Transcript The Second Red Scare - Waverly

10th American History
Unit IV- A Champion of
Democracy
Chapter 15 – Section 3
The Second Red Scare
The Second Red Scare
The Main Idea
The start of the Cold War and events at home helped trigger
a second Red Scare in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Reading Focus
• Why was the fear of communism growing in the late
1940s?
• What methods and actions did the government use to fight
the spread of communism at home?
• Who was Senator Joseph McCarthy, and what was his role
in the second Red Scare?
The Growing Fear of Communism
Soviet Atomic
Weapons
►In
September 1949
Truman announced that
the Soviet Union had
detonated an atomic
bomb.
►This
was a shock to the
nation.
►Truman
began to
strengthen the nation’s
military against a
possible Soviet nuclear
threat.
Communist China
►Communists
in China had
gained nearly full control
of the country.
► The
Nationalist
government of Chiang
Kai-shek fled to Taiwan
► China
was in the hands of
the Communist Party
under the leadership of
Mao Zedong.
► Americans
worried that
China increased the
Communist threat to the
United States.
Atomic Cannon; 1st Films of Firing New Atom Weapon (00:54)
Communism in China - October 1, 1949 (02:27)
Communism in the United States
►
The House Un-American Activities Committee
investigated the full range of radical groups in the
United States, including Fascists and Communists.
►
Truman created a plan to investigate all federal
employees. Those found to be disloyal to the
United States were barred from federal
employment.
►
The Smith Act made it a crime to call for the
overthrow of the U.S. government or belong to an
organization that did so.
►
The McCarran Act limited the rights of Communist
organizations.
►
Several spy cases in the late 1940s fueled fears of
communism.
Smith Act
► 1940,
passed by the U.S. Congress as the Alien
Registration Act of 1940.
► The act, which made it an offense to advocate or
belong to a group that advocated the violent
overthrow of the government, was the basis of
later prosecutions of members of the Communist
and Socialist Workers parties.
► In 1957 the U.S. Supreme Court restricted the
application of the Smith Act to instances of active
participation in, or verbal encouragement of,
specific insurrectionary activities.
McCarran Act
► The
Internal Security Act (also known as the
Subversive Activities Control Act, McCarran
Act or ISA) of 1950 is a United States federal law
that required the registration of Communist
organizations with the Attorney General in the
United States and established the Subversive
Activities Control Board to investigate persons
thought to be engaged in "un-American" activities.
Members of these groups could not become
citizens. Citizen-members could be denaturalized
in five years.
The McCarren Act and the Efforts of Senator Joseph McCarthy (02:02)
Fighting Communism at Home
Investigating
Communism
Truman
and
Loyalty
►
The House Un-American Activities Committee
(HUAC) explored the possible Communist
influence in the American film industry.
►
The Hollywood Ten refused to answer HUAC
questions about their beliefs or those of their
colleagues.
►
Many others in Hollywood did testify, for if they
didn’t their names were placed on a blacklist.
►
Truman investigated all federal employees to
ensure the loyalty of government officials.
►
The investigations turned up little evidence of
disloyalty.
►
This investigation made clear that Truman was
serious about fighting communism.
House Un-American Activities Committee
►
►
►
►
►
House Committee on Un-American Activities
(HUAC or HCUA) (1938–1975) was an
investigative committee of the United States
House of Representatives. It is often referred to
as the House Un-American Activities
Committee.
In 1947 the HUAC began an investigation into
the Hollywood Motion Picture Industry.
In September 1947, the HUAC interviewed 41
people who were working in Hollywood. These
people attended voluntarily and became known
as "friendly witnesses". During their interviews
they named several people who they accused of
holding left-wing views.
Those identified as communists or socialists
were now ordered to testify before the HUAC.
If these people refused to name names, they
were added to a blacklist that had been drawn
up by the Hollywood film studios.
Over 320 people were placed on this list that
stopped them from working in the
entertainment industry.
Hollywood 10
►
►
The first blacklist was
instituted on November 25,
1947, the day after ten
writers and directors were
cited for contempt of
Congress for refusing to
give testimony to the
House Committee on UnAmerican Activities.
They along with a number
of actors and actress who
pleaded the 5th
Amendment were
blacklisted thus ending
their careers for the
decade or more
Truman Loyalty Oaths
►
►
►
Faced with concerns over the mounting evidence of Soviet
subversive penetration and infiltration into the United
States government by American citizens who held oaths of
allegiance to a foreign power during war time.
On March 21, 1947, President Harry S Truman instituted a
Loyalty Program, requiring loyalty oaths and background
investigations on persons deemed suspect to holding party
membership in organizations that advocated violent and
anti-democratic programs.
The U.S Supreme Court has both upheld the use of loyalty
oaths and overturned lower court decisions upholding
loyalty oaths.
Growing Fear of Communism
► Why
was the fear of communism growing in
the late 1940’s?
► Identify- What event caused President
Truman to decide to strengthen the nation’s
military?
► Recall – Why did China’s Nationalist leaders
flee to Taiwan?
► Summarize – How did Mao Zedong’s
Communists end up taking control of China?
Fighting Communism at Home
The Smith Act
• Truman charged
several leaders of
the Communist
Party in the
United States
under this act.
• The act made it a
crime to call for
the overthrow of
the U.S.
government.
• The leaders were
convicted and
their convictions
were upheld in
Dennis v. United
States.
The McCarran Act
• This act required
Communist
organizations to
register with the
government.
• It established a
special board to
investigate
Communist
involvement.
