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'[[Image:Come unto me, ye opprest.jpg|thumb|right|205px|A “European [[anarchist]]” attempting to destroy the [[Statue of Liberty]] (1919)]] In US history, the term '''Red Scare''' denotes two distinct periods of strong [[anti-Communism|anti-communism]]: the '''First Red Scare''', from 1917 to 1920, and the '''Second Red Scare''', from 1947 to 1957. The Scares were characterized by the fear that [[communism]] would upset the [[capitalism|capitalist]] social order in the United States; the [[First Red Scare]] was about worker revolution and [[political radicalism]]. The Second Red Scare was focused on (national and foreign) communists [[Espionage|infiltrating]] the [[Federal Government of the United States|Federal Government]]. ==First Red Scare (1917–20)== {{Main|First Red Scare}} The [[First Red Scare]] began after the [[Bolshevik]] [[Russian Revolution of 1917]] and during the [[World War I|First World War]] (1914–18). Anarchist and left-wing political violence and social agitation aggravated extant national social and political tensions. Historian L.B. Murray reports that the “Red Scare” was “a nation-wide anti-radical hysteria provoked by a mounting fear and anxiety that a Bolshevik revolution in America was imminent — a revolution that would destroy [private] [[property]], Church, home, marriage, civility, and the American way of Life.” <ref> {{cite book | last = Levin | first = Murray B. | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Political Hysteria in America: The Democratic Capacity for Repression | publisher = Basic Books | date = 1971 | pages = 29 | isbn = 0-465-05898-1 }}</ref> Newspapers exacerbated those political fears into [[xenophobia]] — because varieties of radical [[anarchism]] were perceived as answers to popular poverty; the advocates often were recent European immigrants exercising [[freedom of speech]] protected under US law, (''cf.'' [[hyphenated-Americans]]). Moreover, the [[Industrial Workers of the World]] (IWW) effected several labor [[Strike action|strikes]] in 1916 and 1917 that the press portrayed as radical threats to American society inspired by left-wing, foreign ''agents provocateur''; thus, the press misrepresented legitimate labour strikes as “Crimes against society”, “Conspiracies against the government”, and “Plots to establish Communism”. <ref>''Political Hysteria in America: The Democratic Capacity for Repression'' (1971) p.31</ref> In April 1919, police authorities discovered a plot for mailing thirty six bombs to prominent members of the US political and economic [[The Establishment|Establishment]]: [[J. P. Morgan]], [[John D. Rockefeller]], [[US Supreme Court|Supreme Court]] Justice [[Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.|Oliver Wendell Holmes]], [[United States Attorney General|US Attorney General]] [[Alexander Mitchell Palmer]], and immigration officials. On 2 June 1919, in eight cities, eight bombs simultaneously exploded at the same hour. One target was the Washington, D.C., house of US Attorney General Palmer, where the explosion killed the bomber, whom evidence indicated was an Italian-American radical from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Afterwards, Palmer ordered the US Justice Department to launch the [[Palmer Raids]] (1919–21) — executed by [[J. Edgar Hoover]], who instructed that said political prisoners be forcefully interrogated without legal counsel, and that they remain imprisoned via prohibitively-high bail. <ref name="Cole" /> Yet, in 1918, before the bombings, President Wilson had pressured the Congress to legislate the anti-immigrant, anti-anarchist [[Sedition Act of 1918]] to protect wartime morale by deporting putatively undesirable political people. Law professor [[David D. Cole]] reports that President Wilson’s “. . . federal government consistently targeted alien radicals, deporting them . . . for their speech or associations, making little effort to distinguish true threats from ideological [[dissident]]s.” <ref name="Cole">{{cite journal | last = Cole | first = David D. | authorlink = David D. Cole | title = Enemy Aliens | journal = Stanford Law Review | volume = 54 | issue = 5 | pages = pp 953+ | publisher = | date = 2002 | doi = 10.2307/1229690 }}</ref> Initially, the press praised the raids; the ''[[Washington Post]]'' said, “There is no time to waste on hairsplitting over [the] infringement of liberty”, and ''[[The New York Times]]'' said the injuries inflicted upon the arrested were “souvenirs of the new attitude of aggressiveness which had been assumed by the Federal agents against Reds and suspected-Reds.” <ref> {{cite book | last = Farquhar | first = Michael | title = A Treasury of Great American Scandals | publisher = Penguin Books | date = 2003 | pages = pg. 199 | isbn = 0-14-200192-9 }}</ref> In the event, the Palmer Raids were criticised as being unconstitutionally illegal by twelve publicly-prominent lawyers, including (future Supreme Court Justice) [[Felix Frankfurter]], who published ''A Report on the Illegal Practices of The United States Department of Justice'', documenting systematic violations of the [[Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourth]], [[Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifth]], [[Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Sixth]], and [[Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Eighth Amendments]] to the US