The Outreaching Effects of the Red Scare

The Red Scare is referred to as America’s fear of communism and American radicals. The first Red Scare started in the 1920’s. WWI may have ended but the paranoia had lingered on. WWI had not gone very well for Russia and the burdens of losing the war forced the Czar to resign. Russia needed to form a new government and in November of 1917 Lenin led the Bolshevik workers revolution to form the communist party. Karl Marx’s idea’s had been well known throughout the world since 1848 but had never been successfully implemented. The western allied powers wanted to restore Czar Nicholas back to power in Russia but their efforts were in vain. The Bolsheviks had murdered the entire royal family, and had slowly taken control of the nation.
In the United States workers who had before evaded from going on strike during WWI was now demanding an increase in their wages to keep up with the constant increase of inflation. There were over 3,300 post war strikes which led to the formation of the communist labor party in 1919. The American public at large believed that labor activism was a menace to society and should be eliminated. The politician at this time who was most of all against American radicals was Woodrow Wilson’s attorney general Mitchell Palmer; he was determined to stop a Bolshevik revolution from happening in America.
Between 1919 and 1920 Attorney General Palmer led a series of raids, formally known as the Palmer Raids, on people who he thought to be a danger to America’s security and society. Palmer was supported by The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which was created under the Hoover administration. Palmer deported 249 Russian immigrants without having any just cause. With the use of undercover informants and wire tappin...

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...rking in jobs of influence. The Red Scare was also affecting people in a more personal arena. People were being pursued, and berated by the police. American citizens were alienated from friends and family and even fired from their jobs. Because there was such a small number of actual communist most of the people accused were aspiring revolutionaries, others were the victims of false allegations and were made targets. But a lot of the people who were accused had done nothing more than just exercise their democratic right to join a political party. Although the Red Scare started to subside in the 1950’s after McCarthy was discredited, this time in American history has continued to be a hot button topic and influence among political debate. In the years after the Red Scare, this subject has still brought tension and competition between conservatives and liberals.