4) The post-war Red Scare was mostly caused by the American people themselves. The panic of the Red Scare first picked up momentum with Truman ??? scaring the hell??? out of Congress during the speech which would become known as the Truman Doctrine. While Truman did have a legitimate point that Greece and Turkey were in danger of becoming Communist nations, the American public tendency to exaggerate and gullibility play the crucial role in what would become known as the Red Scare. The first people to try to start the Red Scare were the Republican Party in an attempt to prove to the public the increase of Soviet power under Democratic rule (Brinkley). This gained momentum when Alger Hiss was convicted of perjury; his conviction showed the American people (falsely) the true power of Communist influence. This led the public to truly believe that Communism was alive and thriving on American soil.
The uproar led to Truman??™s loyalty boards, which caused over 2000 government agents to resign. This revelation truly shocked all Americans. The fact that Communists were inside the government for so long demonstrated the weakness of the Democratic rule. However, none of this would have happened if the public used their senses and saw everything as a scapegoat created by the Republicans.
The man accusing Hiss of being a Communist, Whittaker Chambers, was a former Communist agent (Brinkley). This should have led most Americans to be suspicious of him, but they took everything at face value and accepted everything that was happening without questioning it. Had they pondered this case, they would have realized that the fact that an accusation of that severity coming out during a Democratic majority could have been politically motivated. However, they did not, leading to the Red Scare. McCarthy is supposedly another factor in the creation of the Red Scare. However, before his outrageous accusations, he was just another Senator. Most political figures become prominent ones because they have the public??™s support.
This is the same with McCarthy. The reason he became so powerful is because he had the backbone of the people behind every accusation. Once again, the public took everything at face value and did not realize that some of his alleged ??? Communists??? were the least likely suspects.
One such ??? suspect??? was George Marshall, a war hero in WWII. If the public had asked themselves why an undistinguished Senator would attack a hugely popular figure, they would have realized that it was for pure political gain. Once they realized that, McCarthy would have lost all public support and power. Indeed this was the reason for his downfall. When people saw his true character, they became disgusted with him and realized everything he had said in the past two years was a lie.
One last factor that is considered a reason for the Red Scare is the actions of the CIA abroad. The overthrow of two alleged Communist regimes in Iran and Guatemala certainly seemed like a reason to panic against the might of Communist influence. However, once again the public did not ask themselves why the US was intervening in two completely different nations. If they had, they would have realized that it was for economic gain. The United States??™ government only declared the Guatemalan president a communist after he demanded land from the United Fruit Company. If the public had connected the dots, they would have noticed a suspicious connected between the two events.
The same goes for Iran, with the creation of a friendly shah who was indifferent to American oil companies in the region. The American people would have noticed that both of these overthrows of government were to protect economic investments, not to fight Communist governments. All three of these factors had some motive behind them, but it wasn??™t Communism. The public was too willing to believe that their government had been infiltrated that they threw their full support behind anyone who appeared to be able to fight it.
Unfortunately, that person turned out to be McCarthy, who managed to imprison many people who were the least likely of being spies. Once the public finally realized that everything turned out to be a sham, the anti-Communist fervor toned down as other national matters formed into view.
