US his 6.3

History 6.3.rtfd/TXT.rtf

Communism was not new to the United States in the 1940s. The Socialist Party of America was founded in 1901. They advocated for removing the ownership of factories from private hands and placing the government in control instead. Eugene Debs ran as Socialist Party candidate four times—the last from prison. Socialism was popular among labor and even some reform-minded people in the middle and upper classes. Although it was small, the American Communist Party had existed since 1919. When the United States and the Soviet Union became Allies in World War II, membership in the American Communist Party grew.  At its height, at their height in 1939 the party claimed 66,000 members, a sliver of the electorate.  In this lesson, you will learn about the postwar Red Scare and how it impacted politics as well as the American people. At the end of the lesson, you will complete a written assessment to demonstrate your knowledge. As Stalin and the Soviet Union created satellite nations across Eastern Europe, he also centralized power like a totalitarian leader, suppressing any political dissent. His version of communism became known as  Stalinism. Stalin's refusal to allow free elections after World War II added to the fear. Many Americans believed that the Soviet Union was focused on world domination. By 1946, the Cold War had created a climate of fear in the United States. This fear led to political conflicts. During the mid-term elections of 1946, candidates used the Red Scare for political advantage. The Republican Party, as well as the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover, charged that Truman had allowed communist agents to infiltrate the government. Republicans campaigned against Democrats with slogans such as "Communism vs. Republicanism." The Red Scare and Loyalty In response to these charges, Truman created a committee to find ways to make certain that federal employees were loyal. The result was  Executive Order 9835, also known as the Loyalty Order. This order came just as Republicans swept back to power. Privately, Truman was not concerned about communism in the government. In an April 3, 1947, news conference, he stated, "I am not worried about the Communist Party taking over the Government of the United States, but I am against a person whose loyalty is not to the Government of the United States holding a Government job. They are entirely different things. I am not worried about this country ever going Communist. We have too much sense for that." 06_03_02.jpg ¬ No one was safe from being targeted during the Red Scare. Despite his private feelings, Truman enforced the  Federal Employee Loyalty Program. The FBI ran background checks on millions of federal employees. Any check that found "derogatory" information meant that the employee had to appear at a hearing. However, the FBI rarely allowed its agents to testify to their findings at the hearings. This meant that the accused could not ask the agents any questions. Many Americans considered the program a violation of constitutional rights. Of the more than four million current and potential federal employees investigated, a little more than 300 were dismissed or denied employment. Balancing Constitutional Rights and National Security While Truman submitted to political pressure with the loyalty program, he refused to sign other legislation. He vetoed the 1950  McCarran Internal Security Act that required people labeled as communists to register with the federal government. Congress overrode Truman's veto. He also vetoed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. While the act removed the Asian exclusion policies of previous immigration laws, it only allotted 100 visas per Asian nation. And the legislation included a clause allowing for the deportation of immigrants who took part in "subversive" activities, such as joining the Communist Party. Once again, Congress had the votes to override Truman's veto. 115_887399_w.jpg ¬ A HUAC hearing in 1946 In this atmosphere, some members of Congress capitalized on American fears and began investigating communist influence in the United States using the  House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). HUAC was originally formed as a special committee to investigate fascism in the United States. By 1945, John Rankin, a House member from Mississippi, made it a full standing committee.  