Second Red Scare 25.3 Notes

Growing Fear The years after WWII were already tense Americans were scared about the spread of communism The crisis in Berlin drove tensions even higher The U.S. finds out that the Soviets have a bomb Then news came that China had been taken over by communism

The Threat of Communism in China Communist takeover in China was many years in the making Japan withdrew from China at the end of WWII The current leader of China, Chiang Kai-shek left and went to Taiwan with the Nationalist Party Mao Zedong and the communists took the opportunity to gain control

Communists win The Civil War inside China is won by the communists U.S. is fearful that communism in China might be like communism in the Soviet Union Video clip on communist takeover (3 min) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ-PbppXLic

Fighting Communism at home HUAC has been in place since 1930’s This group investigates the range of radical groups in the U.S. The most famous HUAC investigation began in 1947 over the Hollywood Ten https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJzV6-wJ3SQ (3 minute video on Hollywood Ten)

Hollywood Ten They were called before the HUAC committee and refused to answer questions They were found guilty of contempt and sentenced to a year in jail

Robert Oppenheimer The scientist that created the atomic bomb He was accused of communist sympathies The commission stripped him of his top secret security clearance

Truman and loyalty Public fear of communism put pressure on American leaders Truman started by investigating all U.S. federal employees Out of 3 million people, 3,000 resigned, and 200 were judged disloyal

Smith Act 1940 law that made it a crime to call for the overthrow of the U.S. government or belong to an organization that did The Smith Act was used in many supreme court cases Dennis vs. United States Yates vs. United States You are going to read about these two court cases and explain each one

McCarran Act Required Communist organizations to register with the government It made it illegal to plan for a dictatorship and prevented communists from entering the U.S. Truman tried to veto the bill but Congress overthrew his decision, why?

Spy Cases Alger Hiss- accused of being a spy for the Soviets He lied under oath- what is that called? Klaus Fuchs- plans for the atomic bomb were given to Soviet Union Rosenbergs- you are going to do a webquest on the Rosenbergs today in the computer lab during the second half of class

Joseph McCarthy U.S. Senator McCarthy made a very famous speech in West Virginia about the threat of communism ***read speech of McCarthy

Speech In his speech he claimed that there were 205 Communists working for the U.S. department of state In later speeches he claimed to know the names of 57 of them

Rise of McCarthy He never produced the list of names It made people feel better like there was an explanation for certain events He earned a reputation for fighting communism He started making attacks with no evidence to support it Truman called him a ballyhoo artist His tactic of spreading fear is known as McCarthyism

McCarthyism Senator Millard Tydings lost election because of threats made by McCarthy that were untrue Thousands of people would be fired across the nation for being, “soft on communism” He even accused the U.S. military of being involved in communism He won re-election in 1952