 Describe
how the US government fought the
Cold War in America.
 Describe the events of the Red Scare.
 Were
the measures taken by the Government
to counteract the Red Scare justified?
Support your answer.
 Truman
had Power much like a wartime
President would.
 Federal government focused on:


Continue to spend massive amounts of money on
the Military.
Increased spending on surveillance, both foreign
and domestic.
 Vast
difference from FDR’s New deal and
social and domestic reforms.
 900,000

in Federal Workforce.
10% in security works.
 Government

employed 1 million people.
75% worked in National Security
 Pentagon
(opened in 1943) largest office
building in the world.

35,000 military personnel worked there.
 Ties
between armed forces and the state
department began to intertwine.

Military officers began to fill positions at the
State Department.
 Congress
passed it, with Truman’s
encouragement.
 Established the Department of Defense and
National Security Council.

Administer and coordinate defense policies and
to advise the President.
 Created



the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Obtain political, military and economic
information around the world.
Classified organization, secret from congress and
public.
Historians estimate that size and number of
employees dwarfed The State Department.
 Federal
Employees Loyalty and Security
Program.


Barred members of Communist party or anyone
sympathetic or associated with them from
federal employment.
Employee could be released upon reasonable
grounds of belief of disloyalty.
 Many


states enacted loyalty programs.
required public employees, including teachers to
take loyalty oaths.
Nearly 500 workers were fired, more than 6,000
resigned.
 Attorney
General Clark published a list of
potentially subversive organizations.




Criteria of identification was vague.
Designed to screen federal employees, but
outlawed many political and social organizations.
Church associations, civil rights organizations,
summer camps all were targeted.
Membership to any group could cause immediate
dismissal from any government position. Even
past membership would be a cause for firing.

The McCarran Act
Against Truman’s veto, Truman thought it was a huge
violation of freedoms.
 Required all Communist organizations to register with
the Subversive Activities Control Board.
 Authorized the arrest of suspicious persons during
national emergencies.


Immigration and National Security Act



Truman vetoed this bill as well.
Barred people considered subversive or homosexual
from becoming citizens or even visiting the country.
Communists could be deported even if they had
become citizens.
 Long
standing suspicions
Hollywood was a source
of communism.
 HUAC formed to
investigate
entertainment industry.

Could subpoena witnesses
and force them to answer
all questions.
Tried an actress in the ProSoviet film Tender
Comrade. Forced to say a
pro soviet line.
 Film The Song of Russia
tricked Americans by
showing Russians smiling.
 Studios announced no
actor, writer, technician
who didn’t denounce
communism would never
work in the industry again.

 Friendly



Witnesses-
Would intimidate or pressure witnesses into
giving names of friends or colleagues who could
be potential communists.
Included Ronald Reagan and Robert Taylor
Most people named a communist career’s would
be over. One exception- Lucille Ball
 Unfriendly



Witnesses-
Small but prominent minority wouldn’t cooperate
Many of these actors and directors were in films
celebrating the working class or attacking
fascism.
Included: Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles
 HUAC
opened a trial against Whittaker
Chambers, Time Magazine Editor. Chambers
admitted to being a communist.
 He named Alger Hiss, State Department
Veteran and former Roosevelt Advisor as a
fellow communist.
 Hiss Denied affiliation with communism.
 Chambers revealed “Pumpkin Papers”
 Republican Representative Richard Nixon said
it was the most serious acts of treason in
American History.
 Julius,
former government engineer.
 Accused of stealing and plotting to give the
Soviets atomic secrets during WWII.
 The case rested on testimony of their
supposed accomplices, one secretly coached
by the FBI.
 1951, Jury Found them guilty.
 Americans had no Sympathy for them.
 Around the World, people wanted clemency.

Included Albert Einstein, The Pope, and the
President of France
 Executed
by the Electric chair in 1953
 In
a Lincoln Day Speech, McCarthy claimed
he had a list of 200 communists working in
the State Department.

Including Secretary of State Dean Acheson.
 First
of many attacks against political rivals.
 He accused all democrats of being soft on
communism and “losing” China.
 Was
more like show biz.
Unknown Jr. Senator found a
platform and ran with it.
 McCarthy made communism
bigger than a political issue.

“Better dead than red.”
 Went
after African Americans,
Jews, Foreigners.

People who wouldn’t fight back.
 Accused
girl’s schools and woman’s colleges
as some of Russia’s most Loyal disciples.
 With FBI reports, Federal Government fired
up to 60 homosexuals a month.
 Homosexuals dishonorably discharged from
the Armed Forces.
 Critics of the Cold War were considered
communist, or not “real” men or woman.
He used intimidation from the media to his
advantage.
 Asked “Are you now, or have you ever been, a
Communist?”
 Doctored Photos of political rivals.
 Both Conservatives and Liberals compared
Communists to Satan.
 Paranoia of communism was everywhere.
 McCarthy and fellow Red Hunters eventually
burned themselves out.


McCarthy was called out on TV. He looked deranged
when he couldn’t call out a singe communist.
 Many
state and
federal laws stayed
in tact for years
after McCarthy was
discredited.
 Freedoms of speech
and assembly had
been limited.
 Dissent was
dangerous.
 Were
the measures taken by the Government
to counteract the Red Scare justified?