Anticommunism and McCarthyism in the 1950s


 

 

Focus Question: What were the origins and consequences of anticommunism and McCarthyism?

 

 

Topics on the Page

 

Anticommunism and the Second Red Scare 

 

 

People

Whittaker Chambers
Alger Hiss
J. Edgar Hoover
Senator Joseph McCarthy
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

Senator Margaret Chase Smith

 

Institutions

American Communist Party (including its close relationship to the Soviet Union)

 
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 

 

House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC)

 

Dramatic Event Page: The Lavender Scare

 

History of Civil Rights and the Red Scares

 

 

Red Scare Propaganda Images

 

Influential Literature Pages

 

 

 

  Cross-Link: AP U.S. HIstory Key Concept 8.1:  The US and the Cold War

 

 

PAGE SUMMARY

This page describes anticommunist sentiment in the 1950s, which is known as the Second Red Scare. This was the widespread fear that anyone could be a communist.

 

This began when Senator Joseph McCarthy began publicly accusing people of being a communist. This led to the term McCarthyism. People who were accused of being a communist could face jail-time or could lose their jobs. People could be accused of being a communist even if they were not one.

 

Many members of the LGBTQ+ community, Black leaders, and other racial equality advocates were targeted. This page also describes several important historical figures relating to this topic, like Whittaker Chambers, Alger Hiss, J. Edgar Hoover, and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The page also details many institutions that are relevant to this topic, like the American Communist Party, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the House Un-American Activities Committee, and describes the responses to and criticisms of the Second Red Scare. 

 

The page includes Margaret Chase Smith's Declaration of Conscience Speech.

(Jenna Boyer, April 2022)

 

The Second Red Scare 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Learning Plans

 

Lesson Plan: Anticommunism in Postwar America 1945-1952

 

 

Anticommunism in the 1950's, from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of America.

 

Click here for a learning plan involving an activity with puzzles about the Second Red Scare. 

 

 

Red Scare Dot Activity
This activity shows students the hysteria that was present during the Red Scare.

 

Click here for an interactive, online review game about McCarthyism and the Second Red Scare. 


How You Can Fight Communism: An article by James F. O'Neil that appeared in a 1948 edition of the American Legion magazine.

Read about the Red Scare

 

 Ted Ed video describing the origins of anticommunism and McCarthyism.

 


Short article about the targeting of immigrants during the 1919's-1920'sFor a fascinating history of American communism, the Red Scare, and McCarthyism, read 
The

 

Legacy of McCarthyism, edited by Ellen Schrecker.


Senator Margaret Chase Smith

 

Margaret Chase Smith's Declaration of Conscience Speech

 

On June 1st, 1950, Smith delivered a speech on the Senate floor that lasted nearly four hours which condemned in unequivocal terms Joseph McCarthy’s anti-communist statements which falsely accused members of the government of being Communists. 


 Senator Margaret Chase Smith's response to Joseph McCarthy, A Declaration of Conscience, given June 1, 1950.

 

 

 

 


Follow this link for an article on the role of Jewish women in the rise of the American Communist Party.

 

 Listen to the Speech here

 

View Bridget Bleakley deliver the speech at National Oratory 2018 at Ford's Theatre

 

 Executive Order 10450 (April 27, 1953)

 

 

Click here to watch a video about the Lavender Scare.  


Click here for a timeline from Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project.

 

 

PEOPLE

 

Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers was a writer who also was a member of the communist party. He was a US citizen but he was also a spy for the Soviet Government. He would testify in the Alger Hiss trial of 1948.

 

"Letter to my Children" By Whittaker Chambers from the forward to Witness

Alger Hiss
Alger Hiss was a US citizen and involved in the US government accused of being a communist. He would be one of the first people to be tried by HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee).

 

HUAC was lead by a young Richard Nixon. Hiss was tried in 1948 and convicted of perjury in 1950 though he claimed he was innocent.His conviction intensified the Red Scare.

