What Was The Cause Of The Communism Paranoia Of The 1950s?

	What Was The Cause Of The Communism Paranoia Of The 1950s? What was so "bad" about being associated with being communist back then. People lost jobs, celebrities were black-listed, and it was a general witch-hunt and paranoia going on. What exactly caused this? Who were the "evil communists'? Asked By: batflyz2 - 2/5/2008

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I have answered questions like this several times, and no one seems to get what I am saying. I will try again. People were legitimately scared of Communism taking over in the United States because of the horror stories that were coming out of Russia since the Bolsheviks took power in 1917. People were arrested and tortured, often being implicated to the police by former friends or even family members, thousands of people lost their property and were either shot immediately or sent to labor camps where they starved to death. The big problem with communism is not that people dress shabbily and make inane statements about redistributing property and money, it is because of the idea of CLASS WARFARE. Class warfare is the idea that there is a class or group of people who are exploiters of the nation, and they always will be; since even if the government is taken over by communism, these people would still be hostile to the dictatorship of the proletariat, so they must be battled and eventually eliminated (as in horrible, painful death to you and everyone who ever heard of you!). As no society could ever be perfect, any shortcomings in the economy would just be seen as proof that, no matter how many people have been arrested and murdered, there are obviously more exploiters hiding and sabotaging the economy so more people must obviously be arrested and murdered. There is a book, Many Are the Crimes, that explains why American Communists were seen as dangerous. Specifically American Communists tended to do and say absolutely anything that the Soviet Union asked them to do and say. Before 1939, Russia hated Hitler so American Communists hated Hitler, then in 1939 Russia became friends with Hitler so American Communists now loved Hitler and demanded that the USA not help any of Germany's enemies, then in 1941 Germany attacked Russia so American Communists hated Hitler again and demanded that the USA fight Germany. American Communists firmly believed that, even though their numbers were ridiculously low (about 100,000 at its height), that they could bring about a revolution so they behaved like an underground movement with secret identities and private meetings with foreign representatives and everything you would expect from enemies of the country. Each member was supposed to find a job and work harder than anyone else so you could rise in responsibility and get to a point where you could do sabotage to capitalism (give secrets to Russia, call a strike when the economy was bad, etc). Also, members of the party were not supposed to admit to anyone that they were members so they always seemed like they had something terrible to hide. It was literally the same sort of semi-justified fear that people had on September 12th of anyone who seemed Middle Eastern. The people who flew the planes into the Twin Towers were not screaming terrorists, they were trained to fit into society and not arouse any suspicions, so that when the time came they could quickly take control of a situation and wreak terrible damage. While the American Communists were not a terrorist organization (they did not throw bombs or rob banks like the Anarchists of the 1900-1930 did), there was a certain justified belief that they could become dangerous if the order came from Moscow. Answered By: sdvwallingford - 2/5/2008

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If you understand communism, their stated goal is to take over the world. When they got the bomb, people were afraid they might use it on us. That was the era of bomb shelters. Senator Gene McCarthy was a big promoter of the "red scare" (reds are what commies were called) and famous as the with hunter. He brought many people to senate hearings including movie stars, directors and writers. Answered By: browncat79 - 2/5/2008

Everyone thought that everyone else had nuclear bombs and were going to set them off. Mainly the Americans and the Russians though. This was somewhat crazy though because if one country set a bomb off on another country then the other country would set a bomb off on them. It was called Mutually -Assured Destruction. Answered By: Steelers_Gurl - 2/5/2008

The open statements made by the leaders of the Soviet Union in that they were commited to bring communism to the whole world and create a world wide "workers state" led by the Soviets. That there were abuses made, it's true but there were reasons for a legitimate fear. At that time, the Soviets had made puppet states under their direct control of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Albania and East Germany; had absorbed into the USSR Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia; had supported the Red Army in China in defeating the Kuomitang; had caused the Koren War by using their puppet regime of Pyongyang to invade South Korea; had supported the Viethminhs in Indochina; had suppresed, using the Red Army, protests in Poland and East Germany and had smashed the Hungarian Revolt of 1956; had tried at the end of the 40's to convert, by force of arms, Greece into a communist state. By 1960, they had set a foothold in the Americas with the triumph of Castro in Cuba. Maybe that was why. The evil communists were Iosif Stalin, Lavrenti Beria, Leonid Malenkov, Walter Ulbritch, Klement Gottwald et al. Answered By: thgurkha - 2/5/2008

It wasn't too hard to see what horrors were being committed by Stalin's gang in the name of "liberating" the people. Even though idealistic American communists thought that couldn't happen here, they did have to be stopped. Some folks think that McCarthyism was just as bad as communism, but hey, it worked, and swiftly. Answered By: electablegod - 2/5/2008

Well, might be that after that idiot Roosevelt delivered Europe to Stalin on a silver platter, the yanks finally realized that the comunists were very bad people and tried to stop them. About who were the comunists in the USA, that I don't know, but what you say is veeeeeeery similar to what happened in Cuba after the Mariel to those who wanted to leave Cuba, only much worse. In Cuba you could not leave Answered By: physician - 2/5/2008

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What Was The Cause Of The Communism Paranoia Of The 1950s?

What was so "bad" about being associated with being communist back then. People lost jobs, celebrities were black-listed, and it was a general witch-hunt and paranoia going on.

What exactly caused this? Who were the "evil communists'?

Other Career Questions

Popular Questions

Why honesty, hard work and dedication have no place at work?

Is this normal for an interviewer to do this?

How do I get a job with Dodgy work history and no experience?

What do you say when they ask what you want to be paid? ?

I have applied for over 100 jobs I have gotten no calls for a job interview, what can i do?

What to wear to a job interview VS a career fair?

How can l find a job in the pharmacitical field as a sales and marketing manager,in south africa?

What is NOC Engineer ?. What are his responcibilites ?

Debenhams job application/interview help?

What questions should I ask at a job interview for a healthcare recruiter position?

I am a student who is working at Deloitte during this summer. What is the dress code during the summer?

I want to become an events/party planner. Does anyone know how I would begin my own business in this field?

I want to become an Escrow Officer, does anyone know how to go about it? What kind of training will I need?

Job description of supply and logistics manager?

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What Was The Cause Of The Communism Paranoia Of The 1950s?

What was so "bad" about being associated with being communist back then. People lost jobs, celebrities were black-listed, and it was a general witch-hunt and paranoia going on. What exactly caused this? Who were the "evil communists'?

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What was so "bad" about being associated with being communist back then. People lost jobs, celebrities were black-listed, and it was a general witch-hunt and paranoia going on.

What exactly caused this? Who were the "evil communists'?