Identify Who Was Most Responsible for the Red Scare
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- Category: History: American
- Date Submitted: 02/07/2010 03:03 PM
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4) The post-war Red Scare was mostly caused by the American people themselves. The panic of the Red Scare first picked up momentum with Truman “scaring the hell” out of Congress during the speech which would become known as the Truman Doctrine. While Truman did have a legitimate point that Greece and Turkey were in danger of becoming Communist nations, the American public tendency to exaggerate and gullibility play the crucial role in what would become known as the Red Scare.
The first people to try to start the Red Scare were the Republican Party in an attempt to prove to the public the increase of Soviet power under Democratic rule (Brinkley). This gained momentum when Alger Hiss was convicted of perjury; his conviction showed the American people (falsely) the true power of Communist influence. This led the public to truly believe that Communism was alive and thriving on American soil. The uproar led to Truman’s loyalty boards, which caused over 2000 government agents to resign. This revelation truly shocked all Americans. The fact that Communists were inside the government for so long demonstrated the weakness of the Democratic rule. However, none of this would have happened if the public used their senses and saw everything as a scapegoat created by the Republicans. The man accusing Hiss of being a Communist, Whittaker Chambers, was a former Communist agent (Brinkley). This should have led most Americans to be suspicious of him, but they took everything at face value and accepted everything that was happening without questioning it. Had they pondered this case, they would have realized that the fact that an accusation of that severity coming out during a Democratic majority could have been politically motivated. However, they did not, leading to the Red Scare.
McCarthy is supposedly another factor in the creation of the Red Scare. However, before his outrageous accusations, he was just another Senator. Most political figures become prominent ones...
The first people to try to start the Red Scare were the Republican Party in an attempt to prove to the public the increase of Soviet power under Democratic rule (Brinkley). This gained momentum when Alger Hiss was convicted of perjury; his conviction showed the American people (falsely) the true power of Communist influence. This led the public to truly believe that Communism was alive and thriving on American soil. The uproar led to Truman’s loyalty boards, which caused over 2000 government agents to resign. This revelation truly shocked all Americans. The fact that Communists were inside the government for so long demonstrated the weakness of the Democratic rule. However, none of this would have happened if the public used their senses and saw everything as a scapegoat created by the Republicans. The man accusing Hiss of being a Communist, Whittaker Chambers, was a former Communist agent (Brinkley). This should have led most Americans to be suspicious of him, but they took everything at face value and accepted everything that was happening without questioning it. Had they pondered this case, they would have realized that the fact that an accusation of that severity coming out during a Democratic majority could have been politically motivated. However, they did not, leading to the Red Scare.
McCarthy is supposedly another factor in the creation of the Red Scare. However, before his outrageous accusations, he was just another Senator. Most political figures become prominent ones...