2nd red scare + mccarthy

Question 1

cold war context to red scare

Answer 1

• russia and usa were allies in ww2 and won, but there was still tension between them during the cold war due to usa’s fear of communism
• china just won civil war, became communist
• 16 july 1945, usa successfully tested atomic bomb and dropped 2 on japan
• soviet troops stayed in countries liberated by Nazis, usa feared that this was them trying to take over (the west)

Question 2

alger hiss

Answer 2

• high up-member in government, advisor to roosevelt
• nixon suggested the investigation of him, suggested that he was leaking information to the soviets
• Hiss trialed in 1949 and found guilty of lying to court in 1950
  –> never actually confirmed of spying, but public thought he was a spy due to his conviction
• showed that communist spies were found everywhere

Question 3

rosenberg case

Answer 3

• connection to david greenglass, spy for klaus fuchs, who was developing the soviet atomic bomb
• convicted for supposedly passing information to the soviets on how to construct the atomic bomb
• executed in june of 1953, however evidence of their spying was not solid

Question 4

HUAC

Answer 4

1938 set up - house comittee of un-american activities
- in charge of investigating people that were suspected communist, and set up public hearings to threat the US communist party
- set up to monitor those who were suspected communists, “un-american” people

Question 5

J. Edgar Hoover

Answer 5

leader of FBI- federal bureau of investigation
- investigation of suspected communists or groups that supported communism
- 3 million government workers investigated, 3000 fired / forced to resign despite that there was no concrete evidence of them spying
- private buisness investigated, many suspects lot their jobs due to this

Question 6

hollywood ten

Answer 6

1947 - fbi afraid that communist propoganda could be spread through cinema / film
- when brought to court, pleaded first amendment and jailed for contempt
- ruined many of their careers, and unable to become actors after let out of jail due to a bad image of them
- blacklisted form hollywood

Question 7

methods of mccarthy

Answer 7

• intimidation and bullying the person, trying to force them to admit something that never happened
• used / exploited with the fear of americans to confuse and manipulate the mind of the public
• “gathered” and fabricated evidence with the FBI against those who were accused to force them to confesss

Question 8

success of mccarthy

Answer 8

• many people didn’t join unions because they were afraid of being called un-american, and labelled as communist
• thousands of americans gave information to the fbi on suspects, even if they were close to them
• ended many people’s careers even if he did not have evidence, only due to publicity

Question 9

tyding’s committee

Answer 9

initial opposition to mccarthy
february 1950 - investigated claims mccarthy made of having ‘lists of communists in the US state party’
- found out these claims were untrue
- but mccarthy called tydings ‘un-american’ and communist sympathisers
- tydings was not re-elected (shows the impact of mccarthy)

Question 10

george marshall

Answer 10

• army general that mccarthy made radical accusations about, that no one really believed
• evidence of mccarthy exploiting his privilege found by the army sent to congress and reporters
• public also had a bad impression of mccarthy, public support

Question 11

downfall of mccarthy

Answer 11

condemned in december 1954, for improper conduct (67 against 22 votes)
- continued previous work, but no one really paid attention to him
- invalidation of his work / honesty

Question 12

impacts of mccarthy

Answer 12

mccarthysm had a long lasting impacts on us politics - arguably until the end of cold war in 1991
- instilled fear of communism among american society, long lasting after 1954
- us foreign policy remained firmly anticommunist (esp in elections) until around 1990s