Overview of The First Red Scare

Early in the 20th century, Americans feared and opposed the principle of Bolshevik. Today, few Americans know what "red panic" is. It goes without saying that you fear these ideas. However, in the United States many basic Bolshevik ideas are still vibrant. American citizens accepted and even believed many principles related to the Bolshevik Revolution. Famous sectors, loss of freedom of speech, loss of privacy, redistribution of income in the form of very high tax rates etc.

A red panic took place twice in American history. The first red panic (1919-1921) was caused by Americans fearing that the Russian Bolshevik Revolution will spread to the United States. The second red panic continued with domestic and foreign attention events such as the Rosenberg trial, the Communist Party's victory in the Chinese civil war, the creation of the "iron curtain", the emergence of the Soviet nuclear weapons capability, the Korean war and so on. Government officials and citizens are afraid of nuclear war with the Soviet Union and the United States is nervous about the use of Soviet spies in the government. Because many Soviet agents and sympathizers have infiltrated the United States government during World War II, their fears are unfounded.

When comparing the American "red panic" of the 1950s with the Salem Witch trial done in the United States at the end of the 17th century, some of the similarities are obvious. Both of these things create hysteria by evoking people's irrational fears. "Red Panic" is the fear of Communism in the 1950s. This is actually the second "red panic". The first thing that happened was the reference to the fear of what the Bolshevik Revolution takes place in America. The second "red panic" is also known as "McCarthy" for its most famous supporter, Senator Joseph McCarthy. Many people were concerned about communism after the Second World War. Then, things like Soviet Spy, Berlin Blockade, Iron Curtain, and Chinese Cultural Revolution joined this fear.