America Battles Communism From Within and Out

American Government Response to Communism Concerns existed that communists were in the government Loyalty Review Board: Set up by Truman to investigate government workers for communism Alger Hiss: Worked in the State Department, accused of providing government documents to a communist spy. He couldn’t be proven guilty of spying but was guilty of perjury. Richard Nixon gained fame for pursuing charges against Hiss In the 1990’s, Soviet ‘s released cables proving Hiss was guilty

McCarthyism Sen. Joseph McCarthy McCarthy made accusations against anyone he suspected to be a communist within the government Stated the entire Democratic party was treasonous for allowing communists to infiltrate the government McCarthy destroyed his career by accusing the Army of being infiltrated and then went on to bully witnesses and was completely discredited

Concerns of communism outside the government House Committee of Un-American Activities (HUAC) Investigated the influence of communism in the United States Hollywood Ten: HUAC investigated many actors in Hollywood implying many filmmakers and actors were conspiring against the United States as communists. Many actors refused to testify to congress and many ruined their careers by becoming blacklisted Rosenberg Spy Case Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were accused and found guilty of helping the sharing of American Atomic secrets to the Soviets. The minor communist activists were executed and became the first non combatant American casualties of the Cold War.

McCarran Act: Stated that it was unlawful to act on a desire to establish a totalitarian government in America. Truman vetoed stating no one should be punished for having opinions only for committing crimes Congress overrode Truman’s veto making the McCarran Act law

Race for the H-bomb H-bomb was the next achievement in the arms race between the US and Soviet Union Truman authorized further research on the Hydrogen bomb. The US would only hold an advantage for a year

Space Race The other section of the Cold War which was more peaceful was the race to space. The Soviets took the first step in the space race when they launched a satellite named Sputnik into space with a ICBM The US raced to catch up but failed miserably at first. Eventually, they too would launch a satellite into space

U-2 incident The US (Eisenhower) rejected a proposal to have “open skies” meaning not spying on other countries A US U-2 spy plane is capable of flying above most Soviet fighters and antiaircraft fire It is meant to spy and take photographs of the Soviet weapons sites

U-2 incident A U-2 plane was flying missions over the Soviet Union spying on their positions and weapon storage. It was brought down by a Soviet plane and crashed in Soviet territory. The US denied any intentions of spying at first but eventually Eisenhower took responsibility and told the truth. This angered the Soviets and only pushed the Cold War further