Editing Red Scare (section)

===Internal causes of the anti-communist fear===
The events of the late 1940s, the early 1950s—the trial of [[Ethel and Julius Rosenberg]] (1953), the [[Whittaker Chambers#Hiss case|trial]] of [[Alger Hiss]], the [[Iron Curtain]] (1945–1991) around [[Eastern Europe]], and the Soviet Union's first [[Nuclear testing|nuclear weapon test]] in 1949 ([[RDS-1]])—surprised the American public, influencing popular opinion about U.S. [[national security]], which, in turn, was connected to the fear that the Soviet Union would drop nuclear bombs on the United States, and fear of the [[CPUSA|Communist Party of the United States of America]] (CPUSA).

In Canada, the 1946 [[Kellock–Taschereau Commission]] investigated espionage after top-secret documents concerning [[RDX]], [[radar]] and other weapons were handed over to the Soviets by a domestic spy-ring.<ref>Canada. The report of the Royal Commission appointed under Order in Council P. C. 411 of February 5, 1946 to investigate the facts relating to and the circumstances surrounding the communication, by public officials and other persons in positions of trust, of secret and confidential information to agents of a foreign power, June 27, 1946. Ottawa: E. Cloutier, Printer to the King.{{verify source|date=May 2011}}</ref>

At the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]], former [[Communist Party USA|CPUSA]] members and [[NKVD]] spies, [[Elizabeth Bentley]] and [[Whittaker Chambers]], testified that Soviet [[espionage|spies]] and communist sympathizers had penetrated the U.S. government before, during and after World War II. Other U.S. citizen spies confessed to their acts of espionage in situations where the statute of limitations on prosecuting them had run out. In 1949, anti-communist fear, and fear of American traitors, was aggravated by the [[Communist Party of China|Chinese Communists]] winning the [[Chinese Civil War]] against the Western-sponsored [[Kuomintang]], their founding of the [[History of the People's Republic of China (1949–1976)|Communist China]], and later [[Korean War#China intervenes (October–December 1950)|China intervenes (October–December 1950)]] in the [[Korean War]] (1950–1953) against U.S. ally [[First Republic of South Korea|South Korea]].

A few of the events during the Red Scare were also due to a power struggle between director of [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] [[J. Edgar Hoover]] and the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]. Hoover had instigated and aided some of the investigations of members of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] with "leftist" history, like [[Cord Meyer]].<ref>[https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKmockingbird.htm Mocking Bird] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060619050903/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKmockingbird.htm |date=2006-06-19 }}, John Simkin, Spartacus Schoolnet</ref> This conflict could also be traced back to the conflict between [[Herbert Hoover|Hoover]] and [[William J. Donovan]], going back to the first Red Scare, but especially during World War II. Donovan ran the [[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]] (CIA's predecessor). They had differing opinions on the nature of the alliance with the Soviet Union, conflicts over jurisdiction, conflicts of personality, the OSS hiring of communists and criminals as agents, etc.<ref>See for example ''[[Wedge: The Secret War between the FBI and CIA]]'', by Mark Riebling</ref>

Historian Richard Powers distinguishes two main forms of anti-communism during the period, [[Cold War liberal|liberal anti-communism]] and countersubversive anti-communism. The countersubversives, he argues, derived from a pre-WWII isolationist tradition on the right. Liberal anti-communists believed that political debate was enough to show Communists as disloyal and irrelevant, while countersubversive anticommunists believed that Communists had to be exposed and punished.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book|last=Powers|first=Richard Gid|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/39245533|title=Not without honor : the history of American anticommunism|date=1998|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=0-300-07470-0|location=New Haven|pages=214, 225|oclc=39245533}}</ref> At times, countersubversive anticommunists accused liberals of being "equally destructive" as Communists due to an alleged lack of religious values or supposed "red web" infiltration into the [[New Deal]].<ref name=":02" />

Much evidence for [[Soviet espionage in the United States|Soviet espionage]] existed, according to Democratic Senator and historian [[Daniel Moynihan]], with the [[Venona project]] consisting of "overwhelming proof of the activities of Soviet spy networks in America, complete with names, dates, places, and deeds." However, Moynihan argued that because sources like the Venona project were kept secret for so long, "ignorant armies clashed by night".  With McCarthy advocating an extremist view, the discussion of communist subversion was made into a civil rights issue instead of a counterintelligence one.<ref name=":3">{{cite book|last=Moynihan|first=Daniel Patrick|url=https://archive.org/details/secrecyamericane00moyn|title=Secrecy: The American Experience|publisher=Yale University Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0-300-08079-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/secrecyamericane00moyn/page/16 15-16]|url-access=registration}}</ref> This [[Historiography|historiographical]] perspective is shared by historians [[John Earl Haynes]]<ref name=":4">{{cite web|last=Haynes|first=John Earl|date=February 2000|title=Exchange with Arthur Herman and Venona book talk|url=http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page58.html|website=JohnEarlHaynes.org|accessdate=11 July 2007|archive-date=24 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224175005/http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page58.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and Robert Louis Benson.<ref name="benson">{{Cite book|last1=Benson|first1=Robert Louis|last2=Warner|first2=Michael|title=Venona Soviet Espionage and the American Response 1939–1957|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c8NIAQAAIAAJ|access-date=2021-09-17|year=1996|page=xxxiii|publisher=National Security Agency|archive-date=2022-10-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221026164505/https://books.google.com/books?id=c8NIAQAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> While [[Harry S. Truman|President Truman]] formulated the [[Truman Doctrine]] against Soviet expansion, it is possible he was not fully informed of the Venona intercepts, leaving him unaware of the domestic extent of espionage, according to Moynihan and Benson.<ref name="trumanfas">{{Cite web|title=Did Truman Know about Venona?|url=https://fas.org/irp/eprint/truman-venona.html|access-date=2021-06-12|website=fas.org|archive-date=2021-07-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210730034019/https://fas.org/irp/eprint/truman-venona.html|url-status=live}}</ref>