The Fear Of Communism Affected American Life

Fears of communism was a huge issue dating back after the Second World War. Americans were afraid of every new person coming into the United States and they did not want anyone who they thought was a “communist” to stay in the United States. The United States government made many Americans inclined to fear. Eisenhower's administration did not influence communism but Eisenhower's “Domino Theory” helped decrease a little of the American fears of communism. Containment also helped lower the fears that almost every American was having after the Second World War. Every policy that Eisenhower had was driven from the fear of communism. Communism was absolutely the biggest fear that Americans had dating back after the Second World War, the Eisenhower

Fear “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”- H. P. Lovecraft. In the 1900’s, fear drove America. The Red Scare was a time when Americans were afraid of the threat of Communism. In the Sacco and Vanzetti case, two Italian anarchists were convicted of crimes which they were clearly innocent of. The Ku Klux Klan attempted to keep African-Americans out of positions of power and for brief time was successful. The Red Scare, Sacco Vanzetti case and the rise of the KKK all are example of how American’s fear the unknown and what we don’t understand.

The Vietnam war has been referred to by many names, one of the longer ones was 'the cornerstone of the free world southeast Asia'. It was called that by John F. Kennedy. He was talking about Vietnam being and essential country in a non-communist world. He believed that if Vietnam

Immediately after World War II, another war emerged from the horizon. The Cold War, a battle for both political and military superiority between the Soviet Union and the United States, began soon after World War II, with Vietnam as a central issue. Vietnam, bordered by China, Laos, and Cambodia, became a colony of the French in the late 1800s, who exploited the locals for raw material, such as tin, rubber, and oil. They justified imperialism by insisting that they were protecting the Vietnamese and held power over Indochina until World War II. Desperate for resources, the Japanese conquered Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, for raw materials during World War II. While the French did naught, Ho Chi Minh took advantage of the political

After World War II, the American psyche became permanently stained with new ideas. During this time period, the American government actively sought to change the way the American people thought. The support of the American public was crucial to the success of the war effort. Many ideas introduced during this point of time consisted of new roles of certain people groups in American society. Women and minority groups would prove themselves in the workplace, millions of citizens would be discriminated against, and social barriers would be broken and assembled. Even though World War II took place in Europe and the Pacific, it made lasting social changes that can still be seen in America.

The tragedies and hardships of the Civil War touch the lives of every citizen, including children. With many of the men away at war, women and children were left to fend for themselves through these hardships on the home front. Children of all races and circumstances experienced their share of struggles. Fear was a dominant emotion among Southern children, particularly the fear of invasions by the Union army. There was a constant threat of physical violence, death, and separation of family. Conscription and evacuations threatened to separate families. Raids resulted in physical violence, destruction of property, and theft. Even if there was no threat of physical harm, the war could interrupted day-to-day life through acts such as

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.

During the late 1940s and the early 1950s, the thought of communism instilled fear within many Americans because it was portrayed in such a way that confined diversity and corroded political culture. This fear of communism was nicknamed the “Red Scare” and was fed by Joseph McCarthy’s accusations of hidden communist in the country. The Manchurian Candidate was a black-and-white American film released in 1962 that depicted the Cold War and the effects that paranoia had on the nation. It was released at the peak of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the spread of communism. This film was about Raymond Shaw, the son of a right-wing political family, who was brainwashed to act as an assassin for his mother in a communist conspiracy theory. Major Bennet (Ben) Marco was another main character that played an important role in discovering the truth of Shaw’s brainwashing. Raymond Shaw faced the conflict of acting upon his free will while still being subconsciously manipulated by someone else. Throughout the film, Shaw was shown committing actions that he does not recall whatsoever later due to his programming which was triggered by the Queen of Diamonds playing card. Through the use of film techniques, The Manchurian Candidate creates a scenario which resembles the manifestation of America’s “Red Scare” paranoia in that the film portrays Raymond Shaw as an individual who lacks human agency due to his brainwashing because of a communist conspiracy.

The Vietnam War was costly not only to our armed forces but to our American economy and American morale. We entered the war in an attempt to end the communist regime of North Vietnam and their southern allies, the Vietcong, from taking over South Vietnam. South Vietnam was an ally of the United States and due to this political relationship; the United States was entitled to help defend their ally. More than 58,000 Americans were killed in the Vietnam War. By 1969 it was the peak of American involvement in the war and more than 500,000 U.S. military personnel were involved in the Vietnam conflict. Throughout the war growing opposition towards participation of military forces threatened the support of the war. American citizens began to

Modern interest in the Red Scare and the long standing efforts to balance liberty and safety in American history has brought some attention back to the topic of the Palmer Raids. The infamous nature of American anti-communist efforts may have died out but the language and ideology persists in many ways, particularly in the post 9/11 and Patriot Act era. Historians have long evaluated the Red Scare and the influence of the Palmer Raids on America’s understanding of ideological regulation. While some historians look at the influence of certain personalities like J. Edgar Hoover and A. Mitchell Palmer, others chose to write about the more abstract nature of civil rights and the controlling influence of the government. They also draw direct parallels

The pervasive Red Scare of the 1950s, which peaked just before mid- decade, legitimated the sanitizing of the nation's political culture, not only through prosecuting and persecuting anyone or anything smacking of communism, but also manipulating a whole range of suspect people, ideas, and artifacts. Purifying society of corrupting influences became a permissible activity, upheld by the religious, political, economic, legal, and cultural establishment. Everyone was vulnerable, but particularly the impressionable young, whose naiveté and search for excitement could easily lead to moral corruption or

After WWII the democratic U.S. and the soviets became engaged in a series of largely political and economic clashes we called the cold war. The rivalry between the two powers raised concerns in US that communist are inside the U.S. Which poses a U.S. Security threat and gets Americans scared. I believe that the red scare created McCarthyism and not the other way around because the red scare came right after wwII hysteria still left over from Hitler, the red scare is what led to actions that had an enduring effect on the us government and society, and because the us thinks soviet spies could be a threat to the US and cause Americans to start mistrusting and causing McCarthy to rise up with his accusations.

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

Sha'Myra Thompson February 2,2016 1st Hmm...did communism pose a threat to america? Let me begin by telling you about communism. The founder of modern communism was a man name Karl Marx. Born in 1818 to jewish prussian parents, he became a towering figure in political and economic philosophy in

Communism is a system of social organisation which formerly consumed almost a third of countries in the entire world, having originated in Russia. The first official communist state was founded during the Russian revolutions in 1917, due to the inaugural communist political party ‘Bolsheviks’ gaining primal power. Afterwards, the influence of communism spread to other countries with the likes of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and East Germany to name a few. These countries that were governed on communist principles were known as the ‘Eastern Bloc’. Even countries in Asia were persuaded into the theoretically human equality system such as China, Laos and Vietnam. Communism was gathering strength to strength every year in the mid 20th century, but eventually its impact was wiped off in the late 20th century when the Berlin War was knocked down in 1989, ending the barrier between the Eastern and Western blocs. Communism arguably was the most influential social experiment in history, but also the most flawed and its failure to change the world permanently will always remain significant in history.