Internal political developments (red scare)
- Created by: jaaaz_v
- Created on: 28-05-15 17:56
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- Internal Political Developments
- The Federal Bureau of Investigation
- FBI
- Had a strongly anti-communist director- J Edgar Hoover
- Federal Employee Loyalty Programwas set up in 1947 by Hoover
- Allowed him to investigate government employees to see if they were current or former members of communist parties
- Around 3 million were investigated
- 212 members of staff were identified as "security risks"/communist sympathisers
- Were forced out of their jobs
- House Un-American Activities Committee
- HUAC
- Had the right to investigate anyone suspected of doing anything "un-American"
- Communists basically
- FBI gained evidence of prominent Hollywood writers, producers, directors etc. being part of the communist party
- HUAC called on them to be questioned by the committee
- Those questioned were known as the Hollywood 10
- Refused to answer any questions
- Said the HUAC didn't have the right to ask them questions
- Each jailed for one year for contempt in court
- Hollywood studios blacklisted the 10
- Was not illegal to be a communist in a free democratic country like the USA
- The Hiss Case
- A man called Whittaker Chambers faced the HUAC
- He admitted to having been a comunist
- Chambers claimed that Alger Hiss had been a member of the communist group
- Hiss was a high ranking member of the US state department
- Accused Chambers of lying and the case was dissmissed
- Richard Nixon carried on investigating
- Found evidence that Hiss knew Chambers
- Found debatable evidence that he passed info to the USSR during the war
- Alger Hiss spent 5 years in prison and was convicted of purjury
- Still not known if he was guilty or not
- A man called Whittaker Chambers faced the HUAC
- The Rosenbergs
- Soviet union developed their atomic bomb much sooner than expected
- USA were sure it would have taken them four more years
- Government strongly felt that spies had shared their atomic secrets
- There were suspicions against Julius Rosenburg and his wife Ethel
- Denied all charges aginst them on their first trial
- Still found guilty and sentenced to death
- Executed in 1953
- The evidence against the Rosenbergs was flimsy
- Historians today believe that the couple were guilty
- Now know of coded telegrams between the Rosenbergs and Soviet agents
- Sentenced to death with uncertain evidence
- Soviet union developed their atomic bomb much sooner than expected
- The McCarran Act
- Hiss and Rosenberg cases lead to the Internal Security Act
- Known as the McCarran Act- it was pushed by Senator McCarran
- President opposed to the act
- Thought it would make a mockery of the USA's bill of rights
- Congress voted 80% in favour
- All communist groups had to be registered
- Including finger printing members
- No communist could carry a US passport
- Detention camps were set up for emergency situations
- No communist could carry a US passport
- Including finger printing members
- Hiss and Rosenberg cases lead to the Internal Security Act
- The Federal Bureau of Investigation
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