The During The Communist Era

At the end of the 1940’s and the beginning of the 1950’s, the United States were in the midst of the Second Red Scare and a fear that Communism might over throw the American way of life. Cold War tensions were at an all time high, which only fueled the widespread fears of Communist subversion. It was here that Senator Joseph McCarthy became a public face when he began making claims that the U.S. Government, as well as many other areas of the country, including the entertainment industry, had been invaded by Soviet and Communist spies, looking to destroy America from within. Hearings before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Hollywood Blacklisting, and anti-communist activity from the FBI soon followed. McCarthy was under intense analysis

The Soviet Economy has been termed a ‘command economy’. Do you feel this is an appropriate and adequate characterisation?

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.

Our federal government involvement with communism during the mid-1950s is what made the Communist threat such a big concern or obsession for the general public. Between the 1940s and 1950s, almost every government agency was on a crusade against Communists. Although the name for this phenomenon was taken from Senator McCarthy, McCarthy wasn’t the one that held the most influence in the development of McCarthyism. It was the executive branch of the government. This branch brought up concerns about national security and built the foundation for the anti-Communist campaign to operate on. The main reason for this was to gain support for the Cold War and obtain bipartisan backing for foreign policy. Truman and his administration were worried that

The emergence of the Cold War with the Soviet Union had far reaching impacts on American society, including hindering the pace of social reform in the United States. While some aspects of the Cold War may have helped promote certain social reforms, the net impact, deterred inevitable social reforms. Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War induced a fear of communism in Americans that had numerous effects on American policies. McCarthyism, a period of controversial accusations on supposedly “communist” Americans, developed from the panic that communism would overcome the United States’ government, leading to loss of individual freedoms. In addition, social reform, especially the Civil Rights Movement, received inadequate attention as American leaders fixated on defeating communism and preventing it from contaminating the United States. Therefore, the United States’ preoccupation with containing communism throughout the Cold War Era hindered social reform domestically. As a result, social reform successes were limited primarily to those exhibiting visible political value by demonstrating the United States’ belief in equality and democracy to the rest of the world.

The U.S. has considered Communism the greatest threat before and after WW2 and the civil war. It also worked very well in China. During the 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy unfairly accused a number of innocent people of being communist and traitors.

The Cold War’s major belief was communism, which simplify was the belief that property is publicly owned, everyone worked and is paid according to their needs and work ethic. The U.S. strongly disapproved of this belief system and is the major reason The USSR and the U.S. went to war. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a short lived dispute between the USSR, Cuba, and the U.S. over ballistic missiles. The Iron curtain was basically the imaginary line that dived the communist countries and none communist countries. The Vietnam War was the conflict between North and South Vietnam. South Vietnam was supported by the U.S., while the North was supported by The USSR. South Vietnam wanted to bring the countries into communism, while South Vietnam wanted a democratic.

The United States did not have a favorable relationship with the Soviet Union during the Cold War due to the Soviet’s desire to spread communism. In the midst of the ideological battle between the United States and the Soviets, U.S. sought attention to whole Southeast Asia due to the radical dispersion of Communism. North Vietnam formed an alliance with the Soviet Union, and China to unite the country into a communist regime. As an international peace keeper, the United States decided to fund the French and eventually send military troops to Vietnam to help in combat he North Vietnamese guerillas, and contain the spread of communism before it escalates in full-scale across all of Southeast Asia. The Marshall Plan urged the United States to

“Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win, workingmen of all countries, unite!” (Karl Marx). This quote is one of the most famous political slogans excerpted from the book Communist Manifesto, which was written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It demonstrates Marx’s opinion on social classism and how he is against it by stating the imbalance between the working class and the ruling class. The quote ends with a rallying cry and call for the unity of all workers to rebel and demand for their own rights. The book Communist Manifesto is based on the idea of socialist theory. According to the Oxford Online Dictionaries, socialism is a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole (www.oxforddictionaries). In other words, it is a political system where the means of production is controlled by the government rather than individuals or private companies. It is described by Marx as the “first and lower phase of communism”. The theory is that the working class should unite together to overthrow the oppressive government and the upper class, which is also known as the bourgeoisie. No private properties should be owned by individuals or organizations. As a result, there will be no social classes to differentiate between

