The Red Scare: Causes & Effects
Historical Context
• 1st Red Scare : 1917
– mid 1920s
• 1930s – Early 1940s :
Heyday of American
Left (including
communists)
• 1945 → : Cold War
Why a “RED SCARE”?
Actual Events ↔ Anti-Red Crusaders ↔ Media
Public Hysteria
Major Targets: US Govt, Academia, Unions, Hollywood
Soviet Espionage
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active from WW2 on
Most spies = American-born
Venona Project - FBI
Alger Hiss perjury case, 1948
Atomic spies
Julius & Ethel Rosenberg,
convicted & executed
U.S. Government Reacts
 Smith Act, 1940
 Dennis v US, 1951
 Loyalty Review Board, 1947
 Attorney General’s List of Subversive
Orgs
 McCarran Internal Security Bill, 1950
Security v. Liberty
HUAC
Rep. Nixon w/ evidence
of espionage found in
pumpkin patch
McCarthyism
Increasing Recklessness
• McCarthy alleged communist
conspiracy reached highest levels of
Truman Admin.
– Former Sec. of State Marshall
– Sec. of State Dean Acheson (defender of
Hiss)
– Truman: loyal American but blind to
disloyalty around him
McCarthy accused architect of the Marshall Plan (& 5star General) George Marshall of participating in "a
conspiracy so immense and an infamy so black as to
dwarf any previous venture in the history of man."
“Give ‘em hell Harry”
Increasing Recklessness
• Eisenhower’s approval
turned to rebuke when
McCarthy accused GOP
• Downfall
– McCarthy – Army hearings,
summer 1954
– CBS’s Edward R. Murrow’s
exposÉ
– Senate censure, Dec. 1954
• TV helped create McCarthy
& helped destroy him
McCarthyism Beyond McCarthy
• Untold 1000s lost their jobs, esp in govt,
universities, schools & Hollywood
• Blacklists
• Unions purged
• Many forced to take “loyalty oaths”
• Any criticism of US could warrant an
accusation of Communism
• Stunted the Left & even Liberalism
Why Red Scare Ended
• Too many charges,
too few actual
Commies caught
• McCarthy discredited
• Gradual easing of CW
tensions
• End of 50s gave rise
to new concerns
• Sixties
1950s DBQ
Directions: The following question requires you to construct a
coherent essay that integrates your interpretation of the document
packages AND your knowledge of the period referred to in the
question. High scores will be earned only by essays that cite key
pieces of evidence from the documents and draw on outside
knowledge of the period.
• What were the Cold War fears of the
American people in the aftermath of the
Second World War? How successfully
did the administration of Dwight D.
Eisenhower address these fears?
Step 1 – De-construct the Prompt
•
What are you being asked?
Step 2 → E.A.T. – The Evidence
• Now: Brainstorm evidence that is relevant to
the questions asked in the DBQ essay
prompt.
• Tonight: Organize the evidence around three
ideas. (These ideas will eventually become
your arguments.)
E.A.T. – The Evidence
• Conceptualize
– ACTIVELY think and read
– begin thinking of an answer & how you’ll support it
– brainstorm relevant evidence
• Categorize
– Group related evidence together
– Use these categories of evidence to begin formulating
your arguments
• REMINDER: evidence (statistical dates, events,
individuals, etc.) can be used for more than one
argument
E.A.T. – The Evidence
• Prioritize
– review evidence: which is most significant? which
best reflects your under-development arguments?
• Analyze
– do not just compile a list of facts & dates
– EXPLAIN how/why the 1-3 pieces of evidence you’ve
selected answer the question asked
• explore the deeper MEANING of the evidence
• make the evidence’s historical connections &
relevance CRYSTAL CLEAR
E.A.T. – The Arguments
• HW: create arguments that
encapsulate the analysis of evidence
that you’ve just completed.