The Second Red Scare and Anti-Communist Propaganda

Why communism became a domestic concern

During the Second World War, the USA and the Soviet Union had been allies against Nazi Germany. After 1945, their relationship became a Cold War rivalry. American leaders feared not only Soviet power abroad but also communist influence inside the USA.

The two countries represented competing systems. The USA associated its identity with constitutional government, individual freedoms and capitalism. The Soviet Union claimed to represent communism and operated a one-party state. American officials worried that people loyal to the Soviet Union might infiltrate government, pass on secrets or influence organisations such as trade unions and the film industry.

Two developments intensified these fears in 1949. In August, the Soviet Union tested an atomic bomb, ending the American monopoly on atomic weapons earlier than US intelligence had expected. In October, the communist victory in China meant that the world’s most populous country would be governed by communists. To many Americans, communism appeared to be advancing rapidly.

Some politicians explained these setbacks as the result of betrayal within the USA. This explanation was politically useful: Republicans could accuse Democratic administrations of failing to protect the country. However, a communist victory abroad did not itself prove that American officials were traitors.

Promoting the American way of life

Government responses included persuasion as well as investigation. Anti-communist propaganda portrayed the Soviet Union as tyrannical and hostile to religion and individual freedom. It contrasted this with an idealised picture of American freedom, democracy and prosperity.

The Ad Council, an organisation bringing together advertising and business interests, helped spread these messages. Government and business had overlapping concerns: officials feared communist influence, while business leaders wanted to defend private enterprise against greater regulation and the growing influence of unions.

In 1947, President Truman asked the Ad Council to organise the Freedom Train campaign. Supported financially by major companies, the train travelled across the country carrying original documents, including the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. These documents made American institutions tangible: visitors could connect the nation’s founding documents with the political freedoms the campaign celebrated.

In 1948, the business-led Miracle of America campaign linked political freedom to capitalism and encouraged workers to increase productivity. Its messages appeared on radio and television, in newspapers, on billboards and in pamphlets distributed to workplaces and schools. In its first two years, it used 250 radio and television stations and 7,000 outdoor billboards.

Related business-funded cartoons also promoted free enterprise. Films such as Make Mine Freedom presented government control as a threat to private property and personal freedom. These cartoons were not part of the Ad Council campaign, but promoted similar ideas. Their message was that supporting capitalism meant supporting America; socialism and communism were often blurred together as threats to the American way of life.

Herbert Hoover’s defence of American values

Former president Herbert Hoover contributed to this climate through public arguments defending the American system. In November 1948, his article ‘The Miracle of America’ appeared in Woman’s Home Companion. This article shared the title and patriotic themes of the advertising campaign, but Hoover’s specific contribution was his argument about American values and institutions.

Hoover claimed that American communists wanted to overturn the system and warned that collectivism threatened personal liberty and representative government. He contrasted Americans settling disagreements through elections and legislatures with rule by secret police and prison camps. He also praised American productivity, living standards, education and charitable aid. These comparisons presented the American system as both materially successful and morally superior.

Religion strengthened his message. Hoover associated American freedom with God-given rights, while attacking Marx’s philosophy as hostile to those beliefs. His own account of rising from a modest childhood through education and work reinforced his claim that America offered exceptional opportunity. His role was therefore to encourage confidence in American institutions and portray communism as a threat to the freedoms Americans valued.

These were persuasive claims, not a neutral account of either society. Hoover acknowledged unequal opportunities for African Americans, but then emphasised their supposed material advantages over people elsewhere. This shows how a patriotic message could recognise an American weakness while minimising its significance. The article helps explain how anti-communism appealed through pride in democracy, prosperity and religion as well as through fear of spies.

Loyalty checks and the FBI

The Second Red Scare was a wave of fear about communist infiltration after the war. It was already developing before Senator Joseph McCarthy became prominent in 1950.

In March 1947, Truman introduced the Federal Employee Loyalty Program. It screened more than four million federal employees. Several thousand resigned and a few hundred were dismissed, although almost none were charged with offences. The programme showed how national security concerns could affect employment even without a criminal prosecution.

The FBI, directed by J. Edgar Hoover, gathered information on suspected communists and maintained files on public figures. J. Edgar Hoover was a different person from former president Herbert Hoover. The FBI director supplied material to HUAC and cultivated contacts with journalists and politicians. Investigations and publicity therefore reinforced one another: official suspicions could become public accusations, increasing pressure for further action.

