The Cold War At Home
Guiding Question:
How were the citizens of the USA
affected by international conflicts?
The Red Scare, Version 2.0
• Review: When was the United States wracked
with fear of communism elsewhere during its
history?
• What major events of the late 1940s and early
1950s reopened this can of communist
worms?
– Berlin conflict (though US success was
encouraging)
– China
– Korean War
A Threat to Civil Liberties
• Truman issued an executive order creating the
Federal Employee Loyalty Program (1947)
– Loyalty Review Board was a creation of this program
– Investigated gov’t employees- dismiss suspects
– Attorney General made list of 91 “subversive”
organizations
• Membership in these indicated suspicion
– 3.2 million investigated; 212 fired; 2900 resigned to
avoid investigation
– **suspects were not allowed to see evidence against
them
A Threat to Civil Liberties:
HUAC
• House Un-American Activities Committee
(HUAC)- Created 1938
– Investigated organizations for communist activity
– Film industry was target- Propaganda snuck into
films??
• Why were some films created during WWII pro-USSR?
– Because several “friendly” witnesses of movie
industry agreed, others were called to testify
– “Hollywood Ten” refused- Imprisoned
• Subsequently, an even longer “blacklist” was
created
– List of actors suspected of communism- 500+
The McCarran Internal Security Act
1950
• Extension of the ideas behind “Loyalty Review”
• Unlawful to plan action that might lead to
establishment of totalitarian regime
– Had to register as Communist
– Would restrict travel, citizenship, etc.
• Withholding information about a crime =
punishable
• Removed “intent” from Espionage Act of 1917
• Truman vetoes- “we punish men for crimes but
never for opinions”
• Congress enacted law over veto
Espionage Act of 1917
It is a crime:
• To convey information with intent to interfere with the
operation or success of the armed forces of the United
States or to promote the success of its enemies. This was
punishable by death or by imprisonment for not more than
30 years or both.
• To convey false reports or false statements with intent to
interfere with the operation or success of the military or
naval forces of the United States or to promote the success
of its enemies when the United States is at war, to cause or
attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, refusal
of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States,
or to willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service
of the United States. This was punishable by a maximum
fine of $10,000 or by imprisonment for not more than 20
years or both.
Spy Cases Feed Fire
• Alger Hiss- U.S. State Dept; Lawyer; UN
involvement
– 1948- Former spy (Chambers) accuses Hiss of
being a spy for USSR
– “Gov’t documents” were produced that “proved”
it- Hiss argued that these documents were forged
• Hiss claims innocence; Nixon gains fame for pursuing
accusation charge of perjury and sending him to jail
• 1990s- Soviet cables released by NSA pointed to Hiss’
guilt; Attorneys continued to deny
Spy Cases Feed Fire
• 1950- German-born physicist Klaus Fuchs
admitted giving USSR information about Abomb
• Implicated: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
– Activists in American Communist Party
– When questioned, pleaded Fifth
– Found guilty of espionage  death
– “Worse than murder”- Judge Kaufman
What other
news rocked
the nation in
1949?
McCarthyism
• Senator Joseph McCarthy needed “winning
issue” to be re-elected for Senate (1952)
• Witnessed rise in Republican party over
criticisms of Democrats being “too soft”
• McCarthy went on a spree of accusing
government officials of being communist (205 in
the State Department alone??)
• Met his demise when he accused U.S. Army (‘54)
• Died in 1957
Social Effects
• Duck and Cover- Educational Film 1951
• The “beats” resisted mainstream American
values
The Beat generation served as the precursor to the Hippies of the 60s.
Other developments…
• The Postwar Boom did induce:
– Prosperity (Suburbia, White picket fences, two
cars per family, etc.)
• Levittown, ’47-’51
– Baby Boom
– Economic growth
– Marriage age decrease
– Desire for larger families
– Interstate highway system
• Eisenhower- Federal Aid
Highway Act of 1956
“We Like Ike”
• 1952 – Dwight D. Eisenhower (R) elected
president
– First Republican since 1928
• "We Like Ike"
Arms Race Continues
• Advent of the Hydrogen Bomb (US 1952 / USSR 1953)
• First thermonuclear weapon = 1 million tons of TNT
– 67x power of bomb dropped on Hiroshima
• Soviet H-Bomb Test
Eisenhower’s Foreign Policy
• John Foster Dulles is Secretary of State
• Brinkmanship- willingness to go to the edge of allout war
• M.A.D. – mutually assured destruction (deterrence)
– Threat of total destruction deters either side from using
force against the other
• Shift in funding for military
– Cut army/navy, increase spending on air force and nukes
• Gov’t relies on CIA to collect information/secrets
• 1953: Stalin dies and Nikita Khrushchev takes over
USSR – denounces Stalin (period of de-Stalinization)
Global Chess Match 1956-60
• How did the conflicts across the world affect the
relationship between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.?
1. Eisenhower and Vietnam
2. Geneva Summit (Open Skies Declined)
3. Hungarian uprising:
– violently thwarted by communists
4. U-2 Spy Plane Incident:
– Francis Gary Powers shot down over USSR
– Khrushchev denounces Eisenhower- Summit is cancelled
5. Space Race:
– Yuri Gagaran – first man in space is Russian
– Sputnik – first satellite in space is Russian
Conclusion
• While Khrushchev believed relations could be
more peaceful between US and USSR, these
conflicts ended the “thaw” between the two
countries.
• Next up: JFK elected in 1960