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 As with the period during World War II, this time period was known more for legislative response to terror and supposed enemies than for actual terrorist incidents on U.S. soil.  While not an attack on the U.S., the biggest incident to occur during this time was the stealing of Nuclear secrets for Russia.  Much of the legislation of this time dealt with the threat communism made to the federal government and our way of life.  Numerous laws were created dealing with loyalty oaths of federal employees and penalties for being communist supporters

 Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg and Julius Rosenberg were American communists who were convicted and executed in 1953 for conspiracy to commit espionage during a time of war. The charges related to their passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. This was the first execution of civilians for espionage in United States history. Espionage in the U.S.

 In 1949 the Soviet Union successfully tested an atomic bomb, and Communists finally took control of China under their leader Mao Zedong. These two events convinced many Americans that communism was a serious domestic threat, and a new Red Scare threatened civil rights.  Congress hunted for Communists in government agencies and in the film industry through the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), which relentlessly pursued anyone it suspected of supporting Communist ideas. Hollywood studios circulated a blacklist of industry people who were denied work in films because they opposed HUAC and spoke out.

 Adding to the anti- Communist campaigns was the trial of Alger Hiss, a former high- ranking State Department employee. He was convicted of having perjured himself in regards to testimony about his alleged involvement in a Soviet spy ring before and during World War II.

 race-cold-war-front#space-race-cold- war-front race-cold-war-front#space-race-cold- war-front  race-cold-war-front#how-russia- challenged-the-us-in-the-space-race race-cold-war-front#how-russia- challenged-the-us-in-the-space-race

 The federal government worked to crush the CPUSA and stop the flow of secrets going to the Soviet Union.  Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, the House Committee on un-American activities in the United States.  In 1946, President Truman established a employee loyalty program. Exclusive Order 9835 mandated that every federal employee sign an oath swearing allegiance to the United States.  With this loyalty system in place, Truman opposed investigations into the Communist activities of government employees.

 By the mid-1950s, the Communist Party of the United States was dying out.  Many of the members quit.  Key party members and spies were in prison or had fled the country.  The final blow came in 1954 when the Communist Control Act completely outlawed the party, sending the few remaining members into hiding.

 McCarthyism is referred to the hysteria around the anti- Communist crusade in the United States.  Senator Joseph McCarthy made a public announcement that more than two hundred “card-carrying” communists had infiltrated the United States government. McCarthy led a investigation into Communist activity in America.  For McCarthy anti-Communism was a vehicle to drive himself into political fame, but his fame faded quickly when allegations and erratic behavior made headlines and eventually cost him his political support.

Subversion