Communism In America

            During the depression, thousands of American citizens joined the communist party for economic answers. By the end of World War II, most had withdrawn, though some were still communist party members. The cold war had affected the United States because the fear of communist conspiracy took over the nation and many citizens didn't want to go back to war.
             During the terms of both Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower, concern over the growing appeal of communism around the world led to civil rights violations at home. The fear of conspiracy to overthrow the government led to an attack that persecuted the people who had ties to the communist party and people who had left sided views. Truman launched a loyalty program that had the FBI check all government officials to make sure they had no ties to the communist party or anything else that seemed suspicious (D1). His main reason for doing this was to keep communism out of the government. Congress also launched a new program called the House of Un-American Activities Committee. This committee was supposed to prevent and stop communist acts and acts against Americans. But this committee thought it had free range to do as they pleased because they were looking for communists (D2). This committee also charged that Roosevelt's and Truman's administrations had been infested with communists. The Cold War also frightened Americans to the point that they changed their way of life. As the threat of a nuclear war was in place, some built bomb shelters to protect themselves when the war started (D5). People started to fear and hate everyone that was charged with having communistic ties. Two people, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, were charged with espionage. They were sentenced to death but some people protested their killings. Many people were happy that they were being killed and wanted all communists to have the same fate. This one event shows how the nation was split on deciding the fate of convicted communists (D4).