Mccarthyism

McCarthyism, Red Scare, Korean War, When Will this Fear End?

America in the early 1900s dealt with two of the most epic wars in history, World War I and World War II. Shortly after the Second World War Americans fell into the depression era. However, once those issues had been solved and America bounced back from the Great Depression, new fears began to surface. The fears were perpetuated by issues such as the Red Scare, Communism and McCarthyism. These American fears began to be heavily played on by the media using such things such as the Rosenbergs and the Korean War to infiltrate the worries of Americans.

The Red Scare became prominent during the 1940s (Brinkley, 2007). Many people were being targeted as communist. The list ranged from normal people like you and I to entertainers in Hollywood. Media played a prominent role in the Red Scare. It began to have things such as the black-list, who listed Hollywood stars who my have been involved with communism, developed. There were also plenty of articles created. For instance, take an article placed in the Los Angeles Times in 1947 by Arthur Sims, entitled “Red Scare Repeated”. The article slowly planted the seed of communism and further developed the Red Scare epidemic. “History is merely repeating itself”…”Thus, we find documented evidence that Communism – or the Communism Scare – flourished in the United States generations before it came to the surface in Russia” (Sims, 1). The media basically feed into the fears of America as illustrated by the quote. Not only did the Red Scare help fears of Communism taking control of the United States, but so did one of the most famous wars against Communists, the Korean War.

Communism was further feared by American’s due to the Korean War. The Korean War was a serious issue to almost all, if not all Americans. They felt that if the war was lost, so was their freedom and democracy; Communism would soon be on the brink. Of course, this was also instigated by the...