What Is The Fear 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 first major cause of the Red Scare and the fear of communism was WWII. Communism was not a big problem during the war considering that “During the war the United States sent more than $11 billion in aid to the soviet.”(Fitzgerald 27). After the war Russia wanted to punish the germans for attacking their capital, but the U.S along with all the other allied nations did not agree with the Soviet and tension between the two started. Although “The anti communist hysteria of the early 1950s was actually the second Red Scare of the United States.”(Fitzgerald 16), “the first occurred after a revolution in Russia in October of 1917”(Fitzgerald 16), the country reacted in greater fear than the the first time as proved “In New York City, 11,000 police and detectives were kept on twenty-four-hour duty, guarding all federal, state, city, and county buildings, as well as the Stock Exchange and the homes of prominent men.” (Murray 116) showing how much hysteria had invaded the government and the people. All of these events pushed

The 1950s are best known for their doo-wop music slicked back hair and poodle skirts, but underneath all that is the fear of communism. These fears did not just pop out of the blue in 1950. Fear started in the late 40s over issues of disloyalty, civil rights, and the boom.

The First and Second Red Scare of the United States paved the way for a long standing fear of communism and proved to be one of America’s largest periods of mass hysteria. Throughout the years authors and analysts have studied and formed expository albeit argumentative books and articles in an attempt to further understand this period of time; the mindset held during this period however is shown to be completely different compared to now.

The same went for the rising fear of Communism moving in. It started like a seed blowing in the wind, as referred to beginning form of pods in "Body Snatchers". Those small seeds turned into larger pods and the hub of fear, the mother ship was represented by the large seething plant producing carbon copies of the humans they intended on taking over. This was the view of so many of what would happen if Americans did not hold tight and secure to their capitalist roots.

During this time, Americans focused most of their fears on communist subversion throughout the country and the possible threat of an atomic war with the detonation of the Soviet Union 's first atomic bomb in 1949. There was a constant unease within the people that made it extremely difficult to trust one another without the suspicion that they supported the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) or had some sort of communist ties. The nationwide suspicion led to surveillance and exposure

    Would you want to live in a society where you didn’t have any freedom, and were being controlled by your government? Americans in the late 1940’s to late 1950’s certainly didn’t. Their government wanted to control the possessions people had and how they acted politically, economically, and socially in their everyday lives. The Americans worried about this state of having no freedom. This created a fear that spread all over the United States, called the Red Scare. During the Red Scare, people worried about communism becoming part of the U.S. and feared the influencers that fueled it to become a countrywide panic.

During the 1950’s, Communism was a major fear that Democratic nations such as America were afraid of because of its radical ideas. The actions taken due to the Red Scare and the rise of McCarthyism were necessary and completely justified to protect America’s freedom and government from Communist power. With an increase of Communistic nations invading other countries and forcing their ideas upon them there was an uproar of fear in the United States. The Domino Theory was a legitimate fear of if one nation falling to communism, every nation around it would fall as well. Focusing their attention to VIetnam especially, America increased military control in these regions. Multiple Legislative actions taken by the United States such as the creation of the HAUC and the Espionage and Sedition acts were necessary to stop threats to America’s freedom. The heated tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War contributed to the fear of an attack from the East. Senator McCarthy’s convincing accusations lead to many accurate accusations as well as the rise of McCarthyism. Valid points were brought up about president Roosevelt’s New Deal policies of having capitalistic characteristics. While some actions did take away the civil liberties of some Americans, and were not always accurate, they were necessary to protect American Democracy, as well as the safety of the citizens.

At this time both the democratic United States and the communist Soviet Union believed that successful advancements in technology would enable them to assert strength and superiority. According to Achieve 3000, “Case Against Rosenberg Falls Apart,” “In 1949, The Soviet Union test-launched an atomic bomb, an act that raised suspicions within the U.S. government” (1). Also, the thought of the Soviet Union having the ability to relinquish such a devastating weapon on the United States frightened the people of America as well. When the Cold War developed in the late 1040s the U.S. government again feared that the communist revolution in the Soviet Union would influence many people in the U.S. to do the same. According to the text,”The fear of communism even spread towards Hollywood when a congressional group called the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) investigated communist influence in the entertainment industry, issuing subpoenas to writers, actors, directors, and studio executives and asking them, ‘Are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist party’”(1).

