The war was over. The last cry of help had been heard and peace was supposedly coming to the United States. But everyone was wrong. An ideological war which prompted mass paranoia known as the Red Scare had spread through the US. It began in 1919 and ended in 1921. Red Scare was the label given to the actions of legislation, the race riots, and the hatred and persecution of "subversives" and conscientious objectors during that period of time.
At the heart of the Red Scare was the conscription law of May 18, 1917, which was put during World War I in order for the armed forces to be able to conscript more Americans. This caused many problems in the recollection of soldiers for the war. For one to claim that status, one had to be a member of a "well-recognized" religious organization which forbade their members to participation in war. As a result of such unyielding legislation, 20,000 conscientious objectors were inducted into the armed forces. Out of these 20,000, 16,000 changed their minds when they reached military camps, 1300 went to non-combat units, 1200 gained furloughs to do farm work, and 100 of these, 450 went to prison. However, these numbers are small in comparison with the 170,000 draft dodgers and 2,810,296 men who were inducted into the armed forces.
Objectors were targeted in the Red Scare after the war. They were condemned as cowards, pro-German socialists, also they were also accused of spreading propaganda throughout the United States. Many organizations stood up for the rights of the objectors. One was the National Civil Liberties Bureau, which would later be renamed the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU gained a reputation for helping people with liberal cases who were too poor to pay for their own representation in court.
After the real war ended in 1918, the ideological war, turned against conscientious objectors and other radical minorities such as Wobblies, who were members of the
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and also Socialists. It was thought that the Wobblies and the Socialists were trying to overthrow the United States government. Wobblies, were persecuted against for speaking out against the capitalist system. Most of what they said, was only to attract attention, but it was taken seriously by the government. From the very beginning of the Red Scare, the Wobblies attacked by the government, because they were a symbol of radicalism.
Chapter two takes place on November 11th, 1918. The president of the United States, who was Woodrow Wilson would sent a message to fellow Americans relieving them by saying "The war is over". This would be the beginning of the new era, although life would still be centered around the war. The opportunity for people to make money was more obvious. With the soldiers being back from war and parades and everything in celebration, it would soon be over with much of the population looking for work. Strikes, Lay-offs would cause controversy. It was considered to be as evil as the red scare intended to be. Questions were being asked and people wanted answers after the war. Wilson had a lot of power and determined a lot of peoples lives. Henry Cabot Lodge an Intellectual leader of the Republicans who had a seat in the senate had power as well and stated that they were equal with the president in making treaties. Lodge opposed Wilson is most events that they both participated in. Wilson would later veto the senate and get reelected as president of the united states.
The “Red Scare” was consuming many American’s lives following World War 1. After the war ended, anarchist bombings began, and a general fear of socialists, anarchists, communists, and immigrants swept the nation. There had always been resentment to immigrants in America, and these attacks just intensified these feelings. Americans were concerned that, because the Russian Revolution occurred, that it would happen in America next. The government began sweeping immigrants up and deporting them. Many innocent people were arrested because of their views against democracy. Although Sacco and Vanzetti were on trial for murder, their beliefs of how society should be run was the main focus in the trial.
Before the “Red Scare”, the United States was a huge world power and was thriving in every facet possible. Its people could do as they pleased for the most part, and did not have to fear persecution for their beliefs or associations. The entertainment was reaching its prime with celebrities creating the greatest films and writings the country had ever seen (Pearson). This all changed in 1947, when President Harry Truman upset the waters. Earlier in the year, Truman ordered background checks of all the civilians in service. The results that this investigation found was unnerving. Alger Hiss, a high-ranking State Department official, was revealed as a Soviet spy. He was then convicted on espionage charges and served three years in prison. ...
The Red Scare was given its name because everyone feared the idea of communism (“Red”) in America. Fear, especially spread out among a group, is a dangerous and chaotic thing that can cause people to do things that they would not normally do. It can cause people to betray others close to them or not trust some people they would normally trust.
The American anticommunist attitude began in 1919, with the Red Scare. In 1917, Russia experienced the culmination of multiple social revolutions as the Bolsheviks seized control of the government. Discarding the old Russia, the Bolsheviks ushered in an era of communism under Marxist philosophy. The world responded with suspicion and a healthy dose of hostility. Little over a year later, the United States experienced a crisis as mail-bombs detonated in eight separate cities. Even though they were less than 70,000 professed communists in the Untied States, they attracted the full weight of public ire. Mitchell Palmer, the leader of this anticommunist crusade, believed that communism was eating its way into the homes of the American workman stating: “tongues of revolutionary heat were licking the alters of the churches, leaping into the belfry of the school bell, crawling into the sacred corners of American homes, seeking to replace marriage vows with libertine laws, burning up the foundations of society,” (The Palmer Raids). The Palmer Raids peaked in December 1919, when Palmer arrested 249 resident communist aliens and deported them to the Soviet Union. Essentially, the Red Scare nurtured American fear of communism and created initial hostility between Communist Russia and the United States.
