Cold War Comes Home
• CIA – Central Intelligence Agency
– Analyze foreign threats to national security
– Mostly concerned with foreign threats
(communists … Soviets …)
• “Spy Stuff”
HUAC
• House Un-American Activities Committee
– House of Representatives set up this committee to
investigate communists in the USA
– “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the
communist party?”
– Hollywood was of particular interest
• Directors, producers, writers
• Just an accusation could ruin your career
• Hollywood Ten
•Everyday people were not immune
HUAC interrogation of
suspected communists
HUAC ruined reputations and lives. Anyone called to testify was
believed to be guilty. This was all done in the name of security.
Alger Hiss
• Suspected of spying for the Soviet Union
• Worked for the U.S. State Department
during WW II
• Passed secrets to the Russians
Hiss
• Whitaker Chambers (also a spy) exposed
Hiss
• Chambers presented FBI with evidence he
hid in a pumpkin (microfilm)
• The Pumpkin Papers were copies of the
documents Hiss passed to the Russians
• Hiss denied the charges … committed
perjury
Future president, Richard Nixon
was the lead prosecutor or
Alger Hiss
The Pumpkin Papers provided
the evidence against Hiss
Whittaker Chambers was the man
who exposed Hiss
The Rosenbergs
• Julius and Ethyl Rosenberg were
convicted of spying for the Soviet Union
• They passed the secrets of the Atomic
Bomb to the USSR
Rosenbergs
• Convicted in 1951
• Executed in 1954
– Key evidence was a box top from JELL-O
McCarthyism
• Wisconsin Senator, Joseph McCarthy said
he had a list of communists in the U.S.
government
• Started a “red scare” … witch hunt for
communists
Much like HUAC, lives were
ruined, reputations were
destroyed. McCarthy was a
demagogue for years and
NEVER exposed a real
communist.
McCarthy led a 4-year hunt.
He accused high ranking
officials, army officers event he
Secretary of State
Resulting paranoia and
hysteria became known as
McCarthyism
Never any evidence … “the big
lie”
The cartoon to the right
reflects a typical McCarthy
over reaction.
The early 1950s served as a parallel to the Salem witch trials of 1692 (a
depiction of which is pictured above). However, this time the search was
enacted to unveil undercover communists in America rather than witches. In the
midst of the Cold War, the American federal government felt a need for a
heightened National Security While the claim was made that higher security
would strengthen the U.S. and make it safer, as time passed, these actions
interfered with individual constitutional rights. During this age of
McCarthyism, lives were destroyed because of an individual's personal
political beliefs The American public was led to believe that Communists were
lurking about everywhere which caused widespread accusations.