The Cold War at Home
Aim: How did increasing fears over
communism lead violations of civil
liberties at home during the Cold War?
DO NOW:
Do now: (Journal)Have you ever been falsely accused of
something you didn’t do? How did it feel? What actions did
you take?
• In this activity we are going to form groups based on student’s
secret identities.
• Each student will receive a piece of paper, some of which have a
dot drawn on them. There are fewer dots than non-dots.
• The goal of the activity is to form as large a group of “non dot”
students as possible.
• The largest group of students without a “dot” member in the
group will in.
• The whole group will lose if there is one “dot” member.
• Look for suspicious students. Make sure to say “so and so is a
dot!”
• Students can win points individually by being the only “dot”
member in a group.
• You have 10 minutes to form your groups!
Questions!
• How did you feel when you discovered you had a blank
piece of paper? A dot?
• What methods did you use to determine who had a dot?
• For those who had dots, how did you convince others that
you did not have a dot?
• For those of you who were accused of being a “dot,” how
did you feel? What made you fearful or suspicious?
• Given that there was no way to know for sure who was or
was not a “dot”, why did you try so hard to convince
others that certain class members were “dots”?
• What emotions fueled this activity?
Anti-Communist Hysteria
“The Red Scare”
• During the period of time marked by McCarthy
Americans turned on their fellow citizens and
denounced them as Communist sympathizers based
on littler or no evidence.
• Many times simply being friends with someone who
was accused of being communist was enough to get
you in trouble.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
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Poor working class folks.
Accused of stealing Nuke secrets
EXECUTED
Many feel they were scapegoats
Alger Hiss
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Educated
Accused of selling secrets to USSR
“Pumpkin Papers”
Found guilty and sent to prison
Later USSR said he was not one of their spys
I. Looking for Communists
• The Cold War is heavily associated with a feeling of
paranoia and fear in the United States that
communists would take over.
• USSR felt the same way
• During this time period, many Americans were
unfairly persecuted and accused of being
“communists.”
Why did we think commy’s were in
U.S.
• Remember the Great Depression had just
ended.
• During the G.D. there was high
unemployment, hunger and struggle.
• Some Americans were curious and attended
meetings.
• Remember communism sounds good in theory
• Take a moment now. Write things your would
consider to be un-American.
• Why?
HUAC:
• 1938- House Un-American
Activities Committee was
formed to investigate
communist activity in the
US.
II. McCarthyism
• Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin began
a hunt for communists in the 1950s.
• McCarthy charged several Gov. employees
with being corrupted by communism.
• He made bold accusations without any
evidence. This tactic became known as
“McCarthyism.”
• McCarthy took advantage of the “Red Scare”
to ruin many peoples lives.
How could he do this without being
sued?
• Remember your Constitution. Anything said
on the floor of the Senate is immune to