In August 1949, the Soviet Union developed and tested its first atomic bomb, which was four years earlier than American scientists, had anticipated. As America had spies in the Soviet Union, it was a natural assumption that there were soviet spies in America who had passed on crucial nuclear information, and an investigation was launched. Several people including Klaus Fuchs and the Rosenburgs were tried for passing on information to the Soviet Union and were sentenced to death in 1953. This series of events began the Arms race between the Soviet Union and the USA, which would continue until the late 1980s with each side trying to out do the other. Although it started as an arms race it eventually became an economic war.
Against this background certain people and events helped to stir suspicion and set up what became known as the ‘red’ scare. The House Un-American Activities Committee was set up in 1930 but made headlines when it investigated ten famous screenwriters on suspicion of sympathising with communists. The ten answered no questions and so were jailed for this offence and were consequently blacklisted. Alger Hiss was a prime example of those who appeared in front of the HUAC, following accusations by Whittaker Chambers. Although President Truman dismissed the case, Hiss was charged with perjury in 1950, and was jailed for five years.
In the Federal Bureau of Investigation the strongly anti-Communist head, J. Edgar Hoover was given the go ahead to initiate the Federal Employee Legality Program in which 212 out three million people investigated for communist links were classed as security risks and consequently forced out of their jobs.
These examples were made very public and so stirred up the American nation against communists and the stage was set for a man like McCarthy to come along and exploit these fears.
Looking for a way to advance his modest career McCarthy, a junior republican senator, burst onto the national scene in 1950 and dominated American politics for four years. He produced vast and wildly changing lists of ‘known’ communists with no evidence, and caused over his career 9,500 civil servants to be dismissed and 15,000 resignations, 600 teachers and many actors to lose their jobs. Such was the fear of communists and the fear to be seen as a communist sympathiser, no evidence was ever needed for these accusations and the chance of a fair trial was slim. These became known as McCarthy’s witch-hunts.
McCarthy’s destructive career finally came to an end when he made the mistake of accusing much of the Army and President Eisenhower of being communists and some of his hearings were televised in which the public saw how he bullied and shouted down witnesses. This led to his censure by congress, and he died in 1957.
Despite this, McCarthy’s effects lived on including the McCarran act of 1950 in which all communist organisations had to be registered with the United States government and no communist could carry a United States passport or work in the defence industry. Throughout his career McCarthy ruined the careers of many others yet he never actually uncovered any real communists or Russian spy rings, even though there were several. McCarthyism was unjust and changed the course of communism long after his career had ended.
In conclusion, there were many factors that influenced the fear of communism from 1945 to 1954. The most important factor was the competition between the two super powers, America and the Soviet Union, which drove both sides to portray the other as the enemy. Influencing the public was important, because with public opinion behind politicians, for example McCarthy, it made them very powerful.
