Keywords: The USA; Mcarthyism and the Red Scare

Communism is a political theory which put forward the idea of state ownership of industry and agriculture. 

Bolsheviks was a political group led by Lenin, they believed in Communism. 

The USSR/Soviet Union was the name given to Russia after the Bolshevik revolution. 

Superpowers is the name given to the USA and USSR after WW2 as they were both so powerful in both miltary and economic terms in comparison with the rest of the world.

The Red Scare was the name given to the fear of communism in the USA.

This was a program to investigate government employees and to dismiss those who were found to be disloyal to the US government. 

The Hollywood Ten was a group of people in the film industry who were jailed for refusing to answer congressional questions regarding Communist influence in Hollywood.

HUAC was a shortened name for the House of UnAmerican Activties Comittee who accused people of being communists and 'blacklisted' them. 

This act required all communist organisations to register with the government and to provide lists of members.

Paul Robeson was a African American concert singer whose passport was revoked and was blacklisted from the stage,screen,radio and television under the McCarran Act of the Red Scare of the 1950s due to his public criticisim of American racist tendencies. 

Alger Hiss was a U.S State Department official involved in the establishment of the United Nations. He was accused of being a Soviet spy in 1948 and convicted of per jury in connection with this charge in 1950.

The Rosenbergs were American communists who were executed after having been found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage. The charges were in relation to the passing of information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. Theirs was the first execution of civilians for espionage in United States history.

Blacklist means to be put on a blacklist so as to banish or cause to be boycotted.

Subversive means intended to undermine or overthrow; one who advocates or attempts to undermine a political system. 

Joseph McCarthy is a Wisconsin senator who calimed to have a list of communists in America's government but had no credible evidence. He took advantage of fears of communism post WW2 so he could become incredibly influential. "McCarthyism" was the fearful accusation of any dissenters of being communists.

McCarthyism became a synonym for public charges of disloyalty without sufficent regard for evidence. 

These were a series of hearings held by the United States Senate's Subcomittee on investigations between April 1954 and June 1954. The hearings were held for the purpose of investigating conflicting accusations between the United States Army and Senator Joesph McCarthy. McCarthy ended up looking like a fool. He had no decency. 

The war left America with lots of fears including Econmics (fear from depression), social/cultural (woman/race/sexuality), foreign policy reversal (did not accept trade with china and korea) and fear of spies (fear of soviets gaining nuclear power).

Pinko was the term used for the Hollywood Ten which meant they were between communism or communist sympathisers (mixtures of red and white).

Since the 1930s Witch Hunt has been in use as a metapho to refer to moral panics in generals (frantic persecution of perceived enemies). This usage is especially associated with the second red scare of the 1950s (the McCarthyist persecution of Communists in the United States.

Espionage was when people spied and gave information about a country to another country, having found out the information and passed it on secretly.