Hollywood: influence, investigation and resistance

Films reached large audiences, so investigators feared that communist writers and directors could insert propaganda into popular entertainment. In October 1947, HUAC began hearings into alleged communist influence in Hollywood. Witnesses were questioned about their political affiliations and asked to name other suspected communists.

Some cooperated. Ronald Reagan alleged that a small communist group had tried to disrupt the Screen Actors Guild. Walt Disney claimed that communists had been involved in a strike at his studio. Their testimony helped give the investigation public credibility, but their allegations should not be treated as proof that every person they accused was a communist agent.

Others resisted. The Hollywood Ten, a group of screenwriters and directors, refused to answer questions, arguing that the First Amendment protected their political freedoms. They were cited for contempt of Congress and imprisoned after their appeals failed. Studios also refused to employ them. Blacklisting subsequently damaged hundreds of careers in film and broadcasting.

Opposition was not confined to those being questioned. Around 80 celebrities, including Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, signed a petition condemning HUAC’s investigation of individual political beliefs. This revealed a central disagreement: supporters saw the hearings as protection against subversion, while opponents saw them as an attack on constitutional freedoms.

Spy cases made the fears more convincing

The Alger Hiss case suggested that suspicion could reach senior government circles. In 1948, former communist courier Whittaker Chambers accused Hiss, a former State Department official, of passing documents to Soviet intelligence during the 1930s. Hiss denied the accusations. Because too much time had elapsed for an espionage prosecution, he was tried for lying under oath and convicted of perjury in January 1950.

The Rosenberg case connected espionage fears directly to atomic security. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted in 1951 of conspiracy to commit espionage involving atomic secrets. They were executed in June 1953, becoming the only American civilians executed for espionage in peacetime.

The case was controversial. Evidence against Julius was substantial and was strengthened by Soviet communications decrypted and released much later. The evidence against Ethel was weaker and depended heavily on her brother’s testimony. He later admitted that he had altered his testimony to protect his own wife. These later revelations help historians evaluate the case, but were not available to Americans judging it in 1951.

How far was the Red Scare justified?

The spy cases showed that Soviet espionage was real. They gave Americans concrete reasons to take security concerns seriously and made claims about infiltration more believable.

However, evidence of particular spies did not prove a vast conspiracy throughout American society. Communist Party membership, past political associations and criticism of government policy were not the same as passing secrets to a foreign power. Loyalty checks and blacklists could punish people without establishing that they had committed a crime.

The Red Scare therefore exposed a tension in the relationship between people and the state. Campaigns celebrated American freedom, while investigations sometimes restricted the freedom to hold unpopular beliefs or keep a job. Security fears, political competition and business interests all helped the movement spread. McCarthy would exploit this existing climate rather than create it.

Why fears grew

• Cold War: fear of Soviet influence, espionage and communist infiltration inside the USA.
• 1949: Soviet atomic test ended the US atomic monopoly; communist victory in China made communism appear to be advancing.
• Claims of internal betrayal also allowed Republicans to attack Democratic administrations.

Persuasion and investigation

• 1947 Freedom Train: Truman-backed campaign displaying the Constitution and Bill of Rights to promote American political freedoms.
• 1948 Miracle of America: business-led Ad Council campaign linking capitalism, productivity and freedom through mass advertising.
• Herbert Hoover: former president; his November 1948 article ‘The Miracle of America’ defended elections, prosperity, opportunity and religious freedom against communism and collectivism.
• March 1947 Loyalty Program: screened over four million federal employees; resignations and dismissals often occurred without criminal charges.
• J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI: gathered information and supplied material to HUAC.

Hollywood and reactions

• October 1947: HUAC investigated alleged communist influence in films and demanded names.
• Reagan and Disney cooperated; the Hollywood Ten refused, were cited for contempt, imprisoned and blacklisted.
• A celebrity petition opposed investigation of political beliefs: security versus civil liberties.

Cases and judgement

• Hiss: accused in 1948; convicted of perjury, January 1950.
• Rosenbergs: convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage in 1951; executed June 1953. Evidence against Ethel was weaker.
• Balance: espionage was real, but particular cases did not establish a nationwide conspiracy. Political association was not the same as spying.
• The Red Scare preceded McCarthy’s rise in 1950.