07.+The+Cold+War+at+Home

 Fearing the communism would spread all around the world, many Americans believed that there was a good reason to be concerned about security of the US due to the Soviet Union's domination of Eastern Europe and Communism taking over China

__//Factors that contributed to a growing suspicion of Communist influence are://__  - As things worsen, strongly anti-Communist Republicans began to accuse the Truman administration of being soft on communism. ---
 * 1) During WW2 //about 80,000// Americans claimed membership in the Communist Party. Some believed that they were loyal to the Soviet Union.
 * 2) //In 1945,// federal officials discovered that two State Dept. workers and one naval officer had stolen classified documents and passed them to a pro-Communist magazine
 * 3) Also //in 1945//, a clerk at the Soviet embassy on //Ottawa, Canada,// defected to the West, bringing documents showing that a spy had been giving the Soviet Union secret info about the atomic bomb

**March 1947**, President Truman issued an executive order setting up the Federal Employees Loyalty and Security Program, which included the Loyalty Review Board. //** Purpose**// = to investigate government employees and to dismiss those who were found to be disloyal to the U.S. govt. //**--- Result**// = Many employees were found disloyal and under suspicion with no "real" proof. Mainly because other people would suspect that they were suspicious of Communist ideas.

**(__HUAC) The House Committee on UN-American Activities__** - investigated on possible Communist influence. They developed from a congressional committee created to search out disloyalty before WW2. HUAC became more known when they started to investigate Communist influence in the movie industry.**** //**Why?**// - When the US was allies w/ the Soviet Union during WW2, Hollywood studios had produced several pro-Soviet films. After 1945 when alliance during wartime decreased, some argued that such films proved that subversives were spreading Soviet propaganda, and the HUAC wanted to get rid of Hollywood suspected Communist influences.

**Hollywood Ten**- are ten men witnesses who decided not to cooperate with the committee (HUAC), because they believed that the hearings were unconstitutional. //**-- Result**// = They were imprisoned.

**__Blacklist__** - a list of people whom they effect condemned for allegedly having a Communist background.

**__The McCarran Act__ - 1950**, Truman's Loyalty Review Board passed this bill, which made it unlawful to plan any action that might lead to the establishment of a totalitarian dictatorship in the US.

**__Spy Cases__**

__//**Alger Hiss**//__ - was accused by //Whittaker Chambers//, a former spy, //in 1948//, for spying for the Soviet Union. Whittaker's proof was his produced microfilm of govt documents that he claimed had been typed on Hiss's typewriter. Years passed, but a jury convicted him of perjury for lying about passing the documents, and sent Hiss to jail. Then, //Richard Nixon// gained popularity for assisting the charges against Hiss, and 4 years later he was elected vice president of the US.

**__//Ethal and Julius Rosenberg//__** - were minor activist in the American Communist Party, due to the implications in the Fuchs case. Klaus Fuchs was held for giving the Soviet union info about America's atomic bomb (he was a scientist), which could of enabled the Soviet Union to develop their own atomic bomb earlier than the US. The Rosenbergs denied the charges and pleaded the 5th Amendment, choosing not to be guilty of being Communists. Result = they were found guilty and sentenced a death penalty (buzzer chair..zZapp!)