The Second Red Scare
The Growing Fear of Communism
• Soviets detonate an
atomic bomb
• Communists win the
civil war in China
House of Un-American Activities Committee
• Created in the 1930s
• Purpose was to
investigate radical
groups within the United
States
• Focused on threat of
communism after the
start of the Cold War
• Most famous case:
Hollywood Ten
Fighting Communism in the Government
• Republicans claimed
Communists were working
for the federal gov’t
• Truman adopted a plan to
investigate the loyalty
of federal employees
• Few thousand resigned,
and 200 judged disloyal
Laws Regarding Communism
• Smith Act
 Crime to call for the overthrow
of the U.S. gov’t
 Upheld by the Supreme Court
• McCarran Internal Security Act
 Communist groups had to
register w/the gov’t
 a special board was created to
investigate all communist
activity
 Communists barred from
entering the country
 Truman vetoed, Congress
overrode veto
Spy Cases
• Alger Hiss (federal gov’t
official) accused of working
for the Soviets
• Klaus Fuchs passed atomic
bomb secrets to the Soviet
Union
• Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
are executed for providing
atomic secrets to the Soviet
Union
Alger Hiss
Klaus Fuchs
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
Senator Joseph McCarthy
• Republican senator from Wisconsin
• To get reelected, he decided to use fear of
communism
• Went on a rampage, announcing that the
government was filled with ‘reds’
• Made claims that he had inside knowledge
and proof
• McCarthy’s tactic of spreading fear became
known as McCarthyism
• Thousands of people fired nationwide
• No evidence to support his claims
• However, when he accused the army of
having tons of communist subversives, he
went to far
• Censured by the Senate, died in disgrace