Crime Crime in the 1950s spread from missiles to communism at an alarming rate. It all started when Dr. Klaus Fuchs, a high-level scientist who worked on the atomic bomb in New Mexico during WWII, told the U.S.S.R. secret files about the bomb (Lindop 23). Since Dr. Fuchs gave out this information to the Soviets, it commenced a nationwide shock on the possibility of spies and other types of organized crime with the Soviet Union. The atomic bomb was a type of bomb that could destroy the world over and over again (Kallen “The 1950s.” American Decades 43).The fact that this top-secret information could not be contained worried not only the public, but also to the government. Crime like this was not typically common, so when this occurred it caused …show more content…
The reason why the citizens were concerned about this was because investigators linked Dr. Klaus Fuchs to Harry Gold, Morton Sobell, and Julius & Ethel Rosenberg (Lindop 24). The civilians were distressed that there might be more individuals that are associated with the Soviet Union, and because of propaganda the society was even more fearful for their country. So many people in America took matters into their own hands and created organized crime (Bernstein). There was an increase in crimes such as murders because these citizens were afraid that certain individuals were communist spies trying to obtain information to give to the Soviets. The American public was frightened over the fact that communist spies were present in their country, so they decided to do something about it and to try to search for them to kill them so that they would not have any information to give back to the Soviet Union. Obviously, this was not a very good idea since it is a federal crime to kill someone else, but since others felt the need to take matters into their own hands they committed crime like these to prevent any information to be given out to the U.S.S.R. and their leaders. All in all, crime has been an issue due to communism during the
However, what made communism so dangerous can be succinctly described by Eisenhower, who compared the spread of communism to the domino effect. As his secretary of state, Dulles, put it, the propagation of communism “would constitute a threat to the sovereignty and independence” of America (Doc B). In addition, the Cold War also planted the seeds of rational fear of a global nuclear war. As Russia caught up to the United States in terms of technological advancements, they successfully developed the atomic bomb as well as the hydrogen bomb, which caused Americans to believe that the USSR would use these weapons of mass destruction to forcefully extend their ideologies to the USA. In fact, Americans were so frantic about a potential nuclear disaster that it prompted many families to purchase personal bunkers, stocked with enough resources to live for weeks (Doc C)....
As we open our eyes to the world around us, we see that crime comes in many different shapes and sizes. Organized crime is really not much different, it is a larger scale of individuals with the same goals, to commit criminal acts, normal for money or profit. As early as the 1700’s immigrants have been submitted to organized crime. They migrate to the United States and other countries in search for a better life but sometimes get caught up in the American system of wanting money and power and feel as though the illegal way is the only way of achieving this.
Communism has had an extremely negative impact on Americans—many people got fired for false accusations by the government. The case of Rosenberg has to do with this topic because Ethel Rosenberg did nothing wrong against the U.S., yet she was executed without evidence to support the government’s decision. Typical humans make harmful decisions when in fear, however, those decisions ensure safety for everyone
. The Venona project was a military investigation decoding Soviet cables going in and out the United States. These cables revealed hundreds of citizens and immigrants all on American soil that passed very confidential information to Soviet intelligence. (Citation here) This alarming discovery of spies and the success of them gathering information showed the Soviet Union and communisms ability to influence and control. It was espionage that led to the trails of Julius and Ethal Rosenburg. The Rosenburg were American citizens indited, convicted, and executed for passing confidential information to Soviet officials, which aided them in the duplication of nuclear weapons specifically the atomic bomb. Had the Soviet Union not gained access to such a vital piece of information, the pivoting point of psychological fear to actual physical fear spiraling a world wind of cause and effects around the world, then perhaps the fear its self would not have grown to such status. The Soviet Union’s espionage was a war on American soil, fought secretly to dismantle the super power of the United States.
During the late nineteen forties, a new anti-Communistic chase was in full holler, this being the one of the most active Cold War fronts at home. Many panic-stricken citizens feared that Communist spies were undermining the government and treacherously misdirecting foreign policy. The attorney general planned a list of ninety supposedly disloyal organizations, none of which was given the right to prove its loyalty to the United States. The Loyalty Review Board investigated more than three million employees that caused a nation wide security conscious. Later, individual states began ferreting out Communist spies in their area. Now, Americans cannot continue to enjoy traditional freedoms in the face of a ruthless international conspiracy known as the Soviet Communism. In 1949, eleven accused Communists were brought before a New York jury for abusing the Smith Act of 1940, which prohibited conspiring to teach the violent overthrow of the government. The eleven Communist leaders were convicted and sentenced to prison.
