Teaching McCarthyism and the Red Scare

1. HTAV Annual Conference 2019
Unit 2 History: The Cold War – REDS!
Presenter: Stephen White

2. DOTS! • Participate in this activity in which you will form
groups based on your secret identities
• You will each receive a post-it note
• Some are blank
• Some have a dot on them
• When you receive your post-it look at it secretly.
Don’t reveal to anyone what you got
• When you are done looking, put it in your
pocket or hide it

3. DOTS! • The goal is to form the biggest group of ‘non-dot’
members as possible.
• The largest group of ‘non-dots’ wins
• The whole group will lose if there is a dot in your
group
• Dot members of a group will win a prize for
infiltrating the group and being the only dot.

4. DOTS! • Since everyone will deny having a dot, you must
look for any indication of suspicion.
• If you suspect someone is a dot, you should
accuse them out loud e.g. ‘Bert is a dot!’
• If you are a dot then you must bluff to convince
others you are actually a non-dot.
• Any questions?
• When I say STOP after a few minutes you must
FREEZE and stop talking.
• GO!

5. DOTS! • If you are a dot, who would you have been during
1950s USA?
• If you in a group with a dot, even if you didn’t
know, you would have been considered a
sympathiser. What were these people called?
• What would be the repercussions of being found
to be a dot, or a sympathiser?

6. WhoisaCommunist?
AM I A COMMUNIST?
• Parents were immigrants
• Responsible for the ‘loss’ of China to
Communism
• Critics said he was soft on
Communism

7. WhoisaCommunist?
AM I A COMMUNIST?
• Investigated the War Dept during
WWII
• Nicknamed ‘Moscow Maggie’
• Defined ‘Americanism’ as the right to
criticize, hold unpopular beliefs,
protest and independent thought

8. WhoisaCommunist?
AM I A COMMUNIST?
• Lived abroad during WWII
• Constantly clashed with his bosses
• Criticised US government officials

9. WhoisaCommunist?
AM I A COMMUNIST?
• Parents were Italian immigrants and
classified as enemy aliens in WWII
• Grew up in San Francisco
• His wife divorced him for inflicting
‘mental cruelty’

10. WhoisaCommunist?
AM I A COMMUNIST?
• Endorsed the use of medical
marijuana
• He opposed religious organisations
‘every step of the way’
• Had ties to convicted criminals and
mafioso

11. WhoisaCommunist?
AM I A COMMUNIST
• Born in the US but spent most of his
life abroad in France, Switzerland and
Turkey
• Political activist
• Controversial writer

12. WhoisaCommunist?
NOT A COMMUNIST
Secretary of State Dean Acheson
• Containment policy seen as too soft –
blamed for the loss of China to
communism
• Was a ‘little soft’ on communism –
this was true

13. WhoisaCommunist?
NOT A COMMUNIST
Senator Margaret Chase Smith
• Investigated the War Dept during
WWII – where they would put new
military bases
• Nicknamed ‘Moscow Maggie’ – by her
opponents who themselves
supported ‘unamerican’ principles

14. WhoisaCommunist?
NOT A COMMUNIST
Journalist Edward R. Murrow
• Lived abroad during WWII
• Constantly clashed with his bosses
over content shown on a news
program that upset his bosses
• Criticised US government officials –
part of a journalist’s job

15. WhoisaCommunist?
NOT A COMMUNIST
Baseballer Joe DiMaggio
• Many Italian immigrants were
classified as enemy aliens in WWII –
his parents became US citizens
• His wife was American actress Marilyn
Monroe

16. WhoisaCommunist?
NOT A COMMUNIST
Senator Barry Goldwater
• He DID endorse the use of medical
marijuana
• He opposed religious organisations
because they threatened to vote him
out if he didn’t vote according to their
beliefs
• He associated with racketeers but
there is no evidence to what extent

17. WhoisaCommunist?
NOT A COMMUNIST
Writer & activist James Baldwin
• He lived abroad to escape racial
persecution
• He was a Civil Rights activist
• He was a controversial writer

18. WhoisaCommunist?
So, you have to ask yourself…
Why did you think ANYONE was a communist?
• What does it mean to be a communist?
• Why did you assume anyone was a communist?
• What made you choose particular people?
• How was this activity a little like McCarthyism?
• Why did you even complete the activity – was there
enough information to make a decision?

19. KeyGlossaryTerms Red Scare:
A period of intense fear of communism within the US during
the 1940s and 1950s, often leading to paranoid and hysterical
accusations and behaviour.
HUAC:
The House Un-American Activities Committee; established in
1938 and expanded in 1945 to investigate anyone involved in
subversive or un-American activities
McCarthyism:
A public fear campaign led by Senator McCarthy against
alleged communists and their sympathisers in the United
States during the 1950s.

