The Cold War Goes Global
(Activities 1 - 4, Pages 57, 61)
Activity One - Research in more detail some of the key features and victims of the Red Scare in the USA
The Hollywood Ten
HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee)
Alger Hiss
The Rosenberg's
Julius Rosenberg
Ethel Rosenberg
Verdict
Consequences of the Execution
Role of the FBI
John Edgar Hoover
The McCarran Act
Two - Why was McCarthy Finally Discredited?
A long campaign from different figures in the media had fought against Joseph McCarthy, people were becoming more willings to openly criticise McCarthy and his methods. The televised Senate investigations exposed the methods of McCarthy to the public. McCarthy was perceived as evil. McCarthy lost the chairmanship of the Government Committee on Operations of the Senate. Now he had no power and the media lost all interest in his Communist claims.
The Hollywood Ten
- HUAC investigated into the Hollywood Motion Picture Industry
- 41 people working in Hollywood were interviewed ('friendly witnesses') - They named nineteen people who were accused of having left-wing views
- 1947 October Roy M. Brewer was interviewed and he claimed he knew 13 writers and actors who were involved in Communist activities e.g. John Garfield and Dalton Trumbo - Both had volunteered to act as observers for the studio pickets during the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) strike
- 10 of the 41 people interviewed refused to answer the questions - Known as the Hollywood Ten
- All 10 were found guilty of contempt of congress and were all sentenced to 6 - 12 months in prison
HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee)
- Investigated allegations of communist activity within the US
- 1938 Established - Would call citizens to testify to high-profile hearings before Congress
- The atmosphere the citizens were in would cause drama and showed the Communists were inside American institutions
- Controversial tactics formed fear, distrust and repression - Already existed within the hysteria of the 1950s
- 1960s HUAC's influence was decreasing
- 1969 the HUAC was renamed to the Committee on Internal Security
Alger Hiss
- Accused of being a spy for the Soviet Union by Whittaker Chambers
- 1943 Chambers was interviewed by the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover concluded that Chambers didn't have enough information to convict Hiss as a communist
- March 1945 Chambers gave the FBI details of Hiss' spying activities
- November 1946 The FBI sent a report to the Secretary of State - James F. Byrnes stating that Hiss was probably a Soviet agent
- Hiss was interviewed by D.M Ladd - the FBI's Assistant Director and denied all associations with Communism
- The FBI restricted Hiss' access to confidential documents and wiretapped his office and home phones
- 5th August 1948 Hiss testified before the HUAC stating that he had never been part of the Communist Party or any Communist-front organisation
- May 1949 Main evidence of the trial was that Hiss had retyped sixty-five pages of the State Departments documents and also summarised them in four pages worth of notes - Proof that the documents were re-typed on Hiss' typewriter was found as well as that the handwriting from the notes matched Hiss'
- November 1949 Second trial - Witness stated that in 1935 she was informed by Hiss that he wanted to recruit Noel Field to his spy network
- 25th January 1950 Hiss was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison
The Rosenberg's
- Accused of being Communist spies for Russia in the US
- March 6th 1951 Trial began
Julius Rosenberg
- Julius Rosenberg pleaded the Fifth Amendment when he was asked if he had ever been a member of the Communist Party in the US
- Stated he occasionally read the Daily Worker
- 'Felt that the Russians contributed the major share in destroying the Nazi Army'
- Member of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee
Ethel Rosenberg
- The final defence witness during the trial
- Denied all activity of espionage
- Admitted she owned a typewriter and bought it when she was eighteen - Used it for work as a secretary for the East Side Defence Council and the neighbourhood branch of the Civil Defence Volunteer Organisation, she had also typed Julius' college engineering reports
- Stated she had never typed anything relating to government secrets
Verdict
- The Rosenberg's were found guilty
- They were sentenced to the death penalty
- People were shocked as the Rosenberg's were not guilty of treason
- On death row for twenty-six months
- 19th June 1953 the Rosenberg's were executed
Consequences of the Execution
- Execution formed protests all over Europe - Frustration to how America had dealt with the issue
- Major concern around the execution of Ethel as people believed there wasn't enough evidence to convict her to have to be charged with the death penalty
Role of the FBI
John Edgar Hoover
- 1917 Found work in the Justice Department, two years later promoted to Alexander M. Palmer's (attorney general) special assistant - Job was to gather information on 'revolutionary and ultra-revolutionary groups', task of organising the arrest and deportation of suspected communists within the US
- Influenced the Library of Congress by forming a card index for people with left-wing political views
The McCarran Act
- Required the American Communist Party and affiliated organisations to register with the Attorney General
- The Act stated that it was unlawful to want to form a totalitarian dictatorship or hide your membership to the party
- Communists or members of other organisations were now seen as unsafe to the public and had the possible consequence of being excluded or deported for the United States
- Truman stated that the act 'would betray our finest traditions'
Two - Why was McCarthy Finally Discredited?