But with tensions rising between the United States and the Soviet Union, the committee would soon gain immense influence as a tool to root out people  believed to be communists or their sympathizers within the United States. HUAC and the Hollywood Ten Seeking information about the Communist Party's influence in the entertainment industry, in 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee issued subpoenas to 41 Hollywood producers, directors, and screenwriters. The question they were asked was simple: "Are you, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?" If they answered yes, they were offered the opportunity to name more names and keep their jobs. Most witnesses complied with Congress. However, several refused to comply citing their First Amendment right to free association, speech, and assembly. hollywood_10.jpg ¬ Nine of the Hollywood Ten who turned themselves in after being found guilty of contempt of Congress and sentenced to federal prison. a471028083.jpg ¬ Dalton Trumbo (center) escorted from the witness stand after refusing to tell HUAC whether he is or has been a communist. The committee voted to cite him for contempt of Congress. This group called the  Hollywood Ten were sentenced to federal prison for six months to one year and fined $1,000 dollars. When they were released, they found the work in Hollywood had dried up for them—they were  blacklisted by the industry. This blacklist would not end until 1960. Dalton Trumbo was one of the Hollywood Ten. He was a well-regarded screenwriter who had penned movies for world famous actors such as Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck, and Spencer Tracy. However, when called to speak to HUAC about his activities in the American Communist Party, he refused, citing his 6th Amendment right to know the evidence against him. As with the others, he was jailed, fined, and blacklisted. The Chairman.  Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist party?  Mr. Trumbo.  I believe I have the right to be confronted with any evidence which supports this question. I should like to see what you have. —House Un-American Activities Committee Hearing, October 28, 1947 Did You Know? Hollywood was not the only target of Congress. Some believed that communists were working at the highest levels of government. In one famous case in 1953, J. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the lab that developed the atomic bomb, was accused of associating with communists. Oppenheimer was removed as an advisor to the Atomic Energy Commission, and his government security clearances were revoked. The Impact of HUAC On October 24, 1947, following a tense labor strike against his studio led by the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU), Walt Disney, the creator of Mickey Mouse, testified as a “friendly witness” in front of the HUAC that communists had indeed infiltrated the movie labor unions.  In fact, the CSU and the Motion Picture Alliance (MPA), of which Disney was a member, were in a serious labor conflict. Some members of the MPA had campaigned to name the rival CSU as communist, though many of CSU members had no association with the American Communist Party. The men Disney identified as communists were later cleared of any charges. A few hundred people in Hollywood were accused of communism or communist sympathies. Some of them were blacklisted and could not find work in Hollywood, though a few, like Charlie Chaplin, experienced continued international fame. Other people in the industry were blacklisted when they refused to testify. Those who hoped to avoid the same fate provided names to the HUAC. The lists of names launched subsequent investigations into those accused of disloyalty to the United States. Many Americans resented what they called a government "witch hunt." 102_543600_w.jpg ¬ Walt Disney testified as a friendly witness at HUAC. By the late 1940s, nongovernment groups such as the American Legion began to issue their own blacklists of people they suspected of "Communist sympathies." Newspaper columnists such as Walter Winchell printed the names of people suspected of being communist sympathizers. In this era, a simple suggestion of disloyalty could ruin a person's lif Joseph McCarthy was elected senator from Wisconsin in 1946 and played a leading role in the Red Scare.  In a speech in February 1950, McCarthy claimed to have direct knowledge of 205 employees of the U.S. State Department who were members of the American Communist Party. In later speeches, McCarthy's numbers varied, but one thing did not—he never produced names or evidence.  This did not stop the Republican senator from Wisconsin, however. He accused the Democrats of "twenty years of treason," for supporting communism. He even charged that Secretary of State George Marshall, widely admired for the Marshall Plan, was part of a "conspiracy." Despite his lack of facts, many Americans initially supported McCarthy. His sensationalist approach encouraged, and even pressured, other Americans to charge people based on suspicion rather than evidence. Local committees formed to seek out communists in schools and other local organizations. As a result, hundreds of teachers and other workers lost their jobs. Critics, including many U.S. Senators, accused McCarthy of playing on people's fears for personal gain. One critic, political cartoonist Herbert Block, labeled McCarthy's tactics  McCarthyism in a cartoon published on March 29, 1950, in the  Washington Post. The name stuck. 