2. To Summarize.. Americans emerged from World War II with a renewed sense of confidence. They had, after all, been part of a global alliance that destroyed the military power of Germany and Japan. As the only major combatant to avoid having its homeland ravaged by war, the U.S. economy was clearly the strongest in the world. And, of course, the United States was the only country in the world to possess that awesome new weapon, the atomic bomb. Surely, they believed, they were witnessing the dawn of a new golden age.
3. To Summarize.. Over the next five years relations between the United States and the Soviet Union went from alliance to Cold War. To make matters worse it seemed like the Soviets might be winning. In 1948 a communist government seized power in China, the world's most populous country. The following year Moscow successfully tested an atomic device of its own, and in 1950 troops from the Soviet satellite state of North Korea launched a war of aggression against South Korea. To many, it seemed as though a new and infinitely more destructive world war was on the horizon—and this time the United States might actually lose. How could these setbacks be explained? The arrest and prosecution of a number of Soviet spies in the United States seemed to provide at least a partial answer. Perhaps it was the activity of disloyal Americans—in the Federal Government, in Hollywood, in the schools, etc.—that allowed China to "go communist," that handed Russia the bomb, and invited Stalin's puppets in North Korea to attack their neighbors to the South. But what constituted disloyalty?
4. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Julius Rosenberg, Ethel Greenglass, and her younger brother David Greenglass were all born from Jewish-immigrant families in lower Bronx, New York. It was through Greenglassthat the Rosenbergs were able to extract sensitive information on the atomic bomb to give to the Soviets, David Greenglass was drafted into the United States Army during the Second World War. He was scheduled to ship overseas as a Seabee, until an eye examination revealed that he was color-blind. The Army then decided to utilize his training as a machinist. Following a security check, Greenglass was sent to Los Alamos, New Mexico, a secret military establishment where the atom bomb was being developed. Greenglass provided information that he obtained from Los Alamos to the Soviets.
5. The outcome? The fact that the Rosenberg’s were exposed for selling American secrets to the Soviets, and thus revealing the rest of their Communist party infiltrating America, frightened the American public incomprehensibly. The fear and unease made a perfect stage for McCarthy to begin his witch hunt, and for Americans to turn on each other, and their government. Though decades later, when nuclear scientists examined Greenglass' nuclear structure drawing, they dismissed it as worthless.
7. Newspaper Articles on “finding red radicals” During this era, a magnitude of protests, strikes, and opinions different from the masses were considered “communist”, or that the “reds” were behind it. The most famous examples of McCarthyism include the speeches, investigations, and hearings of Senator McCarthy himself; the Hollywood Blacklist, associated with hearings conducted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities; and the various anti-communist activities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) under Director J. Edgar Hoover. McCarthyism was a widespread social and cultural phenomenon that affected all levels of society and was the source of a great deal of debate and conflict in the United States http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://ecommunity.uml.edu/eth_ent/addr/Mid_138/RadicalArrestsFull.gif&imgrefurl=http://pictorio2.24.eu/keyword/red%2520scare&usg=___InjQsLq7kx-i2Goob_TsmcftOY=&h=545&w=750&sz=110&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=IO3CKs1AoOyOaM:&tbnh=134&tbnw=184&ei=wQTdTYWvFofYgQfWtPQF&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dred%2Bscare%2Bin%2Bnewspaper%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us%26biw%3D1075%26bih%3D744%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=786&vpy=85&dur=593&hovh=191&hovw=263&tx=121&ty=99&sqi=2&page=1&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0
8. McCarthy and the Laundry List McCarthy's involvement with the ongoing cultural phenomenon that would bear his name began with a speech he made on Lincoln Day, February 9, 1950, to the Republican Women's Club of Wheeling, West Virginia. He produced a piece of paper which he claimed contained a list of known Communists working for the State Department. McCarthy is usually quoted as saying: "I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department. There seems a real question as to whether there was such a lsit at all. IIRC, he would wave a sheaf of paper in his hands and claim it was his list, but never showed it to anyone. And the number of people supposedly on it kept changing. Later, this “anti communist” list was discovered to be a laundry list.
9. Propaganda in the Culture It wasn’t just the news, or the talk that was stirring in America. As the Cold War continued through the Twentieth century, the anti-communist sentiment and the fear that gripped the country became part of the culture, and the society itself.