Summary: The Rise Of Communism

“I have here in 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… still working and shaping policy in the State Department” (Senator Joseph McCarthy). Following World War 2, the threat of Communism was on the rise in American society. McCarthy claiming that there were Communists working in the government helped to raise the tension across the U.S. as the country was locked in a tense Cold War with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union, or modern day Russia, were well known alongside with China for their deep beliefs in Communism, causing America to enter their infamous time period of the Red Scare. Fear and the overwhelming threat of McCarthyism affected American society

If an action displayed by a person was deemed to be unnatural, their neighbors could report them to the authorities for their strange behavior alone. During the Salem Witch trials, if a person displayed certain behaviors or was accused of practicing black magic, they could be hanged similar to how in Fahrenheit 451, if a person was accused of possessing books, their house was burned down with them being taken to the police. In Herblock’s “All we want is the truth as we see it,” the only truth that was deemed worthy was the one that satisfied those asking questions, similar to the situations that those faced in McCarthy era America. When one was faced with officials, to lessen the crime that they would face, they oftentimes used the names of neighbors to accuse them of also being Communist to avoid severe

During the French Revolution, people like Robespierre made people afraid of those close to them by claiming innocent people were guilty, just to result in them going to the guillotine. This act was then repeated by McCarthy himself by claiming that several government officials were guilty of being Communists. In Fahrenheit 451, Montag plants his books in the house of a fireman to frame the fireman as being guilty similar to when artist were framed as being a Communist due to the art they released. In “A Decade of Fear,” “McCarthyism was the only latest example of the government’s questioning the loyalty of the Americans during wartime.” As a result of being blamed guilty for a crime, the person would be dealt with in a way that their government deemed as fit, as displayed in Salem with the accused witches being hanged, in Fahrenheit 451 with Guy Montag being hunted down for his book possession, those deemed as guilty for supporting the monarchy in the French Revolution facing the guillotine, and the famous Rosenberg couple being killed in the electric chair as it was believed they gave valuable information to the Soviet Union from the