Topic 4.2 - The end of post-war Euphoria Flashcards
What does the House Un-American Activities Committee do?
After WW2 HUAC investigated the communist spread after the war.
- Set up my Congress 1938 - Specific focus on Nazi sympathisers
- Turned its attention to Hollywood and trade unions
Give examples of how HUAC controlled Hollywood
Said to be making communistic content aimed at brainwashing Americans.
- Charlie Chaplin - exiled back to Britain
- Gary Cooper - supported the Committees investigations
- ‘Hollywood Ten’ - writers and directors fired and imprisoned for refusing to testify for HUAC
- 1954 - blacklist of 350 not to be employed by the film industry.
How did the Taft-Hartly Act act as a communist deterrent?
June 1947
- Outlawed closed shop and secondary strikes.
- Gave president power to prevent strikes he considered being against the public interest.
- Union leaders forced to swear they were non-communist by the terms of the Act.
Why was the State Department seen as communist sympathisers?
- Followed the spy scares
- recruited from wealthy well-educated class
- Other classes accused the privileged of undermining their country to create a society where everyone was the same.
- Fueled as Truman introduced Loyalty Review Board in 1947 - 1,200 dismissed and 6,000 resigned - 150 organisations banned
Give examples of organisations who were forced to change as result of communist accusations
- NAACP
- CIO
Both risked being accused and so purged memberships of any likely sympathisers.
- China Lobby - Set up after China fell to the communists in 1949 - aimed for action against new communist regime.
How did the 1940 Smith Act help eradicate communism?
- Fired 11 leaders of the Communist Party
- Sentencing up to 5 years in prison.
The communist party never had more than 100,000 supports however it was still wildly feared.
What did Senator Joseph McCarthy believe?
- Made speech saying State Department was infested with 200 spies. - No evidence
- A few days later he readjusted figure to 57.
- 1953 - Given control of Senate Committee on government Operations and its subcommittee on investigations.
- Had access to HUAC and FBI files.
- His aggressive manner and accusations against the military that lead to downfall. - accused general George Marshall
- Many saw trials on TV and turned against.
What did the McCarran Internal Security Act do?
- 1950
- Forced all communist organisations to register with the Attorney General
- Barring any communists from working in defence-related industries.
What did the Communist Control Act do?
- 1954
- Making illegal to communicate communist ideas including by semaphore
- City of Birmingham made stricter making illegal to converse with a known communist.
When did the USA lose its monopoly of Atomic Weapons?
- 1949 USSR exploded its first nuclear weapon.
How did the USA respond to the news of USSR’s first nuclear weapon in 1949?
- Truman combatted by starting the race for a Hydrogen Bomb - tested bikini Atoll March 1954
- Increasing military spending $40 to $50 billion in 1950
- 90% foreign aid to US allies going to military spending.
- Deserts in Arizona and New Mexico became centres of weapon testing
- First IBM computer introduced 1953
- duck and cover drills in schools. - 1954 - 54 cities took part in nationwide drill lasting 10 minutes
Give examples of spies involved in the Red Scare
- Klaus Fuchs - British - convicted 1950 - giving nuclear secrets to USSR
- Harry Gold - American - arrested of same charge
- Infiltration of USSR in Manhatten Project
- Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed
- Later Soviets claimed to have 221 operatives in US government.
What was the case of Alger Hiss?
- President of Carnegie Institue.
- Accused of being communist during his time in State Department.
- Hiss was key figure in Yalta Conference
- Evidence that he handed over copies of secret documents to Soviets in 1938.
- 5 years imprisonment