20. KeyKnowledge Context
• Yalta & Potsdam Conferences 1945
• Atomic bombing of Japan 1945
• USSR ‘salami tactics’ begin 1945
• Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech 1946
• Truman Doctrine (Containment) 1947
• Marshall Plan (ERP) 1947
• Berlin Crisis 1948
• NATO established 1949
• Germany divided 1949
• USSR detonates an atomic bomb
• Chinese Revolution 1949
• Korean War 1950

21. KeyKnowledge Red Scare
• Fear of Communism spread quickly as the Cold War
developed – with some justification.
• This fear became more irrational as time progressed, and
anti-Communist messages could be found by the truly
paranoid in everything from films to red-letter Bibles.
• Conservative politicians used this fear to campaign for
more votes, especially by attacking those with socialist
views regarding civil rights, universal health care etc.
• The media jumped on board, adding to the hysteria
through newspapers, television, film and advertising.
• ‘Reds under the bed’ – spies everywhere! UFOs! Duck and
cover!

22. KeyKnowledge Red Scare
• The FBI was authorised to investigate suspected
Communists and sympathisers, but abused their power
and collected information illegally for decades.
• Of three million Americans investigated, only 300 were
dismissed as security risks.
• Americans were encouraged to report anyone they
suspected of being Communist – like a witch hunt.
• Anyone thought to remotely sympathise with Communism
was labelled as a ‘pinko’
• Execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg in 1951 –
convicted of spying for the USSR and passing nuclear
weapons technology

23. KeyKnowledge HUAC
• House Un-American Activities Committee temporarily
established in 1938, focusing on suspected fascists and
communists
• Became a permanent committee in 1945 with a mandate
to find communists and prosecute them
• Suspects were forced to give their testimony before
Congress
• Refusal to cooperate could lead to blacklisting or prison
• The ‘Hollywood Ten’ case is the most prominent example
of blacklisting – a group of writers and directors suspected
of communist activity
• Others suspected – Einstein, Arthur Miller, Charlie Chaplin

24. KeyKnowledge HUAC TACTICS
• Denial of the right to face one’s accuser
• Fabrication of evidence
• Ignoring correct legal procedure
• Charges based on hearsay and innuendo
• Use of irresponsible and unnamed informers
• Employers of those accused were blackmailed
• Demands for the accused to sign loyalty oaths
• Guilt by association
• Fabrication of ‘crimes’ e.g. looking ‘foreign’ or thinking ‘un-
American thoughts’

25. KeyKnowledge McCarthyism
• Senator Joseph McCarthy from Wisconsin
• Came to prominence in 1950
• Announced ‘card-carrying communists’ had
infiltrated the government
• Attacked anyone who appeared soft on
Communism
• Targets included FBI office workers, generals,
and even presidents
• He attacked freedom of expression
• Ultimately came undone attacking the US military
• Underhanded tactics unveiled on television
• Investigated in 1954; died three years later

26. KeyKnowledge Red Scare Y Chart
• What must it have been like to live through this period?
• What would it look like?
• What would it sound like?
• What would it feel like?

27. PrimarySourceQuotes McCarthy – The Fight for America
• Communists and sympathisers characterized as ‘criminals,
hoodlums, gamblers, kidnappers’
• ‘They are threatening the lives of countless sons of
American mothers and the liberty of the American people’
Hoover – Menace of the Communist Party
• ‘It aims to develop discontent and to overthrow the
American way of life’
• ‘Inflitrators and corrupters’
Truman – Inaugural Address
• ‘Communism maintains that social wrongs can only be
corrected by violence’

28. Cartoons
https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/herblocks-history/fire.html
Fire!
By Herblock, 1949

29. Cartoons
https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/herblocks-history/fire.html
It’s okay, we’re hunting
communists!
By Herblock, 1947

30. Assessment The essay
‘We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home’
- Ed Murrow
To what extent is this statement true of the Cold War actions
of the United States government during the 1940s and
1950s?
• Contrast the goals of the Truman Doctrine and Marshall
Plan with HUAC and McCarthyism

31. Assessment Analysis of primary sources
• Speech excerpts from Truman, Hoover, McCarthy, Murrow
and others
• Cold War-era cartoons
• Cold War advertisements

34. GoodNight&GoodLuck Film study
The film Good Night and Good Luck addresses the efforts of
journalist Ed Murrow and the See It Now team to bring
Joseph McCarthy to account for his actions
The film trailer, synopsis, some tasks and a character list can
be found at the Dropbox link
‘We will not walk in fear of one another’
‘We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty’
‘A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves’

35. Resources Click on the Dropbox link below to access:
Videos
Primary sources
Worksheets
Activities
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5g0s8h6bzkxc8w2/AADkh54aB
9QzF9ly3JLaQ4hBa?dl=0

36. FurtherResources Alpha History – Cold War
https://alphahistory.com/coldwar/
It’s History – Cold War video series
https://youtu.be/8hMzLpTXo6E
Cold War cartoon database
https://coldwar.unc.edu/media/cartoons-
comics/