The Second Red Scare: The Rise Of Communism

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 false truths and over exaggerations of the communist ideology resulted in a paranoid society which was essentially controlled by “The Red Scare.” Furthermore, the fear and suspicion which this propaganda evoked resulted in citizens suspecting that those closest to them were involved in communist activities. Americans did not trust one another, and often, essential members of society were fired from their jobs and publically humiliated after investigations of suspected communist activities – which provided poor evidence. In most cases, there was no truth to such investigations. After reports of corruption within American government establishments, such as HUAC and the FBI, Americans lost trust in their own government. Americans were programmed to blame communism for any issues within society, as this propaganda prohibited them from critically analysing the circumstances at hand. Additionally, the ‘American Way of Life’ which advertisements and other propaganda publications deceived Americans to believe they were so privileged to be living, was in fact superficial and oppressive. As a result of the fear in which Americans lived during this time, citizens were too afraid to question the capitalist system which their government promoted, but rather, conformed to it. Evidently, American government propaganda during the Cold War years bred a society which was ignorant of and naïve to the realities of their own lives, and the world around them. The American government failed to acknowledge that they were damaging their own country through these propaganda campaigns, rather than allowing them to experience what true freedom and respect for human rights felt like. America was a country which was unable to unite and therefore function as an effective unit both socially, economically and politically, as a result of their inability to think freely

Another one of the major things that happened in the 1950s was the Red Scare. What that means is that people were scared that communists would rise against them. Many of the people were very affected and according to The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History:“Hundreds of screenwriters, actors, and directors were blacklisted because of their alleged political beliefs, while teachers, steelworkers, sailors, lawyers, and social workers lost their jobs for similar reasons.More than thirty-nine states required teachers and other public employees to take loyalty oaths” (Anti-Communism).

Vivian Gonzalez Mr. Martinez-Ramos A.P. United States History May 3, 2000 McCarthyism was one of the saddest events of American history. It destroyed people’s lives and shattered many families. It threw innocent people into a whirlwind of mass confusion and fictional portrayals of their lives. McCarthyism spawned for the country’s new found terror of Communism known as the red scare. McCarthyism was an extreme version of the red scare, a scare whose ends did not justify the means. The Red Scare happened twice in the history of this great country. When the communist took over Russia in 1919, the American people were unnerved. They were afraid of a communist take over in the states. When the First World War ended in 1918, there was still

The 1950's were viewed as a decade of prosperity for many Americans. For lesbians and gay men, it was both a time of great fear and immeasurable courage (“Coming Out in America”). During the fifties, being different in America was seen as a crime to many Americans especially to an individual named Senator McCarthy. Senator McCarthy was a Republican senator from Wisconsin during the late forties and fifties. He is known best for being the leader of what are called Red Scare and the Lavender Scare. The Red Scare was the fear of the emergence of Communism in America during the Cold War. Not only did Senator McCarthy accuse people of being communist throughout the decade, but also accused some of being homosexuals as well. The discrimination of homosexuals during the forties and fifties is referred to as the Lavender Scare. Because of the spread of Communism and the societal views on homosexuality during the fifties, many Americans thought of this as the era of great conflict and fear.

Everybody made a good attempt as they could to not appear like communists, but rather even famous people and government officials who were not communists were blamed for being Russian spies. Blacklists were created by movie executives to expose more communists due to pressure from the negative publicity aimed at their studios. This got people to lose their jobs. A few individuals who were blamed for being called a communist were fired from their occupations, captured and researched by the police, and assaulted by people. The Red Scare was a major part of the Cold War because of the vital events that occurred and heightened it. During the Cold War the Soviets and America had great tension between each other and since some Americans were terrified of the spread of communism, many other Americans, and even government officials gave the public attention to the

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.

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 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.

The Cold War was between the United States and the Soviet Union. This war began in 1945 and ended in 1991. The reason why this war began was because the United States and the Soviet Union had different opinions about economics and government. Senator Joseph McCarthy’s action do reflect the attitudes of both Americans and the American government during the early 1950s. The reason why is because communist in the United States became known as the red scare. Another reason why is because we did not want any communist in office. Lastly, The Rosenbergs were Soviet spies so they could share atomic secrets from the Manhattan Project.

The United States department of justice started to investigate people who were suspected of communism. Those raids were nicknamed after the Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. More than 500 foreigners were deported and over 6000 people were arrested and put in jail. The government wanted to take down any organisation or throw in jail any citizen that were suspected of sharing interest with the Bolshevist party, the russian communist party led first by Lenin and then took over by Stalin. The Palmer raids targeted communists but a lot of innocent people that sometimes weren’t supported the communist party were incarcerated.

Early in the 1990 Russia and Red China were on a mission to build up their armies to be the best in the world. Both counties wear communist counties this made the United States fearful that they were trying to spread. Communism throughout the world the United States government and other official became very fearful and resentful toward anyone from Russia or China. Many Chinese and Russian professors working at major universities lost their jobs, they could not gather together without interference and they were spied upon. There Russian and Chinese citizen now had their civil rights violated. This jean became known as the Red Scare. The government influenced public opinions that made the United States citizens see Russia and China as our enemies.

This seemingly harmless action, and the bombings around the country in connection with the Red Scare, led to the start of blaming the American Communist Party for domestic disturbances to the status quo. The fact that Communist Party members were heads and members of labor unions, allowed Big Business owners and special interest groups to direct blame for radical actions such as work strikes or demands for wage compensation on to the Communists, allowing them to ignore, or dismiss any grievance brought against them; while at the same time tarnishing the image and reputation of the Communist Party (Schrecker, 14). In addition, the exaggeration of radicalism at the time allowed organizations like the FBI and law enforcement to expand and improve their image among the general public, which eventually led to J. Edgar Hoover being one of the figureheads of anticommunism (Schrecker, 15).