The Red Scare

1. Set Focus
Pose this essential question: How can people use fear to gain power?

2. List Vocabulary
Share some of the challenging vocabulary words in the article (see below). Encourage students to use context to infer meanings as they read.

• summoned (p. 18)
• calculating (p. 19)
• espionage (p. 19)
• unwarranted (p. 19)
• vitriolic (p. 20)
• dissent (p. 21)

3. Engage
Before students turn to the article, ask them what they think the term “the Red Scare” means? To promote discussion, if needed, explain that the color historically has been closely associated with Communism.

4. Read and Discuss
Ask students to read the Upfront article about the Red Scare. Review why the article is a secondary source. (It was written by someone who didn’t personally experience or witness the events.) Then pose these critical-thinking questions:

• What was the Red Scare? Why did the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) investigate Hollywood in relation to the Red Scare? (The Red Scare was a fear in America that the Soviet Union was becoming more powerful and spreading Communism around the world. HUAC claimed that it was investigating Hollywood because Communist propaganda had crept into movies. But many historians believe that members of the committee were more interested in the press coverage they would get by focusing on Hollywood figures.)

•  Why did the Hollywood Ten refuse to answer questions from members of HUAC at the hearings? What consequences did they suffer? (They said that the Constitution guaranteed them freedom of speech, assembly, and association that they did not need to defend before a government committee. They were convicted of contempt of Congress, given jail sentences, and placed on a blacklist that banned them from working in film or TV for years. To continue working, some of them used a pseudonym or had colleagues take credit for their work.)

• How did Joe McCarthy use the Red Scare for his own gain? What led to his downfall? (McCarthy was a little-known senator who became a national figure by claiming he had a list of Communists and spies in the State Department. His downfall began after respected journalist Edward R. Murrow broadcast a documentary about his tactics and after a prominent witness asked McCarthy, “Have you no sense of decency, sir?”)

• Do you think something like the Red Scare could happen again? Explain. (Responses will vary, but students should support their ideas with text evidence and their own understanding of the world. Students may note that the examples the author includes at the end of the article about other moments in history when Americans faced questions of loyalty suggest that it could happen again.)

5. Use the Primary Sources
Project, distribute, or assign in Google Classroom the PDF ‘Declaration of Conscience,’ which features excerpts from the speech Senator Margaret Chase Smith gave on June 1, 1950, denouncing McCarthy and his smear tactics. Discuss what makes the speech a primary source. (It provides firsthand evidence concerning the topic.) Have students read the excerpts and answer the questions below (which appear on the PDF without answers).

• How would you describe the tone and purpose of these excerpts from Smith’s speech? (The tone can be described as formal, critical, and forceful. The purpose is to condemn McCarthyism and to remind and encourage members of Congress to fulfill their duties to uphold and defend the Constitution.)

• What are Smith’s central ideas about Americanism and what it should mean versus how people are using it? (Smith states that the basic principles of Americanism include the rights to criticize, hold unpopular beliefs, protest, and have independent thought and free speech, and that no one should be punished for exercising these rights. However, she says, some [McCarthy and his supporters] are in fact, doing exactly that—politically smearing people as “Communists” or “Fascists” simply for speaking their minds, thus creating a fear of speaking openly—in the name of defending America.)

• Toward the end of the excerpts, what points does Smith make about how the Senate has been used? (Smith says the Senate has been turned into a place that breeds suspicion and confusion for political gain. She says it is being used as a platform for vilifying others for political gain, at the cost of individual reputations and national unity. She points out the hypocrisy of making sensationalistic accusations while “hiding behind the cloak of congressional immunity.”)

• Smith does not name McCarthy or McCarthyism in her speech. How would people listening to the speech recognize who and what she was denouncing? (Smith’s references to “trial by accusation,” shouting “the loudest,” ruining people’s reputations, and smearing people as Communists or Fascists likely would have clearly signaled to her fellow members of Congress, as well as the American public, who and what she was denouncing.)

• Based on the Upfront article and the excerpts from Smith’s speech, why do you think that others who disagreed with McCarthy’s claims and tactics were afraid to speak up? (Responses will vary, but students should support their ideas with evidence from both texts.)

6. Writing Prompt
Write a script for a short movie about the Red Scare. Your movie can focus on the HUAC hearings, Lucille Ball, McCarthy’s West Virginia speech, Edward R. Murrow’s broadcast, or something else.

7. Quiz
Use the quiz to assess comprehension.

8. Classroom Debate
Research the Rosenbergs, and then take a stand: Is it likely that Ethel was innocent?

9. Movie Meanings
Have students watch Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), research the original ending that was not used, and then debate whether they see the film as anti-Communism or anti-McCarthyism.