Second Red Scare Essay

The Second Red Scare was the time period after World War II when a widespread fear of communist infiltration swept over America as a side-effect of the cold war between the Soviet Union and the United States of America. This era saw the practice of McCarthyism come into play - a term referring to Senator Joseph McCarthy’s tendency to accuse citizens and officials of being communist spies. Fear was coursing through the veins of America from 1945 - 1957, and power was being corrupted to keep citizens afraid and helpless. To McCarthy and Truman, the government was just doing what they needed to do to protect their democratic country; to the American people, they were causing repression in politics and violations of liberties. The practice of uniting

against a common enemy backed by the government is not a new one, but the danger is when the common enemy is within the country. People of one home culture have turned against each other in the Salem Witch trials and again with the First Red Scare. By analyzing the effects of the Red Scare on American society from 1945 to 1957, it is evident that the government’s manipulation of the people lead to the discord within society.
The year was 1945, and the allies had just won the Second World War. While the United States and the Soviet Union had been on the same side of this global conflict, they had disagreements on not only which territories to claim, but their fundamental beliefs in how countries should be ruled had them at each others’ throats. This was the beginning of the threat of communism. As this menace grew over the next two years, Truman passed an executive order to ensure the loyalty of government workers thereby preventing communist infiltration. The 1947 Federal Loyalty Program first called attention to this issue, stating that “the presence within the Government service of any disloyal or subversive person constitutes a threat to our democratic processes;” (Truman, 1) Under the Loyalty program, government employees and potential employees were required to pass rigorous background checks to make sure they were loyal to the democratic process and not communist sympathizers. It also created a Loyalty Review Board whose members would investigate claims against those employees.
Truman’s Federal Loyalty Program was the first call for increased security in the nation and introduced public debates on the importance of security and how it infringes on civil liberty. While Truman’s main purpose of this order was protecting democratic ideals, he also caught the attention of the American public and introduced a panic. In the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History, the author states that The federal employee loyalty program became a key force in spreading “the great fear” as opposed to dampening right-wing accusations (Storrs, 8).
To add fire to the flame, the House Un-American Activities Committee investigated communist influence at the start of the Cold War. When the fear of communist infiltration started to rise, members of H.U.A.C turned their attention to Hollywood due to its widespread influence over the American public. Anti-communist government officials worried that Hollywood was a source of seditious propaganda. #4 This committee started a list of actors whom they believed to have ties to the communist party. This was later called the Hollywood blacklist. In 1947, more than 40 people in the movie industry were ordered to appear before HUAC.
The American public took offense when their favorite Hollywood actors were accused of being communists. In 1950, the accused actors produced a film called “The Hollywood Ten” wherein ten convicted actors spoke out against McCarthyism and the HUAC investigations. The actors claimed that they were a violation of their civil rights, pointing out that the First Amendment of the constitution promised them the right to be a member of any political party they wished. This struck the hearts of their audience and reignited public debate on the thin line between security and civil liberty.
During these years - the height of the Second Red Scare - two things occurred that fueled these public debates for many years to come: McCarthyism and the Rosenbergs.
On February 9, 1950, U.S.

Senator Joseph McCarthy made an assertive speech in West Virginia referred to as “Enemies from Within.” Running for re-election and hoping to catch the people’s attention, he claimed that at least 200 employees in the U.S. government were members of the Communist Party. The claim made headlines and caused friction with the Soviet Union because there seemed to be no evidence for McCarthy’s accusations. This practice of making unfair allegations to thwart dissent or political criticism became known as McCarthyism and effectively fueled the fear of communist infiltration in the country. #1 President Harry S. Truman saw right through McCarthy. In a response telegram to his claim at the speech, he said, “This is the first time … that I ever heard of a senator trying to discredit his own Government before the world. You know that isn’t done by honest public officials. Your telegram is not only not true … but it shows you are not even fit to have a hand in the operation of the government of the United States.” (Truman

1)
Five months after McCarthy made his “Enemies from Within” speech, the government was working on a case of international espionage.

It had set its sight on a married couple - an engineer and his wife - for sharing top-secret nuclear weapon designs with the Soviet Union. In July 1950, FBI agents arrested Julius and Ethel Rosenberg on counts of “Conspiracy to Commit Espionage.” After a short, one-month trial that lacked hard evidence to prove the charges and was ruled by a judge who could not remain impartial, both were sentenced to death. Rosenbergs' attorneys appealed the case for two years, but neither Truman nor the new President Dwight D. Eisenhower would grant them clemency. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed on June 19, 1953, shortly after Eisenhower took office, but not without him throwing in his two cents. He refused to executively pardon them last minute, issuing a statement saying that “by immeasurably increasing the chances of atomic war, the Rosenbergs may have condemned to death tens of millions of innocent people all over the world. The execution of two human beings is a grave matter. But even graver is the thought of the millions of dead whose deaths may be directly attributable to what these spies have done” (Eisenhower 1). It is clear that Eisenhower wholeheartedly believed that the Rosenbergs were guilty, and by making such a bold statement, he influenced the mindset of the American citizens while appealing to their

sympathies.
The Rosenbergs’ case was a hot topic of debate before and after the execution. Some Americans saw the Rosenbergs solely as victims of the radical anti-communist sentiment, protesting against their sentence as cruel and unusual punishment. Most citizens, however, believed the Rosenberg case was necessary and just, believing that it set an example for under-the-radar Soviet spies/defectors/traitors. Whichever side each the citizens were on, the Rosenberg case fueled their fear of both communist infiltration and the government’s manner of dealing with it. The Soviet immigrants were specifically afraid that they could be the next target after seeing the Russian couple tried so harshly. Society was divided on the issue as it was with McCarthy’s methods of convicting communists. After McCarthy began his witch hunt, many Americans lost their jobs or reputations and blamed him for their misfortune. However, his use of argumentum ad metum (appeal to fear) was successful. After his speech, 25 states passed laws prohibiting communist organizations. During McCarthy’s term in office, anti-communist sentiment was at an all-time high, fueled by the excitement of the Rosenberg trial. When his term ended in 1954, anti-communist sentiment softened.
In conclusion, it is evident that the government’s persecution of suspected citizens with ties to the communist party divided the country and brought up new issues pitting the nation’s security against individual civil liberties. On another front, the government united the country by targeting a common enemy while at the same time singling out people who didn't belong. Because of the collective fear that plagued the nation, jobs were lost, reputations were ruined, and unbacked claims resulted in the loss of lives. Maybe if the government had not been so quick to judge, tensions in society could have been less severe. The government sparked panic in society and fanned the flames of fear not only once, but twice within a century, and those flames only began to die with McCarthy on his deathbed in 1957.