Transcript USH 15:3 A New Red Scare - Eastern Upper Peninsula ISD

USH 15:3 A New Red Scare
• Soviet defector reveals Soviet secrets
– Massive under-cover operations in U.S. and Canada
– American people fear “subversion”
• Weaken a society secretly and overthrow its gov’t
15:3 The Loyalty Review Program
• Screening all federal employees
• Truman’s actions instill more fear in Americans
• House Un-American Activities Committee
– HUAC
– Investigate communist and fascist activities in U.S.
– Created in 1938, F.B.I. expands its importance in 1947
15:3 HUAC
• Major investigations
– Hollywood
• HUAC feared Soviet manipulation of movies
• Ten screen writers refuse to testify (“Hollywood Ten”)
• Many actors and workers “blacklisted”
– Not offered work
15:3 HUAC
• Alger Hiss
– Communists in the American gov’t
– Hiss was a top American diplomat
– Found guilty of perjury
• Lying under oath
15:3 HUAC
• The Rosenbergs
– Members of the U.S.A. Communist Party
– Accused of being Russian spy
• Selling nuclear secrets to Soviets
– Executed for espionage (spying)
15:3 HUAC
• Project Venona (1946)
– American and British cryptographers crack Soviet
spy code
• Decode over 3,000 messages
– Found extensive Soviet spying and attempts to
steal American nuclear secrets
– Rosenbergs were spies
15:3 The Red Scare Spreads
• McCarthyism
– Using unfounded charges to ruin a reputation
– Joseph McCarthy, Senator from Wisconsin
– Claimed to have list of 205 communists working in
the U.S. gov’t
– Accused many others of being communists
15:3 Life in the Early Cold War
• Soviets test first atomic bomb in 1949
• Test an H-bomb in 1953
• Americans believe a nuclear exchange will happen
– Students practice “duck and cover” in school
– Families build fallout shelters
15:3 Pop Culture in the Cold War
• “The Crucible”
– Broadway play
– The dangers of hysteria
• “I Led Three Lives”
– T.V. series about an undercover agent
• “I Was a Communist for the F.B.I”
– Movie dealing with double lives
• “Atomic Boogie”, “Atomic Bomb Baby”
– Popular songs on radio