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Communism in the USA
Communism USA 1900-1940
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The Red Scare and McCarthyism had begun Paranoia, disloyalty, people losing jobs. The Red Scare and McCarthyism both made everything else worse. Communism is a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs. At the end of the month when they get their paychecks they both end up with the same amount of money it is not fair, right? but that is more or less what McCarthyism is. During the 1950s, there was a great amount of paranoia and the government technically speaking did not confide in anyone else and falsely accused other people (Essay). The government was so paranoid that they had background checks on almost everyone and many people were fired because of it, not because of disloyalty or that they were suspicious they were fired because of other things such as being homosexual. More than 100 people were fired because of being homosexuals (Essay).
One of the major problems of the 1950s was McCarthyism which was created by Senator McCarthy to go against the communist party and it arose much more paranoia and caused many people to be blacklisted (McCarthyism). Being blacklisted meant that you could not get a job anymore because owners of companies or of factories put you on the list. The owners told all the other companies and factories that you were a bad worker or were lazy and a lot of different lies. They would also get fired because of the background checks (Essay). The people at the time were not happy about the situation who would be with so much paranoia and disloyalty going around, and people being fired for small reasons such as being homosexual. One of the questions th...
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The McCarthy Era was a period of history that began in the late 1949s and ended in the mid late 1950s. This was also called the Second Red Scare in the United States. The McCarthy Era had many innocent victims and many of them were imprisoned. Several authors, actors, civil rights activists, and physicists were among the many victims that were blacklisted. Due to McCarthy’s witch-hunt many victims’ reputations were destroyed and their families ...
The McCarthy era is very similar to the Salem Witch trials. They are both similar, because they both dealt with hysteria. Hysteria is an uncontrollable fear or outburst of emotion. Both things had to do with people accusing each other of people being communist, and people being witches.
...y Wheeling speech created nationwide hysteria, and with its impeccable timing just days after the conviction of the State Official Alga Hiss for lying under oath about his association with the communist Soviet as a spy, fueled the fight on communism. (citation) McCarthy war on communism during the “Second Red Scare” did not leave any individual safe from accusations. He attacked government agents, entertainment industry workers, educators, union members, and alienated the left-wing Democrats. McCarthy helped to create the atmosphere of suspicion and panic with his growth in media coverage. McCarthy’s words made for big headlines and the media was quick to cover his stories. This exposure helped facilitate American approval of McCarthy and empowered him to make more accusations on those suspected of subversion. In 1953, McCarthy headed the Government Operations Commit
As a counter product of this McCarthy intensified the Red Scare more and more. His ideals got through to the citizens creating more accusers and accusations. This only of course led to more and more fingers being pointed. The Red Scare was alive and well before McCarthyism but in the creation of McCarthy’s over the top actions he made it worse for the country as a whole, creating more and more fear inside the American
Throughout McCarthy’s political journey, panic that arose from the witch hunt and fear of communism became very well known. That feeling became known as McCarthyism (Senator Joseph McCarthy 2). Communism wouldn’t be what it is today if it weren’t for Joseph McCarthy.
During the 1950s, the United States was afraid of the communist party. This caused the U.S. to quickly judge anybody who was assumed to be a communist. A similar story was the struggle John Proctor had. John Proctor lived within a super proper society, with many of the people in it being superstitious with the Witch Trials going on. The Salem Witch Trials were filled with the lies of people being witches that would eventually destroy their reputations.
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. “
"Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of
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.
America has endured many difficult times throughout history. One such time is known as the McCarthy era. During the early 1950's, "witch hunts" occurred of suspected communists. One only needed to be suspected of communism to be accused. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, in order to gain political power, capitalized on the fear of communism in the United States in the early 1950's by falsely accusing innocent citizens of political corruption, thus creating a lasting impact on the government, entertainment industry, and history of America.
McCarthyism wasn't just directed at those in the CPUSA prepared to follow Stalin's wishes to the letter. It was directed against rank-and-file CP activists who had fought long and hard in the labor and civil rights struggles of the 1930s and 1940s. It was directed against others on the left, from liberals in the university and the government to Trotskyists and other radicals and revolutionaries. It severely weakened the labor movement and contributed disastrously to a decline in union power and militancy that we are only now beginning, slowly, to recover from.
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 ...
Along with the Korean War, many Americans were also affected by the tensions between America and communist Russia. The Russian hydrogen bomb of 1953 had scared people into believing that Communist Russia could start an atomic war, ending life as most people had known it. Scholars of the time period were scared to teach anything about what Marxism (communism) was about. According to Daily Life in the United States, 1940-1959, Shifting Worlds (Kaldin, 2000). There were also very few communists teaching at universities such as Harvard during the 1950s because of the fear that Americans had of communists during this time. From the years 1951 to 1957, 300 teachers were fired from New York City public schools because they did not give the names of teachers who were supposedly communists. This shows how uneasy of a topic communism was for Americans to talk about, even when the culture had started to become more liberal towards the end of the decade, when the 1960s began.
The Red Scare changed the American view on immigration and foreign policy in America after the Russian Revolution of 1917. The Red Scare was the fear of communism in America which persuaded the immigrant radicals of the Russian Revolution to support communism and a political change. Since there was no response to the growth of fear from anarchism and communism in America, Congress added anti-radical protections to the Immigration Act of 1918 (“Red Scare”). Also, General Palmer and other government officials’ homes were attacked infuriating the American government (Gordon). An addition to the Immigration Act would strictly enforce the radicals to discard their views towards communism and focus on support the democracy and capitalism in America.
For the duration of the 1950's America was absorbed with the fear of the Communists taking control of the country. Joseph McCarthy, a Republican Senator from Wisconsin, heightened the fears many Americans already possessed. McCarthy had a deep hatred for communists, so he devised a plan to make American’s hate communists as much as him, and also had hopes that it would get himself re-elected. McCarthy gave a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia where he held up a piece of paper announcing, "I have here a list of 57 known Communists who are currently employed by the U.S. State Department." Shortly after his speech, McCarthy changed the number of communists in the U.S. State Department from 57 to 205. America had felt safe and at peace from the communists. Now; however, they felt uneasy and panicked at the thought of communists working in their own government. Americans started to demand the names of these people listed on McCarthy's "Blacklist." Congress then started attempting to seek out the people on McCarthy’s list. A particular group that was closely examined was the actors and actresses in Hollywood that McCarthy declared to be communists. Joseph McCarthy used and abused his power of being a senator. In doing so, he created chaos and destruction in the lives of many people, and in most of America.