Cold War: McCarthy and the Red Scare

By Cynthia T. Ryan

Last updated over 2 years ago

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Note from the author:

Inquiry activity on McCarthyism and the HUAC for the Cold War Unit 10.

McCarthy & the Red Scare
In the 1940s and '50s, the Cold War was fought through fear and persecution on both sides of the globe. In the United States, anti-communism became strident; those who refused to completely renounce communism and its supporters were considered suspect. In the Soviet Union, fences were raised against the outside world. The gulag -- the secret government system of labor camps -- housed millions of prisoners.

At home, Americans feared communist subversion. Congress revived the House Committee on Un-American Activities. In 1947, the committee investigated America's film industry. Some of Hollywood's best-known actors, producers and writers were called to testify. But 10 witnesses, who became known as the Hollywood Ten, defied the committee's line of questioning. The 10 were imprisoned. Hundreds more in Hollywood, suspected of communist sympathies, were blacklisted -- and unable to find work.

Several U.S. politicians used the Red Scare to their advantage. A State Department official, Alger Hiss, was accused by a former communist of passing secrets to the Soviet Union. Leading the prosecution against Hiss -- who was later jailed for perjury -- was a young California congressman named Richard Nixon.

Fear of communism also brought Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy into the limelight. During Senate hearings, McCarthy claimed to have lists of communists in the U.S. military, State Department and other government agencies. For months, McCarthy was able to attack people's reputations at will. He eventually fell out of public favor and power -- after he denounced leading Republicans and senior Army officials as communists. 

The fate of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg came to symbolize the excesses of the U.S. Red Scare. The couple were convicted of passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union and sentenced to death. Despite protests that the death sentence against the Rosenbergs-- who had young children -- was unconstitutional, they became the first U.S. civilians to be executed in peacetime for espionage.

You are a Hollywood screenwriter.
It is 1947, and you have just been called before the House Un-American Activities Committee to testify about communism in Hollywood.
In the 1930s, you attended a few Communist Party meetings. After learning more about communist ideology and about abuses in the Soviet Union, you long ago abandoned any interest in communism. In fact, you consider yourself firmly anti-communist.
But now the committee wants you to name the names of the people you saw at those Communist Party meetings nearly two decades ago. A few of these people are now your friends. And you have already seen what happens to anyone who is identified as a communist before the committee. They have been publicly vilified by the committee and blacklisted (fired and never rehired) by the motion picture industry. But if you don't cooperate, you and your family could face the same fate.
What do you do?

•Your Lawyer: Take the Fifth Amendment, citing your right to avoid self-incrimination. This way you also won't have to testify against others. The danger of this strategy is you could be charged with contempt of Congress.
The  criminal offense of contempt of Congress sets the penalty at not less  than one month nor more than twelve months in jail and a fine of not more than $100,000 or less than $100.

The Reality of the Communist Witch Trials
•At least 10 filmmakers made the same decision. Known as the "Hollywood Ten," they refused to testify, and on November 24, 1947, they were sentenced to serve up to a year in prison for contempt of Congress.

•Many other artists, however, agreed to testify. Faced with the dilemma of capitulating and becoming a public informer or being blacklisted from the industry indefinitely, they cooperated with the committee and named names. 

•The result: Some 250 Hollywood personalities were blacklisted by the motion picture industry. Many creative artists were never able to work in Hollywood again.