Red Scare and McCarthyism Flashcards
why did the cold war happen
-In the last months of WW2, Eastern Europe had been liberated from the Nazis by The Red Army of the Soviet Union
-After the war, soviet troops remained in the liberated countries
-between February and July 1945, communist governments were set up in some of these countries, which provided a buffer zone of protection for the soviets against another invasion from the west(25 million soviets had been killed in the second world war.
-It looked like Soviet Union was trying to take over Europe to USA and western Europe
-USA tested an atomic bomb on 16 July 1945. USSR had not been told that USA was developing this and saw it as a threat. After US dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, Stalin boosted the Soviet atomic research program with money and scientists
what happened in Greece and the Eastern European countries
-communists in Greece tried to take over the government
-USSR encouraged it but did not send resources or troops
-This added to American fears of a communist takeover of Europe
-US government sent money to the Greek government to remove the communist
-Throughout 1947 and 1948, the remaining countries under Soviet influence in Eastern Europe became communist
-some were taken over by force, others held elections in which the only candidates allowed to stand were members of the Communist Party
-By 1950, all the countries of Eastern Europe had communist governments and most had become satellite states of the Soviet Union
Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan
-In March 1947, the US government announced the Truman Doctrine
-this promised to help support any country resisting takeover by other groups or countries (they meant communists)
-the US government chose to back up the Doctrine with financial help as they thought that communist ideas were more likely to take hold in areas of poverty
-The Marshall Plan gave millions of dollars of aid to many European countries suffering from economic problems after WW2
-USSR saw this as the USA trying to extend its influence and Stalin did no allow Eastern Europe to accept the aid offered
Berlin Crisis
-In 1945 Germany had been split into four with USA, USSR, France and the UK each controlling a zone
-In 1946, Britain, France and the USA combined their zones into one area that later became West Germany without telling USSR
-In 1948, there were signs that western zone of Germany was recovering from the war
-In June 1948, Stalin blocked all road, rail and canal supply lines into West berlin in an attempt to make the whole of Berlin dependent on the Soviet Union and free from Western influence
-Truman was not prepared to let West Berlin become communist and took supplies by aircraft into the city
-Stalin knew firing on the aeroplanes would start a war.
-In may 1949 he reopened the supply lines
Role of the FBI
-Hoover’s FBI set up Federal Loyalty Boards to investigate government employees to find out if they were communists or had link to communism.
-Between 1947 and 1951 around 3 million governments workers were investigated and up to 3,000 people were either fired or forced to resign as they were considered government risk however no actual spying was found
-As fear of communism grew, many states, cities and private businesses investigated their workforce and thousands of employees, some were only suspected of being sympathetic to communist, lost their jobs
HUAC
-House Committee of Un-American Activities
-set up by the US government in 1938 to moni tor extremist groups suspected of ‘Un-American’ activities
-it began public hearings on the threat presented by the Communist Party of America.
-Hoover saw HUAC’s potential in educating the public and exposing traitors
-FBI began secretly passing intelligence to HUAC. HUAC then called suspected communists and witnesses to be questioned
-They asked suspects “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?” and sent people for criminal trial depending on the answer they received
Hollywood Ten
-there was a concern that communists would try to use the film industry to spread propaganda as million of people went to the cinema
-HUAC called 41 writers, producers and directors for questioning about communism in Hollywood
-They named 19 people as communist. When these 19 were ordered to appear before the HUAC, ten refused to answer any question and pleased the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
-All ten were jailed for 1 year for contempt and were blacklisted
-It gave huge publicity to HUAC’s work and increased anti-communist hysteria.
-Film makers increased their production o f anti-communist films
Hiss case
-Alger Hiss was a member of State Department who was an important adviser to Roosevelt in the 1930s and WW2. In 1948, he was named as a member of the communist group
-He denied being a communist when called for questioning by the HUAC
-Nixon insisted that Hiss had been leaking information to USSR
-sentenced for 5 years for lying to the court
-proved that Hoover was right and communist spies were everywhere
Rosenberg case
-Klaus Fuchs was arrested in Britain for passing on information to USSR on how to develop an atomic bomb.
-He confessed and was sentenced to 14 year in prison
-He also named other spies including his sister and brother-law, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
-Rosenbergs denied all charges of spying
-evidence was weak, but were found guilty and sentenced to death. They were executed on 19 June 1953
impact of the HUAC and FBI’s work
-Americans believed that they were surrounded by communist spies looking to bring down the USA
-Congress passed the McCarran Internal security Act in August 1950 which made all communist organisations register with the government
McCarran Act after it was strengthened in 1952
-communists were not allowed US passports
-Communists were not allowed to work in certain jobs
-in an emergency, anyone suspected of subversion could be put in a detention camp without facing trial
methods of McCarthy
-he held hearings, firstly in private and then in public
-he used bullying and aggressive questioning of many suspected communist, especially attack high profile figures to gain more publicity
-he tried to get them to confess
-he gathered evidence, most was from the FBI
-he fabricated evidence against those he accused
-democratic senators and journalists who spoke out against him were attacked by him for being communist or being soft on communism
-thousands attended McCarthy’s speeches and millions watched his television appearances
-being called by McCarthy for questioning ended people’s careers as other assumed they were guilty
impact of McCarthy
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