Fear Of Communism Essay

Improved Essays
America’s fear of communism became obvious I 1917 after the Russian revolution because it showed the power the general public could have over a government. It also showed the poor people that there was another way for them to live that could benefit them more than the way that they were living now. They were shown that they had more power than they believed they did and this scared the American government. In 1922, Communists took power and established the Soviet Union. This scared America because it was considered the land of the free and communism was the opposite of what the values that they stood for. There fear of communism led to cases such as Sacco and Vanzetti’s.
Sacco and Vanzetti were two Italian men that were ‘radical’s and hadn’t
…show more content…
This was a large threat due to the cold war. The cold war was based on a rivalry between the two ‘rising powers’ in the world at that time, Russia and the USA. It was based on the difference in their beliefs and what they both stood for. In 1947, the loyalty order as issued and it stated that all federal employees had to be analyzed in order to find out if they were loyal to the US or not. This wasn’t fully accepted in a country where people had strong beliefs of liberty and personal freedom and some saw it as a violation.
America’s fear of communism increased in 1947 when the Soviet Union successfully tested a nuclear bomb, which they believed they would use to try and gain control of the USA. Due to this many politicians from both parties made it a priority to appear as anticommunist as possible in order to convince the public that they were safe and the behavior wouldn’t be tolerated, which would eventually gain them votes.
The public felt the force of the red scare because many who sympathized with communist would find that they would lose their jobs and be alienated forum society even though they were just exercising their personal freedom in join a

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    1. Why does NSC 68 view the Soviet Union as different from other great powers? The NSC 68 viewed the Soviet Union as different from other great powers due to the fact that it is motivated by a specific ideology, with an aim to spread it around the world. As stated in the policy, the Soviet Union “…is animated by a new fanatic faith” (Foner 217), with that faith being communism, which stripped people of their individual freedoms.…

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mccarthyism Dbq

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the late 40s and early 50s the Chinese Nationalist forces under Chaing Kai-Shek fell to the Communist forces of Mao Zedong. This created a lot of fear in the American people. They witnessed almost all of China and Korea fall into communism. This created the Red Scare in which Americans started to become scared because they didn’t want to fall into communism as well. The Red Scare in which is what led into the creation of McCarthyism.…

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cold War Dbq

    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The cold war alliance was between the Soviet Union and the U.S. but was intensified during the late 1940’s and the early 1950’s. The communists in the U.S. eventually became known as the Red Scare. They were also to referred as “Reds.” During the constant attacks, the United States left Communists and leftist sympathizers inside America. While the United States was trying to find a peaceful way to end the Cold war, but the Soviet Spies posed a threat to America.…

    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the years 1948-1960 there was a lot of hysteria considering the cold war. Many people were confused and scared because of all the animosity going on. Both Truman and Eisenhower employed the foreign policy strategy known as "Containment". This meant that the U.S. would try to prevent Communism from spreading through out Western Europe. The Cold War fear of the American people in the after math of WWII was the idea of communism spreading through out the country.…

    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cold War Dbq Analysis

    • 1044 Words
    • 5 Pages

    This promoted a similar situation of the red scare that occurred in 1920’s, however, people’s reaction toward this case are more intense. Therefore, this thus shows that communist have an impact not only the policies created to retain containment or preventing the spread, but also have great impact on America’s life and attitude towards them. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union embarked on a competition to develop more powerful and destructive nuclear weapons. However, American life is also put into jeopardy.…

    • 1044 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Red Scare Research Paper

    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Rallying the American people against a common enemy, the Second Red Scare or McCarthyism was a monumental event and movement in postwar and Cold War era America. It centered around the fear of communism and its influence, viewing it as a threat to democracy and American values. However, during the Red Scare, innocent individuals experienced negative consequences for being accused of being communists or communist sympathizers. So while the Red Scare increased patriotism, it also caused unjust persecution and mass hysteria, which overstepped fundamental Constitutional rights. The baseless accusations and unjust persecution that occurred of supposed communists and liberals during the Red Scare completely undermine our nation's core principles.…

    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Second Red Scare, characterized by the threat of global communism during the Cold War, predominated in the mid and early 1900s. The panic was not merely an internal insurrection but an international subversion, as echoed in the rhetoric of elected officials such as Senator McCarthy. The ideology of McCarthyism infiltrated all facets of society, resulting in a social climate comprised of mistrust and the alarmist…

    • 476 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During World War l the Fear of Communism skyrocketed, but as the war was ending the Red Scare began to spread across the United States. Once the United States…

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Did Joseph McCarthy create a “Red Scare” Joseph McCarthy gained attention through his rants about how the United States Government was corrupt and secretly housing Communism to soon blend with mainstream democracy in the United States. McCarthy provided little or no evidence to persecute said government officials, but just solely because of his fear of Communism. Joseph McCarthy used the “scare tactic” to turn the heads of American citizens from post-war recovery, to the spread of Communism within America. Instead of becoming united to stand against the spread of Communism, McCarthy created suspicion between citizens and the government, while also persecuting people that he accused to be Communist sympathizers, ultimately creating the “Red Scare.”…

    • 646 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Eisenhower Influence

    • 1448 Words
    • 6 Pages

    "I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity." (1), this quote given while serving as the Chief of staff of the Army, helps provide insight into some influences of how policy during Presidents Eisenhower’s tenure in office was developed. The Presidents early upbringing late in the 19th Century raised mostly in isolated rural areas (when this country cared very little about life outside its boundaries). Raised by educated parents both graduated from college uncommon during that time, religion, and a sense of family everyone doing their fair share prevalent during his formative years. Involved in an accident early in life his younger brother lost his eye; he later referred to the…

    • 1448 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    My position if the Red Scare. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a staring contest with hundreds of nuclear missiles. In the early 1950s, this is what people felt like. The Red Scare was a period of time during the Cold War. When government workers, teachers, and leaders suspected of being a communistic would be fired or would be fined with jail time.…

    • 99 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Looking back at the Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692, and later on in the McCarthy trials, you can determine that fear was a ruling factor in the behavior of those involved. Arthur Miller was unmistaken when he stated in Why I wrote The Crucible: An Artist’s Answer to Politics by Arthur Miller that “fear doesn’t travel well; …it can warp judgment” (1). The fear that was instilled upon the people of Salem was that if anyone opposed the trials they were not only accused of overthrowing the court, they were also accused of overthrowing God – provoking charges of witchcraft. By using biblical allusions, Parris’ eager pursuit for “justice,” and Abigail’s vindictive actions Miller demonstrates through The Crucible that the application of power can instill so much fear in others that they succumb to submitting to immoral…

    • 688 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Red Scare was a paranoid hunt for communists.…

    • 1481 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What exactly was the Cold War? The Cold War was basically a war between the United States and the Soviet Union which never became “hot”. It was based upon ideological differences, the United States’ capitalism versus the Soviet Union’s communism. It was a competition to see who was better. After World War II the Cold War began.…

    • 1449 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki drastically altered international politics by changing the scope and consequences of international warfare, as well as causing a widespread hysteria over the use of nuclear warfare that led to conflicts such as the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. On August 6, 1945, the world was changed forever. On that fateful day the United States plunged the world into the chaos of nuclear warfare by dropping the first nuclear bomb in world history. The bomb brought with it an absolutely unparalleled level of destruction to the Japanese city of Hiroshima. In less than a second, the lives of more than 100,000 people were brought to a sudden, fiery conclusion.…

    • 1888 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays