1 Domestic Anti-Communist Hysteria during the Early Cold War Era: Why??

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Domestic Anti-Communist Hysteria during the Early Cold War Era: Why??

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Communist Expansion Overseas & Into Space Brings fear of Communist “menace” to America

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Government Promotes “Civil Defense” Ex:“Duck & Cover” Drills in schools

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“Loyalty Oaths”

Required for all

Federal Workers

Executive Order 9835

Pres. TrumanMarch 1947

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CIA Established 1947

U2 Spy Plane

Better Dead than Red

•A historian's perspective

•The U.S. Government response to the Communist threat within U.S.

• Counter-espionage (Venona)• Congressional Hearings• FBI investigations

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Are you now or were you ever a member of the

Communist Party?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfKSykTPzA4

Opening of hearings:

What could get you accused?

• Member of the CPUSA

• Member of a union• Participation in

workers’ strikes• Travel to Russia• Creation of art or

literature that shows Russia positively

• Someone else names you

• Denunciation of Capitalism

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Cartooncritical

of HUAC

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McCarran Internal Security Act - 1950

-Communist Party members reported to Gov’t-Review Board examined “subversive groups”-Individuals and organizations could be prosecuted and fined.

Congress eventually repealed most aspects of the law in 1968 as a result of a number of decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court that declared certain aspects of the law unconstitutional.

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Excerpts of a Telegram from Senator Joseph McCarthy to President Harry Truman, February 11, 1950

In … a speech … Thursday night I stated that the State Department harbors a nest of Communists and Communist sympathizers who are helping to shape our foreign policy. I further stated that I have in my possession the names of 57 Communists who are in the State Department at present. A State Department spokesman promptly denied this …

You will recall that you personally appointed a board to screen State Department employees for the purpose of weeding out subversives …

…You signed an order forbidding the State Department’s giving any information in regard to the disloyalty or the communistic connections of anyone in that Department to the Congress…

Failure on your part (to act) will label the Democratic Party of being the bedfellow of international communism…

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American freedom is threatened so long as the world Communist conspiracy exists in its present scope, power and hostility. More closely than ever before, American freedom is interlocked with the freedom of other people. In the unity of the free world lies our best chance to reduce the Communist threat without war. In the task of maintaining this unity and strengthening all its parts, the greatest responsibility falls naturally on those who, like ourselves, retain the most freedom and strength.

Eisenhower’s 1954 State of the Union

What is Eisenhower suggesting?

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Julius & Ethel RosenbergOn Trial - 1951Executed - 1953

-Manhattan Project-Weak Evidence-Refused confession

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Rosenberg Evidence

• I told my husband that I knew that he was working on the atomic bomb. …. I said that I had been to Julius Rosenberg's house and that he had told me that David's work was on the atomic bomb, … Julius had said they spent two years getting in touch with people who would enable him to do work directly for the Russian people, that his friends, the Russians, had told him that the work was on the atomic bomb, that the bomb had dangerous radiation effects, that it was a very destructive weapon and that the scientific basis, the information on the bomb should be made available to Soviet Russia...

-Ruth Greenglass

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In what ways did fear make the United States weak?

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Congress vs CIA/FBI

“McCarthyism”

Unfairly accusing people of disloyaltymade possible by a climate of fear

Vs.Gathering evidence and prosecuting…

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The Rise & Fall Of Sen. Joseph McCarthy

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Republican President Eisenhower elected in 1952 With help of “red baiting”, but disliked McCarthy

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"We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep

in our history and doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who

feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were for the moment unpopular. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the

result. There is no way for a citizen of the Republic to abdicate his

responsibility."

Edward R. MurrowPublicly criticizes“McCarthyism” on

TVIn March, 1954

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EXCERPTS FROM OFFICIAL SENATE CENSURE OF JOSEPH MCCARTHY

FOLLOWING THE 1954 HEARINGS McCARTHYORGAINZED TO INVESTIGATE ALLEGED

COMMUNIST INFLUENCESIN THE US ARMY

Resolved, That the Senator from Wisconsin, Mr. McCarthy, obstructed the constitutional processes of the Senate, and that this conduct of the Senator from Wisconsin, Mr. McCarthy, is contrary to senatorial traditions and is hereby condemned.

Sec 2. The Senator from Wisconsin, Mr. McCarthy … acted contrary to senatorial ethics and tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute, to obstruct the constitutional processes of the Senate, and to impair its dignity; and such conduct is hereby condemned.

Re-thinking HUAC

• Prevailing history: The hearings from 1946-1954 were a gross miscarriage of power and corruption of justice with no grounds.

• Re-evaluation (1996): The threat was legitimate and subversion is illegal, but the accusations needed to be undertaken in a less sensational manner.

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