The term Red Scare refers to two periods in American History when there were fears of a communist take over of the country. The idea of a Red Scare derives from the Russian Civil War that occurred after the Russian Revolution of 1917, when the communist “Reds” fought against the counter-revolutionary “Whites”. After the communist victory, there was a fear that communist revolutions could spread across Europe and to North American. Hence, the first Red Scare.
The first Red Scare occurred between 1917 and 1921. It resulted in the passage of the Sedition Act of 1918 which led to the deportation of thousands of foreigners for their speech and membership in “radical” groups, despite there usually being no evidence of any intentions to undermine or overthrow the government. Many were deported for simply voicing their opposition to World War I and the profiteering that went with it.
The Palmer raids were launched by the Justice Department’s newly created Bureau of Investigation (the future FBI) led by J. Edgar Hoover between 1919 and 1921. The raids targeted immigrants who were suspected of being communist sympathizers. The raids targeted entire organizations, often labor unions and immigrant social clubs. Rather than focusing on particular individuals within the groups, mass arrests were conducted against all those present. Many of the raids were conducted without either arrest or search warrants. The raids resulted in 10,000 arrests, 3,500 detentions, and 556 resident aliens being deported. The detention centers were usually overcrowded and unsanitary, with individuals being held for an extended periods of time without any charges being filed against them. As a result, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was formed to provide legal representation for many of those who were detained.
Public opinion began to turn against the raids when Attorney General Mitchell Palmer declared that a left-wing revolution to overthrow the government would begin on May 1, 1920 (the International Worker’s Day). The revolution never materialized. The press, government officials, and the public at large gradually became critics of Palmer, who lost credibility. The first Red Scare ended.
The second Red Scare occurred in the aftermath of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War and is much better known than the first. It would run from 1947 to 1957. The leader of the second Red Scare was Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. His policies became known as McCarthyism. There were fears that the Soviet Union was embarking on a program to infiltrate American society and organizations to undermine American democracy and replace it with a communist state. McCarthy was focused on identifying who these infiltrators were and to discredit and dispose of them. As the chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, McCarthy began investigating suspected communists. Two of his chief allies in the investigations were the Committee’s Chief Counsel, Roy Cohn, and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.
The institutions and groups targeted by McCarthy as having been infiltrated by communists included:
- the State Department
- the Central Intelligence Agency
- the United States Army
- the Press
- Universities
- Labor Unions
- Foreigners
- the Democratic Party
- the American Civil Liberties Union
- the Entertainment Industry (the movie and music industries)
- Political Opponents
McCarthy’s undoing began when he and Cohn were accused by the United States Army of pressuring them to give favorable treatment to David Schine, a former aide to McCarthy and a friend of Cohn’s. The result was the Army-McCarthy hearings. While McCarthy was cleared of any wrong-doing, Cohn was found to have tried to exert influence. More importantly, the hearings were nationally televised. McCarthy’s bulling, tyrannical, dishonest manner turned the American public against him. Gradually, public officials and journalists felt safer in attacking him and the second Red Scare came to an end.
Have we now entered a period of a third Red Scare?
The familiarities between Joseph McCarthy and Donald Trump are hard to ignore. Their targets are eerily similar:
- The Deep State
- Military Leaders
- the Press
- the Education System
- Immigrants
- the Democratic Party
- Political Opponents
In targeting immigrants, Trump has housed them in detention centers and sought to deport them. Trump has created an image of left-wing agitators, like Antifa, as infiltrating American society, fomenting rebellion, and trying to overthrow the government. He uses the same bullying, tyrannical, dishonest approach used by McCarthy. Not surprisingly, Roy Cohn was Trump’s personal lawyer for many years. As a result, we are enduring a period that mirrors what happened during the Red Scares; periods when our democratic institutions and our freedoms came under attack by arousing the fears of the American people.
However, there is one major difference between today’s Trumpism and yesterday’s McCarthyism. While McCarthy viewed the Soviet Union as an adversary, Trump embraces Russia as a friend. He regularly praises Vladimir Putin and his leadership. Why is this so?
Perhaps the Russians have something on Trump. Perhaps Trump has a natural affinity for a strongman. Also, it is no longer true that Russia is a left-wing bastion of communism. Instead, it is more accurate today to view Russia as a typical right-wing, nationalistic, militaristic, fascist state led by a military strongman/dictator. They are no longer Reds.
So maybe the term Red Scare doesn’t apply today. Or maybe it does and it just needs to be re-defined. Today, it doesn’t have so much to do with communist conspiracies against us, but instead, the fears we should have concerning the color of the electoral map on election day.
