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The red scare and its affects on america
The red scare and its affects on america
The red scare and its affects on america
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Former U.S. President Richard Nixon once said, “Communism is never sleeping; it is, as always, plotting, scheming, working, fighting.” From 1919 – 1921, a hysteria over the perceived threat of communism spread like wildfire across the nation. Known as the First Red Scare, the widespread fear of Bolshevism and anarchism quickly invaded the infrastructure of the U.S. government and radically influenced the American people. American citizens, such as Sacco and Vanzetti, were convicted and found crimes that evidence showed otherwise only because they supported anarchism. The US government arrested and deported radicals only because of their political standing. Although The First Red Scare may have begun as a cultural movement, private business owners actually catalyzed and facilitated the wide spread hysteria over communism. The origins of the Red Scare have been debated and studied for nearly a century. Most historians believe that the Red Scare was the product of a public hysteria linked to the patriotic fever remaining after the war, the social unrest, and the fear that Bolshevism would spread from Russia. Urbanization, industrialization, and immigration of the previous decrease also brought social and cultural changes which added to the anxieties. Thus, it was concluded that the First Red Scare was cultural in its origins. Attempting desperately to avoid communism takeover, Americans deported “radical aliens”, barred socialists from holding office, and passed laws that made it a crime to speak critically about the government. However, there is much evidence to believe that the First Red Scare, a cultural movement, was not only cultural in origin – but economically. In 1916, the United States government announced their plan to r... ... middle of paper ... ...ign, instigated by employers and their conservative allies in the employers’ associations, patriotic societies, state legislatures and the press. Their basic aim was to break the power of organized labor, institutionalize the open shop in the American industry and halt or even roll back the growing government regulation of the economy. The widely publicized warnings of a Bolshevik threat to the US and the charges of subversion and treason leveled against unions and reform measures were all parts of this offensive by the conservative elite to regain its once uncontested and preeminent position of power. With riots and strikes on the rise, business owners and employers utilized propaganda to target labor unions as the products of communism; thus, not only, decreasing the power of organized labor, but also catalyzing the fear of radical takeover – the Red Scare.
During the Red Scare, America was in a state of overwhelming panic as a result of the spreading communism around the world. This mania
The “Red Scare” was consuming many American’s lives following World War 1. After the war ended, anarchist bombings began, and a general fear of socialists, anarchists, communists, and immigrants swept the nation. There had always been resentment to immigrants in America, and these attacks just intensified these feelings. Americans were concerned that, because the Russian Revolution occurred, that it would happen in America next. The government began sweeping immigrants up and deporting them. Many innocent people were arrested because of their views against democracy. Although Sacco and Vanzetti were on trial for murder, their beliefs of how society should be run was the main focus in the trial.
The Salem Witch Trials demonstrated a hefty fear onto its residents because of their melodramatic belief that Satan was among their adolescents and themselves.(Salem Witchcraft) During both instances, when a group of people acts irrationally regarding the subject the event symbolizes, it would eventually ignite a spree of illegitimate accusations among others and slander.(Salem Witchcraft) A dread that could arise would be of the fact that your whole essence could be diminished because of a substantial accusation of being involved with Communism.(Red Scare) According to History.com, it states “Americans also felt the effects of the Red Scare on a personal level, and thousands of alleged communist sympathizers saw their lives disrupted.”(Red Scare) This would motivate such a fear that it would arrive in everyone’s lives at that time, especially government or popular figures.(Red
In 1918, while the rest of Europe was still engaged in World War I, a newly formed communist government was developing in Russia. Much like 18th century Americans, they had just managed to overthrow what was viewed as a tyrannical government and hoped to form a new nation free of the injustices of the previous rule. Both countries wrote a new constitution as well as a declaration of rights to facilitate this, but their respective documents had vast differences. These disparities stemmed from differences in the ideologies of the new governments. The primary objectives of the Russian Declaration of Rights of the Working and Exploited People and the later constitution were the “abolition of all exploitation of man by man, complete elimination of the division of society into classes, merciless suppression of the exploiters, socialist organization of society, and victory of socialism in all countries.” Americans wanted equality of opportunity and personal freedom instead of the social equality desired by the Russians. The American constitution and Bill of Rights were created to protect personal liberties and individual freedom while the Russians were more concerned with the welfare and equality of the population as a whole. This difference is partially due to the differences in the conditions leading to revolution in each country. The American Revolution was initiated by the wealthy in response to what they considered unfair treatment by a foreign ruler while the Russian revolution was instigated by the poor in reaction to centuries of oppression and exploitation by the wealthy within their own country.
