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The Red Scare

The Red Scare. America in the 1950s. Focus Question. Fear Turned to Home. Concerns of Communist Subversion at Home Reasonable Suspicions. Expanded in the Post War Years . House Un-American Activities Committee Election of Red-Baiters in 1946 Truman’s actions

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The Red Scare

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  1. The Red Scare America in the 1950s

  2. Focus Question

  3. Fear Turned to Home • Concerns of Communist Subversion at Home • Reasonable Suspicions

  4. Expanded in the Post War Years • House Un-American Activities Committee • Election of Red-Baiters in 1946 • Truman’s actions • Required to get support for the Truman Doctrine • Executive Order 9835 • Federal Loyalty Oaths

  5. Soviet Espionage • Sped the Soviet Atomic Program • Julius and Ethel Rosenberg • Klaus Fuchs • Alger Hiss

  6. Anti-Communist Crusade • Intense pressure to “root out” Communism in the U.S. • Focused on particular groups • State Department • Cultural Agents • Permeated into society

  7. Hollywood Blacklist • Fear of Communist Infiltration • HUAC stepped in • Launched an investigation of Communists in the movies

  8. The Hollywood 10 • Many brought to testify before HUAC • Most fought the charges • Some named names • Ten leading figures refused to cooperate • Blacklisted

  9. Alger Hiss Case • Hiss was a leading New Dealer • Accused by Whittaker Chambers • Claimed Hiss passed along State Department Documents • Pumpkin Papers • Hiss convicted of perjury • Most likely was a Soviet agent

  10. McCarthy • Many red-baiters used innuendo, rhetoric and browbeating against suspects • Carried to an extreme by Senator Joseph McCarthy • Lives and careers devastated

  11. Rise of Joseph McCarthy • Relatively unknown first term Senator • Lincoln Day Speech in Wheeling WV in 1950 • Claimed to have a list of known Communists in the State Department • Unknown if he claimed 57 or 205 • Helped develop the Tydings Committee

  12. Meteoric Rise • McCarthy became incredibly influential • Useful tool when Democrats in power • Troublesome after Eisenhower was elected

  13. ArmY-McCarthy Hearings • Implosion • Accused the Army of housing Communists • Carried on national television for six weeks in 1953 • Ended in disaster for McCarthy • Eventually censured by the U.S. Senate in 1954

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