1. The Cold War at Home Chapter 18 Section 3

2. Fear of Communism In 1947 President Truman set up the Federal Employee Loyalty program. The purpose of this program was to investigate government employees and find out if they were affiliated with any communist organization. HUAC- this is the House Un-American Activities Committee which investigated Hollywood for communist activities in their scripts, movies and within their personnel. Most actors were friendly but some were not and refused to go to trial and testify. Those who refused to go to trial to testify in these communist hearings were black listed which meant they were condemned for having a communist background. For those who were black listed, their careers in Hollywood were over. The McCarran Act: this was an act passed by congress that made it illegal to plan any action to establish a totalitarian dictatorship. President Truman tried to veto the bill but Congress overrode it.

3. Spy Cases: Alger Hiss Hiss was a former State Department official that was accused of being a Soviet spy in the later 1940’s. Hiss was never accused of espionage, but was imprisoned for committing perjury. He lied and said he didn’t pass along government documents to the Soviets. As this trial went on, a young and up in coming congressman named Richard Nixon gained a lot of fame for how hard he pursued the charges against Hiss. Later on, Soviet records were released due to the National Security Act and seemed to prove that Hiss was actually a real Communist spy.

4. Spy Cases: The Rosenbergs In September of 1949 Americans were shocked and frightened to learn the Soviet Union had indeed exploded a nuclear bomb. Experts predicted that the Soviets wouldn’t accomplish this technology for another 5 years or so. The setting off of the Soviet bomb led to the suspicion that Soviet spies in the United States must have leaked our nuclear information to the Communist. The suspicions were right; in 1950 a German physicist Klaus Fuchs admitted that he leaked secret atomic information to the Soviets. Also implicated in this case was Ethel and Julius Rosenburg. The Rosenburgs were convicted of espionage, and even though the evidence against them was called weak and their sentence unwarranted. The two were sentenced to death by Judge Irving Kaufman. Kaufman said that the Rosenburg’s crime of espionage was “worse than murder.” They were the first Americans executed for espionage.

5. McCarthyism: Hunt for Communist Senator Joe McCarthy: He was by far the best known anti-communist activist. McCarthy made his mark on U.S. history by charging that Communist were trying to take over the government. Therefore McCarty held hearings and began his “witch hunt” His attacks against government employees and state department officials were not always supported. The term used to describe unfair and unsupported accusations with no evidence is now referred to as “McCarthyism.” McCarthy accused many and even went as far as accusing the Democratic Party of being Communist and of treason for the past 20 years! However, Senator McCarthy was always careful to do his accusing and name calling in the Senate where he had legal immunity.

6. TV Taking Over

7. The Downfall of McCarthy and Other Anti- Communist Measures In 1954 senator McCarthy took his accusations too far and brought about accusations against the U.S. Army. This accusation led to a televised Senate hearing and because of McCarthy’s rough and bullying tactics towards witnesses he lost most of his support from people. That was the end of Joe McCarthy. It wasn’t just Joe McCarthy that made it their mission to weed out Communists in the United States. As many as 39 states passed laws that made it illegal to advocate the violent overthrow of the government. This law was clearly unconstitutional, but still other cities and states passed similar laws. It seemed at this point in America that the fear of Communism had no limits. It didn’t matter what profession a person had, they were not safe from government investigations. There was even a case where a petition that quoted the “Declaration of Independence” was not signed out of fear that it was Communist!