War solved problems of control for chess players. The Soviet Union expansion was threatening to the United States government (Truman administration) and to American business interests even though the Soviet economy wasn’t doing great, they were doing an amazing job rebuilding their industries and military after the war. The cold war both at home and abroad were good for the chess players. One of benefit of the cold war for the chess players was to promote anti communism in society. Fear of communism caused Americans to send more money on military and promote war in the media. Congress was putting through anti communist bills. In 1950, Republicans passed an Internal Security Act for organization that were communist. Because of this they were held in detention camps. They successful tried to make the public fear communism. By 1948 through 1954 they were more than 40 anti communist films like “I was A Communist for the FBI” came out in Hollywood teach people that being anti communist was heroic. In the 50s, young students in the US participated in drills in which a Soviet attack on America was signaled by sirens, forcing the kids to crouch under their desk until it was safe. Because of how the media was so involved in political …show more content…
The United States was creating a network of American corporate control by building its political influences over the countries it aided. For example, the Marshal plan of 1948 gave 16 billion in economic aid to Western European countries in four years while building economic markets for American exports (438). The Marshall Plan political motive was to keep Communism out of the cabinet of Italy and France since the communist party was strong there. By 1952 it was more obvious that foreign aid was intended to build military power in non communist countries. Although they were spending 50 billion on foreign aid to ninety counties, only 5 billion was spent on the economy
The opposing look on communism sparked a massive conspiracy theory that set neighbours, friends and family against each other. People were accused of being communists, and, in order to free their name and the risk of being blacklisted, they had to give the names of other that were communists. This set off a long chain of innocent people that were accused by people trying to free t...
Critical occurrences in1949 brought American communist fears to an extreme level. The Berlin Blockade and the Berlin Airlift, followed by Mao Zedong's triumph over Chiang Kai-Shek's Chinese Nationalist forces, and the successful atomic bomb tests of the USSR all contributed to the hysteria. America was gripped by paranoia, embodied by Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy Communist witch hunts.
Almost instantly after the end of World War Two, the tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union began to tear away at the thin bond formed by the two counties' alliance in the war. McCarthy and many other republican politicians believed that the democratic party, along with President Harry S. Truman, were not harsh enough on the communist party and they strongly opposed Roosevelt's New Deal. When the Republicans took control of the presidency in 1952, "McCarthyism," as it is now known. This new movement, McCarthyism, accused some Americans of being communist’s sympathizers and people that were suspected o...
Through the 1940s and 1950s, America was beleaguered with anxieties about the menace of communism arising in Eastern Europe and China. Profiting out of such worries for the nation, young Senator Joseph McCarthy made an open charge that hundreds of "card-carrying" communists had penetrated the United States government. Although his allegations were found ultimately to be false and the Senate reproached him for improper ways, his ardent shakeup heralded as one of the most tyrannical eras in 20th-century American politics. While the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAA) had been formed in 1938 as a body to resist communists, McCarthy's charges enhanced the political nervousness of the epoch. The suspicious chase for moles, scandalously known as McCarthyism, made the life and work of a number of important cultural names in the U.S difficult, being branded as champions and supporters to leftist causes.
To keep social unity intact, the authority of leaders had to be strictly. Both had similar traditions of defense, investigative routines, and prosecution against alleged members of a disloyal group. Accused witches would have to claim that they had worked with the devil to be safe. Accused reds could only prove honesty if they named other reds. The Red hunt that reached Hollywood was led by the House Committee on Un-American Activities they cleared artists’ names before employing. Their goal was to destroy all ideas associated with communism. People were told by the HUAC that they needed to name others apart of the communist party or they would lose their careers. There were testifiers and FBI informants that told on so the committee already knew who to start with. There were communists in America during the 1950’s, but there really weren’t any witches during the 1690’s. During the Salem Witch trials a witness just needed to claim that they saw the spirit of the accused person. The suspected
In the 1930s and 1940s many Hollywood writers, actors, producers, and directors were suspected for communist affiliations. During this time, communism was a popular political movement in the United States, especially among young liberals. There was a growing fear of communism invading American society. By the end of World War Two, an event known as the Red Scare resulted in communism becoming increasingly feared and hated by many in the United States. The Hollywood blacklist caused the Hollywood industry a lot of harm to its business and reputation.
