THE RED SCARE IN AMERICAN HISTORY

International High School at Lafayette

American History
 Mr. Joel
Unit 3 – Immigration and Migration
Shi Ting, Vlada, Itrat
INTRODUCTION

The Red Scare is about anti-communism population increase in American. There

are two periods for Red Scare. The First Red Scare was about worker (socialist)

revolution. It happened during World War I. The Second Red Scare happened in

the 1947-1957. The Second Red Scare was focused on (national and foreign)

communists influencing society and infiltrating the federal government. "Red

Scare" - two periods of anti-communism in the history of the United States.

RED SCARE IN EARLY 1900S

A sharp increase in infiltration of suspected communists and radicals in the

American government characterize these two periods.

First in the period of 1919 to 1921, which was triggered by a Communist, take

over of Russia. Red Scare took hold in the United States. The Red scare never really

stopped since its first appearance, but occurred again in the 1950's. It was a label given to

the actions of legislation, race riots, and the hatred and persecution of revolutionary

objectors during that period of time. After the war formally ended on November 18,

1918, there was a war still going on in the US. It was a war which prompted mass

paranoia and caused what would be known as the Red Scare, beginning in 1919 and

ending in 1921. First period of red scare began in June 1919, when the newly appointed

US attorney general, A. Mitchel Palmer, was waken up by the explosion on his door

steps. A bomber tripped over something, blowing himself up. It was later found that

additional bombs had exploded on the doorsteps of other high-ranking.

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RED SCARE OF MID 1900S

The Red Scare of mid 1990s happened is after the World War II. It also called the

Second Red Scare. It was characterized by fear of Communist spies, and was caused by

Sovietization of Eastern Europe (starting in 1946), the blockade of West Berlin (1948-

1949), civil war in China (1949) and the Korean War (1950-1953).

There were increase population of fear communism in Western Europe, The

Soviet Union invented the nuclear bomb; it scared the Americans and made the

Community Party of USA stronger. They also found that there were soviet spies in USA

during WWII. At the same time, Chinese Communists won the Chinese Civil War and

later they intervention in the Korean War against U.S. and these things made the

American had a basic feeling of anti-communism. People were scared of communism, so

the population of anti-communism increase in American.

Those were the external causes of the Red Scare. The internal causes were by

Joseph McCarthy, a senator of America. He was the head of the House Committee on

Un-American Activities, he asked for character investigation of “American

Communists” and their roles in espionage (spy) among political workers and social

artists. Many success political people like Kennedy and Richard Nixon died during that

event. Joseph McCarthy soon died and realized that there was no political gain from the

process.

The Second Red Scare profoundly altered the temper of American society, the

population of anti-communism increase and passed to their generation. It deeply affected

the Americans thinking, from 1900s, even till today.

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CONCLUSION

The result of the First Red Scare was the outbreak of xenophobia in American

society, aimed also to the various factions of radical anarchists, often consisting of recent

immigrants. Also series of immigration laws and calls for violent overthrow of the

existing system. Another result has been to reduce the number of members of the U.S.

Communist Party and similar parties at 80%. In 1919-1920 a number of states have

introduced laws banning justify violence for the sake of social change. The Second Red

Scare resulted in inclusion on the blacklist, the arrest and deportation of persons

suspected of being sympathetic to communism. The second "Red Scare" proceeded

against which began the nuclear arms race that led to a noticeable impact on American

life: the popularity soared home shelters in case of nuclear attack, regularly conducted

drills in schools. Anti-communism has affected even the sport and the team, "Cincinnati

Reds" is temporarily changed its name to a ”Red legs” to avoid association with

communism.

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WORD CITED

Document 1: ”Red Scare” Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Scare#Second_Red_Scare_.281947.E2

.80.9357.29

Document 2: “The Red Scare”

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/saccov/redscare.html

Document 3:”Index of Red Scare”, Baruch.

http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/digital/redscare/