McCarthy and Red Scare Flashcards
What students need to learn:
1
The Red Scare and
McCarthyism
Reasons for the Red Scare, including the Cold War (1945-50), Hiss and Rosenberg cases, the FBI, the HUAC and the Hollywood Ten. Methods used by McCarthy and the growth of opposition. Reasons for his
downfall. Overall impact of McCarthyism on the USA.
What where the reasons for the Red Scare
Cold War (1945-50)
Hiss and Rosenberg cases
FBI
The HUAC
The Hollywood 10
Capitalism
An economic and political system in which businesses belong to private owners and not the government
Communism
A political system in which the government controls the production of food and goods and there is no privately owned property
The Cold War
The intense rivalry between the US and Soviet Union raised concerns in the United States that Communists and leftist sympathisers inside America might actively work as Soviet spies and pose a threat to U.S. security.
HUAC
HUAC was created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and rebel activities on the part of private citizens, public employees and organisations suspected of having Communist ties.
Hollywood 10
The 10 civilians the HUAC interviewed who refused to take the interview and refused to give the names of other communists. They spent a year in prison and were blacklisted from society.
Jailed for “Contempt” and blacklisted
Increased fear and anti communist publicity
2 reasons why the Red Scare happened
What does HUAC stand for
House Un-American Activities Committee
What does FBI stand for
Federal Bureau of Investigation
USA’s domestic intelligence and security service
J. Edgar Hoover
Director of FBI
McCarthy
Republican senator of Wisconsin in 1946
Made accusations about people being communist (found untrue)
Created lots of damage because he instigated fear amongst Americans
Scare mongering
Alger Hiss
American government official accused in 1948 of having spied for the Soviet Union in the 1930
In 1950, Hiss was convicted. On January 21, 1950, he was sentenced to five years in prison, ending an important case that helped further confirm the increasing penetration of the U.S. government by the Soviets during the Cold War
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
a married couple who were convicted of spying for the Soviet Union, including providing top-secret information about American radar, sonar, jet propulsion engines, and nuclear weapon designs
What methods where used by McCarthy to find communists
From 1951 to 1955, the FBI operated a secret “Responsibilities Program” that distributed anonymous documents with evidence from FBI files of communist affiliations on the part of teachers, lawyers, and others. Many people accused in these “blind memoranda” were fired without any further process.
These accusations where mostly rubbish and a lot of people accused where people McCarthy thought where suspicious or didn’t like
