Fear of Communism

1. Fear of Communism

2. Throughout the Cold War, and especially in the 1950’s, Americans feared that there were communist agents among them • Loyalty review boards were established to investigate the loyalty of federal employees • Membership in one of 91 “subversive” organizations made someone's loyalty questionable • The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) focused on media and Hollywood • In order to be considered a “friendly” witness, those called had to confirm the presence of communists • Those that did not were suspected of being friendly to communists • The Hollywood Ten were ten witnesses that refused to testify and were sent to prison • A blacklist was implemented in Hollywood • People suspected of having communist sympathies were blacklisted • Anybody hiring or working with somebody that had been blacklisted was also suspected of communist sympathies • Senator Joseph McCarthy was the most famous anti-communist crusader • Regularly called people to give testimony on communism • Anybody who would not accuse others of communism was automatically assumed to be a communist • Made many accusations about communist, offered no proof • When he went after the U.S. Army, he was discredited

3. SCR Outline Guiding Question: How did Americans respond to the danger of communism? • Analyze each source based on the guiding question • Identify the in-text citation for each primary source • In-text citations should be the last name of the author in parenthesis • Example: (Collins) • If there is no author, put the title in parenthesis and quotations • Example: (“The Hunger Games”) • If you have multiple works from the same author, put the last name of the author and the title • Example: (Collins, “The Hunger Games”) and (Collins, “Catching Fire”) • Come up with a main idea for each source that would help answer the guiding question • Main ideas should represent your own analysis and thinking • Main ideas should be backed up by DETAILED facts from the source • Pick the three best main ideas • The should be the most logical and fact based • If possible, these should be three main ideas that work well together • Fill in the outline on the back of their source page • Put the detailed evidence that backs up each main idea as facts, and include an in-text citation • Write a thesis once you have all of the main ideas done