Cold War Home Paranoia Bomb Shelters Science Fiction

Cold War @ Home • Paranoia & Bomb Shelters • Science Fiction Movies • UFO Sightings • Senator Joseph Mc. Carthy Hearings & HUAC

Americans Prepare for the Worst!

What are Fallout shelters? • Places designed to protect people from radioactive debris or “fallout” from a nuclear explosion • By 1989, Detroit had over 2, 000 fallout shelters located around the city. Cobo Hall and the Detroit Fire Department Headquarters were two examples

Detroit Fire Department Cobo Center

Fallout shelters • These shelters existed all over the country, but most are now sealed off and are no longer in use.

Duck and Cover! • 1951, government sponsored propaganda film used to teach children at school how to survive a nuclear attack.

How American Culture was impacted by Communism and Space Exploration

The Blob (1958)

Movie Descriptions • The Blob: A 1958 horror/science fiction story about an ameoba like alien from outer space that attacks a small town of Pennsylvania • The Day the Earth Stood Still: Made in 1951 about an alien visitor and giant robot that tells the people to Earth to live peacefully or experience destruction

It Came From Outer Space(1953)

Movie Description • It Came From Outer Space: A 1953 film about a spaceship from another world that crashes in the Arizona desert.

Movie Descriptions • War Games: 1983 film about a computer hacker who unknowingly hacks into national defense and risks starting a nuclear war. • Rocky IV: 1985 movie about the fictional boxer, Rocky Balboa, who fights the Russian powerhouse boxer, Ivan Drago, to defend his World Championship title

Popular Spy Television Shows • Mission Impossible: 1966, American television series about a team of secret government operatives known as Impossible Missions force. • Mac. Gyver: Started in 1985, an American action-adventure series about secret agent Angus Mac. Gyver who worked for the U. S. government and solves complex situations with everyday household items.

Communist Paranoia Coincides with Alien Sightings!

Unidentified Object Reported in Roswell, New Mexico • In July, 1947, debris from an unidentified object was scattered around a ranch owned by Floyd and Loretta Proctor.

Military Responds to Flying Saucer Claim • Spokesman for the 509 th Bomb Group released information to the press that the debris of metal, aluminum foil, and paper found on the Proctors’ ranch was a weather balloon, part of a secret government project called Project Mogul, an attempt to detect potential nuclear weapon detonations by the Soviets.

More details to the story emerge… • Around the 1970 s – 90 s, reports of alien bodies picked up by the US government at Roswell arose public curiosity. Some Americans insist the government was involved in an alien cover up since the 1947 discovery. • US Air force explain the “alien” bodies as test dummies

Aliens or Test Dummies?

Roswell, New Mexico (1947)

Dexter, Michigan (1966)

The American Government’s Attack on Civil Liberties

HUAC House Un-American Activities Committee • Congressional Committee set up in 1937 to investigate subversive & so-called “un -American” activities • In 1947 began investigating Hollywood directors, producers, and actors for Communist influences & propaganda

HUAC in Action

The Hollywood Ten • In 1947 10 Hollywood directors & writers were cited for “contempt of congress” for refusing to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) • The Motion Pictures Association of America fired the ten shortly after. • Most were convicted and served one year sentences. Many careers were ruined. • Many more writers, directors, and actors would be “blacklisted” in Hollywood for suspected communist sympathies real or not. No subversive evidence was ever uncovered.

Alleged Spies in the United States

Alger Hiss • In one of the most high profile espionage cases of the Cold war era, State Department official Alger Hiss was accused of secretly being a communist while working for the U. S. Government. • Later after this accusation in 1948, he was accused of engaging in espionage (spying) as a Soviet spy.

Alger Hiss • Hiss denied all of these charges up until his death in 1996. • The only charge Hiss was found guilty of was perjury (lying) because the statute of limitations had run out from the time his alleged spying had occurred. He served over 3 years in federal prison.

Julius & Ethel Rosenberg Convicted 1951 -----Executed 1953

The Rosenbergs • American communists who tried to pass along ABomb information to the Soviets • Both husband wife were convicted in 1951 and executed in 1953 for espionage • The only 2 to be executed for espionage during Cold War

The Rise and Fall of Senator Joseph Mc. Carthy

Senator Joseph Mc. Carthy

Wheeling, West Virginia Speech February, 1950 • "The State Department is infested with communists. I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of 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. “ Senator Joseph Mc. Carthy

Senator Joseph Mc. Carthy • Senator from Wisconsin who made himself famous by declaring he knew that there were communists infiltrating the inner circles of our government and military • Never had any concrete proof, but continued his Senate hearing investigations up until 1954 • Was disgraced by U. S. Army attorney Joseph Welch during the televised Army-Mc. Carthy Hearing in 1954 and chastised by President Eisenhower for going too far by accusing respected army officers & State Department workers of communist activities.

Red Scare II The Mc. Carthy Hearings 1953 -54

Mc. Carthy & Roy Cohn

Langston Hughes Hearing

Senate/Army Hearings : 1954

2011 Muslim Hearings • Representative Peter King (R-NY) is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. Recently he has called for an investigation into the radicalization of American Muslims as a reason to root out potential terror cells in the United States. • Many civil rights organizations and leaders are calling this a modern day witch hunt or an unwanted return to Mc. Carthyism from the Cold War 50 s.

Chapter 18, section 1 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. H C G I or J A E B I

Chapter 18, section 2 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. C A C

Chapter 18, section 3 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. E E C E F G A G