The Red Scare (1950s).

1. HUAC - House Un-American Activities Committee. An Agencie that investigated possible Communist influence, both inside and outside the U.S government. The HUAC was the most famous. In 1947, it made headlines in newspapers because it had become to investigate Communist influance in the movie industry. The HUAC believed that communists were sneaking propaganda into films.

2. Blacklist- A black list is a list of people who were condemened for having a Communist background. People who were blacklisted- approximately 500 actors, writers, producers, and dicectors- that had their careers go down because they werent allowed to work.

3. Alger Hiss- Was accused by whittaker Chambers accused him of being a spy for the USSR. Chambers made fake evidence to frame Hiss, but to many years had passed for the government prosecutors to charge him with espionage, but the jury convicted him of perjury because he "lied" about the documents. This shows that the government was accusing people for no reason, or just to have a trial.

4. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg- Were minor activists in the American Communist Party. They were implicated in the second spy case of Klaus Fuchs who gave the USSR information about the atomic bomb (he admitted that he had done so)

5. Joseph McCarthy- He was a famous anti communist activist Senator, who was also a republican from Wisconsin. Within his fisrt 3 years he became known for being ineffective legislator. He realized that he was going to have to win an issue so he could be reelected (1952.) So to insure that he won he charged that the communists were tking over the government.

6. McCarthyism- taking advantage of peoples concerns about communism, McCarthy made one unsupported accusationafter another. The attacks on suspected communists became know as McCarthyism. IT is the unfair tactic of accusing people of disloylatly without providing evidence.

7. McCarthy had to convict innocent people of Communism to insure that he was reelected into the senate in the 1952 election. he was know for losing his cases and getting nothing done. because calling people Communists didnt involve any evidence he was ablt ot win a lot of case and make himself look good. becasue of this innocent people were put into jail. Plus it showed that the system was flawed because he was able to do this without people doig amything to stop him. His fellow republicans didnt say anything because they wanted to have the most seats in the Senate so that they would win the majority of the votes.