How the Red Scare Got Started and What It Is.

There were two Red Scares in the US. One of them occurred around the time of WWI (1917-1920) and the other occurred after WWII (1947-1957). Both Red Scares were during a period of time in which there was widespread paranoia in the United States that communists would penetrate and infect the US government. Our project is about the Red Scare that occurred after WWII because this is when McCarthy came into power. There are many reasons why this Red Scare got started. Some of the main reasons include: the execution and conviction of the Rosenbergs, the Soviet Union acquiring an atomic bomb, the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe, and the general spread of communism. The Rosenbergs were a US couple that spied on the US government, and passed atomic bomb secrets over to the Soviet Union. The Iron Curtain was a physical and ideological barrier between the Soviet Union and the rest of Europe. It was made by the communist government of the Soviet Union to keep all information from the outside the Soviet Union from coming in so it could have absolute influence over its people. These were main causes of the Red Scare because they caught the public eye, and caused paranoia that communists might infiltrate or send spies into the US government.