Constitution via Palmer-authorised “illegal acts” and “wanton violence”. Defensively, Palmer then warned that a government-deposing left-wing [[revolution]] would begin on 1 May 1920 — [[May Day]], the International Workers’ Day. When it failed to happen, he was ridiculed and lost much credibility. Strengthening the legal criticism of Palmer was that fewer than 600 deportations were substantiated with evidence, out of the thousands of resident aliens illegally arrested and deported. In July 1920, Palmer’s promising Democratic Party [[United States presidential election, 1920|bid]] for the US presidency failed. <ref>{{cite book | last = Hakim | first = Joy | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = War, Peace, and All That Jazz | publisher = Oxford University Press | date = 1995 | location = New York, New York | pages = 34–36 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0-19-509514-6 }}</ref> Consequent to the newspaper-induced xenophobia and police suppression characteristic of the '''First Red Scare''', liberal and left-wing organizations, such as the Industrial Workers of the World, the [[Communist Party USA|Communist Party of the United States]], and the like,{{Who|date=July 2009}} lost many members. <ref> {{cite book | author = Schweikart, Larry and Allen, Michael Patrick | title = A Patriot's History of the United States | publisher = Sentinel | date = 2004 | pages = 422 | isbn= 1-59523-001-7 }}</ref> In 1919–20, several states legislated “criminal syndicalism” laws out-lawing advocacy of violence in effecting and securing [[social change]]; the restrictions included [[free speech]] limitations. <ref> {{cite book | last= Kennedy |first= David M. |coauthors=Lizabeth Cohen and Thomas A. Bailey | title = The American Pageant | publisher = Houghton Mifflin Company | date = 2001 | isbn= 9780669397284 }}</ref> <!---moved the following from "second red scare where it seemed out of place. If verified, it can go back there. See talk page.--->Passage of these laws, in turn, provoked over-aggressive police investigation of the accused persons, their jailing, and deportation for being ''suspected'' of being either communist or left-wing Regardless of ideologic gradation, the Red Scare didn't distinguish among [[communist]], [[socialist]], or [[social democracy|Social Democrat]] — because all were "foreign" (European) "ideologies", thus, "un-American".<ref> {{cite book | last= O. Dickerson | first=Mark | authorlink = | coauthors = | year = 2006 | title = An Introduction to Government and Politics, Seventh Edition | publisher = Nelson | location= Toronto | pages = | url= | isbn= 0-17-641676-5 }} </ref> ==Second Red Scare (1947–57)== {{Main|McCarthyism}} [[Image:Joseph McCarthy.jpg|thumb|200px|[[US Senate|Senator]] [[Joseph McCarthy]], creator of [[McCarthyism]]]] '''The Second Red Scare''' occurred after the [[Second World War]] (1939–45), coinciding with increased popular fear of communist [[espionage]] consequent to a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[Eastern Europe]], the [[Berlin Blockade]] (1948–49), the [[Chinese Civil War]], and the [[Korean War]]. The fear was provoked with [[red-baiting]] and [[blacklisting]]. ===Internal causes of anti-communist fear=== The events of the late 1940s — the [[NKVD]]’s [[atomic bomb]] [[spy]]-ring of [[Ethel and Julius Rosenberg]], the [[Iron Curtain]] (1945–91) around [[Eastern Europe]], and the [[USSR]]’s [[nuclear weapon]] — surprised the US public, influencing popular opinion about US national security, that, in turn, connected to fear of the Soviet Union atomic-bombing the US, and fear of the [[CPUSA|Communist Party of the United States of America]] (CPUSA). At the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]], former CPUSA members and NKVD spies, [[Elizabeth Bentley]] and [[Whittaker Chambers]] testified that Soviet [[espionage|spies]] and communist sympathizers had penetrated the US government before, during, and after the Second World War. In 1949, anti–communist fear was aggravated by the [[Communist Party of China|Chinese Communists]] winning the [[Chinese Civil War]] against the Western-sponsored [[Kuomintang]], their founding of the [[People's Republic of China]], and later [[Korean war#Chinese intervention|Chinese intervention]] in the [[Korean War]] (1950–53) against US [[client state]] [[South Korea]]. === History === By the 1930s, communism had become an attractive economic [[ideology]] among many people in the US, especially among the educated, the [[intelligentsia]], and labor leaders. At its zenith in 1939, the CPUSA had some 50,000 members. <ref> {{cite book | last= Johnpoll | first=Bernard K. | authorlink = | coauthors = | year = 1994 | title = A Documentary History of the Communist Party of the United States: Volume III Unite and Fight, 1934–1935 | publisher = Greenwood Press | location=Westport, Connecticut | pages = xv | url=http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=99389227 | isbn= 978-0313285066 }} </ref> In 1940, soon after the Second World War began in Europe, the US Congress legislated the [[Smith Act|Alien Registration Act]] (aka the '''Smith Act''', 18 USC §2385) making it a crime to ''knowingly or willfully advocate, abet, advise or teach the duty, necessity, desirability or propriety of overthrowing the Government of the United States or of any State by force or violence, or for anyone to organize any association which teaches, advises or encourages such an overthrow, or for anyone to become a member of or to affiliate with any such association'' — and required Federal registration of all [[foreigners|foreign nationals]]. Although principally deployed against communists, the Smith Act was also used against right-wing political threats such as the [[German-American Bund]], and the perceived racial disloyalty of the [[Japanese-American]] population, (''cf.'' [[hyphenated-Americans]]). In 1941, after Nazi Germany’s invaded the USSR, the CPUSA’s official posture became pro-war; it opposed labor strikes detrimental to the war effort, and supported militarily aggressive US policies.