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COLD WAR COMMUNISM FEARS
• Second Red Scare - Sept 1945
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Proved there were spies within American government
Soviet spies were trying to find info about the atomic bomb
• Fear of subversion: the effort to secretly weaken a society and overthrow its government
• Loyalty review program - Created by Truman in 1947
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Screened all federal employees to see if any were spying for the Soviet Union
Between 1947 and 1951 over 6 million federal employees were screened for their loyalty
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Reading the wrong books, belonging to certain groups, traveling overseas, and watching certain foreign films would
make them a suspect
COLD WAR COMMUNISM FEARS
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HUAC (House Un-American Activities committee) - investigate communist activity in US and hold public hearings
Project Verona 1946 – American cryptographers cracked the soviet spy code of the time
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Able to read around 3,000 messages between Moscow and the US
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Confirmed extensive e soviet spying in the US
The US decided to not make the intercepted messages public to keep the Soviets from learning how the US penetrated their codes
U2 Incident 1960 – US spy plan shot down over Soviet airspace and pilot, Francis Gary Powers, captured
Massive retaliation (the policy of threatening to use nuclear weapons if a Communist state tried to seize territory by force)
Brinkmanship (threatening to go to the brink of war to force the other side to back down)
FAIL-SAFE DEFINITION
• A Fail-safe means that a device will not endanger lives or properties when it fails
• If a building catches fire, fail-safe systems would unlock doors to ensure quick escape and
allow firefighters inside
• A fail safe prevents unsafe consequences of the system’s failure
FAIL-SAFE MOVIE SYNOPSIS
It's the middle of the Cold War. Armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. stand
toe to toe, ready to destroy each other, and the world, on a moments' notice. The countries rely upon the
logic of Mutual Assured Destruction to prevent war. One day, due to a mechanical failure, a group of U.S.
war planes, armed with hydrogen bombs, flies off toward the Soviet Union. It's target is Moscow. It
doesn't respond to orders to return. WHAT DO WE DO NOW?!!!
The President of the United States is called upon to make quick and important decisions. How can he
assure the Soviet Premier that this is not the start of an all out nuclear attack? If the bombers cannot be
stopped, how does he propose to convince the Soviet Union not to launch an attack that will destroy the
United States? Or, as some advise, should he simply order an all out first strike and start WW III with a
big advantage?
Hank Azaria as
Professor
Groeteschele
Noah Wyle as Buck (President’s
interpreter for Soviets)
Pilots:
-George Clooney as Col.
Jack Grady
-Don Cheadle as Lt. Jimmy
Pearce
Richard Dreyfus as
the President
Main Characters in Fail Safe
Brian Dennehy as General Bogen