Cold War Fears

A New Red Scare

The Cold War shaped American life at home as deep fears of communism led to a
new Red Scare. The first Red Scare had begun just after World War I, following the
communist revolution in Russia. The new Red Scare started in the late 1930s and reached
its peak during the late 1940s and early 1950s. This new scare had several causes. The
growth of communism in the United States—particularly that of the U.S. Communist
Party—worried many Americans. Concern rose as the Soviet Union gained more power
in Eastern Europe after World War II, and communist governments came to power in
China and North Korea.
During the Red Scare, popular culture reflected many Americans' fears.
Magazines published articles with titles such as "Communists Are After Your Child."
Between 1948 and 1954 Hollywood produced more than 40 anticommunist films. News
trailers offered frightening details about the rise of communism around the world.
Science fiction movies such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Forbidden Planet also
revealed Cold War fears. These films often combined anxiety over new forms of
technology with the fear of communism.

Communist Investigations and Accusations

In May 1938 Congress created the House Un-American Activities Committee
(HUAC) to look into disloyalty and harmful foreign influences in the United States. In
1947 HUAC began a series of widely publicized hearings examining suspected
Communists in the movie industry. The investigations did not find widespread
communist activity. Yet executives in film, radio, television, and theater began
blacklisting, or refusing to hire, suspected Communists. The most famous blacklisted
individuals were called the Hollywood Ten. This group of writers refused to cooperate
with HUAC.
Being questioned by HUAC could ruin a person's life. Any past involvement with
a communist group was often seen as proof of disloyalty. African American performer
Paul Robeson was greatly affected by HUAC's accusations. Promoters canceled most of
his concerts, and violent mobs ruined two others. Concerned by Robeson's support of a
close U.S.-Soviet friendship, the State Department took away his passport in 1950. An
interviewer later asked Robeson why he did not move to the Soviet Union. "My father
was a slave, and my people died to build this country," Robeson said. "No . . . people will
drive me from it."
One writer called before the committee charged that HUAC "has conducted [held]
an illegal and indecent trial of American citizens."
The hunt for Communists also affected the government. President Truman created
the Loyalty Review Board in March 1947 to look into the backgrounds of thousands of
federal workers. The board failed to find any Communists. However, some people lost
their jobs when the board found "reasonable grounds" for suspicion of their loyalty.
Many other organizations began requiring loyalty oaths. These groups included the FBI,
the Justice Department, state and local governments, and schools. Thousands of people
lost their jobs on suspicion alone.
 In 1950, over Truman's veto, Congress passed the Internal Security Act. The act
made suspected communist groups register with the government. It also gave the
government the right to arrest anyone suspected of disloyalty during times of national
emergency.
In 1948 journalist Whittaker Chambers confessed that he had spied for the Soviet
Union. He testified to HUAC that Alger Hiss, a former State Department officer, was
also a spy. Hiss denied the charges, but Chambers later produced copies of secret
government papers that he claimed Hiss had passed to the Soviets.
Hiss was tried and found guilty of perjury, or lying on the witness stand. He was
sentenced to five years in prison.
Another case soon drew national attention. In 1951 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
were put on trial for spying. The court found them guilty of passing secret atomic
weapons information to the Soviet Union. The case divided Americans. Many people
claimed that the Rosenbergs were innocent victims of the Red Scare. Others argued that
they were part of a communist spy ring that threatened national security. Despite protests
from their supporters, the Rosenbergs were executed in June 1953.

Joseph McCarthy
More than anyone else, a senator from Wisconsin—Republican Joseph McCarthy
—helped stir up Cold War fears. In February 1950 he told a West Virginia audience,
"This is the time for the show-down between the democratic . . . world and the
Communist." He blamed the spread of communism on the presence of traitors within the
U.S. government.
Senator McCarthy's charges stunned many people. Members of Congress
challenged him to reveal the names on his list. McCarthy refused. This practice of
making serious accusations without providing proof became known as McCarthyism.
Few Americans challenged Senator McCarthy, however. Some accepted what he said
because they were not used to questioning their public officials. Others were afraid of
being labeled "soft on communism." In addition, many Americans wanted an explanation
for the spread of commnism in Eastern Europe and Asia. McCarthy's accusations gave
them one.
A few people attempted to stop Senator McCarthy. Journalist Edward R. Murrow
courageously tried to expose McCarthy's unfair methods on the television show See It
Now. After it aired, Murrow received bundles of hate mail from McCarthy supporters. In
late 1953, however, the senator went too far in declaring that there were Communists in
the military. A group of senators decided to hold televised hearings to investigate his
charges. These Army-McCarthy hearings proved to be McCarthy's downfall.
During the hearings Joseph Welch, the army's attorney, won the support of
viewers with his charm and humor. Desperate, McCarthy revealed that Welch's law firm
employed a former member of a pro-communist legal group. Welch was offended by the
petty accusation. He replied, "Have you left no sense of decency, sir, at long last?" The
audience burst into applause. McCarthy's spell was broken. In 1954 the Senate voted 67
to 22 to condemn McCarthy for "conduct unbecoming a senator." Before this happened,
however, McCarthy's lies had destroyed the lives and careers of many people.
 Eisenhower and Foreign Policy
The Nuclear Age
Shortly after Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president, the U.S. military
tested the first hydrogen bomb. The United States had begun developing this nuclear
weapon in January 1950. It was far more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on
Japan in World War II. The first test of the new bomb took place on an island in the West
Pacific.
Less than a year later, the Soviet Union tested its own hydrogen bomb. "The
United States no longer has a monopoly," one Soviet official bragged. Both countries
were afraid to let the other side gain nuclear superiority. As a result, each nation built
more nuclear bombs.
The nuclear arms race frightened many Americans. Some families built
underground bomb shelters in which to stay safe in case of attack. Children practiced
"duck-and-cover" drills at school, ducking under their desks and covering their heads in
case of emergency. A few Americans formed antinuclear groups, such as the Committee
for a Sane Nuclear Policy. They protested the arms race and argued that nuclear weapons
tests released radioactive particles that caused birth defects and disease.
Despite such protests, the arms race went on. In October 1957 the Soviet Union
launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, into orbit. Many Americans worried that
Sputnik gave the Soviets a military advantage. One reporter asked President Eisenhower,
"What are we going to do about it?"

