Containment & Anti- Communist Hysteria Containment & Anti- Communist Hysteria

Communist Expansion Overseas & (Later) Into Space Brings fear of Communist “menace” to America

The Ideological Struggle Soviet & Eastern Bloc Nations [“Iron Curtain”] US & the Western Democracies GOAL  spread world- wide Communism GOAL  “Containment” of Communism & the eventual collapse of the Communist world. [George Kennan] METHODOLOGIES:  Espionage [KGB vs. CIA]  Arms Race [nuclear escalation]  Competition for the minds and hearts of Third World peoples “proxy wars”  Bi-Polarization of Europe [NATO vs. Warsaw Pact]

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (1949)  United States  Belgium  Britain  Canada  Denmark  France  Iceland  Italy  Luxemburg  Netherlands  Norway  Portugal  1952: Greece & Turkey  1955: West Germany  1982: Spain

Warsaw Pact (1955) }U. S. S. R. }Albania }Bulgaria }Czechoslovakia }East Germany }Hungary }Poland }Rumania

Truman Doctrine [1947] 1.Civil War in Greece. 2.Turkey under pressure from the USSR for land in the Dardanelles. 3.Truman: “The U. S. should support free peoples throughout the world who are resisting takeovers by armed minorities or outside pressures…We must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way.” 4.The U.S. gave Greece & Turkey $400 million in economic & military aid.

The Arms Race: A “Missile Gap?” }The Soviet Union exploded its first A-bomb in }Now there were two nuclear superpowers!

NSC-68 April 1950 report by the National Security Council: “The U.S. should use military force to ‘contain’ communist expansion anywhere it seemed to be occurring, regardless of the intrinsic strategic or economic value of the lands in question.”

Politicians seeks to “root out subversives” – Ex.: House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) Hearings

The Hollwood Ten Screenwriters and directors denied employment in the entertainment industry because of their political beliefs, real or suspected.

Domestic Anti-Communist Hysteria during the Early Cold War Era

Government Promotes “Civil Defense” Ex:“Duck & Cover” Drills in schools

“Loyalty Oaths” Required for all Federal Workers Executive Order 9835 Pres. Truman March 1947

McCarran Internal Security Act Required members of the Communist Party and other “subversive” groups to register with the federal government. They had to provide personal information about their members to the federal government. Congress eventually repealed most aspects of the law in 1968 as a result of a number of decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court that declared certain aspects of the law unconstitutional.

Julius & Ethel Rosenberg On Trial Executed

EXCERPTS FROM OFFICIAL SENATE CENSURE OF JOSEPH MCCARTHY FOLLOWING THE 1954 HEARINGS MCCARHY ORGAINZED TO INVESTIGATE ALLEGED COMMUNIST INFLUENCES IN THE US ARMY Resolved, That the Senator from Wisconsin, Mr. McCarthy, obstructed the constitutional processes of the Senate, and that this conduct of the Senator from Wisconsin, Mr. McCarthy, is contrary to senatorial traditions and is hereby condemned. Sec 2. The Senator from Wisconsin, Mr. McCarthy … acted contrary to senatorial ethics and tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute, to obstruct the constitutional processes of the Senate, and to impair its dignity; and such conduct is hereby condemned.

“McCarthyism” Unfairly accusing people of disloyalty made possible by a climate of fear