• Made it illegal to
plan a totalitarian
dictatorship
• Prevented
Communists from
entering the
United States
Spy Cases
• Alger Hiss—
convicted of
being a spy for
the Soviets
• Klaus Fuchs—a
Manhattan
Project scientist
who gave atomic
bomb
information to
the Soviets
• Ethel and Julius
Rosenberg—
convicted of
passing secrets
to the Soviets
and executed
Dennis v. United States
(1951), was a United States Supreme Court case
involving Eugene Dennis, general secretary of the
Communist Party, USA and dealing with citizens'
rights under the First Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States.
► The Court ruled against the plaintiff, a leader of
the Communist Party in the United States,
convicted for teaching, conspiring and organizing
for the willful overthrow and destruction of the
United States government by force and violence,
under provisions of the Smith Act .
►
Alger Hiss
►
►
►
►
►
►
►
Hiss served as Roosevelt's adviser at the Yalta
Conference in 1945.
After working briefly as secretary-general of the
United Nations, in 1949 Hiss became president of
the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
In August 1948 Whittaker Chambers appeared
before the House of Un-American Activities
Committee and during his testimony claimed that
Hiss had been spying for the Soviet Union.
In a federal grand jury investigation of the case,
Hiss denied Chambers's accusations. However, as a
result of this investigation, Hiss was charged with
perjury.
His first trial in 1949 ended in a hung jury but the
following year, a second jury found Hiss guilty and
sentenced him to five years imprisonment.
Hiss was released from prison in 1954. He spent the
rest of his life trying to clear his name. In the 1970s
Hiss unsuccessfully sued the U.S. government under
the Freedom of Information Act in an attempt to
gain access to FBI and State Department files about
the case.
Publicity surrounding the case fed the early political
career of Richard Nixon, helping him move from
the House of Representatives to the Senate in 1950
and to the Vice Presidency of the United States in
1952
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
►
►
►
►
►
►
In 1942, Julius and Ethel became full members in the American
Communist Party.
1943, the Rosenbergs dropped out of the Communist Party to pursue
Julius's espionage activities.
1945, Julius was fired from his job with the Signal Corps when his past
membership in the Communist Party came to light.
June 17, 1950, Julius Rosenberg was arrested on suspicion of espionage
after having been named by Sgt. David Greenglass, Ethel's younger brother
and a former machinist at Los Alamos, who also confessed to passing
secret information to the USSR through a courier, Harry Gold. Because he
cooperated with the investigation Greenglass escaped with a 15 year
sentence.
August 11, 1950, Ethel was arrested.
March 29, 1951- The Rosenbergs might have saved themselves if they had
confessed and turned in other Communist spies but they refused and were
executed under Section 2 of the Espionage Act.
The Federal Loyalty Program: Communism, Alger Hiss, and the
Rosenbergs (01:55)
Fighting the Spread of Communism
at Home
► What
methods and actions did the government
use to fight the spread of communism at home?
► Recall - What was the original purpose of the
House Un-American Activities Committee?
► Explain – Why did Truman create a plane to
investigate federal employees to determine their
loyalty?
► Make Judgments – Do you think that people
should be fired, blacklisted, or otherwise punished
for their political beliefs? Explain your answer.
Fighting the Spread of Communism
at Home
►Explain
– Why did Truman veto
the McCarran Act?
►Make Generalizations – How did
a series of spy cases fuel the fear
of communism?
Joseph McCarthy and the Second
Red Scare
►
Joseph McCarthy was a senator who claimed that there were
205 known Communists working for the U.S. Department of
State.
►
Truman dismissed him as a “ballyhoo artist.”
►
A political cartoonist dubbed McCarthy’s tactic of spreading
fear and making baseless charges McCarthyism.
►
McCarthy’s claims were rarely backed up with any evidence,
but this didn’t stop him from gaining a reputation as being
the nation’s top Communist fighter.
►
McCarthy succeeded when he made a special effort to defeat
Maryland senator Millard Tydings.
►
McCarthyism spread beyond the Senate into other branches
of government, into universities, into labor unions, and into
private businesses.
McCarthyism
•McCarthyism is the term describing
a period of intense anti-Communist
suspicion in the United States that
lasted roughly from the late 1940s to
the late 1950s.
•The term derives from U.S. Senator
Joseph McCarthy, a Republican of
Wisconsin.
•The period of McCarthyism is also
referred to as the Second Red Scare,
and coincided with a period of
increased fears of Communist
influence on American institutions
and espionage by Soviet agents .
McCarthy’s Fall
McCarthy continued his campaign from the Senate but
became increasingly wild in his accusations.
In 1952 he began to go after fellow Republicans.
In 1954 he attacked the U.S. Army, claiming that it was
protecting Communists.
The public came to view McCarthy’s tactics as unfair.
The fear of communism remained, but Senator McCarthy
and McCarthyism faded away.
The End of Senator Joseph McCarthy's Political Power (02:55)
Senator Margaret Chase Smith
► “Those
of us who shout the loudest about
Americanism in making character
assassinations are all to frequently those
who…ignore some of the basic principles of
Americanism: The right to criticize. The
right to hold unpopular beliefs. The right to
protest. The right of independent
thought…Freedom of speech…has been so
abused by some that it is not exercised by
others.”
Senator Joseph McCarthy
► Who
was Senator Joseph McCarthy, and
what was his role in the second Red Scare?
► Recall - What evidence did McCarthy
produce to support his claims?
► Summarize – What events led Americans
to believe McCarthy’s charge?
► Analyze – How did television help Joseph
McCarthy?