A long campaign from different figures in the media had fought against Joseph McCarthy, people were becoming more willings to openly criticise McCarthy and his methods. The televised Senate investigations exposed the methods of McCarthy to the public. McCarthy was perceived as evil. McCarthy lost the chairmanship of the Government Committee on Operations of the Senate. Now he had no power and the media lost all interest in his Communist claims.
Activity Two - What is the Message of this Cartoon Regarding the Impact of McCarthyism on American Society?
The message of the cartoon is that McCarthyism spread very iconically (use of the Statue of Liberty) across America like a black gloomy cloud. The cloud completely stopped America in its tracks and completely transformed American society.
The message of the cartoon is that McCarthyism spread very iconically (use of the Statue of Liberty) across America like a black gloomy cloud. The cloud completely stopped America in its tracks and completely transformed American society.
Activity Three - Read the Above Extract from NSC-68. Identify Key Phrases in this Document that you think would Explain Why LaFever Believes it to be one of the most Important Documents of the Cold War. Give Reasons for your Choices of Particular Phrases.
'An immediate and large scale build-up in our military and general strength' - Need to quickly show that America was the dominate superpower and very militarily prepared to fight or go to war at any instant.
'Strike out an a bold and massive program of rebuilding the West's defensive potential to surpass that of the Soviet world' - Shows that America can aid other countries and at the same time continuously improve America to show that it was superior to all places in the world.
'An immediate and large scale build-up in our military and general strength' - Need to quickly show that America was the dominate superpower and very militarily prepared to fight or go to war at any instant.
'Strike out an a bold and massive program of rebuilding the West's defensive potential to surpass that of the Soviet world' - Shows that America can aid other countries and at the same time continuously improve America to show that it was superior to all places in the world.
Activity Four - Look back over the Chapter so far. What a) International Considerations and b) Domestic Considerations would have had an Influence on Truman's Decision to become Involved in the Korean War?
a) INTERNATIONAL CONSIDERATION
b) DOMESTIC CONSIDERATION
a) INTERNATIONAL CONSIDERATION
- 1949 The USSR now had their own atomic bomb - Choose to support North Korea with their new atomic weapon
- October 1st 1949 China became the People's Republic of China - New Communist regime across China
b) DOMESTIC CONSIDERATION
- Spread of McCarthyism throughout America - Paranoia of Communism spreading through America was worrying everyone, McCarthy had opened a mass of hysteria that Communism was growing in America and was being infiltrated in films and the American government
- Document NSC-68 conveyed the urge for the American superpower to fully end its isolation period and announce itself to the whole world - Wanted to improve American military as well as general strength and spend $50 billion to improve all of this to face Communism head on to destroy it
- President Truman wanted desperately to be re-elected as the President of the United States of America and the possibility of the Americans helping South Korea fight the Communist North would be a good way to convey his own fight against Communism to relieve the citizens of America as well as the world