06_03_04_lg.jpg ¬ Political opponents of McCarthy accused him of looking for dirt where none existed. McCarthyism at Work In the 1950 elections, McCarthy contributed to the defeat of one of President Truman's prominent supporters, Democratic Senator Millard E. Tydings. Tydings led a subcommittee investigating McCarthy's accusations of communists in the government. During the investigation, Tydings declared that McCarthy's accusations were a "fraud and a hoax." As payback, McCarthy supported Tydings's opponent. McCarthy's team produce a fake photograph of Tydings meeting the head of the American Communist Party. The photograph was a composite—a combination of two different photographs. Many people did not realize it was a fake. Tydings's Republican opponent won the election. Tydings was one of the first of many casualties of McCarthyism. McCarthy was reelected to the Senate in 1952 and stepped up his activities. In 1953, he became chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The committee was supposed to investigate fraud and waste in the executive branch. However, McCarthy quickly switched the focus of the investigations to communist activities in the government. Most members of the committee resigned eventually, and McCarthy handled the investigations with his own staff. He continued his charges against innocent victims. 140_1705263_w.jpg ¬ McCarthy during a speech on the eve of his re-election as a United States senator, 1952 139_1850642_w.jpg ¬ A crowd gathers in a TV store to watch the McCarthy hearings, 1954. In 1954, McCarthy accused officials in the U.S. Army of communist sympathies. The hearings, known now as the  Army–McCarthy hearings, were nationally televised, one of the first such events to appear on television. As he accused a young lawyer involved with the case of communist activities, Boston lawyer Joseph Welch, who represented the Army, spoke the famous words: "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness…Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?" Many Americans around the nation realized that McCarthy had gone too far, viewing his hearings as publicity stunts. His popularity began to diminish. McCarthy was later censured, or publicly reprimanded, by the U.S. Senate for his actions and ignored by the press. He died three years later, at the age of 48, from alcoholism. For the first several years after World War II, the fear of Soviet infiltration was everywhere. Federal investigators cast a wide net that turned up several cases of espionage. The cases added weight to some Americans' argument that communism was pervasive in American society. Alger Hiss The Alger Hiss case was the most notable of these Red Scare episodes. In 1948, Hiss, a former State Department employee, was accused of being a participant in a communist spy ring before World War II. His accuser, journalist Whittaker Chambers, said he was a member of the same ring. He charged that Hiss had given him top-secret State Department papers to be sent to the Soviet Union. Hiss denied Chambers's statements in front of HUAC. In 1949, Hiss was then tried for perjury—or lying under oath—regarding his involvement with Chambers. His trial ended in a hung jury.  He was tried again in 1950 and found guilty. He served three years in prison. Hiss maintained his innocence until he died in the 1990s. In 1996, the U.S. government released secret cables from the Soviet Union during World War II that provided circumstantial evidence of a Soviet spy in the State Department known as “Ales,” who many historians believe to be Hiss. 06_03_03_a.jpg ¬ Alger Hiss sits in a federal van on his way to prison after being convicted of perjury. 06_03_03_b.jpg ¬ Soviets Test the Bomb The fear of espionage became even greater in 1949. In August, the Soviet Union successfully tested an atomic bomb. The bomb, code-named “First Lightning,” closely resembled “Fat Man,” the nuclear bomb the United States dropped on Nagasaki.  Soviet spies had been able to obtain details on the Manhattan Project. After a U.S. spy plane detected radioactive particles in the air around Siberia, it became apparent the United States was no longer the world's sole atomic power. Now, the United States faced a foe that possessed the most dangerous weapon in history. Soon, events in Great Britain led to the discovery of a Soviet spy ring in the United States. Klaus Fuchs In 1950, a German-born physicist named Klaus Fuchs was arrested in Great Britain. He was convicted of passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviets. Fuchs, who had been a member of the German Communist party, had left Germany before World War II. He became a British citizen and worked on the development of an atomic bomb while in Great Britain. Fuchs realized that the atomic bomb was a major technological development. He passed information to the Soviets while still in Britain.  In 1943, Fuchs arrived in the United States as part of a British delegation sent to work on the Manhattan Project and was transferred a year later to Los Alamos. He continued to spy for the Soviets while in the United States. He was discovered four years after the war ended, when U.S. intelligence decoded Soviet communications. 06_03_03_c.jpg ¬ Klaus Fuchs was a German physicist and British citizen who worked on the Manhattan Project and at Los Alamos. He spied on the British and U.S. nuclear programs for the Soviet Union. 