Topic 4 - The Red Scare Flashcards
House Un-American Activities (HUAC)
Investigated Hollywood and pro-communist films / actors
Charlie Chaplin and Hollywood Ten were accused by HUAC
Investigated labour unions and their links to communism
1944 Taft-Hartley Act → leaders forced to swear loyalty
McCarthyism and its impact
Joseph McCarthy → Wisconsin Senator accused State Department of being infested with 200 spies in 1950
Had access to FBI files and gained considerable support
Eventually lost credibility when viewers saw bullying tactics
Impact of Second Red Scare
NAACP purged their members of communist sympathisers
Hundreds of ordinary people accused of communist sympathies and were fired from their jobs
Books that could be seen as pro-communist purged
Context
Real fear of communist attack from USSR or China
Many were afraid western Europe would be taken over
Truman → Containment to prevent communism spreading
Government actions
1950 McCarran Internal Security Act → prevented any communists from working in defence organisations
1954 Communist Control Act → communist ideas illegal
Nuclear Age
Both US and USSR had nuclear weapons by 1950
Arms race → US spent $40-50 billion on defence per year
Duck and cover → ‘Alert America’ programme to reassure
Spy Scares
USSR claimed they had 221 spies working in the US government
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg → scientists accused of passing on nuclear secrets to USSR → executed in 1953
Hollywood and the Cold War
Investigated by HUAC → producers were keen to show their patriotism by making movies in which villains were communist
Big Jim McLain (1952) → John Wayne plays HUAC investigator
Science fiction & religion
Sci-fi → monsters often robotic or homogeneous like communists → e.g. The War of the Worlds (1953)
Religion → Biblical themes used to contrast religious US with godless USSR → e.g. The Robe (1953)