Americans knew about Communism because Communists had been at large in the country for years. When the Bolshevik revolution succeeded in Russia, it sent a shock wave in America. Americans have never been sympathetic to radicalism in any form. People that were associated with radicalism, rightly or wrongly, were harassed, lynched, jailed and subject to all sorts of bias. Thousands were arrested in 1920 and often held for long periods without trial. The Red Scare of 1920 was a precursor of McCarthyism (Baughman 200).
Red Scare America 1920 World War I was finally over, however, there was a new threat to Americans. The. This threat was Communism, which was greatly feared by most. U.S. citizens. Communism is "a system of social and economic organization" in which property is owned by the state or group, to be shared in common.
"The Red Scare: McCarthyism." Essortment Articles: Free Online Articles on Health, Science, Education & More... Web. 29 Dec. 2011. .
The Red Scare, described by the text as “the first and most intense outbreak of the national alarm after WWI (p. 647)” aimed at achieving unity at the expense of ethnic diversity. The new target, bolshevism. The Russian Revolution and the triumph of Marxism scared Americans and with many Americans turning to communism, especially immigrants, fears were accelerated. Many events also contributed to the Red Scare consisting of a strike in Seattle, a police strike in Boston, and another strike through the iron and steel industry during 1919. The text also relates to bombings such as the attack on Attorney General Mitchell Palmer which was found to be set by an Italian anarchist from Philadelphia which was blown up during the explosion. Multiple bombs and other suspicious packages were also found circulating in the
After WWII, the potential spreading of Communism was putting fear in every American’s heart; this became known as the second Red Scare. Americans even started to become suspicious of their own fellow Americans and many accusations started to occur. McCarthy did not start the Red Scare because it was already progressing before all of his actions.
Radicals and dissidents have often been feared as threats to American way of life. In the spring of 1919 however, with the Bolsheviks advocating worldwide revolution, many Americans feared that the Communists planned to take over the United States. Immediately after the war, there were perhaps 25,000 to 40,000 American Communists, but they were never a threat to the United States. The nation that had seemed to be so united during the Great War splintered into animosity along ethnic, religious, and racial lines. One result of the Red Scare and fear of foreign radicals was the conviction and sentencing of two Italian anarchists, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomea Vanzetti. Cases like Sacco-Vanzetti touched relatively few people, but the intolerance
Following the overarching trend of fear, another main cause of the Second Red Scare was McCarthyism. McCarthyism, named after senator Joseph McCarthy, was the practice that used unfair allegations and investigations of certain people in order to gather certain data, specifically on which people had communist affairs or agreements. Senator McCarthy had setup many hearings in order to accuse people of being communist related, thinking that a large quantity of communists had infiltrated (Storrs). This continued to greaten the fear of a communist infiltration in the public, as these hearings and stories were many times reported on the news and on newspapers (M’Carthy Charges Reds Hold U.S. Jobs). Also, many authors exploited the presence of McCarthyism
New York Times Bestseller The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy. The reason it’s being analyzed by me, because it’s famous American literature. The Hunt for Red October is about the officers aboard a Akula class submarine try to defect to the United States because they hate the communist party and its leaders. The Hunt for Red October has many historically accurate moments in the book but it also has a lot of inaccuracies in it as well. Hunt for Red October is it historically accurate or inaccurate.
The Red Scare was a period of time, post-World War I, in the United States in which people feared the rise of communism, socialism, and anarchism. Some say that what caused the red scare was the Russian revolution and the overthrowing of the czar by the Bolsheviks who implemented communism in Russia, which left the country in turmoil. However, the real cause of the red scare was the wave of strikes that hit the US due to the fact that lots of people were left jobless and war industries without contracts after World War I ended, and many other issues rising such as the demand for higher wages. In a short amount of time, lots of people became extreme anti-communists including A. Palmer Mitchell whose solution to this problem was deportation of
happened during this time. The Red Scare was fear that of the United States government
Workers were not only upset because of how they were treated by their bosses, but also they were angry about how they were being paid. They received extremely low wages that they could barely make a living with. In addition to the low wages, they were subject to long hours in the gruesome factories. All of these conditions built up a large amount of anger towards the government and factory owners. The workers had to do something in order to better their lives. Workers in 19th century Europe had horrible lives as a result of limited attention from the government; workers union were the only thing that ended up getting the attention of the government, and therefore bettering the worker’s lives.