Below, please find the overheads for this discussion.  Remember, each overhead is separated by a solid line.

1.  To illustrate that the second American Red Scare during the McCarthy era was a predictable product of the Cold War confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union.

2.  To examine the role the federal government, American corporations,, and the American public played in fostering an anti-communist, fearful environment within  many sectors of American life.

3.  To study the anti-communist fervor prompted by the Cold War which encouraged yet another evolutionary period of intolerance in American society.

Three factors that began in federal circles launched the Second Red Scare:  Truman's anti-communist beliefs and rhetoric; Congressional anti-communist actions; and Senator Joe McCarthy's "Witch Hunt."

1. President Truman's anti-communist beliefs and rhetoric. When the Americans entered the war, the Soviets were our allies.  The American view of the Soviets during WWII was shaped by FDRís view:

• His long-term goal was world order in which the U.S. played a major role and recognized diversity in that world.  As such, the US recognized that disagreement with the Soviet Union was inevitable and would require considerable negotiation and tactful diplomacy.
• While FDR did not necessarily like the fact that the Soviets wanted to create an Eastern European buffer zone of communist states, he could understand and accept it as a legitimate security objective - much like U.S. intervention in Latin America.

• Since Truman's long-term goal was freedom and democracy for Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, China, and the undeveloped world, the U.S. was obliged to confront any disagreement aggressively - not with negotiation, but with military might.
• Truman felt Soviet expansion was proof of its imperialistic intentions to spread communism throughout the world - intentions that threatened his belief that American national interests should comprise the primary foundations for world cooperation and peace.

• As the foreign events we have already discussed increased Cold War tensions, Trumanís rhetoric helped to create a distinctly conservative mood - a mood that eventually required absolute security and adherence to the status quo.
• To put some bite into his rhetoric, Truman then set out to prove to the American public that he was not, in fact, soft on Communism by creating the Federal Employee Loyalty Program.

• Empowered the House House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947 to work with the FBI to root out communism in the government and within society as a whole. Hoover activated national fear by announcing that there was one American Commuinst for every 1,814 loyal citizens.  HUAC's first two official targets were the entertainment  industry and government spies.

• Passed the The McCarran Internal Security Act in 1950 over Trumanís veto.  The Act required organizations the attorney general deemed to be communist to register with Department of Justice and provide membership lists and financial statements; barred communists from employment in defense plants; made it a crime to conspire to establish a totalitarian government in the U.S.; empowered the federal government to deny passports to communists; and authorized arrest and detention during a national emergency of "any person as to whom there is reason to believe might engage in acts of espionage or sabotage."

3. McCarthyism.  During his first few years in the Senate, McCarthy tested the anti-communist waters with accusations. After the 1952 election, McCarthy became chairman of the Senate Committee on Government Operations and began a rampage through the nationís foreign affairs agencies.

• Began by attacking Democrats employed by Voice of America and the US Information Agency (USIA).  USIA discharged government workers thought to be security risks, pressured others to resign, and was directed to purge certain books and works of art of "any Communists, fellow travelers, etc." from U.S. information centers abroad - including Mark Twain.  Some books were even burned.

• In 1954, McCarthy turned to the army when his aide David Schine was drafted.  After threatening to expose army favoritism toward communists if his aide did not receive special treatment, Eisenhower and Congress decided McCarthy had gone too far and scheduled the Army-McCarthy Hearing.  From April 22-June 17, 1954, 20 million viewers watched McCarthyís ruthless bullying for the first time.

On December 2, 1954, after the Democratic victory had deprived him of his chairmanship,  the Senate voted 67 to 22 (No negative Democrat votes and Republicans evenly divided) to "condemn" McCarthy.

To access the two YouTube videos seen in class:

"He May be a Communist" at http://pop.youtube.com/watch?v=AWeZ5SKXvj8&feature=related

Joseph McCarthy at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_uTbVfDtgI&feature=related

_________________________________________________________

The Powers of J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI in the 1950s

1. He had the ear of President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, and both of their staffs.  “Not only did the White House react to his complaints and approve his suggestions; he was allowed, even encouraged to help shape policy, particularly in matters of law enforcement, internal security, and civil rights.”
2. The Justice Department gave him free rein.  If the President and Attorney General differed in opinion about Hoover’s powers, President Eisenhower always sided with Hoover.
3. He had control over important member of Congress.  “To a large extent, they were southern, conservative, and racist, as was Hoover, and again, much like him, long on seniority, and thus occupied the positions of greatest influence: majority and minority leaders, Speakers and the chairmen of key committees.”  (p. 407)
4. He exerted control over all three congressional committees that were investigating communists.  In addition to HUAC, the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee and the Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee.
5. He exerted control over a number of state investigating committees that were looking for Communist subversion.  “New York, Chicago, Detraoit, Los Angeles, and San Francisco all had police ‘Red Squads’ or intelligence units; at the university level, campus police, many of them former FBI agents, monitored student and faculty organizations, and conducted loyalty-oath investigations.  All had the director’s patriarchal blessing…”
6. Hoover was tapped into every part of the State Department.
7. The FBI cleared all U.S. Supreme Court nominees.  “During the Eisenhower years, the president filled four vacancies on the Court.  Hoover approved all four, and himself picked one of them.”
8. Hoover presided over a “mail cover” program consisting of 8 separate programs that lasted over 26 years.  Hoovers agents opened millions of pieces of mail of ordinary citizens they felt were a threat to the U.S.
9. Hoover began COINTELPRO in the 1950s.  It began by investigating the tax returns of FBI suspects and continued by investigating personal information of over a half million Americans and more than 10,000 American organizations.
10. Hoover had a great deal of influence with several important American organizations:  the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Catholic War Veterans.  These organizations pledged to help Hoover’s fight against communism and attacked Americans who criticized the FBI or Hoover.
11. Hoover had great control over local law enforcement, especially through his creation of the FBI Academy.  The best and the brightest of local law enforcers were slected to attend the prestigious 12-training course.  In return, when they went back to their local agencies, they were made “to feel part of a very select fraternity” of men who were expected to help the FBI in the field.

In short, Hoover was “a despot who ruled his fiefdom with complete autonomy.”  (J. Edgar Hoover: the Man and his Secrets. Curt Gentry, p. 407-414)

_______________________________________________________

Consequences of the Second Red Scare

1.  The origins of the second Red Scare involved the actions of Congressional conservatives you wanted to discredit Roosevelt's actions under the New Deal and governmental actions designed to spread anti-communist beliefs.

2.  Communists were active in American politics before, during, and after World War II.  Some clearly passed important information to the USSR.  However, the vast majority of rank-and-file communists were not involved in any type of espionage or disloyalty.  Remember, it was not - and still is not - against the law to the a card-carrying member of the Communist Party.

3.  Based upon limited knowledge and a great deal of supposition on the part of influential congressmen and President Truman, the nation was engulfed in an anticommunist hysteria that lasted throughout the 1950s and part of the 1960s.  This hysteria infiltrated the federal government, corporate American, and the public at large.

4.  Such fear tactics were hardly revolutionary in American society.  Since colonial times forward, Americans have vilified various "enemies" - people whom they perceived endangered the social, political, economic, and ideological status quo:  witches, freed African Americans, Native Americans, anti-war activists, communists, terrorists.

5.  The myth of the "traditional American family" arose because many Americans feared that we were in danger of losing what they perceived to be traditional family values - love of family, God, and country.  In order to keep the ensuing generations of children safe and part of the social, economic,  political, and ideological status quo, the myth was created in the hopes that families would stabilize and thus create prosperous and loyal generations of American children.