Thousands of people were arrested and taken away from families in the 1960s. This was all because of something most of them did not do. Joseph McCarthy accused people of being communists without using solid evidence to prove it. In result of this, many people lost jobs, friends, some even had their whole life ruined because of it. If a parent got accused, their child lost friends, parents telling their children to stay away from them. This was the norm in the 1950s-everyone was afraid of the “reds”, or communists. The cold war had a large affect on this, because it is when America became afraid of communists or Russians. McCarthyism affected everyone in America Most citizens were afraid of the reds, some were former or current reds, some were accused and persecuted for being an assumed red. It’s clear that McCarthyism played a big role in the development of America.
Some of these people were actually spies, but some were innocent, and yet they were put in jail, or even put to death for their "crime" against America. There were other instances like this happening all the time. People always expected their neighbor to be a communist, so they started to distrust them, which didn't make anyone lose rights, just caused conflicts among normal people.
The attitude of the citizens of the United States was a tremendous influence on the development of McCarthyism. The people living in the post World War II United States felt fear and anger because communism was related with Germany, Italy, and Russia who had all at one point been enemies of the United States during the war. If the enemies were communists then, communists were enemies and any communists or even communist sympathizers were a threat to the American way of life. "From the Bolshevik Revolution on, radicals were seen as foreign agents or as those ...
The NKVD was an “instrument of terror as Joseph Stalin used it to promote his political and social objectives” (NKVD ABC Clio).
For the duration of the 1950's America was absorbed with the fear of the Communists taking control of the country. Joseph McCarthy, a Republican Senator from Wisconsin, heightened the fears many Americans already possessed. McCarthy had a deep hatred for communists, so he devised a plan to make American’s hate communists as much as him, and also had hopes that it would get himself re-elected. McCarthy gave a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia where he held up a piece of paper announcing, "I have here a list of 57 known Communists who are currently employed by the U.S. State Department." Shortly after his speech, McCarthy changed the number of communists in the U.S. State Department from 57 to 205. America had felt safe and at peace from the communists. Now; however, they felt uneasy and panicked at the thought of communists working in their own government. Americans started to demand the names of these people listed on McCarthy's "Blacklist." Congress then started attempting to seek out the people on McCarthy’s list. A particular group that was closely examined was the actors and actresses in Hollywood that McCarthy declared to be communists. Joseph McCarthy used and abused his power of being a senator. In doing so, he created chaos and destruction in the lives of many people, and in most of America.
The United States was in a state of scare when they feared that communist agents would come and try to destroy our government system. An example of this scare was the Cold war. During the cold war the U.S. supported the anti-communist group while the Soviet Union favored the communist party. Many people who still supported the communist party still lived in the U.S. When the U.S. joined the Cold war, trying to rid the communist party from Europe and Asia, the U.S. were afraid that the people living in the United States that still supported communism were spies that would give intel back to the Soviet Union to try to destroy their government. If anybody was a suspected communist, if somebody just didn’t like somebody, or if they were even greedy they could accuse the person of communism and the person would be thrown in the penitentiary, thus, starting the second red scare.
Around 1943, a Russian KGB officer by the name of Aleksandr Feklisov asked Julius to work as a spy for the communist government of the Soviet Union (Petersen 1). Julius agreed to spy and recruit others. “Over the n...
“I have here in hand a list of 205- a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party… still working and shaping policy in the State Department” (Senator Joseph McCarthy). Following World War 2, the threat of Communism was on the rise in American society. McCarthy claiming that there were Communists working in the government helped to raise the tension across the U.S. as the country was locked in a tense Cold War with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union, or modern day Russia, were well known alongside with China for their deep beliefs in Communism, causing America to enter their infamous time period of the Red Scare. Fear and the overwhelming threat of McCarthyism affected American society
Prohibition, the greatest thing that has happened, was what most “dry” people thought. Yes, prohibition did stop a lot of people from consuming alcohol. Prohibition helped turn some “wets”, people who consumed alcohol, into “drys”, which were individuals that did not consume alcohol. Unfortunately, there was a huge downside to prohibition. Throughout the times of prohibition, the rate of gang activity that was involved in daily life rose dramatically due to the desire to obtain alcohol despite the fact that it had been made illegal.
It was the 1960’s in America, a time of social consciousness, fear, war, distrust in government, and rebellion. It was a time in which bomb shelter ads on TV were common place. It was a time of tension and fears for communism creping though our neighborhoods and infiltrating American ideals. We were at war with a nation. After World War 2, there were two dominant nations, the United States and the Soviet Union. Political ideals and control over Germany would separate the allies into bitter rivals and enemies. The fear of the Soviet’s use of nuclear weapons was constantly in the backs of our minds. It was a global ...