Red Scare: The Fear Of Communism

The fear of Communism has long lived in the hearts of Americans, proud of their democratic domain. This fear came about after World War One, and came to be known as the Red Scare. Right wing government officials used this paranoia in order to prosecute thousands of left wing activists. This ordeal reemerged after World War Two had ended, the Second Red Scare had started. A leading politician of the prosecution of many leftist during the Second Red Scare was senator Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy fed off of the paranoia that struck America, and accused many of his enemies, mainly consisting of democrats, of being communist or communist sympathizers. He destroyed many government officials careers, along with other politicians, actors, and writers,
As Churchill states in his speech, "...this is certainly not the Liberated Europe we fought to build up. Nor is it one hitch contains the essentials of permanent peace." This speech became famously known throughout America as the Sinews of Peace, or otherwise known as the Iron Curtain Speech ("Sinews of Peace (Iron Curtain Speech)"). This speech was only the beginning of America's hysterical fear of communism. According to "Second Red Scare -Ohio History Central," the Red Scare continued on until 1957. The United States set up many "defenses" protecting themselves from communism. One example of this is Truman's Executive Order 9835. This required all federal employees to be analyzed on whether or not they were truthfully faithful to the United States and required them to make an oath of loyalty to America. One man made an even more powerful impact upon the government than the president did. A man who gripped America's fear of communism and used it to get rid of his political enemies. This man was named Joseph
Edmund was very anti-communism, and knew the publicity McCarthy could have from ridding the government of communist would benefit him greatly. By February 1950, McCarthy announce in Wheeling, West Virginia that he had composed a list of 205 members of the State Department were alleged communist ("Joseph R McCarthy"). Joseph had claimed that the Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, knew about these communist but didn't take any action towards prosecuting them. Joseph got this list from the previous secretary of state, James Byrnes, who had written it due to a background check of 4,000 federal employees (Giblin 81). The American public responded in shock. They demanded investigations of these 205 members, and sought for their beloved America to stay free of communism. These 205 members were all analyzed, and none of them turned out to be suspicious of