Red Scare A New Hysteria 19461954 Commies Commies Be very very afraid Long history of Red Scares Anticommunist sentiment goes back to the Gilded Age Coming on the heels of the Paris Commune rebellion of 1871 the 1877 RR strike was regarded by many as the start of the concerte ID: 780629
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Slide1
McCarthyism and the 2nd Red Scare
A New Hysteria
1946-1954
Slide2Slide3Commies!
Slide4Commies: Be very, very afraid
Slide5Long history of “Red Scares”
Anti-communist sentiment goes back to the Gilded Age. Coming on the heels of the Paris Commune rebellion of 1871, the 1877 RR strike was regarded by many as the start of the “concerted assertion of Communism throughout the United States
.”
1918 U.S. (and other Western nations) invade Russia after the Bolsheviks take over
Post WWI Red Scare-Palmer Raids
These scares were usually tinged with anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic sentiment
Slide61940s and 1950s Government-sanctioned Witch Hunt
Federal Congressional Hearings
HUAC
McCarthy
States
States
often went farther that the federal gov’t, even passing
laws
that made communism
illegal
In
Washington, the
Canwell
Committee
ruined the lives of professors and
journalists. Targeted
University of Washington in particular
Private Organizations
The hysteria infiltrated even the most liberal organizations
ACLU
They fought against the hysteria at the same time purging their ranks of “communists”
NAACP
Slide7Slide8House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
Originally created in 1938 to root out Nazi sympathizers
After WWII and before McCarthy, HUAC
launches investigation s of communist activity and becomes central to the 2
nd
Red Scare
Standing subcommittee of the House of Representatives from 1945-1975
Purpose: To root out “subversion” of the American system
The Question:
“Are you now or
have you ever been a member of
the Communist Party?”
Slide9Power of Congressional Hearings
Creating a
Witch Hunt
It
is not illegal to be a communist.
Punishment was
blacklisting
.
Shunning from public society (Employment, Housing, etc.)
Those questioned had three options:
Admit communist activities (blacklisted unless also accusing others)
Deny communist activities (blacklisted unless also accusing others)
Deflect by accusing others
Slide10What is an exchange of opinions in the Soviet Union?
Slide11It is when you walk into the KGB (Soviet Security Police) interrogation room with your opinion and you talk out with theirs.
Slide12Loyalty Oaths
Instituted many states
and
federal government pledging
loyalty to the U.S.
Truman
establishes the Federal Employee Loyalty Program in 1947
Also called for background checks of employees suspected of ties to
subversive groups
.
5 million investigations. Thousands of people lost their jobs or were forced to resign.
Slide131947 HUAC focused on the entertainment industry and a
fourth option
for those questions
-
HUAC focused attention on liberal Hollywood
-Ronald Reagan and Walt
Disney
appear
before
HUAC: condemn communism.
-In 1947, the
Hollywood Ten
were convicted of
contempt
of Congress
for
refusing to testify.
Their
appeals
were
denied, all served prison terms of up to one year.
They were also blacklisted
Slide14Anti-communist Canwell Hearings 1948 at the University of Washington
Slide15What is this cartoon saying about the Cold War era in the U.S.?
June 17, 1949
Slide16Senator Joseph McCarthy
Demagogue
Wisconsin
Republican Senator turns to a platform of anti-Communism in a speech in Wheeling, WV in February 1950. McCarthy first instills fear:
“
…this is not a period of peace. This is a time of ‘the cold war.’ This is a time when all the world is split into two vast, increasingly hostile armed camps—a time of a great armament race…Today we can almost physically hear the mutterings and rumblings of an invigorated god of war. You can see it, feel it, and hear it all the way from the Indochina hills, from the shores of Formosa, right over into the very heart of Europe itself.”
Slide17Fueling McCarthyism
Fear
(often irrational &/or ignorant)
↓
Hatred
(prejudice, paranoia)
↓
Action
(violent, legal, political)
Slide18FearHatred
(Paranoia)
Nuclear Age
Fueled by Soviets getting the A-bomb
Espionage
Fueled by real spy cases of Alger Hiss & The
Rosenbergs
Also fueled by accusations (real or fictional)
Communism
Fueled by the “unknown” and propaganda
Slide19Table TalkHow does McCarthy in his speech characterize the battle against Communism?Why do you think he does that? To what or to whom is he appealing?
Why would it be effective?
What is the arc of his speech (how is it structured)?
Slide20Senator Joseph McCarthy
He then makes describes the conflict in religious terms
“The great difference between our western Christian world and the atheistic Communist world is not political, gentlemen, it is moral.”
Finally says we are losing the fight because of the enemy within
“I have here a list of 205 names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department.”
Slide21Ethel and Julius Rosenberg sent to the electric chair
Convicted of heading a spy ring that passed atomic secrets to the Soviet Union
Executed June 1953
“Most historians would agree that they would not face the death penalty if they were put on trial at any time other than the early 1950s,”
noted
Lori
Clune
, PhD, associate professor of history at
California State University, Fresno
,
author
of
Executing the
Rosenbergs
: Death and Diplomacy in a Cold War World
.
Slide22Media/Cultural Propaganda
The media and entertainment industries were also fueling the fear with anti-communist propaganda
The news coverage of high profile espionage cases were very anti-communist
Literature and film had a new evil empire to represent (Soviet communists replace Nazis)
Slide23Slide24Slide25Slide26Slide27Pushing Back Against the Hysteria
Ironically, while the media helped initially fuel the hysteria, they would also be the group that would first stand up against it publicly
Standing up against it personally put any journalist in the line of fire for accusations and blacklisting
Herblock (Herbert Block) an editorial cartoonist for the Washington Post was one the most avid critics of the Red Scare and McCarthyism
Slide28Slide29Tipping Point Brings End to McCarthyism
As with
most examples of social hysteria, the anti-communist hysteria will reach a tipping point that is so extreme that it ends up extinguishing the hysteria
In
1954
, this tipping point occurred
,
when
McCarthy
attacked both Eisenhower and the U.S. Army of being “soft on Communism”.
Journalist
Edward R Murrow openly denounced McCarthy’s
methods and public opinion turned against McCarthy’s credibility. He was
censured by the U.S.
S
enate.
H
is
reign of
terror, ended and he died of the effects of alcoholism several years later.
Slide30Trump’s SOTUhttps://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/02/05/trump_america_will_never_be_a_socialist_country_we_were_born_free_and_we_shall_stay_free.html
Slide31Anti-communism continues