Alger Hiss Trials

 

J. Edgar Hoover Official Portrait, 1953

J. Edgar Hoover


J. Edgar Hoover was the head of the FBI from 1924 to 1972. During his time there he sought tougher guidelines and penalties for those found to be involved in organized crime or the Nazi or Communist parties. He also used his power as FBI director to maintain secret records on American citizens who were engaged in peaceful protests against existing policies. This is an interview with Hoover which follows his (however distorted) view on the FBI's tactics involving The Red Scare.


Click here for a link to FBI files on Eleanor Roosevelt.


Click here for FBI files on Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers.


external image Red_apple.jpgClick here for background information on the FBI files for poet Allan Ginsburg and historian Howard Zinn.

 

Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn, 1954

external image 200px-Quill_and_ink.svg.pngSenator Joseph McCarthy

Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn, 1954
Sen. McCarthy was the leading voice in the "Red Scare" of the Cold War.

 

 

 

 

 

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, after being found guilty, 1951

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, after being found guilty, 1951.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
They were a husband and wife team who worked with atomic weapons development during WWII. They were accused of being spies, tried in 1950, convicted in 1951 and executed in 1953. They were the first spies to be killed for their actions.

 

 The Rosenberg Trial--Was Justice Fairly Served?

 

Here is a selection of letters written between Ethel and Julius Rosenberg while in prison.

Ayn Rand testified in front of HUAC in 1947. Read her transcript.

Institutions

 
American Communist Party was founded in 1919 in Chicago.
 


Soviet and American Communist Parties, Library of Congress

Communist Party USA, from The Strange Career of Jim Crow website

Moscow's Archives and the New History of the Communist Party of the United States, American Historical Association (2000)


Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was founded in 1908.
 

 

 

 

 

 


View more information on the history of the FBI.

The History of the FBI's Secret Enemies List, NPR (February 14, 2012)

 

View a prezi of the history and establishment of the FBI.

 

 

HUAC ( House Un-American Activities Committee)
  This was a committee set up to investigate communist activity and any other types of activity which were deemed Un-American. HUAC would hold their questioning in front of Congress. This was considered controversial, as it intimidated many of their witnesses. Their actions contributed to the fear and panic of the Cold War Era. In 1969, it was renamed as the Committee on Internal Security. Several celebrities of the time were even investigated. Click here for more info.
 
Jackie Robinson testifies before HUAC.


The HUAC launched an investigation into Hollywood, suspecting actors, screenwriters, and directors of communist tendencies. 

 

 In 1952, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas commented on the Red Scare and published an essay known as "The Black Silence of Fear." 

 


The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer

 

 Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer


Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer
Life of Robert Oppenheimer video


If you are interested in combining material concerning the Manhattan Project and the Second Red Scare, American Experience on PBS produced a wonderful documentary chronicling "The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer".

After his successful scientific leadership of the Manhattan Project, he later faced criticism concerning his past political associations.

As a result, the federal government revoked his security clearance in 1954.

 

 

Cross-link Wiki Page: The Manhattan Project and the Atomic Bomb

 

 

 

Draft Reply by President Truman (probably not sent) to Joseph McCarthy, 1950

 

Draft Reply by President Truman (probably not sent) to Joseph McCarthy, 1950

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

History of Civil Rights and the Red Scare

 

 

 

 

The  Red Summer of 1919 was a season in which intense race riots broke out.  These riots were caused by the prominent and atrocious violence by white supremacists on Black people in the united states.  It is important to understand the anti-communism movement in relationship with white supremacy.  Click this link and answer the multiple schoice question to the best of your ability.  READ the ANSWER and EXPLANATION fully. 

 

Communist Influence in Civil Rights Organizations in the 1930s and the Scottsboro Boys Trial

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Red Scare/McCarthyism

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red Scare Propaganda Images 

Cold-War-Ads-The-Red-MenaceI-Married-a-Communistred menace anti soviet propaganda 3face-communism