Download The Red Scare, 1947-mid-1950s

The Red Scare, 1947-mid-1950s
• Why?
– Post-war U.S. rivals, China & the Soviet
Union, were run by Communists
– Fear over communist success in Asia and
Eastern Europe
– Failure to keep the atomic bomb the
exclusive property of the U.S.
– 100,000 Americans in the Communist
Party
• Who?—important anti-Red figures
– HUAC (House Un-American Activities
Committee)
• Led by Republicans (Richard M. Nixon)
• Example: Hollywood Ten and the blacklist
– Joseph McCarthy: Senator from Wisconsin
HUAC
The Hollywood Ten
• 10 witnesses that didn’t cooperate
with HUAC
• HUAC believed propaganda was being
snuck into films
• Believed it was unconstitutional and were
jailed
• Many Protested in their behalf
• The Hollywood blacklist
• List of people condemned for having
communist ties or background
• Around 500 actors, writers, directors
could not get work.
Hiss and Chambers
• Whittaker Chambers
– Self-proclaimed communist and Time
magazine editor
• Alger Hiss
– Former member of FDR’s State
Department
– Chambers told HUAC that Hiss had given
info to the Soviet spies
– Hiss denied the charges, but found guilty of
perjury and spent 5 years in jail
• Catapults Richard Nixon to fame (VP within 4
years)
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
• Feb 1950:
– Revealed that a German-born physicist,
Klaus Fuchs, had given atomic secrets to
the Soviets
– Among his allies were a New York
couple, the Rosenbergs
• They were charged with getting information
from Ethel’s brother who worked on the U.S.
bomb project in New Mexico
• Appealed to Supreme Court and Rosenbergs
maintained their innocence.
• Convicted of treason and executed in 1953
(electric chair)
“McCarthyism”
• Term used to describe the search for
communists in the U.S. government
– Making accusations of treason/suspected
communists without evidence
• Led by Senator McCarthy
– Feb. 1950 charged that 205 communists
were working in the State Dept.
– Claims were unfounded, yet, they fed the
growing fear of the time & McCarthy was
an instant celebrity
• In 3-4 years, McCarthy did not uncover a
single communist, yet his investigations
ruined multiple careers and made the U.S.
look ridiculous
– He was censured by the Senate in 1954
and eventually fell out of the public eye
• Died from alcoholism in 1957 alone