HIST 1312 1st Edition Lecture 6 Outline of Last Lecture I Origins of the Cold War a The Two Powers b The Roots of Containment c The Truman Doctrine d The Marshall Plan e The Reconstruction of Japan f The Berlin Blockade and NATO g The Growing Communist Challenge h The Korean War i Imperialism and Decolonization II The Cold War and Idea of Freedom a Freedom and Totalitarianism b The Rise of Human Rights c Ambiguities of Human Rights Outline of Current Lecture III The Anticommunist Crusade a Loyalty and Disloyalty b The Spy Trials These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute c McCarthy and McCarthyism d An Atmosphere of Fear e The Uses of Anticommunism f Anticommunist Politics g Cold War Civil Rights IV The Eisenhower Era a Origins of the Vietnam War V Vietnam and the New Lef a Lyndon Johnson s War b The Antiwar Movement c The Counterculture Current Lecture The Anticommunist Crusade Nearly half a century Cold War profoundly affected American life o There would be no return to normalcy as afer WWI Military industrial established created during WWII became permanent National security became the stated reason for a host of government projects o Aid to higher education o Building of a new national highway system justified by the need to speed the evacuation of major cities in the event of a nuclear war Cold War encouraged a culture of secrecy and dishonesty Cold War military spending helped to fuel economic growth and support scientific research that not only perfected weaponry but also led to improved aircraf computers medicines and other products with a large impact on civilian life Cold War reshaped immigration policy refugees from communism were allowed to enter the US regardless of national origin quotas International embarrassment caused by American racial policies contributed to the dismantling of segregation Loyalty and Disloyalty o Dividing the world between liberty and slavery automatically made those who could be linked to communism enemies of freedom o The assault on civil liberties came to be known as McCarthyism o 1947 less than two weeks afer the Truman Doctrine was announced the president establish a loyalty review system in which government employees were required to demonstrate their patriotism without being allowed to confront accusers or in some cases knowing the charges against them Homosexuals were also targeted who worked for the government because they were deemed to be easily blackmailed by Soviet agents as well as supposedly lacking the manly qualities needed to maintain the country s resolve in the fight against communism o Loyalty program failed to uncover any cases of espionage however several hundred persons lost their job o Also in 1947 the House Un American Activities Committee HUAC launched a series of hearings about communist influence in Hollywood Ten unfriendly witnesses refused to answer the committee s questions about their political beliefs or to name names on the grounds that the hearings violated the First Amendment s guarantees of freedom of speech and political association The Hollywood Ten were charged with contempt of Congress and they served jail terms of six months to a year they were also blacklisted The Spy Trials o A series of highly publicized legal cases followed which fueled the growing anticommunist hysteria o The most sensational trial involved Julius and Ethel Rosenberg a working class Jewish communist couple from New York City In 1951 they were convicted of conspiracy to pass secrets concerning the atomic bomb to Soviet agents during WWII The chief accuser was David Greenglass Ethel s brother The case against Julius rested on highly secret documents that could not be revealed in court Their deaths were carried out in 1953 McCarthy and McCarthyism o Joseph McCarthy a little known senator from Wisconsin suddenly emerged as the chief national pursuer of subversives and gave a new name to the anticommunist crusade o Feb 1950 he announced that he had a list of 205 communists working for the State Department The charge was preposterous the numbers constantly changed and McCarthy never identified a single person guilty of genuine disloyalty o McCarthy s downfall came in 1954 when a Senate committee investigated his charges that the army had harbored and coddled communists o Army McCarthy hearings revealed McCarthy as a bully who browbeat witnesses and made sweeping accusations with no basis in fact An Atmosphere of Fear o States created their own committees modeled afer HUAC o Communists were banned from fishing holding a driver s license and working as professional wrestlers o Late 1940s 1950s those who failed to testify about their past and present political beliefs and to inform on possible communists frequently lost their jobs o Local anticommunists groups made libraries remove un American books such as Robin Hood The Uses of Anticommunism o Undoubtedly there were Soviet spies in the US However the US Communist Party was so tiny that it hardly posed an actual threat o Government agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI used anticommunism to expand their power FBI developed thousands of files on American citizens o For business anticommunism became a part of a campaign to identify labor unions and government intervention in the economy with socialism o Upholders of sexual morality and traditional gender roles raised the cry of subversion against feminism and homosexuality both supposedly responsible for eroding the country s fighting spirit Anticommunist Politics o Late 1940s 1960s anticommunist crusade powerfully structured American politics and culture o Truman vetoed the McCarran Internal Security Bill of 1950 which required subversive groups to register with the government allowed the denial of passports to their members and authorized their deportation or detention on presidential order However Congress overturned his veto o McCarran Walter Act of 1952 passed over the president s veto kept nationalquota in place whereas Truman wanted to do away with them It also authorized the deportation of immigrants identified as communists even if they had become citizens o 1954 the federal government launched Operation Wetback which employed the military to invade Mexican American neighborhoods and round up and deport illegal aliens o Truman did secure passage of a 1950 law that added previously excluded selfemployed