US Nuclear Policy
In January 1958 the United States launched its first satellite. Later that same year,
Congress created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to carry
out space research. Congress also began special school programs to improve math,
science, and foreign language education in public schools. Officials hoped that better-
educated students would help the country win the arms and space races.
While President Truman was in office, the United States had tried to contain the
spread of communism around the world. President Eisenhower and Secretary of State
John Foster Dulles created a "New Look" for U.S. foreign policy. Instead of just
containing communism, Eisenhower wanted the United States to actually "roll back"
communism from certain areas.
The New Look used a strategy known as massive retaliation, or the threat of using
nuclear weapons to stop communist aggression. Few diplomats favored the use of nuclear
weapons. However, some accepted that the United States might have to come to the brink
of, or come close to, war to stop communism. Dulles explained this idea, known as
brinkmanship. "The ability to get to the verge [brink, or edge] without getting into war is
the necessary art," he said. Brinkmanship was a difficult policy to pursue, however. For
example, in 1953 the Soviets crushed anticommunist protests in three East German cities.
U.S. leaders sympathized with the protesters, but they did not want to become involved
and risk a nuclear war.
Covert Operations
Some Americans were against brinkmanship. They believed that not every Cold
War conflict called for the threat of nuclear weapons. A single nuclear attack might lead
to a nuclear war that could destroy the world. President Eisenhower sometimes used
covert operations, or secret missions, to gain more foreign-policy options. The Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA), a secretive organization created by the National Security Act
in 1947, carried out these covert operations. During Eisenhower's presidency, the CIA's
size and influence increased greatly.
The CIA's first major covert operation took place in the Middle Eastern country of
Iran. In 1951 Mohammad Mosaddeq (maws-ad-dek) became Iran's premier. He grew
more powerful than the shah, Iran's ruler and a U.S. ally. Mosaddeq nationalized, or
placed under government control, Iran's oil industry. His actions made some U.S.
diplomats fear that he was a Communist. In 1953, British and U.S. leaders planned
Operation Ajax, which overthrew Mosaddeq and returned complete power to the shah.
Although Eisenhower achieved his goal of removing Mosaddeq, this interference in
Iranian affairs led to anti-American feelings in that country.
The CIA also became involved in the Central American country of Guatemala. In
1951 Colonel Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán became president of Guatemala and began land
and labor reforms. In addition, Arbenz nationalized the local fields and processing plants
of the American-owned United Fruit Company.
After the takeover, Secretary of State Dulles went to a UN world court to protest
Arbenz's actions. He argued that Guatemala had turned to "international communism."
With Dulles unable to gain UN support, in 1954 the CIA hired an army to invade
Guatemala and overthrow Arbenz. This army failed, but CIA pilots using Nicaraguan
aircraft still intervened. These CIA actions led to a pro-capitalist military government
replacing Arbenz.

Cold War Crises

In 1953 Nikita Khrushchev (kroosh-CHAWF) took the place of Soviet premier
Joseph Stalin after his death. Khrushchev soon shocked the communist world. He
announced that Stalin had committed criminal acts, including mass murder, against the
Soviet people. He said that people should no longer follow Stalin's policies. Khrushchev
also said that capitalism and communism could exist together peacefully in the world.
Unrest in communist Eastern Europe followed Stalin's death and Khrushchev's
speech. Observers hoped this move signaled a new era of reform. In 1956, Polish
reformers tested Khrushchev by calling for greater political freedom. Inspired by Poland's
boldness, a new Hungarian government then called for Western-style democracy. To stop
this uprising, the Soviet army invaded Hungary in November 1956. Hungarians fought
back with stones, rifles, and homemade bombs. The United States wanted to avoid a
nuclear war with the Soviets and refused to get involved. The Soviets easily crushed the
revolt.
In October another crisis posed an even greater threat to world peace. In 1955
U.S. leaders had agreed to help Egypt pay for the Aswan High Dam, a project on the Nile
River. In exchange, U.S. leaders hoped Egypt would back the United States in the Cold
War. Though not a communist, Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser was on good terms
with the Soviet Union. In response, the United States dropped the Aswan project. Nasser
said that Egypt would pay for the dam by nationalizing the Suez Canal, an important
waterway connecting the Mediterranean and Red Seas. Nasser's decision upset Britain,
France, and Israel. These nations invaded the areas around the Suez Canal in November
1956.
This international crisis, referred to as the Suez Crisis, raised the possibility of a
third world war. To prevent a bigger conflict, the United States joined the Soviet Union
in criticizing the invasion. The Soviet Union also threatened to fire missiles on Britain
and France, but the Suez Crisis ended peacefully. To show that the United States was still
opposed to communism in the Middle East, however, Eisenhower announced the
Eisenhower Doctrine in January 1957. He promised U.S. aid to any Middle Eastern
country facing communist aggression.