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World War II political effects
World War II political effects
The red scare and communism essays
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The hyped hysteria of a possible threat to America by the Communist was known as the “Red Scare” and no one promoted the “Red Scare” more than Joe McCarthy, a Senator from Wisconsin. If for some reason Harry Truman is responsible for some of the hype, it was only because he was doing his job as Commander and Chief and as President of the United States of America. There was a great deal of concern after World War I that Russia would continue to spread Communism to other territories, threatening America itself. However, Truman acted responsibly when it came to the containment of Communism and did not fully indulge in unwarranted accusations, as did Joe McCarthy.
Joe McCarthy was a first time senator in the United States Congress who was very
suspicious of communist infiltration of the American government and had a fear of communist takeover. McCarthy spent 5 years trying to expose communist loyalist within the United States government. Communist activist and sympathizers were found within the government; however most of McCarthy’s claims were just accusations. McCarthy grabbed the Americans attention when he gave a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia and claimed he had a list of 205 members of the State Department who had ties to Communism. When pressed for the names on the list, McCarthy backed away from the numbers and no list was ever provided. He had undoubtedly caused hysteria among the American people, who questioned the loyalty of their government (History-McCarthy). People had become afraid of Joe McCarthy for fear of losing their jobs or being politically smeared with the thought of communism ties. Few people spoke out against him until 1954 when he made accusations that some members of the armed forces had ties to communism. A televised hearing was aired on national television which showed Joe McCarthy in his viscous attacks against military servicemen accusing them of sympathizing or aiding the Communist. Public opinion turned against McCarthy and he was later censored by the senate (History-McCarthy). On the other hand, Truman did not approve of Joe McCarthy’s tactics and during a press conference after McCarthy’s West Virginia speech characterized McCarthy as “the best asset that the Kremlin can have” (Truman) and condemned McCarthy’s actions in a letter to Dean Acheson the following day. Harry Truman entered the war between North and South Korea to stop the Communist from taking over South Korea and he gave aid and financial support to European countries to keep them from falling into Communist hands (History-Truman). Truman did issue an executive order 9835 which called for an analysis of government employees as to their loyalty to the American government, but this too was a necessary step to insure American safety (History-Red Scare). In conclusion, Harry Truman only acted in the best interest of the United States and he was straight with the American people. The Communist threat was real and Truman did what was needed to protect Americans and America’s allies. Truman had plenty to keep him busy during this time and the idea of creating more hype to inflame Communist hysteria unnecessarily was not Truman’s style.
Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower shared many similarities yet still many differences when it came to Cold War foreign policies. Truman’s foreign policies revolved around the Truman Doctrine, which stated that the United States would financially support Greece and Turkey . Despite Truman’s and Eisenhower’s differing political parties, the foreign policies of the presidents shared several similarities. The main differences between the two presidents can be attributed to differing circumstances during their years in office. Both Truman and Eisenhower sought to eliminate communism and support civil rights, but Truman emphasized international relations and the American economy while Eisenhower dealt more with domestic issues around civil rights.
With the onset of the Cold War, a growing Red Scare would cripple American society – effectively plunging the nation into mass hysteria and unrest over the fallacious threat of communist infiltration. This reaction was precipitated by Republican senator, Joseph McCarthy, in his speech, “Enemies from Within”, delivered in Wheeling, West Virginia, on 9 February 1950. McCarthy paints communists in a particularly harsh light to generate anti-Soviet sentiment within the American public. He uses juxtaposition to engender both indignation and fear in the audience to achieve this effect.
Almost instantly after the end of World War Two, the tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union began to tear away at the thin bond formed by the two counties' alliance in the war. McCarthy and many other republican politicians believed that the democratic party, along with President Harry S. Truman, were not harsh enough on the communist party and they strongly opposed Roosevelt's New Deal. When the Republicans took control of the presidency in 1952, "McCarthyism," as it is now known. This new movement, McCarthyism, accused some Americans of being communist’s sympathizers and people that were suspected o...
The Korean War changed the face of American Cold War diplomacy forever. In the midst of all the political conflict and speculation worldwide, the nation had to choose between two proposed solutions, each one hoping to ensure that communism didn?t sweep across the globe and destroy American ideals of capitalism and democracy. General Douglas MacArthur takes the pro-active stance and says that, assuming it has the capability, the U.S. should attack communism everywhere. President Harry Truman, on the other hand, believed that containing the Soviet communists from Western Europe was the best and most important course of action, and that eliminating communism in Asia was not a priority.
