SPREAD OF FEAR OF COMMUNISM AFTER WWI AND WWII.
...state. In doing so it brought great suffering to his people, destroying free enterprise. Stalin ended up killing millions of his own people because he suspected so many people to be against him and his government. Although his massacres were not as wildly published as Hitler’s, Stalin still put fear into anyone under a communist government. During WWII about 80,000 Americans claimed membership in the communist party and a naval intelligence officer was found stealing classified information on the atomic bomb and passing it onto the soviets. From here is when anti-Communist Republicans began criticizing Truman for being too lenient. To solve these problems Truman passed the Loyalty Review Board, Federal Employees Loyalty, and a Security Program. The House Committee on Un-American Activities also was another “agency” that hunted out disloyal Americans. One of their major riddings was the Hollywood Ten. The HUAC sent ten “unfriendly” witnesses to prison because they refused to testify, feeling it was a violation of their civil rights. Then Hollywood executives instituted a blacklist, condemning people whom had a communist background, in affect it ruined 500 people lives in the film industry. As the frenzy continued on after the war two spy cases added to the fear. One of which involved Alger Hiss, a former State Department official. He was accused of being a communist spy. Even though too many years had passed to prove his conviction Hiss was charged with perjury and he was sent to jail. Another case was that of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, two minor activists in the American Communist Party. This time the Rosenbergs choose to plea the fifth, choosing not to convict themselves (unlike Klaus Fuchs). They were found guilty given the death penalty, and accused of being responsible for one of the deadliest clashes of the Cold War. Fear ran high and Joseph McCarthy took advantage of the peoples concerns and coined McCarthyism- the attacks upon people suspected of being communist. McCarthy charged up to 205 communists but never backed up his claims with names. By 1953, 39 states passed laws making it illegal to advocate the vio...