Communism + the USA

Russia’s 1917 Communist revolution

  • sparked fears of Communism

1920s Red Scare

  • increased immigration had Americans paranoid of Communists infiltrating all of American society

  • Media sensationalised the ‘threat’ of Communism to American life

1947’s Truman Doctrine

  • Post-WW2, US abandoned Isolationism for Containment after the Long Telegram reached Truman

1945-48 USSR’s satellite states

  • USSR created satellite states in Eastern Europe after 1945

  • fear of USSR’s Communist influence

1949 China goes Communist under Mao

  • fear of Communism’s spread

  • appears as though all of Asia will end up Communist

Domino Theory

  • if one country falls to Communism, surrounding countries would follow

  • if Asia were to fall, so would Europe and the USA

1950s McCarthyism

  • ex-soldier and Republican who held hearings to ‘expose Communists in the US government.’

  • Government turned against him in 1954 but his actions heightened public fears around Communism

All led to:

1950-53 → Korea

1959-62 → Cuba

1955-73 → Vietnam