Was Communism Feared Essay, Research Paper

Why Was Communism Feared?

After WWII, Americans knew they lived in the strongest

and “greatest” country on earth. They were however afraid

of communism at home and abroad. Through the reading and

discussions in this class I have found the primary reasoning

for this fear was because they did not want to think our

country could be like the rest.

After the war businesses were trying to get back to

normal and trying to convert form planes to cars so to

speak. The entire economy was working to make life better

for the country. Communism was going on all over the world

in country’s like china and Russia. The U.S. must always be

the superpower so they put their two cents in when speaking

about foreign affairs. The government did not want to deal

with other country’s because they did not want the communist

influence to take effect in the U.S. So the Americans were

making their own things in factory’s and such. People were

unable to buy goods they wanted or needed.

During the cold war Joe McCarthy began t put out list

of people whom he thought were communist in the U.S. The

McCarthyism era began a widespread fear of communism.

People in the U.S. were taught that communism was bad and

anyone affiliated wit it were bad too. People were called

“red or “pink” for showing suspicious signs of communism.

Communist country’s were not people whom you wanted to be

affiliated with. McCarthy went crazy in accusing many

people of being red or pink. McCarthy blamed many innocent

people and few like the Rosenburg’s were killed and later

found out to be innocent.

The McCarthy era can be compared to the book The

Crucible. The children in the book had done something bad

and got caught, but to take the attention off them they

began to accuse people of being witches. People that had

crossed them in some way became the ones who were accused

and later innocently convicted and killed. I feel that

possibly many of the people on McCarthy’s list could have

been accused in the same way as the witches. I think that

McCarthy wanted power just as the U.S. wants to be the power

of the nation. He began accusing people and the country

believed his accusations because they did not want to

believe our country could be corrupted by communism. Our

country wanted to be in control but did not want to fall to

the communist power. The U.S. does not like what it cannot

control and it is unable to control a communist country.

Our country wanted to outdo everyone else. They feared

that if communist were in our country then they were working

for other country’s and leaking out our information. We

wanted to have the best bombs and the best equipment, and if

other country’s were keeping up with us then someone must be

telling them our secrets. The government did not want to

think that maybe the other country’s are as smart as us I

mean come on we are the U.S. no one can out do us. The

fear always leads back to the fact that we do not want to be

second best at anything we are the number one country in the

nation. Other country’s look to us for support and what

would they think if we had communist in our office. The

government began to become more “secret” with its dealings.

Eventually people got tired of McCarthy and his

accusations and they began to question what he was trying to

get the public to believe. The government began to limit

the trials and tried to get McCarthy out of the office.

Eisenhower did not like McCarthy or his tactics. People

began to believe less and less that communism was wide

spread in the country. It was in congress hopes to bring

the “red scare” to an end, along with McCarthy.

Eisenhower along with the government wanted to make the

U.S. the number one country intake nation. It was building

bombs, trying to execute all of the communists that tried to

stop their making, and build up national security. The

country did not want to risk a downfall of power by allowing

communism to take effect in the country. With all that

McCarthy had started not much was accomplished, just a bunch

of people being innocently accused of a crime known a

communism. Eisenhower wanted to end McCarthy?s reign so he

put him on trial and found that his actions had no general

purpose. McCarthy?s days were over and it seemed like one

day the terror of communist fear would be over in the he

U.s.

With all that had happened in the U.S. in this era, the

only conclusion that I could draw about why Americans feared

communism in our country, the ?greatest? country of all, was

the fear of not being the best. The country feared what it

did not have control of and communism is just that. The

U.S. could no longer jump in and try to rule in best

interest of another country if they were communist.

Communism in the U.S. was a moral issue. This problem could

not be solved by the president or anyone on his cabinet.

Eisenhower was a manager, not a moral leader(Bragg 74).

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