COLD WAR AMERICAN SOCIETY THE NEW RED SCARE

COLD WAR & AMERICAN SOCIETY: THE NEW RED SCARE The Cold War heightened Americans’ fears of Communist infiltration & atomic attack.

A NEW RED SCARE During the 1950 s, rumors & accusations of Communists in the US led to fears that Communists were attempting to take over the world The Red Scare began in September 1945, & escalated into a general fear of Communist subversion–an effort to secretly weaken a society & overthrow its government. (1947) Truman established the loyalty review program to screen all federal employees for their loyalty – aim to calm Americans, instead led to fear that Communists infiltrating gov The federal government set the example for many state and local governments, universities, businesses, unions, and churches to start finding Communists.

STOPPING SUBVERSION HUAC FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover went to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) to urge them to hold public hearings on Communist subversion FBI investigates/wire taps Attack on Hollywood ALGER HISS 1948 HUAC heard that Time magazine editor, Whittaker Chambers, admitted to being a Communist courier 1934 -1937 & claimed that several government officials had also been Communists or spies at the time including lawyer/diplomat Alger Hiss denied charges, but convicted of perjury = lying under oath

STOPPING SUBVERSION PROJECT VENONA THE ROSENBERGS • Soviets produce atomic bomb search for spies intensifies • Arrest of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a New York couple who were members of the Communist Party & were charged with heading a Soviet spy ring. • Although many believed the Rosenbergs were not guilty, the couple was executed 1953. 1946 American cryptographers cracked the Soviet spy code, allowing them to read messages between Moscow & the US • Not public knowledge until 1995, when the government revealed Project Venona’s existence. • Provided strong evidence against the Rosenbergs.

“A CONSPIRACY SO IMMENSE” 1949 USSR testing atomic bomb + China falling to communism = Americans felt losing the Cold War must have Communists inside the gov Joseph R. Mc. Carthy, a Wisconsin senator, claimed that he had a list of 205 Communist spies in the state department & that such Communist infiltration in our government was just “the tip of the iceberg. ” This caused a lot of fear for Americans and Mc. Carthy gained a lot of support. Chairman of Senate subcommittee on investigations WITCH HUNT, searched for disloyalty based on fear/poor evidence = tactic called Mc. Carthyism. For the next 4 years (1950 -1954), Joseph Mc. Carthy accused & ruined the lives of many “potential spies, ” often with little evidence to support his claims. 1954 Americans watched televised Army-Mc. Carthy hearings where he attacked the Army & saw how Mc. Carthy attacked witnesses popularity faded, army lawyer Joseph Welch stood up to Mc. Carthy Senate passed vote of censure against Mc. Carthy (ATTACKING MILITARY+ TV = STOP MCCARTHY) This communist “witch-hunt” lead to a series of laws, such as the Mc. Carran Act (1950), which made it legal, as a national security measure, to arrest any Communist of Communist sympathizer. Now illegal to “combine, conspire, or agree with any other person to perform any act which would substantially contribute to. . . the establishment of a totalitarian government. ”

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LIFE DURING EARLY COLD WAR http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=120 w. GLg. CTkg FACING THE BOMB Communism/threat of the atomic bomb dominated life for Americans & their leaders in the 1950 s. The threat of an atomic attack against the US forced Americans to prepare for a surprise attack. For every person killed instantly by a nuclear blast, 4 more would later die from fallout, the radiation left over after the blast. Families built fallout shelters in their backyards and stocked them with canned food Schools had bomb drills POPULAR CULTURE 1950 s was a time of great contrasts: fear of communism/spies & postwar prosperity & optimism Images of the Cold War appeared in films & popular fiction.