06_03_03_d.jpg ¬ David Greenglass was a U.S. Army sergeant who was assigned to Los Alamos, where Fuchs worked. Greenglass was accused of passing sensitive intelligence to the Soviet Union. David Greenglass Upon his arrest in Britain in 1950, Fuchs admitted that he had been passing information to the Soviets since 1943. During his interrogation, he said that he had given information to an American named Harry Gold in Berkeley, California. Fuchs was sentenced to prison and served nine years, later returning to East Germany to lead its nuclear program.  The information he gave British investigators was shared with the FBI. Suddenly, the most famous espionage case of the atomic age unfolded. The spy trail led from Harry Gold to a man named David Greenglass and then to Greenglass's sister, Ethel Rosenberg. She and her husband, Julius, a Jewish couple from New York, became household names in the early 1950s. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were tried and convicted of espionage, or spying. They were U.S. citizens who had joined the Communist Party as teens in New York City, where they met. According to Greenglass, Ethel’s brother, the Rosenbergs recruited him to help them secure details of the atomic bomb and passed that important information to the Soviets.  Their crime had more far-reaching implications, which led to President Eisenhower denying clemency despite significant protests. He stated, “I can only say that, by immeasurably increasing the chances of atomic war, the Rosenbergs may have condemned to death tens of millions of innocent people all over the world.” After numerous appeals, the Rosenbergs were the only two defendants in the case to be executed in 1953. One image that signifies American life in the early 1950s is the mushroom cloud from an atomic blast. The constant tension between the Soviet Union and the West grew enormously when the Soviets acquired the atom bomb.  This news arrived in American living rooms shortly after the victory of Chinese Communists in the Chinese Civil War. Americans feared that it was only a matter of time before a bomb was dropped on the United States. Beginnings of the Arms Race American military leaders began stockpiling atomic weapons for potential future use. In addition, scientists were working on a new, deadlier nuclear weapon—the  hydrogen bomb. This new device was known as a thermonuclear weapon. It was smaller, but many times more powerful, than an atomic bomb. The atomic bomb's force came from fission, the splitting of atoms. A hydrogen bomb's force would come from fusion, the joining of hydrogen atoms. The weapon was so powerful that some scientists argued that it should not be created. 132_1307165_w.jpg ¬ A hydrogen bomb is detonated over the Bikini Atoll, 1956 For the military, the two weapons presented an additional dilemma. The Army favored "smaller" atomic weapons that could be used in battlefield situations. Army weapons developers, for example, had developed an atomic cannon for use in the field. On the other hand, the newly created Air Force favored the development of thermonuclear weapons. These could be delivered by bombers or by guided missiles, both Air Force weapons systems. President Truman argued in favor of the hydrogen bomb, believing that the United States needed all the advantages it could possibly have against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. In November 1952, scientists successfully tested a hydrogen bomb on an island in the Marshall Islands. Witnesses declared that after the explosion, the island had ceased to exist. Less than a year later, the Soviets also successfully tested a hydrogen bomb. 06_03_05_graph_bw.gif ¬ This graph shows the rapid buildup of nuclear arms by the United States and the Soviet Union beginning in the 1950s. Neither the United States nor the Soviet Union could keep a technological advantage over the other. For this reason, they began an  arms race to stockpile weapons. Instead of spending money on troops and more conventional means of warfare, defense dollars were used to build up a major nuclear arsenal. Scientists worked on systems to deliver the weapons more accurately. Both countries wanted to create accurate, long-range missiles that could carry thermonuclear weapons but keep the other from using them. They assumed the threat of massive nuclear retaliation would keep an enemy from attacking. The graph shows the rapid buildup of nuclear arms beginning in the 1950s. By 1965, the two powers had enough nuclear weapons to destroy most of the planet in a nuclear war. Citizens Under the Threat of Nuclear War The arms race and the threat of nuclear war influenced Americans in ways beyond the Red Scare. U.S. leaders declared that every citizen was a soldier in the Cold War. In addition to the arms buildup, the federal government sought to prepare its citizens for nuclear warfare through a  civil defense program. "Duck and cover" air raid drills were held in schools and other public facilities. The  National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956 was passed to allow rapid evacuation of urban areas in case of attack. 