The Impact Of The Red Scare On American Culture

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Immediately after the end of World War II, two different political ideologies came into power – Soviet communism and American capitalism. The Cold War was a state of military and political tension between the two powers who both vied for supremacy on an international scale. As the Soviets’ development of nuclear capability this fear, dubbed “the Red Scare” metastasized from the arena of government employment into the party politics, professions, the media, and the people at all levels, and was a catalyst for many changes in America. The Red Scare compromised many civil liberties of American politics, society, and people, and led to a range of profound and enduring effects on the US government and society. Such impacts were shown through many …show more content…

Books and film, new mediums, began reflecting darker topics due fears of communism in society and depicted stereotypes and demonization’s of Russians and Soviet takeover. Russians were commonly portrayed as evil aliens invading Earth, which only continued to feed into public fear. The Red Scare had substantial impact on American culture, and paranoia concerning nuclear holocaust were apparent in films. In literature, dystopian themes were overwhelmingly popular. Books such as “The Manchurian Candidate” and “The Fourth Protocol” reflected intense fears of a Soviet takeover and fueled fear in communism, while book like “1984” and “Alas, Babylon” explored the idea of the apocalyptic lives after Russian domination. Movies produced diabolized communism, and themes such as nuclear war and espionage permeated throughout popular culture. This is especially shown in the sci-fi movie “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” The movie, which shows aliens, juxtaposed as Russians, secretly invade America to secretly possess human bodies and turn them into soulless “pod people” all contribute to the strong demonization of Russian as synonymous to invading evil forces, whereas previously they were just portrayed as normal people. This huge shift in portrayal of Russians due to the Red Scare in American society’s popular culture show the how the immense fear of communism and Soviet invasion warped the way Russians …show more content…

Americans felt the grueling effects of such anti-communism on a personal everyday level, and thousands of innocent citizens illogically accused of being communist sympathizers saw their daily lives ruined. Such accusations of communism meant that thousands of innocent Americans were hounded by the government and law enforcement, alienated from friends and family, and fired from their jobs solely from the pretense. While a small number of the accused may have been aspiring revolutionaries, a much larger majority were simply victims of false allegations or had done nothing more than exercise their democratic right to join a political party, have freedom of speech and freedom of thought and in which were punished gravely because of the hysterical fear of

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