The Red Scare USSR 1) The Cold War not only made Americans fearful of the possibility of nuclear war and the spread of Communism abroad, but it also filled many citizens with a hysterical sense of paranoia over the possibility of Communist threats within the United States itself.

The Red Scare 4) The looming threat of nuclear war now made every American vulnerable. Feeling defenseless, many Americans responded by constructing their own backyard bomb shelters; school children practiced nuclear war drills; and average citizens became accustomed to a world of “duck and cover.”

The Red Scare 5) This constant state of confrontation with the Soviet Union made Americans extremely suspicious of any leftist political ideology that even remotely resembled Communism. As a result of this paranoia, many left-wing and liberal political stances were irrationally branded as being “communist.”

The Red Scare 7) The federal government responded to the domestic Communist threat by aggressively investigating American citizens that were even remotely associated with communist beliefs and affiliations.

Cold War Spies

A) ALGER HISS ? 1) Alger Hiss was investigated and convicted of perjury during the 1950s. He later served 5 years of prison and spent the rest of his life trying to clear his name.

B) JULIS & ETHEL ROSENBERG 7) Julius and Ethel Rosenberg took the Fifth Amendment when they were called to testify and they both refused to name any of their co-conspirators. This made the jury very unsympathetic to their case.

B) JULIS & ETHEL ROSENBERG 8) The Rosenbergs were convicted of espionage and were sentenced to death in early 1951. They were the only American civilians to be executed for spying during the Cold War.

McCarthyism 1) The trial and conviction of the Rosenbergs in 1951 produced greater public hysteria concerning widespread Communist infiltration, leading to an irrational and fanatical anti-Communist campaign during the early 1950s.

McCarthyism 2) The anti-Communist crusade was led by an obscure Senator from Wisconsin named Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy masterfully exploited American fears of Communism in order to gain political power in the U.S. Senate.

McCarthyism 3) In 1950 he shocked the American public by claiming to have a list of over 200 known Communists that were currently working in the U.S. State Department, however, he often avoided requests to give specific names or to provide evidence to back up his claims. “I have here in my hand---”

McCarthyism 7) McCarthy used his Senate seat to conduct several investigations and public hearings on individuals that he accused of having Communist affiliations and / or participating in Soviet espionage. The mere accusation of being a Communist was often enough to ruin a career.

McCarthyism 8) A Washington Post political cartoonist known as “Herblock” coined the term “McCarthyism” in reference to the Senator’s Anti-Communist crusade. The term “McCarthyism” came to be synonymous with the exploitation of fear, baseless defamation, the assumption of guilt by association, and “witch-hunting.”

Lives of Americans during the Cold War During the 1950s and 1960s, American schools regularly held drills to train children what to do in case of a nuclear attack, and American citizens were urged by the government to build bomb shelters in their basements.

Lives of Americans during the Cold War The heavy military expenditures throughout the Cold War benefited Virginia’s economy proportionately more than any other state, especially in Hampton Roads, home to several large naval and air bases, and in Northern Virginia, home to the Pentagon and numerous private companies that contract with the military.