The Red Scare was an irrational fear of communism that gripped America after World War II ended in 1945. In 1947, the Hollywood Ten—screenwriters, directors, and producers—spent time in prison and were blacklisted by the film studios. The Red Scare became so farcical that the Cincinnati Reds baseball team actually changed their name to the "Redlegs" for a five-year period in the fifties. The paranoia in the film and sports industries was not an aberration; fear of communism gripped all segments of the American populace during this period.
Leo Cherne's 1947 article in Look was little more than propaganda. This is surprising because Cherne was a humanitarian for most of his career. The fact that a well-regarded man wrote such a piece shows that even many prominent people succumbed to illogical fears.
Joseph McCarthy (1908–1957) was a quintessential scaremonger. On February 9, 1950, McCarthy made his famous speech in Wheeling, West Virginia. He said,
I have here in my hand a list of 205 . . . a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department.
The speech got headlines all over the nation and made McCarthy a national figure. Actually, he never had a list: it was an egregious lie. He did not produce any evidence to support his charges. Many careers—like those of the Hollywood Ten—were ruined in a subsequent witch hunt. McCarthy even said the US Army was "soft" on communism. Finally, he lost influence and died relatively early from the effects of alcoholism.
Cherne and McCarthy encouraged Americans to denounce each other. Their fearmongering fanned the flames of distrust and suspicion. Their impact on the nation was pernicious.
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