Through the 1940s and 1950s, America was beleaguered with anxieties about the menace of communism arising in Eastern Europe and China. Profiting out of such worries of the nation, young Senator Joseph McCarthy made an open charge that hundreds of "card-carrying" communists had penetrate in the United States government. Although his allegations were found ultimately to be false and the Senate reproached him for improper ways, his ardent shakeup heralded as one of the most tyrannical era in 20th-century American politics. While the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAA) had been made in 1938 as a body to resist communists, McCarthy's charges enhanced the political nervousness of the epoch. The suspicious chase for moles, scandalously known as McCarthyism, made the life and work of a number of important cultural names in the U.S difficult, being branded as champions and supporters to leftist causes. By 1954, the zeal had subsided. These short trials remain one of the most disgraceful times in modern U.S. history (McCarthyism, pbs.org). There are researchers and critics who still find the shadow of McCarthyism looming on the present history of the Unites States. About two years ago, in a Presidential Address George Bush, pleaded the Congress to ratify legislation that would prolong the time-bound terms of the notorious anti-terror law, originally planned to end on December 31st, 2005 and later extended. Advocated by Attorney General John Ashcroft and accepted by the Congress in the scared upshot of the 9/11 fanatic assaults, the Patriot Act has been depicted by its critics as the utmost warning to U.S human rights since the Alien and Sedition Acts or the postponement of habeas corpus during the Civil War. The Alien Registrat...
However, what made communism so dangerous can be succinctly described by Eisenhower, who compared the spread of communism to the domino effect. As his secretary of state, Dulles, put it, the propagation of communism “would constitute a threat to the sovereignty and independence” of America (Doc B). In addition, the Cold War also planted the seeds of rational fear of a global nuclear war. As Russia caught up to the United States in terms of technological advancements, they successfully developed the atomic bomb as well as the hydrogen bomb, which caused Americans to believe that the USSR would use these weapons of mass destruction to forcefully extend their ideologies to the USA. In fact, Americans were so frantic about a potential nuclear disaster that it prompted many families to purchase personal bunkers, stocked with enough resources to live for weeks (Doc C)....
Since the Russian Revolution in 1905, the world housed suspicions regarding communism. These suspicions grew through both World War I, blossoming into a direct confrontation between Communist Russia and Capitalist America. Following the acts of World War II, the Cold War erupted. During the Cold War, United States foreign policy grew gradually aggressive, reflecting the public sentiment.
the rise and fall of Senator Joe McCarthy, as well as the roots of the anti-communist attitude
The United States was in a state of scare when they feared that communist agents would come and try to destroy our government system. An example of this scare was the Cold war. During the cold war the U.S. supported the anti-communist group while the Soviet Union favored the communist party. Many people who still supported the communist party still lived in the U.S. When the U.S. joined the Cold war, trying to rid the communist party from Europe and Asia, the U.S. were afraid that the people living in the United States that still supported communism were spies that would give intel back to the Soviet Union to try to destroy their government. If anybody was a suspected communist, if somebody just didn’t like somebody, or if they were even greedy they could accuse the person of communism and the person would be thrown in the penitentiary, thus, starting the second red scare.
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. “
There were Communists infiltrating America, and it seemed McCarthy was the only one actively trying to find it. McCarthy governed the U.S. people with fear for three years, was censored, and now is being proven correct, despite people trying to hide the truth. 1950 Joseph McCarthy, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, began a crusade of anti-communism (Bartlett). In this period of time “the widespread accusations and investigations of suspected Communist activities in the U.S.” became known as ‘McCarthyism’ (Reeves). Many events happened during the McCarthyism era to justify his suspicions; Communism was spreading throughout Czechoslovakia and China, and North Korea invaded the South –which started the Korean War (Reeves).
On January 7th 1950, an acquaintance said that the communist-in-government issue would attract national publicity and enhance his chances of reelection. His first speech against the issue was on February 9th in Wheeling, West Virginia and McCarthy revealed a sheet of paper with a list of 205 names, who he said, were members of the Communist party. “He could not remember what figure he had quoted at Wheeling, whether it was 205 or 209 or 57 or whatever…” Oakley adds, which shows that McCarthy’s list wasn’t authentic and credible. In an attempt to restore confidence in the Truman administration, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee established a subcommittee headed by Democratic Senator Millard E. Tydings of Maryland to investigate McCarthy’s charges.
President Harry Truman, 33rd president of the United States, had to face one of the most effective decisions of mankind. The atomic bomb was first served as an idea which was created underneath the United States government. With a nuclear weapon like the atomic bomb, came great responsibility. The idea of how to use and regulate the bomb was not yet implemented. Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb changed the way Americans thought about war because of its traumatic after effects.
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 ...
In 1947 Hoover’s Speech (a few years before United States won the World War II) reinstated to fight against the spread communism.The author purpose is to cleanse evilness of communism from American society. He justifies his reason by sentencing “identified” American communists. (Doc 4) Due to the Soviet Union belief of spread communism around the world, Americans took action within their own government by detaining American communists and spread the anti-communist ideals and to prevent it from spreading in other countries like Vietnam and Korea. This action would lead to a shift towards American cultural values; Americans were required to adapt anti-communism ideas of supporting the Cold War or considered and accused of being communist.