The Red Scare: Truman's Cold War

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The Red Scare was a point in history where America’s politics and society changed. The Red Scare is most commonly referred to as Truman’s Cold War. It mainly took place from 1945 to 1965, yet its influence can still be seen today.

America’s politics drastically changed. After World War II, America pointed all its anger and frustration away from Germany and towards its former ally, Russia. America’s foreign policy was the exact opposite of Russia’s. Nothing proposed in the Senate as a peace plan at the one end of the military budget to the other could be enacted unless it could be demonstrated that the Russians would not like it.

On March 25, 1947, Truman passed Executive Order 9835 that launched the Federal Employees Loyalty program. Loyal oaths were given to all federal employees. These oaths were not the only thing that affected federal employees. It got much worse when Eisenhower was elected into office. He said that he thought Truman was being too soft, and passed Executive Order 10450 that mandated that any employees would be immediately suspended for any behavior, activities, or associations which tend to show that the individual is not reliable or trust worthy. Once this Executive Order passed, Eisenhower decided that the order was too lenient and added on to the order. He added that exercising an article of the Bill of Rights as a reason for automatic dismissal. So, any employee that stood before the congressional committee that pleaded the Fifth Amendment, the right not to incriminate him or herself, would be fired.

In 1946, Joseph McCarthy was elected to the senate. Before he became a well known public figure, he was tutored by Richard Nixon. Nixon said that he tried to teach McCarthy to show restrain in most p...

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...l how many Americans were questioned or accused. By 1956, it was estimated that 13.5 million Americans were required to undergo some form of loyalty test or investigation as a condition of employment.

Works Cited

Jeremy, Issacs and Tay lor Downing. Cold War. Boston: Little, Brown, 1998. Print

Griffin, Fariello. Red Scare. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1995. Print.

Levin, Matthew. "The Sixties and the Cold War." ERIC. ERIC, 2009. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.

Burdick, Jonathon. "ERIC - The Legacy of "A Nation at Risk", Online Submission, 2012-Feb-12." ERIC - The Legacy of "A Nation at Risk", Online Submission, 2012-Feb-12. N.p., 12 Feb. 2012. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.

"Red Scare." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2014

"Second Red Scare: A Cold Era: The Story of US." Second Red Scare: A Cold Era: The Story of US. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.

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