Chapter 15 Section 3 - Lessons from Mr. LeBlanc



Chapter 15 Section 3 Name ________________________

Cold War and American Society

Fearing subversive activity, the government tried to root out Communists in government, Hollywood, and labor unions, while Americans learned to live with the threat of nuclear attack.

NEW "RED SCARE"

The fear of communism and spies led to public accusations and trials of thousands of ordinary people in US.

• The second "Red Scare" began in 1945 when a Russian named Igor Gouzenko defected in Canada with documents saying Russia wanted to infiltrate our government with the specific goal of obtaining information about the atomic bomb

• The search for spies became a general fear of Communist subversion.

The Loyalty Review Program

← Established by President Truman to screen all federal employees

← Between 1947 and 1951, more than 6 million federal employees were screened for their “loyalty”

← A person might become a suspect for: reading certain books, belonging to various groups, traveling overseas, or even seeing certain foreign films

← 14,000 employees were subject to scrutiny by the Government

← 212 were fired for "questionable loyalty" with no actual evidence uncovered

McCarran Act

← Made it illegal to "combine, conspire, or agree with any person….contributing to a totalitarian Govt" (communism)

← Truman vetoed the bill, but Congress overrode it by vote.

← Later found to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court

House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) or The Hunt for Spies!

A government committee formed to investigate Communist and Fascist activities in the United States

Hollywood on Trial

← One of HUAC’s first hearings in 1947 focused on the film industry.

Feared communists might manipulate this powerful cultural force to spread their ideas.

← Producers agreed to blacklist, or _____not to hire______, anyone who was believed to be a Communist or who refused to cooperate with the committee

← The blacklist created -- an atmosphere of distrust and fear

Alger Hiss

← Alger Hiss was a diplomat in Roosevelt administration / was at Yalta

← Accused of passing secret documents from the State Department to communists.

← He denied being either a spy or a member of the Communist Party

← Secret documents found along with microfilm that he had hidden in a hollow pumpkin on his farm. Hiss was convicted of perjury and sent to Federal prison.

The Rosenbergs

← Many people did not believe that the Soviet Union could have produced an atomic bomb in 1949 without help . . . Spies!

← Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were American members of the Communist Party that the government charged with heading a Soviet spy ring

← Many people believed the Rosenbergs were not leaders or spies but victims caught in an anti-communist frenzy

← The couple was executed in June 1953.

Code-name: “Venona”

← A project developed to break Soviet codes. Project Venona enabling US and Britain to read approximately 3,000 Soviet messages collected during the Cold War.

← Messages collected confirmed extensive Soviet spying and efforts to steal – nuclear secrets

← The government did not reveal Project Venona’s existence until -- 1995

← The Venona documents provided strong evidence that the Rosenbergs were – indeed spies!

The Red Scare Spreads

← Other groups followed the federal government’s lead in the hunt for spies:

state and local governments, universities, businesses, unions, churches, and private organizations

← The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 required union leaders to take oaths that they were not Communists

McCARTHYISM

Senator Joseph McCarthy

← Accused a number of people in government of being communist and of disloyalty

← Became chairman of the Senate subcommittee on investigations. Used his position to turn investigations into which hunts making vague and unfounded charges. This became known as McCarthyism

← America got fed up with his act. Senate passed a vote of censure. He lost all his influence.

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In the early part of the Cold War, the fear of communism led to a hunt for spies and to intolerance and suspicion of people with radical ideas in the United States.

Big Idea

Vocabulary

subversion: effort to secretly weaken a society and overthrow its government

perjury: lying under oath in court

censure: vote by senate formally disapproving a members action

SHOW VIDEO – RedScare/HUAC

SHOW VIDEO – Hiss/Roenberg

SHOW VIDEO – McCarthyism

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