The Cold War: At Home

The Cold War: At Home

The cold war did not only shape the US foreign policy but also the domestic affairs. Further efforts were made after the Second World War to root out communism within the United States.

Foreign events & spy scandals contributed to the anti-communist hysteria of the period. The communist victory in China & the Russian possession of an atomic bomb increased Am. suspicion of betrayal at home.

      I.            Causes:

In order to gain support for a foreign policy based on a massive military build-up, the Truman administration needed to scare the people & therefore get them out of their post war isolationism.

Americans became more & more obsessed about communist threat the national security with USSR development of nuclear weapons, the Chinese communist victory in 1949 & the North Korean invasion of the south.

Meanwhile, beginning in 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) brought the Cold War home in another way. The committee began a series of hearings designed to show that communist subversion in the United States was alive and well.  Many of "blacklisted" writers, directors, actors and others were unable to work again for more than a decade. HUAC also accused State Department workers of engaging in subversive activities. Soon, other anti-Communist politicians, most notably Senator Joseph McCarthy who was an anti-communist investigator. Indeed In 1950, McCarthy gave a speech that propelled him into the national spotlight. Waving a piece of paper in the air, he declared that he had a list of 205 known members of the Communist Party who were “working and shaping policy” in the State Department.

Moreover, many of McCarthy’s Democratic and Republican colleagues, including President Dwight Eisenhower, disapproved of his tactics. Still, the senator continued his so-called Red-baiting campaign. In 1953, McCarthy was put in charge of the Committee on Government Operations, which allowed him to launch more expansive investigations of the so-called communist infiltration of the federal government. In hearing after hearing, he aggressively interrogated witnesses in what many came to perceive as an obvious violation of their civil rights. Despite a lack of any proof of subversion, more than 2,000 government employees lost their jobs as a result of McCarthy’s investigations.

In April 1954, Senator McCarthy turned his attention to “exposing” the supposed communist subversion of the armed services. Many people had been willing to overlook their anxiety with McCarthyism during the senator’s campaign against government employees. however, their support began to wane. Almost at once, the aura of invulnerability that had surrounded McCarthy for nearly five years began to disappear. First, the Army challenged the senator’s credibility by showing evidence that he had tried to win preferential treatment for his aides. Then, came the fatal blow: the decision to broadcast the “Army-McCarthy” hearings on national television. The American people watched as McCarthy intimidated witnesses and offered evasive responses when questioned. When he attacked a young Army lawyer, the Army’s chief counsel shouted: “Have you no sense of decency, sir?” The Army-McCarthy hearings struck many observers as a shameful moment in American politics.

By the time the hearings were over, McCarthy had lost most of his allies. The Senate voted to condemn him for his “inexcusable,” “shameful,” “vulgar and insulting” conduct “unbecoming a senator.” He kept his job but lost his power, and died in 1957.

II-consequences

The anti-communist hysteria devastated the American left & torn it apart. Some communist leaders were imprisoned under the smith act of 1940 & the first amendment right of free speech was limited by the congress. Anti-communism postponed domestic reforms such as civil liberties, the end to segregations for black Americans and it even abandoned the unfinished programs of the new deal. Even believing in racial equality was viewed as being communist. So essentially, Anti-communism led to a widespread political apathy. To sum up everything that was different was at risk.