The Gunpowder Plot

Postwar anticommunism in the United States of America had roots in local politics, national issues, and especially external affairs. The history of socialism and the first “Red Scare” which swept the nation gave common American citizens a latent distaste for revolutionary ideas. At the time, with the use of many information-controlling political machines during World War II and the over-encouragement of patriotism by the government, the common citizen had a mild xenophobia for political ideas, flashes of fiery hatred for Nazism and the “soulless, Godless” atheistic façade of Eastern European politics raising to the public mind.

The rising population of immigrant workers, more often stoic than gregarious, gave the average American an odd strike of nativism, influencing their thoughts on any ideas put out by the immigrants. Though the populace mainly garnered entertainment and relief from stress from the supposed “Communist” films of Hollywood, it was the war-time, patriotic films that stuck in their minds, fueling their enthusiasm to go against anything un-American. Similarly, the worry of the earlier Red Scare still hung in the mind of many politicians, influencing them further into advocating McCarthyism and Anticommunism (of course, synonymous words) and steering the powder keg of America’s xenophobic mindset straight towards a modern-day witch hunt. The rich elite, being few by the very definition but well-educated and equipped with the ability to reason about communism, were marked (as is seen by J. Edgar Hoover’s sentiments on Hollywood) as anti-American and communist. Furthermore, the intellectual elite were persecuted, for most artistic endeavors were considered “progressive”, a term that also connoting everything “evil” in the 1940-1950 American world.

With all of these sources of anti-communist sentiment, one can easily understand the effective power of McCarthyism and the second Red Scare upon America. Since the base appeal seemed to be that of patriotism and “stay the course” intent, with the rocky ride of the two World Wars and the depression, America was due for a stable, easy idea of “normal”. The ideals of Cold War-era America fit right in with this need, allowing for the cleansing of problematic radical thought in a less-than-constitutional manner that would be remembered for decades.

Due to the USSR’s threatening America’s top-spot as a super power in both economy and military, most would claim the main enemy was over seas. However, the insidious power of the fear of communism was to the effect that at the time, the only enemy most Americans could see was next door. The roots in external and local affair that Anticommunism came from created yet another source for fear: immediate change.