Apart from the fear and paranoia towards the Communist camp, Americans were also shocked by the news of Communist spies and espionages within their own backyard. This not only led to increased surveillance in the US but the environment also became rather hostile and surveillance was very high. When the Soviet’s obtained their own nuclear bombs, the threat of the nuclear bomb and the advancement of Communism itself became blur. In the film Atomic Café, archival footage of U.S. Senator Owen Brewster reveals him saying that the Russians obtained the atom bomb, “not through independent research, but from America, from traitors within our own ranks,” referring specifically to alleged Communists. This instigated a new sense of fear and paranoia

After Red Scare is the term the fear of Communism in America held in the 1900’s. Following World War I, The Soviet Union, led by Joseph Stalin, began taking over countries and putting in Communist governments. To make fear worse the Czechoslovakia was taken over by by the soviet union having spy’s inside the Czechoslovakian government as high ranking officials. This put the fear of God in Americans because we didn’t know who could have been a Communist spy sent here by Russia destroy America.“Few periods in American history have been so dramatic, so fraught with mystery or so brothing with fear and hysteria as were the days of the great Red Scare.” (Robert K. Murray). Also we saw a rash of accusations by man named Joseph Mccarthy used his tactic of Mccarthyism to accuse many innocent Americans of being Communist.

The Cold War propelled the United States of America into a seat of previously unattained power in the world . American citizens spearheaded the push toward advancement in their search for the epitome of happiness: the “American Dream”. Post-war paranoia was driven by the supposed threat of the spread of communism, which Americans feared could interfere with the freedoms and liberties the founding fathers fought to achieve. This paranoia eventually controlled the thoughts and actions of citizens everywhere. The Second Red Scare spread across America like a virus, leaving a trail of dread and despair in its wake. The fear of the growing communist regime, a lack of trust between citizens and the government, and a zealous streak of American pride drove the U.S. toward internal conflict and potential devastation.

The fear of a Communist threat found its roots in the years after World War II. The idea that Soviet spies were stealing American secrets was later propagated by the Rosenberg trial. While Julius Rosenberg was indeed a spy, his wife Ethel was only charged as a pawn to coerce her husband. Her execution was one of many examples of the suffering of people who were arraigned for even the slightest affiliation with the Communist party. The fear of Communism would lead to legal action in the name of national security. It is, of course, fallacious to link every person with Communist views to the Soviet Union. However, the anti-Communist movement was often riddled with fallacies, as can be seen in J. Edgar Hoover’s testimony before the HUAC in 1947.

Americas main fear was the actual spread of communism and the fear that a domino effect would occur, especially the far east. In 1949, their fears were confirmed when communist China took power and North Korea consequently became a communist country and began to threaten pro-American South Korea. That same year, the Soviet Union developed and tested its first atomic bomb, which was years earlier than American scientists had anticipated. This chain of events began the Arms race between the Soviet Union and the U.S., which would continue until the late 1980s with each side trying to outdo the other. Against this background many other subsequent events helped to stir up suspicion and mass paranoia which only heightened anti-communist sentiment,

One main contributor of the paranoia regarding communism would have to be Senator Joseph McCarthy. Being a senator of a state obtains a position of power and having power also means influencing others especially with what you say and do. In his speech, delivered on February 9, 1950, McCarthy states, “I have in my hand 205 cases of individuals who would appear to be either card carrying members or certainly loyal to the Communist Party” (Joseph). He establishes credibility because he is a senator, but his accusations towards others of any association/affiliation to communism with no solid evidence to support his claim led to people questioning who could be trusted and who could not. In addition, McCarthy was known to have to no proof and exaggerates his points especially targeting those who worked for the government of exposing confidential information, those he called a “communist sympathizer.”