1950s Red Scare Essay

After World War II the next threat was the Soviet Union and the growing amount of communism. The fear of communism breed the conformist 1950’s, which created suburbs, consumerism, “organization men”, domesticated women, car culture, and explicit gender rules (I&J, 43-58). Communism engulfed everyone so much that people were afraid to be different. The culture of the 1950’s was not only seen in their everyday lives but shown through advertisements.

The HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) started small in the 30’s and became a much more permanent as well as prominent after the war. Thanks to McCarthy again they gained reason to investigate many, as the name suggests, un-American activities in order to root out the Soviet collaborators. They also

The Red Scare was a significant event in The Cold War. It was the fear of the spread of communism and America didn’t want that to happen so they issued organizations and laws to try and prevent the spread of communism (Containment Policy).

In the 1950’s, Senator Joseph McCarthy turned Americans against each other by installing fear in the people regarding toward Communism. During this time, in fact, people were getting blacklisted even if they weren't communist. In an incident at the Republican Women’s Club of Wheeling, McCarthy delivered a speech. The situation involving the Senator escalated when he stated that the State Department is infested with Communist. In this point in time, due to the false allegations, people went on a decade long period of witch hunts. Sam Roberts, the author of “A Decade of Fear” stated that in fact, “...thousands of alleged Communists in the U.S. were arrested and deported during what became known as the Red Scare.”

The Red Scare, also known as, McCarthyism started in the early 1950’s. It got the name McCarthyism from Senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy. McCarthy started The Red Scare. It was very similar to a witch hunt but, it wasn’t witches they were hunting for. They were searching for communist. The Red Scare was a horrible and cruel period during the early 1900’s.

The Red Scare is referred to as America’s fear of communism. Taking a second to look back on History, American suspicion of communism first began in the 1920’s during World War One. Thirty years later, the paranoia over communism was stirred up by the influences of war against the Soviet Union, Un-American Activities committee and McCarthyism. This changed America’s perception of society and politics.

“The Red Scare of the 1950s, the years of Senator MCcarthy the city began condemning homes” (Normark 17.) When many social and interracial labor movements of the Left were dismantled. This was not an isolated case this was happening all over the country right before our own eyes. A 1950 far-sighted housing development of 3364 housing units proposed on a 278-acre site in the underprivileged downtown Chavez Ravine neighborhood. Elysian Park Heights, the project was intended to be the groundwork for citywide slum revitalization development. Regardless of how self-sufficient the residents of Chavez Ravine one of the more prominent Mexican American thriving communities served as a home to three Mexican Communities La Loma, Palo Verde and Bishop. Job and housing discrimination was one of the reasons the neighborhoods rallied around each other making them a thriving community. Despite of having no help from the city they had a school, church and vegetation. (Evanosky 80) Mexican families being discriminated everywhere else in the city they found refuge and decided to make Chavez Ravine their home. (Dennis Evanosky, Eric J. Kos, 80) Getting no response from the city, in spite of years asking for help to upgrade their community. The government condemn the habitat as a blighted area this changed their lives as they knew it. (80)

A Red Scare is known as the promotion of fear of a potential rise of communism (a political theory where in society property is owned publically and every single person that works is paid according to their abilities and needs) or radical leftism (a synonym for “farthest left” of the left-wing politics). The First Red Scare was mainly about the worker revolution and political radicalism (political principles focused on altering social structures through revolutionary means). The Red Scare took place in 1919 through 1920.