{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}} With the slogan ''Communism is Twentieth-Century Americanism'', the chairman, [[Earl Browder]], advertised the CPUSA’s integration to the political mainstream. {{Citation needed|date=February 2007}} In contrast, the [[Trotskyist]] [[Socialist Workers Party (United States)|Socialist Workers Party]] opposed US participation in the war and supported labor strikes, even in war-effort industry. For this reason [[James P. Cannon]] and other SWP leaders were convicted per the Smith Act. In March 1947, President [[Harry S Truman]] signed [[Executive Order 9835]], creating the “Federal Employees Loyalty Program” establishing political-loyalty review boards who determined the “Americanism” of Federal Government employees, and recommended termination of those suspected of being Un-American. The [[House Un-American Activities Committee|House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC)]] and the committees of Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]] (R., Wisc.) conducted said character investigations of “American communists” (actual and alleged), and their roles in (real and imaginary) espionage, propaganda, and subversion favoring the USSR — achieving little, besides launching the successful political careers of McCarthy and [[Richard Nixon]]. The '''Second Red Scare''' profoundly altered the temper of US society. Its anti-intellectualism contributed to the popularity of anti-communist espionage (''[[My Son John]]'', 1950) and [[science fiction]] movies (''[[The Thing From Another World]]'', 1951) with stories and themes of the infiltration, subversion, invasion, and destruction of US society by un–American ''thought'' and inhuman beings. Even a baseball team, the [[Cincinnati Reds]], temporarily renamed themselves the “Cincinnati Redlegs” to avoid the money-losing and career-ruining connotations inherent to being ball-playing “Reds” (communists). ==See also== * [[First Red Scare]] * [[History of Soviet espionage in the United States]] * [[Hollywood blacklist]] * [[House Un-American Activities Committee|House Committee on Un-American Activities]] * [[Jencks Act]] * [[Jencks v. United States]] * [[Subversive Activities Control Board]] * [[The Red Decade]] * [[Venona project]] * [[Yellow Peril]] SilverWolffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff ==References and notes== ===Notes=== {{Reflist}} ===References and further reading=== {{Sourcesstart}} *{{cite book | last = Fried | first = Albert | authorlink = | coauthors = | year = 1997 | title = McCarthyism, The Great American Red Scare: A Documentary History | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 0-19-509701-7 }} *{{cite book | last = Hakim | first = Joy | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = War, Peace, and All That Jazz | publisher = Oxford University Press | date = 1995 | location = New York, New York | pages = 29–33 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0-19-509514-6 }} *{{cite book | last = Haynes | first = John Earl | year = 2000 | title = Red Scare or Red Menace?: American Communism and Anti Communism in the Cold War Era | publisher = Ivan R. Dee | isbn = 1-56663-091-6 }} *{{cite book | author = Haynes, John Earl and Klehr, Harvey | year = 2000 | title = Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America | publisher = Yale University Press | isbn = 0-300-08462-5 }} *{{cite book | last = Levin | first = Murray B. | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Political Hysteria in America: The Democratic Capacity for Repression | publisher = Basic Books | date = 1971 | isbn = 0-465-05898-1 }} *{{cite book | last = Morgan | first = Ted | coauthors = | title = Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America | publisher = Random House | date = 2004 | isbn = 0-8129-7302-X }} *{{cite book | author= Murray, Robert K. | title=Red Scare a Study in National Hysteria, 1919-1920 | publisher=McGraw-Hill Education | year=1964 | isbn= 0816658331 }} *{{cite book | author= Powers, Richard Gid | title=Not Without Honor: A History of American AntiCommunism | publisher=Free Press | year=1997 | isbn= 0-300-07470-0 }} *{{cite book | last = Schrecker | first = Ellen | authorlink = Ellen Schrecker | year = 1998 | title = Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America | publisher = Little, Brown | isbn = 0-316-77470-7 }} {{Cold War}} [[Category:Aftermath of World War II]] [[Category:Political history of the United States]] [[Category:Anti-communism in the United States]] [[Category:Industrial Workers of the World]] [[de:Rote Angst]] [[es:Peligro Rojo]] [[fr:Peur rouge]] [[ko:적색공포]] [[it:Paura rossa]] [[nl:Rode Angst]] [[ja:赤狩り]] [[pl:Czerwona panika]] [[ro:Panica roşie]] [[ru:Красная угроза]] [[sv:Röda faran]] [[zh:红色恐慌]]'