Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer . During the
Scare, the Lusk Committee investigated those suspected of
sedition, and Many laws were passed in the US that sanctioned the
firings of Communists. First came the Hatch Act of 1939 which
was sponsored by Carl Hatch of New Mexico . This law attempted
to drive Communism out of public work places. The Hatch Act
outlawed the hiring of federal workers who advocated the
"overthrow of our Constitutional form of government". This phrase
was specifically directed at the Communist Party . Later in the
spring of 1941 another anti-communist law, Public Law 135 , was
passed. This law sanctioned the investigation of any federal worker
suspected of being communist and the firing of any communist
worker.[71]
Following World War II and the rise of the Soviet Union, many anti-
communists in the United States feared that Communism would
triumph throughout the entire world and eventually be a direct threat
to the US government. This fear led to the domino The first major
manifestation of anti-communism in the United States occurred in
1919 and 1920, during the First Red Scare , led by theory , which
stated that a Communist takeover in any nation could not be
tolerated because it would lead to a chain reaction that would result
in worldwide Communism. There were fears that powerful
Communist states such as the Soviet Union and the People's
Republic of China were using their power to forcibly assimilate
other countries into Communist rule. The Soviet Union's expansion
into central Europe after World War II was seen as evidence of
this. The US policy of halting further Communist expansion came to
be known as containment . This period, up to 1957, is known as the
The deepening of the Cold War in the 1950s saw a dramatic
increase in anti-communism in the United States, including the anti-
communist campaign known as McCarthyism . Thousands of
Americans, such as the filmmaker Charlie Chaplin , were accused
of being Communists or sympathizers, and many became the
subject of aggressive investigations by government committees
such as the House Committee on Un-American Activities . As a
result of sometimes vastly exaggerated accusations, many of the
accused lost their jobs and became blacklisted , although most of
these verdicts were later overturned. This was also the period of
the McCarran Internal Security Act and the Julius and Ethel
Rosenberg trial. After the collapse of the Soviet Union many
records were made public that in fact verified that many of those
thought to be falsely accused for political purposes were in fact
Communist spies or sympathizers (see Venona Project ).
During the 1980s, the Ronald Reagan administration pursued an
aggressive policy against the Soviet Union and its allies by building
up weapons programs, including the Strategic Defense Initiative
The Reagan Doctrine was implemented to reduce the influence
of the Soviet Union worldwide by providing aid to anti-Soviet
resistance movements, including the Contras in Nicaragua and the
Mujahideens in Afghanistan . The accidental downing of Korean Air
Lines Flight 007 near Moneron Island by the Soviets on Sept. 1
, 1983 contributed to the anti-communism propaganda of the 1980s
. KAL 007 had been carrying 269 people, including a sitting U.S
. Congressman, Larry McDonald .
Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher
The US government usually argued its anti-communist policies by
citing the human rights record of communist states, most notably
the Soviet Union during the Joseph Stalin era, Maoist China, North
Korea , and the Pol Pot -led Khmer Rouge government and the pro
-Hanoi People's Republic of Kampuchea in Cambodia . Those
states killed millions of their own people and continued to suppress
civil liberties of the surviving population. During the 1980s, the
Kirkpatrick Doctrine was particularly influential in American politics;
it advocated US support of anti-communist governments around the
world, including authoritarian regimes.
Anti-communism became significantly muted after the fall of the
Soviet Union and Eastern bloc Communist regimes in Europe
between 1989 and 1991; the fear of a worldwide Communist
takeover was no longer a serious concern. Remnants of anti-
communism remain, however, in US foreign policy toward Cu
ba and North Korea . In the case of Cuba, the US continues to
maintain economic sanctions against the country. Tensions with
North Korea have heightened as the result of reports that it is
stockpiling nuclear weapons , and the assertion that it is willing
sell its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technology togroup
willing to pay a high enough price. Much of the US forepolicy
establishment does not regard the People's Republic of China as
communist in any meaningful sense.[citation needed ] Nevertheless
, there is some hostility toward the Chinese government, particularly
among conservative Congressional Republicans. For example,
national security issues were raised during Chinese state-owned
CNOOC Ltd.'s takeover bid for Unocal , an American energy firm.