Thinking Skill: Explicitly assess information and draw conclusionsObjective: Assess the legitimacy of the communist threat during the 1950s

Cold War Spies and the Rise of Joseph McCarthy

Critical Thinking Objectives

C-4 Explicitly assess information and draw conclusions.

CR-5 Make decisions after reflection and review.

C-3 Gather and organize information and data.

What understanding of Democracy and Communism framed

Americans’ perspective during the Cold War?

What were some of the fears that Americans were facing during the Cold War? To what extent were

these fears justified?

Collective Security

vs.

Individual Rights

(Civil Liberties)

Cold War HysteriaCold War Hysteria

Anti-communist Measures• Smith Act (1940)• Truman’s 1947 Executive Order 9835 (Federal

Employee Loyalty Program

• House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings (originated in 1938)

Smith Act

-United States federal statute that set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government and required all non-citizen adult residents to register with the government.

-Approximately 215 people were indicted under the legislation. Prosecutions under the Smith Act continued until a series of United States Supreme Court decisions in 1957 reversed a number of convictions under the Act as unconstitutional. The statute has been amended several times.

The Hollywood Ten

• The Hollywood blacklist—as the broader entertainment industry blacklist is generally known—was the mid-20th-century list of screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and other U.S. entertainment professionals who were denied employment in the field because of their political beliefs or associations, real or suspected

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sgom1snPaQ

The following transcript of an excerpt from the interrogation of screenwriter John Howard Lawson (Hollywood 10) by HUAC chairman

J. Parnell Thomas gives an example of an alternative wording of the question and a sense of the tenor of some of the exchanges:

• Thomas: Are you a member of the Communist Party or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?Lawson: It's unfortunate and tragic that I have to teach this committee the basic principles of Americanism.Thomas: That's not the question. That's not the question. The question is—have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?Lawson: I am framing my answer in the only way in which any American citizen can frame his answer to...Thomas: Then you deny it?Lawson: ...a question that invades his...absolutely invades his privacy.Thomas: Then you deny... You refuse to answer that question, is that correct?Lawson: I have told you that I will offer my beliefs, my affiliations and everything else to the American public and they will know where I stand as they do from what I have written.Thomas: Stand away from the stand...Lawson: I have written for Americanism for many years...Thomas: Stand away from the stand...Lawson: And I shall continue to fight for the Bill of Rights, which you are trying to destroy.Thomas: Officer, take this man away from the stand

Internal Security Act of 1950, also known as the Subversive Activities Control Act or the

McCarran Act

• The Act required Communist organizations to register with the United States Attorney General and established the Subversive Activities Control Board to investigate persons suspected of engaging in subversive activities or otherwise promoting the establishment of a "totalitarian dictatorship," either fascist or communist.

• Members of these groups could not become citizens and in some cases were prevented from entering or leaving the country. Citizens found in violation could lose their citizenship in five years.

Internal Security Act of 1950, also known as the Subversive Activities Control Act or the

McCarran Act

• The Act also contained an emergency detention statute, giving the President the authority to apprehend and detain "each person as to whom there is a reasonable ground to believe that such person probably will engage in, or probably will conspire with others to engage in, acts of espionage or sabotage."

• It tightened alien exclusion and deportation laws and allowed for the detention of dangerous, disloyal, or subversive persons in times of war or "internal security emergency”

• It passed over Truman’s veto, who called it --“the greatest danger to freedom of speech, press, assembly since the Alien and Sedition laws of 1798”

American Reds Everywhere!

Alger Hiss

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg

Alger Hiss

Hiss clip

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-6BfCbrvuM

Senator Joseph McCarthy (Wisc.)

Critics suggest McCarthy was desperate for a winning issue on which to run in 1952

Joe McCarthy

I have a list of 205…

of 57…

Of 81…

McCarthy’s Rise during an Age of Hysteria

Growing Influence of McCarthy

Witch Hunt

McCarthy TacticsMcCarthy Tactics

McCarthy’s FallMcCarthy’s Fall

• 1954 McCarthy says Army is harboring spies

• Army accuses McCarthy of trying to protect an assistant from the draft

• Hearing is televised• McCarthy looks like a

rude bully• Loses public favor

“Point of Order, Mr. Chairman, point of order…” McCarthy

“Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency” Welch

McCarthy is CensuredMcCarthy is Censured • Eisenhower and Reps. No

longer need McCarthy to get rid of “Commiecrats”

• Senate votes 67-22 to censure (condemn) McCarthy for contemptuous behavior

• Only 3rd time history• McCarthy dies in 1957,

but McCarthyism lives on today Now wait just one

minute…I may have been right!

“We’re all on a monster kick, Les. Seems that the general impression holds that maybe one family isn’t what we think they are. Monsters from outer space or something. Different from us. Aliens from the vast beyond “

“You best watch who you’re seen with, Steve! Until we get this all straightened out, you ain’t exactly above suspicion yourself”

• “Let’s get it all out. Let’s pick out every idiosyncrasy of every single man, woman, and child on the street. And then we might as well set up some kind of citizens’ court. How about a firing squad at dawn, Charlie, so we can get rid of all the suspects? Narrow them down. Make it easier for you.”

• McCarthy: Never uncovered a spy or communist in the US government.

Who did McCarthy appeal to in America? Why?

What effects did it have on the country?

Why did so few stand up to McCarthy?

Edward R. Murrow

One of those that did…

What does McCarthyism mean today?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4LZsDqSSfk

• Why might someone suspect you of being a communist? How were suspected “commies” treated? How might this affect other citizens?

• Connections to today?_________

C. What is the legacy of McCarthyism?McCarthyism was a major part of the red scare of

the 1950s during which a national paranoia was present. Americans were not truly free to believe what they wanted to believe (civil liberties are often threatened during such times). McCarthyism is remembered as a time when America engaged in witch hunts. It was a paranoid time and a time when many lives were hurt without any proof. Just to be "named" in front of the committee often meant that you would be black listed, your reputation destroyed.