No one realized at first that McCarthy accused many on baseless charges, as they were too scared to see straight. As a response to this “Red” (Communist) Scare, the United States House of Representatives commenced the House un-American Activities Committee. As Grolier Online stated, “Under the chairmanship of Texas Democratic representative Martin Dies, Jr., it investigated fascist, Communist, and other so-called extremist or subversive political organizations” (“Grolier Online”). In other words, the HUAC attempted to censor Communist, Nazi, and other “left-wing” parties and prevent them from poisoning the minds of the American public. They viciously attacked such Nazi-supporting parties as the German-American Bund and the Silver Shirt Legion (“Grolier Online”), calling them out publicly and trying to get them shut down or obliterated. The HUAC also tried to investigate the Communist Party’s “infiltration of the government,” supposedly to keep the people safe and promote democracy and capitalism in America (“Grolier Online”). However, things did not go as planned for the HUAC. Over time, its arguably good intentions became skewed and a desire to improve America turned into a horribly misguided witch-hunt, influenced by Communism fear, that ruined the lives and careers of many. Law-abiding citizens were accused of Communism on ridiculous charges, and citizens were promptly sent to prison. Due to this, the HUAC began to change in

During 1919-1920, the United States of America was in an uproar. The government thought the Red Scare which was the government of communism in Russia was going to take over the government of the United States of America. If you showed in interest in the government of communism, you may be considering as an immigrant. You may have somebody from the government come to your house asking you questions or even worse you may throw you in prison. This was a nary terrible to be an American citizen. Your loyalty was always being question. You had to watch what you say, especially, in public, because the government had a way of taking your words and twisting them and make you say what you really did not say. People were constantly living in fear. Parents

Communism is a political theory that sets each aspect of society at an equal standard. This theory was created to provide the poor with an opportunity to rise financially and socially. Having a completely equal economy would mean that the bottom of the barrel and the high society will be crunched together in one. In order for society to reach this state of equilibrium financially, wealth would have to be redistributed so that the upper class can be brought down, while the lower class would be elevated (Yahoo). With that being said, a lot of people were in fear of losing their hard earned money. This was one of the main causes to the Red Scare. The Red Scare is rounding up of several hundred immigrants with communist views by the federal

Congress also created the House on Un-American Activities Committee in 1947, the goal of HUAC was to investigate Hollywood for communism and communist propaganda being broadcasted to the American public. They hauled movie stars, screenwriters, directors, up and interviewed them to the thrill of the national press corps, they pressed them to implicate others in Hollywood and name names. Ten of those interviewed refused based on the unconstitutional nature of and violation of the First Amendment for this many of them were blacklisted from Hollywood. Joseph McCarthy despite his renown for anticommunism, he was not part of the HUAC. Later he held his own committees based on his secrete list of 205 plus names that were communists or communist sympathizers in the US government. Communism was not and has never been a major threat in the United States. It was not in the 1950’s it is not now. Anyone that brings up red scare is doing so trying to invoke fear to distract you from whatever domestic problems actually need confronting. The biggest reason that can be said was that the American Communist Party was extremely tiny and the fact that we have a two party system effectively neuters any third party from gaining real power either through legal or illegal

The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was created to determine and seek out pro-communist activities. In this era, it is important to note that pro-communist was synonymous with anti-american. They singled out groups such as the American Communist Party, left-wing organizations, and immigrants. They even started to investigate those in Hollywood, which divided the community. It can be compared to the Salem Witch Trials; people created lists of guilty people and

During the late 1940’s and throughout the 1950’s, there was a great fear of Communism in America and abroad. The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) was created in 1938 as a means to investigate and weed out Communists and Communist supporters from American society. Its first major attack was on the Hollywood film industry. Blacklisting of Hollywood writers, actors, producers, directors and others suspected of Communist affiliations began with the committee's hearings in October of 1947, and flourished throughout the 1950s. Senator Joseph

During the late 1940’s, Senator Joseph McCarthy had begun rumors of infiltrated communists, which would later become to be known as “McCarthyism”. McCarthyism was showed in many different ways such as falsely accusing, and the widespread use of fear throughout the nation of communism. in the political cartoon “It’s okay - we’re hunting communists”, The HUAC (which played a large role in the second red scare alongside McCarthyism), is shown ramming into a large crowd of people, which signifies how the people driving the “HUAC car” were affected and influenced by McCarthyism to search many people due to speculations and lots of news surrounding communism infiltration (Block). During the time of McCarthyism, there were many investigations and