Causes Of The Red Scare

The invention of the nuclear weapon coupled with the dissemination of communist ideology made for the ultimate showdown between the United States and Soviet Union. The two countries had been at odds ever since the United States’ intervention in Russian Civil War—a move which foreshadows the anti-communist crusade America would embark upon some two decades later. The ravages of World War II—which left no participating country unscathed—makes it seem unfit to crown any one nation “victorious”. Nonetheless, America and the Soviet Union were the undisputed superpowers that were able to also count some victories among their incalculable causalities. Even after the destruction of the war, both nations retained the capacity to endanger their neighbors,
Communism offered a scapegoat for the confusion, fear, and insecurity Americans felt after World War II. The Red Scare may have incited paranoia and unease in the American government and people, but it also consolidated all of their concerns onto a single rival. This unification also unified the American people, under a common suspicion. “Consensus mentality offered a refuge in an anxious and confusing world. It represented an attempt to shift the burden of individual responsibility for one’s fate to an impersonal monolithic whole” (Samuels, 222). Communists were diabolical and deceitful, Americans were pious and sincere. The classic dichotomy of good versus evil is one even a kindergartener could understand, and, even more, it offered Americans a source of pride and justification for self-righteousness, so it is no surprise that the anti-communist mentality caught on
government, many measures were directly taken against communist expansion attempts. The Truman Doctrine, which proposed American aid to Greece and Turkey, crowned America a generous nation acting selflessly to protect the virtues of independence and freedom. The charity of the U.S. restored Europe after the war with the Marshall Plan, adding to the list of America’s credentials and discrediting the simmering communist parties of those aided western European states. The Berlin airlift was a similar act of donation to the besieged city on behalf of the U.S. government. These calculated acts of aid were calculated strategies by the U.S., which not only disenfranchised communists in their attempts to expand but also garnered the U.S. bragging