How The Red Scare Affected American Culture

Mass hysteria has been part of history since the beginning of time. It happened in the United States the years 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. In Salem, two young girls were responsible for starting mass hysteria by showing erratic behavior and accusing other people of witchcraft. This resulted in the death of over 20 people. Salem citizens were very confused and scared because they were never sure of how secure they actually were. Another reason Salem citizens were nervous was because, if their fate was put to the test, it would be in the hands of an unreliable court. Another event that involves mass hysteria was the one known as “The Red Scare”. The Red Scare was a variety of actions that led to an enduring episode of fear and hostility through the years 1940s and 1950s. The Red Scare was caused by a series of threats towards America. The Red Scare had many figures but two that were exemplary to others were Hoover and McCarthy. These men stirred up the environment with more problems than it had before. Citizens of America were surrounded by many threats especially their homes being corrupted by the pressure they were surrounded by. Politics played a very keystone part in The Red Scare because it was the fuel to the fire. Families and friends were being separated since

The Cold War brought out the suspicious side of the American population. Our government had fired or forced resignations of thousands of government employees. The Justice Department had begun prosecuting eleven leaders of the Communist Party, who were later convicted and imprisoned. Two trials became the center of attention, one against former State Department official Ager Hiss and another against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Americans were fearing that communist spies

The Red scare was a series of witch hunts for suspected communist sympathetic members of congress and public office holding Citizens who were supposedly “Red” this lasted from (1919-1920) started by the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. During the first war the Red Scared was represented the widespread concern that Americans had developed over the fear of communist subversion within society. The American people went into a mass hysteric frenzy over the news and many

Major and still important was the First Red Scare stemming from the First World War’s end and America’s Great Depression beginning to kick off. With food and living expenses drastically increasing certain propaganda began to appear. Perhaps one of the most notable of these was Lenin’s “Letter to the

The Red Scare represented the widespread concern that Americans had developed over the fear of communist subversion within society. Americans believed, especially during the Cold War, which was a period of tension between the United States and Soviet Union, that communism was attempting to infiltrate every aspect of their lives. While this is not necessarily the best analogy, you can relate the widespread fear of communism during the Cold War as being similar to the heightened alert Americans had toward terrorism and suspected terrorists during the beginning of the modern century.

The Red Scare originally started in 1920, many Americans feared that a Bolshevik-style revolution was at hand. One of the first major strikes after the end of the war was the Seattle shipyard strike of 1919, on January 21, 35,000 shipyard workers in Seattle struck. A general strike resulted when 60,000 workers in the Seattle area struck on February 6. The strikers were labeled as Reds who and charges that they were trying to incite revolution were leveled against them. Hysteria came to the city as department stores, grocery stores, and pharmacies were flooded by scared customers trying to figure out what the needed to do or have to be able to survive a prolonged strike, nobody knew for how long would this happen and

The Red Scare took place in the late 1940’s and early 50’s during the Cold War and was an event that occurred in the U.S. The Red Scare was the episode of Americans being afraid of the spread of communism which led America to take desperate actions to stop it from spreading such as McCarthyism. One of the many things America did was make it mandatory for federal employees to be analyzed to tell if they were a communist. Another was the HUAC (House of Un-American Activities Committee)

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.

As World War I was heading towards its end Russia was focusing on internal issues. Led by Vladimir Lenin the Bolsheviks embarked on a campaign against the war. Using propaganda which focused on trying to turn the allied troops against their officers Lenin looked to inspire a socialist revolution. The Bolsheviks were also fueled by the poor conditions of the Russian Army. Nicholas II, in a letter to his wife Alexandra, admitted the obstacles that the Russian Army faced, "Again that cursed question of shortage of artillery and rifle ammunition - it stands in the way of an energetic advance." Czar Nicholas tried to deny the fact that his Army was in no condition to continue the fight. Lenin and the Bolsheviks used this information to gain

mysteries which occurred in 1953 was the electrocution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg under the Espionage Act. They were convicted for giving the secret information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. The anti-communist sentiment that characterized the Cold War and McCarthyism led to their trial and execution. Even though there is some evidence of the Rosenbergs' guilt, numerous facts which were discovered after the death of Ethel and Julius argue more convincingly that they were innocent victims of Cold War hysteria.

The McCarthy era, which generally spanned from 1947 to 1957, brought to the forefront of American politics the question of civil rights. At issue were controversies about both First Amendment rights to assembly and free speech and Fifth Amendment rights to due process and freedom from self-incrimination. Anti-Communist actions often involved restrictions on these rights, and heading the anti-Communist movement was the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). This committee, which consisted of government officials from Congress, was formed to investigate the threat of Communism in America. In doing so, the committee brought in witnesses, usually individuals thought to have, or to have had, Communist

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were an American couple that was charged with espionage. The US government convicted them of being spies for the Soviet Union. It wasn’t something of a little matter. What the Rosenbergs gave, it has the power to destroy families, towns, even major cities. They gave the Soviet Union the plans to the atomic bomb. On the fateful day of June 19, 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were strapped to the electric chair and executed at a prison called Sing Sing. Although Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were significant to the Soviet Union’s development of their atomic weaponry, their crime cost America a lot of panic, cost the government a lot of money, and cost them their lives. Was it really worth it?

Communism played a major role shaping the 20th century, both for the East and the United States. Its impact can be seen in the US from 1919 to the 1990s and even today. The spread of Communist ideals in the East meant the beginning of the socialist state and mass industrialization. Its effect on the US was much different. The United States people, heavily diversified of all races, religions, and financial statuses, became extremely jingoistic as a result of competition with the USSR. This nationalism became unhealthy as citizens began determining what was “un-American.” The Communist Party USA was not successful in their primary objective of spreading communism to the US. What they did achieve however was hugely important. They showed that citizens of the United States could be scared out of their own freedom. That fear would lead them to give up “liberty and justice for all”. Still a highly misunderstood idea, it is important for citizens of the United States to understand what communism is and what impact the CPUSA and other communist organizations had on the country.

The Red Scare was well underway by the end of 1947, but a series of events in late 1949 and 1950 fed the anti-communist hysteria. In September 1949 Americans learned that the Soviet Union had

In the year 1965, American government announced, with public support, that America is going to win the guerilla war and defeat the “global communist conspiracy”. It also promised to build free institutions in South-East Asia. Two years later, in the year 1967, the same affair was considered not only as unsuccessful, but also as a gruesome action of the politicians.