Red Scare Synthesis Essay

In the era of both Red Scares, from the 40s to the 60s, anti-communism ideals were running rampant; during this time, many government actions and actions from the people either enhanced or degraded the fear of communism, and it is truly expressed by Richard M. Freeland, M. J. Heale, and Landon R. Y. Storrs describing this period of U.S. history. They take a stand about what caused it and what contributed, with Heale seeking more of a government approach, Freeland with a broader aspect focusing on how the world brought about this change in the United States, and Storrs being more akin to civilian actions which ultimately affected the entirety of the United States and the issues with the New Deal era. Whereas all of these issues that the authors

This belief can best be seen through his thesis statement, as he says “These emotions [About the Red Scare] were aroused and these patterns of belief developed, it is argued, as the result of a deliberate and highly organized effort by the Truman administration in 1947-48 to mobilize support for the program of economic assistance to Europe called the European Recovery Program, or Marshall Pan.” Throughout his writing, based on what he said in his thesis, he gives the premise that the Red Scare was primarily influenced by powers abroad, and how the Truman Doctrine had effects on how American people saw the threat of Communism. He delves into that aspect, by giving the actual speech from Truman about the plans that the U.S. government had to combat Communism in Europe. Their plans, in fact, were to try and halt geopolitical expansion of the Soviet Union in particular, and fed off that fear to fuel what the American people felt about it already. Unlike Heale and Storrs, although the state level and civil level are just as important, he puts and importance on the U.S. ties to Europe and the devastation that occurred after World War II. Freeland calls this a common “theme” when it comes to the Truman Doctrine, as the actual doctrine mentions it many

In all of his writing, he tends not to mention the bigger picture, but focuses more on the smaller, more state level of issues. He believes that with states creating their own HUACs, known as “little HUACs,” and regulating themselves with who to charge for communist ideas, that they ultimately had the power, and that all of this roughly began before the actual Red Scare took place, mainly during the 1930s to 1950s. Thus giving time for the states to enact their own views on how to deal with anti-communistic