Atomic blast a Nevada Test Site, April 15, 1955
Courtesy of the National Atomic Museum

The power of this atomic bomb equaled 22,000 tons of TNT. The United States and Soviet Union began an arms race after the Soviet Union detonated its first nuclear bomb in 1949. Many Americans feared a nuclear war.


The political system of Soviet Communism predicted the violent overthrow of capitalism by a working class revolution. After World War II, Joseph Stalin's Communist expansion in Europe and Asia helped trigger a Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States. Many Americans believed Soviet Communism threatened U.S. democracy. That threat became more alarming after 1949 when the Soviet Union successfully tested its own atomic bomb. Americans feared nuclear war.

McCarthy became a symbol of the Cold War anti-Communist movement. His "ism," McCarthyism, embodied a fear of and attack on Communism that traced back to 1919. Many government departments and citizen organizations had been looking for Communists in government, labor unions, universities, and the Hollywood movie industry before McCarthy's crusade. Today, McCarthyism means a wild, unsubstantiated, and irresponsible accusation.

 
 
 

Hundreds of Communists infiltrated government agencies during World War II. Some gave secret information to the Soviet Union. The Communist Party USA assisted the Soviets in organizing and implementing covert activities. But several domestic Communists became informers for the U.S. government in the late 1940s. These informers severely weakened the Communist spy network inside America before McCarthy started his anti-Communist crusade.

McCarthy named a few federal employees with Communist associations. He identified one espionage agent--Mary Jane Keeney, a United Nations employee, in 1950. McCarthy made little distinction between a Communist, former Communist, or Communist spy. He also claimed his liberal Democratic rivals posed a danger to democracy. McCarthy said that they consciously allied with Communists in opposing him.

 

  • American conspirators provided information which helped the Soviets develop atomic weaponry. The Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb in 1949.

  • The Communist Party USA was organized in 1919, two years after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. The American Communist Party faithfully followed Soviet leadership. Membership reached an estimated 100,000 at its height in the late 1930s.

  • Many Americans joined the Communist Party or organizations associated with the Communist Party during the Great Depression as a means to fight for labor and minority rights. Many left the Party after 1939 because of its domination by the Soviet Union.

  • American courts put two citizens to death for espionage--Julius and Ethel Rosenberg--during the Cold War. As many as 12,000 people lost their jobs because of alleged Communist associations.
 
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