Editing Red Scare (section)

==== Increasing tension ====
{{See also|US Strike wave of 1945–1946}}
In March 1947, President [[Presidency of Harry S. Truman|Harry S. Truman]] signed [[Executive Order 9835]], creating the "[[Executive Order 9835|Federal Employees Loyalty Program]]" establishing political-loyalty review boards who determined the "Americanism" of Federal Government employees, and requiring that all federal employees to take an oath of loyalty to the United States government. It then recommended termination of those who had confessed to spying for the Soviet Union, as well as some suspected of being "Un-American". This led to more than 2,700 dismissals and 12,000 resignations from the years 1947 to 1956.<ref name=":2" /> It also was the template for several state legislatures' loyalty acts, such as California's [[Levering Act]]. The House Committee on Un-American Activities was created during the Truman administration as a response to allegations by Republicans of disloyalty in Truman's administration.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Storrs |first=Landon R. Y. |date=2015-07-02 |title=McCarthyism and the Second Red Scare |url=https://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-6 |journal=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History |language=en |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.6 |isbn=978-0199329175 |access-date=2019-11-01 |archive-date=2018-07-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180703191049/http://americanhistory.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-6 |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[House Un-American Activities Committee|House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC)]] and the committees of Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]] ([[U.S. Republican Party|R.]], [[Wisconsin|Wisc.]]) conducted character investigations of "American communists" (actual and alleged), and their roles in (real and imaginary) espionage, propaganda, and subversion favoring the Soviet Union—in the process revealing the extraordinary breadth of the Soviet spy network in infiltrating the federal government. The process also launched the successful political careers of [[Richard Nixon]] and [[Robert F. Kennedy]],<ref name="NYUhistory">{{Cite web |url=http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/history.html |title=The Hiss Case in History |year=2009 |website=The Hiss Case in Story |publisher=[[Harvard]], [[NYU]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514090830/http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/history.html |archive-date=May 14, 2011 |access-date=2010-07-28}}</ref> as well as that of Joseph McCarthy. The HUAC held a large interest in investigating those in the entertainment industry in Hollywood. They interrogated actors, writers, and producers. The people who cooperated in the investigations got to continue working as they had been, but people who refused to cooperate were [[blacklist]]ed. Critics of the HUAC claim their tactics were an abuse of government power and resulted in a witch hunt that disregarded citizens’ rights and ruined their careers and reputations. Critics claim the internal witch hunt was a use for personal gain to spread influence for government officials by intensifying the fear of Communists infiltrating the country. Supporters, however, believe the actions of the HUAC were justified given the level of threat Communism posed to democracy in the United States.

Senator McCarthy stirred up further fear in the United States of communists infiltrating the country by saying that communist spies were omnipresent, and he was America's only salvation, using this fear to increase his own influence. In 1950 Joseph McCarthy addressed the senate, citing 81 separate cases, and made accusations against suspected communists. Although he provided little or no evidence, this prompted the Senate to call for a full investigation.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |url=http://www.ushistory.org/us/53a.asp |title=McCarthyism [ushistory.org] |website=www.ushistory.org |access-date=2019-10-31 |archive-date=2019-10-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191031232152/http://www.ushistory.org/us/53a.asp |url-status=live }}</ref>

Senator [[Pat McCarran]] ([[Democratic_Party_(United_States)|D.]], [[Nevada|Nev.]]) introduced the [[McCarran Internal Security Act]] of 1950 that was passed by the U.S. Congress and which modified a great deal of law to restrict civil liberties in the name of security. President Truman declared the act a "mockery of the Bill of Rights" and a "long step toward totalitarianism" because it represented a government restriction on the freedom of opinion. He vetoed the act but his veto was overridden by Congress.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/americanprivacy40000lane |url-access=registration |quote=long step toward totalitarianism. |title=American Privacy: The 400-year History of Our Most Contested Right |last=Lane |first=Frederick S. |publisher=Beacon Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-8070-4441-4 |location=Boston |page=[https://archive.org/details/americanprivacy40000lane/page/130 130] |access-date=May 3, 2011}}</ref> Much of the bill eventually was repealed.

The [[Proclamation of the People's Republic of China|formal establishment]] of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and the beginning of the Korean War in 1950 meant that [[Asian Americans]], especially those of [[Chinese Americans|Chinese]] or [[Korean Americans|Korean]] descent, came under increasing suspicion by both American civilians and government officials of being Communist sympathizers. Simultaneously, some American politicians saw the prospect of American-educated Chinese students bringing their knowledge back to "Red China" as an unacceptable threat to American national security, and laws such as the China Aid Act of 1950 and the [[Refugee Relief Act]] of 1953 gave significant assistance to Chinese students who wished to settle in the United States. Despite being naturalized, however, Chinese immigrants continued to face suspicion of their allegiance. The general effect, according to [[University of Wisconsin-Madison]] scholar Qing Liu, was to simultaneously demand that Chinese (and other Asian) students politically support the American government yet avoid engaging directly in politics.<ref name="heqliu">{{cite journal |last1=Liu |first1=Qing |title=To Be an Apolitical Political Scientist: A Chinese Immigrant Scholar and (Geo)politicized American Higher Education |journal=History of Education Quarterly |date=May 2020 |volume=60 |issue=2 |pages=138–141, 144 |doi=10.1017/heq.2020.10|doi-access=free }}</ref>

The Second Red Scare profoundly altered the temper of American society. Its later characterizations may be seen as contributory to works of feared communist espionage, such as the film ''[[My Son John]]'' (1952), about parents' suspicions their son is a spy. Abundant accounts in narrative forms contained themes of the infiltration, subversion, invasion, and destruction of American society by un–American ''thought''. Even a baseball team, the [[Cincinnati Reds]], temporarily renamed themselves the "Cincinnati Redlegs" to avoid the money-losing and career-ruining connotations inherent in being ball-playing "Reds" (communists). In 1954, Congress passed the [[Communist Control Act of 1954]], which prevented members of the communist party in America from holding office in labor unions and other labor organizations.