The key features of the Red Scare

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The Key Features of the Red Scare

During the immediate postwar period in 1945, the Soviet Union and America were acknowledged as superpowers, however their respective communist and democratic ideologies contradicted. This consequently spurred fears of the Soviet’s influence on the US soceity and infiltration of the US government, which entailed the onset of the fear of communism.

In March 1946, Sir Winston Churchill articulated an eminent speech at Fulton, Missouri and forewarned the audience of an obdurate threat that lay beyond an ‘iron curtain’; a prevalent phrase which highlighted the demarcation of Eastern and Western Europe, and reinforced the Cold War tensions. In 1947, America recuperated Western Europe through the Truman Doctrine, from which instantaneous aid was provided to Turkey and Greece. Moreover, the ‘Domino theory’ from the doctrine postulated that if one nation goes under communist control then the neighbouring nations will also go under its influence. In June 1947, America inaugurated the Marshall Plan, which helped to renovate most European economies via cooperation and capitalism.

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The FBI had a strongly anti-communist direct J. Edgar Hoover and in 1947 under the FELP set up by Truman, the FBI investigated government employees to see if they were current or former members of the Communist Party. Truman gradually became more perturbed about communist spies and he therefore authorised the instigation of the Federal Employment Loyalties Programme (FELP) and the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). In September 1947, 43 witnesses were subpoenaed to appear for hearings in Washington before the HUAC, which was investigating communist subversion in Hollywood. In October 1947, eight screenwriters and two directors, known ...

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