US. 61 Analyze the causes and effects of the Second Red Scare, including Americans’ attitude toward McCarthyism, blacklisting, and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
After the fall of China to Mao's communists, the Rosenberg trial, and the communist actions in the Korean War; Americans became more anti-communist than ever before. People suspected of just being being affiliated with anything communist were persecuted, sometimes even kept from obtaining a job. What would you do if you could possibly be persecuted, or fired from your job for your political beliefs? Would you stand up against it? Hide your true self? Prepare to discuss your answer.
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Essential Question: What were the causes and effects of the Second Red Scare?
Get to know individuals/groups of the Red Scare period. Take your time and be able to match them up to their descriptions!
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities committed by individuals suspected of having Communist ties. HUAC often used pressure tactics in order to get witnesses to give up information that could lead to other Communists and Communist sympathizers. Joseph McCarthy
Junior Senator from Wisconsin who claimed to have a list of 257 Communists in the State Department and fabricated documents and doctors' files to make these charges stick. McCarthy’s downfall comes on National Television when he accuses the Army of harboring Communist sympathizers and cannot make the allegations stick. He is soon censored (reprimanded by Congress) and disgraced, finding himself alienated in the political arena. J. Edgar Hoover Head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who was in charge of rooting out Communists throughout the United States. Hoover is also credited with expanding the FBI into a capable crime-fighting agency and with modernizing law enforcement through new technology, such as a centralized fingerprint file and forensic laboratories. Alger Hiss Since its founding in 1938, HUAC had been looking into possible Communist infiltration of the Roosevelt and Truman administrations. Alger Hiss was a State Department Assistant who was accused of espionage by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and convicted of perjury in connection to the charges against him. This led to the political rise of Richard Nixon, who was the Congressional Leader of HUAC and was able to prosecute Hiss for perjury before Congress. Many believed Hiss was innocent and a victim of the Red Scare "witch hunts" of the 1950's while others believed he was a Soviet spy who had committed treason. Hollywood Ten (video)
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Focus Question: What factors/events caused the Second Red Scare in the 1950s?
Now we will learn about how Americans developed an animosity/fear regarding communism and its followers in the 1950s. Watch the videos below and answer the questions in the lesson worksheet. Be prepared to discuss the videos and your findings in class. Think about how what you learned in the videos might relate to our society today.
The Red Scare (Part 1)
The Red Scare (Part 2)
If you think you know your stuff, CLICK HERE to take a quick quiz over the Red Scare lesson. Good Luck!