During the First World War, Britain introduced conscription for the first time to massively increase the input of power of their army had and forced men aged 16-19 to serve in the army. However, a group of roughly 16,800 men refused to serve. These groups of people were called Conscientious Objectors; sometimes called COs or Conchies; and many were very religious and believed that thou shall not kill as it is a sin in the Bible. This was a main point that most Conscientious Objectors did not take any part during the First World War as they believed it would result in pointless bloodshed. The Government’s and general public’s view on Conscientious Objectors was that Conscientious Objectors were unpatriotic cowards and the Government used propaganda to manipulate the general public’s view on Conscientious Objectors by showing that they would not aid the Britain and were weak. As a result they were treated harshly. The Government made being a Conscientious Objector very hard and difficult as they would enforce tribunals which consisted of ex- military officials who were biased as they were for the First World War. Therefore, these people gave huge prison sentences to Conscientious Objectors as a scare tactic to reduce the number of Conscientious Objectors. Historians use interpretations to show the message behind each source to see it’s reliable or useful. Also this is done to see if the source itself is a primary or secondary interpretation which shows if the source’s view and meaning is from the author of sources (primary interpretation) or giving a generalised views on people who were there at the time (secondary interpretation).
The end of the war was accompanied by a panic over political radicalism that influenced attitudes and behavior of Americans. A mass paranoia and repression, along with the fear of communism, and labor unrest produced the Red Scare. In consequence, A. Mitchell Palmer, President Wilson's attorney, led raids on leftist organizations, such as the Communist Party, and created the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which collected the names of thousands of suspected communists. From then on, cases of repression against communists began to emerge all around the nation. Palmer’s raids reached its highest point when government agents made raids in 33 cities. As a result, more than 4,000 alleged communists were arrested and jailed without bond, and 556 aliens were deported. Under those circumstances, these police actions decimated America's radical groups and made the decade safe for free-market
Murray, Robert K. Red Scare: A Study in National Hysteria, 1919-1920. U of Minnesota Press,
Black Scare in the 1920’s was the movement of southern blacks into northern cities during the early 1920’s which caused fear in many whites. The Ku Klux Klan (or the KKK) was a secret society created by white southerners that used terror and violence to keep African Americans from obtaining their rights. Throughout history, this secret organization have used acts of terrorism including murder, rape, and bombing. They wore masks, white cardboard hats, and white sheets.
Red Scare America 1920 World War I was finally over, however, there was a new threat to Americans. The. This threat was Communism, which was greatly feared by most. U.S. citizens. Communism is "a system of social and economic organization" in which property is owned by the state or group, to be shared in common.
Times change and people come and go, but fear is a constant, and in “The Great Fear” by J. Ronald Oakley, he describes the wave of fear that occurred in the 1950s. In 1692, the townspeople of Salem were scared into believing that they were among witches, and in 1950’s the “Red” Scare destroyed thousands of peoples lives that were accused of being Communists. Those accused in both witch hunts were put on trial, and while many were killed in Salem, the Red Scare had blacklisted those persecuted.
The Conscription Act delivered the final straw in the long list of discrepancies, the catalyst that turned that small forest fire into a raging inferno of hate and fear. The white working class (mostly Irish immigrants) were infuriated, they couldn’t understand how they, white, hard-working voters were being punished. The government was forcing them to fight a war they didn’t support and the only way they could avoid it was to pay 300 dollars (a years wages for most), yet they would pay African Americans 1,000 dollars for volunteering. The new federal draft conditions also expanded to include a wider age range of men it would take. “The conscription law targeted men between the ages of 20 and 35, and all unmarried men up to age 45.” Adding to the already high tensions of laborers, since the enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation they ...
The Red Scare changed the American view on immigration and foreign policy in America after the Russian Revolution of 1917. The Red Scare was the fear of communism in America which persuaded the immigrant radicals of the Russian Revolution to support communism and a political change. Since there was no response to the growth of fear from anarchism and communism in America, Congress added anti-radical protections to the Immigration Act of 1918 (“Red Scare”). Also, General Palmer and other government officials’ homes were attacked infuriating the American government (Gordon). An addition to the Immigration Act would strictly enforce the radicals to discard their views towards communism and focus on support the democracy and capitalism in America.
Then comes the red scare where the U.S. is involved with the war going on and people are starting to panic about the revolution. Bombing were becoming ...
There were several causes toward the 1920s Red Scare, and how it had aroused suspicions towards communism. This Red scare lasted almost 5 years until United States’ economy finally started improving after the disastrous World War One. The main reason for the first Red Scare was that Russian Revolution. At the time before the first World War, the Russian people were in an economically corrupted country. Few people had enough to eat or support themselves and were on the brink of death. On top of that, Czar Nicholas II, the leader of Russia, often abused his position in order to violate the Russian constitution called Duma and c...