US+History+II+24



=Analyze the roots of domestic anticommunism as well as the origins and consequences of McCarthyism.=


 * Topics on the Page **

People
A. Whittaker Chambers B. Alger Hiss C. Edgar Hoover D. Senator Joseph McCarthy E. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

Institutions
A. the American Communist Party (including its close relationship to the Soviet Union) B. the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) C. the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC)
 * ** Special Topic Page on The FBI in American Politics **

=== Dramatic Event Page: The Lavender Scare ===

[[image:Screen Shot 2016-02-27 at 11.29.04 AM.png]]**Influential Literature Pages:**

 * ====** The Crucible by Arthur Miller **====


 * **Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury**

=== Lesson Plan: Anticommunism in Postwar America 1945-1952 === [|Lesson Plan] for origins of anticommunism and the Red Scare

//Focus Question: What were the origins and consequences of anticommunism and McCarthyism?//
[|Ted Ed] vdeo describing the origins of anticommunism and McCarthyism. [|Anticommunism in the 1950's], from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of America.

How You Can Fight Communism: An article by James F. O'Neil that appeared in a 1948 edition of the American Legion magazine.

Read about the Red Scare. Immigrants feared that they would be targeted during the Red Scare. Short [|article] about the targeting of immigrants during the 1919's-1920's For a fascinating history of American communism, the Red Scare, and McCarthyism, read [|The Legacy of McCarthyism], edited by Ellen Schrecker.

Senator Margaret Chase Smith's response to Joseph McCarthy, A Declaration of Conscience, given June 1, 1950.
 * She was the only woman member of the Senate at the time.
 * She ran for President in 1964
 * Go here for her 1964 Presidential campaign announcement

Follow this link for an article on the role of Jewish women in the rise of the American Communist Party.

For more background, see actress Lola Pasholinsky read part of the Declaration of Conscience Speech in this video from GRITtv.

Executive Order 10450 (April 27, 1953)
 * President Eisenhower Prohibits Lesbian and Gay Federal Workers. The policy was changed by the Civil Service Commission in 1975.

Click [|here] for a timeline from Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project.

Red Scare Dot Activity

This activity shows students the hysteria that was present during the Red Scare.

PEOPLE
Whittaker Chambers was a writer who also was a member of the communist party. He was a US citizen but he was also a spy for the Soviet Government. He would testify in the Alger Hiss trial of 1948. "Letter to my Children" By Whittaker Chambers from the forward to //Witness//
 * [[image:Biography icon for wiki.png width="41" height="47" link="@http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/archives_roll/2001_07-09/sempa_chambers/sempa_chambers.html"]]Whittaker Chambers**

Alger Hiss was a US citizen and involved in the US government accused of being a communist. He would be one of the first people to be tried by HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee). HUAC was lead by a young Richard Nixon. Hiss was tried in 1948 and convicted of perjury in 1950 though he claimed he was innocent.His conviction intensified the Red Scare.
 * [[image:Biography icon for wiki.png width="42" height="48" link="@http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/dece_hiss.html"]]Alger Hiss**

Alger Hiss Trials

J. Edgar Hoover was the head of the FBI from 1924 to 1972. During his time there he sought tougher guidelines and penalties for those found to be involved in organized crime or the Nazi or Communist parties. He also used his power as FBI director to maintain secret records on American citizens who were engaged in peaceful protests against existing policies. Click here for a link to FBI files on Eleanor Roosevelt. Click here for FBI files on Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers.

Click here for background information on the FBI files for poet Allan Ginsburg and historian Howard Zinn.

[|Senator Joseph McCarthy] Sen. McCarthy was the leading voice in the "Red Scare" of the Cold War.
 * He accused many people of being communists or communist spies. He scared his audiences by waving around what was often a blank sheet of paper claiming he had a long list of known communists working in the state department.
 * He was censored by the senate in 1954 and died in 1957 while still in office.


 * Click here for Joseph McCarthy's Senate Biography.
 * Joseph McCarthy's "Enemies from Within" Speech, February 20, 1950 in which he charged that the Roosevelt/Truman administrations harbored traitors and subversives.
 * Transcript of Senate Resolution 301: Censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy (1954).

They were a husband and wife team who worked with atomic weapons development during WWII. The were accused of being spies, tried in 1950, convicted in 1951 and executed in 1953. They were the first spies to be killed for their actions.
 * [[image:Biography icon for wiki.png width="41" height="47" link="@http://www.atomicarchive.com/Bios/Rosenberg.shtml"]]Julius and Ethel Rosenberg**

Here is a selection of letters written between Ethel and Julius Rosenberg while in prison.

Ayn Rand testified in front of HUAC in 1947. Read her transcript.

[|Victims] of McCarthyism

=
//**American Communist Party**// was founded in 1919 in Chicago. See Encyclopedia of Chicago entry for more information about the history of the party in the United States======

Soviet and American Communist Parties, Library of Congress

[|Communist Party USA], from The Strange Career of Jim Crow website

Moscow's Archives and the New History of the Communist Party of the United States, American Historical Association (2000)

**//Federal Bureau of Investigation//** The FBI as it is known was founded in 1908. Its purpose was to investigate crime in the US on the federal level. FBI

 * ====== The Bureau was founded by Charles J. Bonaparte who was the Attorney General of the United States at the time. ======
 * ====== The FBI was later recognized by Attorney General Harlan Fiske Stone in 1924 who appointed J. Edgar Hoover as its first director. ======
 * Under Hoover's direction, the FBI issued a national "Most Wanted List" for known fugitives and criminals in the United States (1932), established a technical lab which was used to test and analyze fingerprints, handwriting, firearms, and other data for the purpose of forensic analysis of criminal investigations (1932), and founded an academy used to train special agents (1935).
 * Originally called The Bureau of Investigation, it was renamed The Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935 under Hoover. During the McCarthy years the FBI was used to investigate persons of interest who were believed to be Communist or sympathetic to the Communist Party.

View more information on the history of the FBI.

The History of the FBI's Secret Enemies List, NPR (February 14, 2012) View a prezi of the history and establishment of the FBI.

=

 * //HUAC ( House Un-American Activities Committee)//** This was a committee set up to investigate communist activity and any other types of activity which were deemed Un-American. HUAC would hold their questioning in front of Congress. This was considered controversial, as it intimidated many of their witnesses. Their actions contributed to the fear and panic of the Cold War Era. In 1969, it was renamed as the Committee on Internal Security. Several celebrities of the time were even investigated. Click here for more info. ======

[[image:multicultural.png]]Jackie Robinson testifies before HUAC.
The HUAC launched an investigation into Hollywood, suspecting actors, screenwriters, and directors of communist tendencies. [|Interview] of some of those blacklisted in Hollywood for being communist or socialist

In 1952, the liberal Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, commented on the Red Scare and published an essay known as "The Black Silence of Fear."


 * The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer**

Life of Robert Oppenheimer [|video]

If you are interested in combining material concerning the Manhattan Project and the Second Red Scare, //American Experience// on PBS produced a wonderful documentary chronicling "The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer".

After his successful scientific leadership of the Manhattan Project, he later faced criticism concerning his past political associations.

As a result, the federal government revoked his security clearance in 1954.media type="custom" key="29582661"