6.03: The Cold War at Home: The Big Ideas
How did the Cold War cause the Red Scare?
How did Americans respond to the threat of communism?
How were Fuchs, Gold, Greenglass, and the Rosenbergs connected?
What was McCarthyism and how did it affect the U.S.?
How did McCarthy finally lose his power?
How did the arms race affect Americans?
People
President Truman (How did he respond to the threat
of communists in the government?)
Events (Describe the event, its causes and effects)
HUAC investigations
Alger Hiss case
Blacklisted Americans (What happened to them?)
Vocabulary (fill in effects from the lesson where possible or put the definition in your own words)
Blacklist: a term used to describe people, especially in the motion picture industry, who were unable to find work
after being accused of communist sympathies
Federal Employee Loyalty Program: program created in 1947 by President Harry Truman to investigate all federal
employees in order to establish their loyalty to the United States
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC): a committee formed by the House of Representatives to
investigate people thought to be disloyal to the United States, especially those believed to be communist or
communist sympathizers
McCarran Act: legislation passed by Congress in 1950 over President Harry Truman’s veto that that required
Communists to register with the federal government, outlawed any group from making a plan to create a
dictatorship, and prevented Communists from obtaining a passport or from entering the United States
McCarthyism: the name given to Senator Joseph McCarthy’s tactics of spreading fear of communism through false
charges of radical activities