Many Americans were being taught that communists were the enemy from when they were young, so it created a generation that had so much hate and were so scared of the communist influence. In the education system, it was now integrated into the
the rise and fall of Senator Joe McCarthy, as well as the roots of the anti-communist attitude
Senator Joseph McCarthy used many tactics to persuade Americans to oppose communism and indict those who supported it. Communism had tangible shape, and Americans were worried that people in the U.S. would start leaning to the far left like several other countries such as the USSR and China (Schrecker). In order to prevent this, the Congressional House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was founded. The Committee's purpose was to investigate those organizations and individuals it deemed "un-American." They first went to Hollywood because the movie industry was considered "corrupted". Ten individuals, called the Hollywood Ten, were asked to testify against other Hollywood residents who were questionable com...
The Red Scare in the 1950’s was actually America’s second red scare. The 1920’s red scare was what helped start suspicion over Communists, but was put off during World War 2. It was no coincidence that what many people called the second red scare ignited after World War 2, during the Cold War, in the 1950’s. The 1920’s red scare started because Americans were paranoid over the fact that Russia may seek revenge after they had overthrown a royal Russian family in 1917. What started Communist ideas in the U.S at the time was the fact that since the war was over many of people were out of jobs which caused people to ask how efficient was the government. The most successful and noteworthy of all the Soviet parties in the 1920’s had to be the International Workers of the World, which was also called the I.W.W or the Wobblies. The Wobblies first strike was on January 21 1919 where about 35,000 shipyard workers struck. They were immediately labeled reds, or Communists. After the first strike mass panic struck the U.S and many major chain stores had to reassure their customers that their workers would not revolt. A mayor named Ole Hansen from Seattle took the Wobblies strikes personally. Strikes continued over the next 6 months and were labeled as “crimes against society”, “conspiracies against the government” and even “plots to establish Communism”. This was when Attorney General A. “
There were Communists infiltrating America, and it seemed McCarthy was the only one actively trying to find it. McCarthy governed the U.S. people with fear for three years, was censored, and now is being proven correct, despite people trying to hide the truth. 1950 Joseph McCarthy, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, began a crusade of anti-communism (Bartlett). In this period of time “the widespread accusations and investigations of suspected Communist activities in the U.S.” became known as ‘McCarthyism’ (Reeves). Many events happened during the McCarthyism era to justify his suspicions; Communism was spreading throughout Czechoslovakia and China, and North Korea invaded the South –which started the Korean War (Reeves).
Beginning in the late 1940s, as the Cold War escalated between the United States, the Soviet Union and the Peoples Republic of China, the United States went through a period of intense anti-communist tensions and suspicion. Many thousands of individuals were suspected of being Soviet spies, Communists, or communist sympathizers. Although the American Communist Party was never illegal under Federal law, membership in the party or support of its goals were regarded by many as tantamount to treason. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of this era of anti-communism. The term McCarthyism was coined that same year to describe and condemn the senator's methods, which were widely seen as demagogic and based on reckless, unsubstantiated accusations. Later the term was applied more generally to the anti-communism of the late 1940s through the late 1950s; today, it is often used even more broadly, to describe public attacks made on persons' character and/or patriotism that involve the sort of tactics associated with McCarthy.
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 ideas promoted by McCarthyism and the anti-communistic sentiment of the times were meant to push people away from non-conventional ways of thinking. Anything that was the slightest bit left or radical or even new could be construed as communistic. After Russia’s rejection to the Marshall Plan, a strong wave of communist fear began to sweep the nation and was being promoted by the U.S. government and the media. The early development of the Russian nuclear weapon brought grounds for suspicions of leaked information and the discovery and conviction of espionage for the Rosenbergs only fanned the flames of fear. The 1940’s were plagued with endless magazine articles like “How Communists Get That Way” and “Communists Are After Your Child.” Even President Truman’s Attorney General stated “There are today many Communists in America. They are everywhere--in factories, offices, butcher shops, on street corners, in private businesses--and each carries in himself the germs of death for society.” The Cold War had created a fear that democracy was in danger and that the American people must take drastic measures to ensure the continuance of their way of life. The first step taken in searching out “Communists” in the U.S. was the development of the House on Un-American Activities Committee or the HUAC. The HUAC was formed in the 1930’s but didn’t really become active until the Cold War controversies began in the forties and fifties and would assist Senator Joseph McCarthy in rooting out the “Reds”. The HUAC distributed millions of pamphlets to the American public cautioning: “One...
By the end of World War 2, communism had arisen as the paramount adversary to the United States. In direct competition with “western” ideals, the USSR represented a foreign and powerful enemy that could eventually eclipse the current hegemony of America. As a direct result of this new competition, political figures and bodies arose within the United States government that focused on the extermination of Soviet Influence on American society. One of the most famous actors within this time period was Senator Joseph McCarthy, who throughout the early 1950s led a campaign to expose Americans as communist sympathizers and spies. Anyone from actors, politicians, to regular citizens, could be implicated as a Soviet spy.