyism was a result of American fear of communism in the 1950s.
The author says that perhaps many citizens may be drawn to Communist ideology if the social injustices become more prevalent, and urges the readers to look into the problems of Communist civilizations. This article is an example of how many felt during the Red Scare and Cold War in regards to communism. It shows that people felt a collapse
During the 1950s, the second Red Scare was an episode of political regression. The second Red scare was primarily produced by the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Initially, it lasted longer than the first Red Scare. The second Red Scare emphasized the threat posed by the Communist Party. Many individuals feared that the United States government was infiltrated by communists, leading to the establishment of the House Un-American Activities Committee.
Communism: America’s Greatest Concern “I 'm entirely hostile to the principle of Communism,” (Porter 550). Like Porter, during the Second Red Scare, countless people feared communism due to the fact that it had permeated American politics, culture, and society (Storrs). The Second Red Scare occurred from the late 1940s through the 1950s. American author Katherine Anne Porter’s To Dr. William Ross was written in 1951, during the midst of the Second Red Scare when the fear of communism was at a high (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica).
The Red Scare was a time period that is suggested to have start in the late 1940s, and lasted through most of the 1950s. In the late forties, tension between Soviet Union and The United States began to grow and intensify. With the threat of nuclear bombs and communism, the people of the United States started to grow wearier of possibility of a takeover by the Soviet Union. People lived in fear, the fear was on brought from the threat of communism, but also the fear that the United State government pushed upon them as well. Not only fear of the people of the United State, but also certain events and political figures during the time period help pushed the Red Scare to be prolonged.
After many countries surrounding Russia fell to communism, it frightened American citizens into a frenzy compelling them to take all measures needed to not let their country get plagued by the same disease that affected some many countries in Eastern Europe and other parts of the world. Hysteria of communism plaguing the U.S. was normal after war, but during the 1950s the Red Scare hysteria maximized because of the on-going Cold War, media and accusations made by Joseph McCarthy. Under the leadership of Mao Zedong in 1949, China was one of the many countries
Firstly, the Red Scare was a time where the United States was extremely divided, both socially and politically, and citizens were terrified about communists spreading their ideas of communism (Foster 2). This pandamonium stemmed from ideas of McCarthyism, strong anti-communist values (Goodman 1). McCarthyism, to some, was believed to resemble totalitarianism due to “the demagoguery, smear campaigns, informers, purges of the civil service and education system; the blacklisting of writers, artists, and entertainers; and incidents of book-burning” (Goodman 1) that both had in common (Goodman 1). To combat the spread of communism and to calm the overall panic people had at the time, the government created the House Committee of Un-American Activities
McCarthyism was another way of speaking about the fears of Americans about the spread of communism and the ensuing purge of communism from the States. According to our text and most history books, the fears of communism taking hold in the United States became real after the end of WWII. The communists had made it clear that their ambition was to have the entire world turn communist. People like McCarthy, Nixon, and even the president began to sound the alarm that communists were everywhere. The American Public bought into it and the attempts to expel any communists had begun.
