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Red Scare Facts

Red Scare Facts
The Red Scare is a term used to describe two period in American history during the Cold War. The first Red Scare, which took place from 1917 to 1920, was primarily concerned with the rise of communism in the West, especially in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. The United States government conducted congressional hearings on the rise of communism in Europe, as well as investigating socialist and communist groups in America. The first Red Scare largely ended when the American economy went into a boom period and the appeal of far leftwing ideas was largely abandoned by the working class. The second Red Scare took place from 1947 to 1957 and was precipitated by the Soviet Union creating communist puppet states in eastern Europe after World War II and the formation of Communist China in 1949. On the domestic front, the second Red Scare was largely driven by McCarthyism - the idea that communist sleeper cells were deeply entrenched in the American government, military, media, and other influential institutions in American culture. The second Red Scare largely fell apart with the death of Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Interesting Red Scare Facts:
Senator Joseph McCarthy was a United States senator from Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957.
The first Red Scare was accompanied by anti-immigrant sentiment as anarchist, socialist, and communist groups were often comprised of a disproportionately large number of immigrants.
The imprisonment of Socialist Party leader and presidential candidate, Eugene Debs, from 1919 to 1921 was one of the effects of the first Red Scare.
When Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were convicted in 1951 of espionage for giving nuclear weapons secrets to the Soviet Union and later executed, many Americans believed the second Red Scare was justified.
During the first Red Scare, leftist organizations, such as the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), embarked on domestic terrorist campaigns through bombings and assassinations of their perceived enemies.
The Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 were intended to quell dissent against World War I, but they were often directed at leftist groups, who were often opposed to any war.
The House Un-American Activities Committee was established by Congress in 1938 to investigate the influence of fascism and communism in American society, but after World War II it was almost exclusively used to investigate anyone with supposed communist ties or sympathies.
One of the major effects that the second Red Scare had on American pop culture was the creation of the Hollywood blacklist. Any writer, actor, director, or producers who was believed to be a communist or communist sympathizer was "black listed" and kept out of the industry/
The second era of the Ku Klux Klan utilized the first Red Scare to its advantage by incorporating anti-communism into its ideology.
Many screen writers, directors, and producers reacted to the second Red Scare and the Hollywood blacklist by making movies that had thinly veiled anti-Red Scare message, such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Thing.


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