140_1804171_w.jpg ¬ Children under their desks during an air raid drill in Brooklyn, New York, 1962 With the testing of the hydrogen bomb and the understanding that the fallout from radiation would spread, much civil defense planning became useless. Still, the government put forth the idea that planning was necessary to survive a blast. Many Americans invested in building shelters beneath their homes in case of nuclear war. The reality was that if a full-scale nuclear war occurred, very few people would survive. Americans continued to live with the fear of nuclear annihilation—or total destruction—for years until the Cold War came to an end in the late 1980s. View the photo story for more information about fallout shelters. Media elements in video © Public Domain The Controversy over Nuclear Proliferation Despite widespread protests, six other countries developed their own atomic weapons after the United States and Soviet Union formed the unofficial "atomic club." In 1968, diplomats from several countries, including the United States and Soviet Union, presented the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (known as the NPT) at the United Nations General Assembly. It basically said that no new countries should develop atomic weapons and the countries with the bomb should pursue disarmament.  Nearly all countries signed the treaty. India and Pakistan refused, successfully developing their own atomic weapons in the decades that followed. North Korea signed the NPT, but secretly developed their own bomb anyway. Israel, an interesting case, refused to sign the NPT, but the Israelis have never confirmed their successful development of the bomb. They prefer a policy of "nuclear ambiguity" to discourage hostile neighbors. Atomic weaponry remains controversial. Some see the mutually assured destruction the bomb brings as deterring war. They celebrate the "nuclear peace." Others dread the tens of millions that could die if a nuclear weapon is ever used, and continue to protest the countries that maintain the technology. In this lesson, you have learned about the growing fear of the spread of communism both abroad and at home in the United States. Also, you learned about how the United States and the Soviet Union began an arms race during the Cold War. What Do I Submit? Case Study: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg To complete the assessment, read the case study about convicted spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. Then read Ethel Rosenberg's letter from prison to President Eisenhower. Use this information and content from the lesson to respond to the prompts. Be sure to use key terms from the lesson in your responses. A Case of Espionage Ethel's Letter to Eisenhower Ethel Greenglass (1915–1953) and Julius Rosenberg (1918–1953) were the children of Russian and Austrian immigrants born in New York City, where they grew up. As teens, they joined the Young Communists League USA. They met in 1936 and were married in 1939. Ethel was employed as a secretary at a shipping company. Julius completed a degree in electrical engineering. In 1940, Julius began work for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. He began passing research information to the Soviets in 1942. Rosenberg then recruited others to pass information to the Soviets. This included Ethel's brother David Greenglass, who was a U.S. Army machinist working on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. Greenglass agreed and passed information to another spy named Harry Gold at the direction of Julius. Greenglass had not yet met Gold but would know him by a piece of a Jello box that matched what Greenglass held. Julius had given Gold his part of the box he had torn off in front of Greenglass. 132_1422044-w.jpg ¬ Ethel and Julius Rosenberg after arrest In 1945, Julius was discharged from the army because he had lied about being a Communist. In 1950, Gold was arrested in connection, after Klaus Fuchs had identified him as a contact. That arrest led to the arrest of Greenglass, which led to the Rosenbergs. Another friend of Julius's, Morton Sobell, was also arrested in connection with the case. In March 1951, the Rosenbergs and Sobell were tried and convicted of espionage. While the evidence against Julius was strong, it was less so in Ethel's case. However, in April, the Rosenbergs were sentenced to death. Sobell received 30 years in prison. Greenglass and Gold also received prison sentences. The Rosenbergs' case was brought up on appeal seven times, to no avail. There were worldwide protests against their execution, based on the idea that they were made scapegoats in the hysteria during the Red Scare. A final appeal to President Dwight Eisenhower asked that Ethel's life be spared to avoid making orphans of the Rosenbergs' two young sons. Eisenhower refused. In 1953, the Rosenbergs were executed by electric chair. The Rosenbergs were the first civilians in U.S. history to be executed for espionage.