After World War II, the world was in a state of heightened suspicion that was lead by ideological differences. There were two main “superpowers” that shaped perceptions of the rest of the world. One was the United States, who had come out of the war fairly unscathed, which was due to little to no conflict directly on its soil, in addition to the possession of atomic weapons and a strong navy and air force. The other major player was the Soviet Union, whose industry was recovered during the first few years of the war in addition to a powerful army. These superpowers had a large impact on other countries due to their ideological differences: the United States favored a capitalistic democracy while the Soviet Union believed in communism. One country that was heavily influenced by both superpowers at the same time was Korea, which was ultimately split into two halves. The United States had a heavy impact on the south while the Soviet Union had an effect on the north. During the Cold War from the late 1940s to the early 1950s, The Soviet Union and the United States wanted to set up spheres of influence in foreign countries so that they could observe what the other was doing, which ultimately lead to the exploitation of North and South Korea.

The United State’s was not subtle in their distain for communism and the Soviet Union; they fanned the ideological flames between capitalism and communism rather than putting them out. Directly after the war the US created the Marshall Plan, where they gave $13 billion to European states. In President Truman’s speech ‘The Truman Doctrine’ he talks about Greece and Turkey and threatens if aid is not given, Greece’s democracy will be under threat by armed men supported by communists. This was a strategic ploy to prevent communism, by allowing capitalism to flourish. Full-employment leaves people happy, and accepting of capitalism and less likely to turn to radical communism. However the Soviet Union was not impressed with this because they believed that capitalism was the root of fascism, and their allied states declined the funding.

-The Cold War is one of the most complicating yet interesting topics in history. It was an altercation between the Soviet Union and the United States over different ideologies concerning politics. Russia believed in communism which was the ideology of advocating class war and believing that all property was publicly owned (Sherman, 2004). Each person is given or gets paid however much they need. Everything was owned by the government and divided equally among the people who eventually worked for what they got. This was totalitarian. The United States had a capitalist economy. This was an economical system where a country's industry and their trade is controlled by a private owner for profit not by the state. It followed the idea that people

The show also didn’t show the political tension of the decade. One of the if not the biggest political tension of this time was McCarthyism. This was what really sent off the red scare. In 1950 Senator McCarthy gave a speech where he said he knew 205 communist who worked for the Department of State. He reported 81 cases the day of his speech and skipped many numbers and repeated the same flimsy evidence. The Senate called for a full investigation and many peoples lives was ruined due to all the false accusations. All of this lasted until 1954 when McCarthy attacked the military with his claims and the military questioned McCarthy's methods and credibility. Then poll after poll the citizens turned on McCarthy, then McCarthy’s colleagues censured

It would have been curious to see what communism could have done for black people in America between the 1920s – 1960s, but much like the rest of the world, the implementation theory was mired in personal grudges and beliefs. The people of America and their government, especially, were so afraid that under that despicable black skin of their underclass they would find naturally occurring red, red blood, red muscle, red sinew, something resembles a human being worthy of equality and fair treatment. The pre-cold war attack on black activism was not about communism at all, but white fear. It didn’t have to be communism, it could have been atheism, Islam, socialism, it could have been their skin alone it was just that communism was the most readily

During the 1970s communism started to gain popularity among Asian countries, for instance in Vietnam and Cambodia. The communist party in Cambodia led by Pol Pot, the Kampuchea People Revolutionary Party, started underground and slowly rose to power. The KPRP, was the most prominent communist party at that time. This is because the ex-ruler Sihanouk supported it. In the beginning of its rule the KPRP was accepting of the monks and even Chantou Boua, a woman who was in Cambodia during the civil war period of 1970-1975, stated that it was not entirely “clear what the Khmers policy was towards Buddhism”. However, this was during a time before the Khmer Rouge had complete power. With the support of Sihanouk, who devised a militant organization