Second Red Scare Essay

The Second Red Scare was the time period after World War II when a widespread fear of communist infiltration swept over America as a side-effect of the cold war between the Soviet Union and the United States of America. This era saw the practice of McCarthyism come into play - a term referring to Senator Joseph McCarthy’s tendency to accuse citizens and officials of being communist spies. Fear was coursing through the veins of America from 1945 - 1957, and power was being corrupted to keep citizens afraid and helpless. To McCarthy and Truman, the government was just doing what they needed to do to protect their democratic country; to the American people, they were causing repression in politics and violations of liberties. The practice of uniting

Senator Joseph McCarthy made an assertive speech in West Virginia referred to as “Enemies from Within.” Running for re-election and hoping to catch the people’s attention, he claimed that at least 200 employees in the U.S. government were members of the Communist Party. The claim made headlines and caused friction with the Soviet Union because there seemed to be no evidence for McCarthy’s accusations. This practice of making unfair allegations to thwart dissent or political criticism became known as McCarthyism and effectively fueled the fear of communist infiltration in the country. #1 President Harry S. Truman saw right through McCarthy. In a response telegram to his claim at the speech, he said, “This is the first time … that I ever heard of a senator trying to discredit his own Government before the world. You know that isn’t done by honest public officials. Your telegram is not only not true … but it shows you are not even fit to have a hand in the operation of the government of the United States.” (Truman

It had set its sight on a married couple - an engineer and his wife - for sharing top-secret nuclear weapon designs with the Soviet Union. In July 1950, FBI agents arrested Julius and Ethel Rosenberg on counts of “Conspiracy to Commit Espionage.” After a short, one-month trial that lacked hard evidence to prove the charges and was ruled by a judge who could not remain impartial, both were sentenced to death. Rosenbergs' attorneys appealed the case for two years, but neither Truman nor the new President Dwight D. Eisenhower would grant them clemency. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed on June 19, 1953, shortly after Eisenhower took office, but not without him throwing in his two cents. He refused to executively pardon them last minute, issuing a statement saying that “by immeasurably increasing the chances of atomic war, the Rosenbergs may have condemned to death tens of millions of innocent people all over the world. The execution of two human beings is a grave matter. But even graver is the thought of the millions of dead whose deaths may be directly attributable to what these spies have done” (Eisenhower 1). It is clear that Eisenhower wholeheartedly believed that the Rosenbergs were guilty, and by making such a bold statement, he influenced the mindset of the American citizens while appealing to their