Why did the US fear Communism so much?

[dmurray14]

hokay,

So I have to write a little paper on why the US feared communism so much in the 50s-80s, but in all honesty I'm not exactly sure I know why. The first thing that comes to my mind is that it was the wealthy that feared it most, obviously because it involved them losing a lot of money and power. Usually, it is the wealthy who are in control, so that would explain all the propoganda against communism. But why, specifically, did the middle class fear it? Because the wealthy told them to do so? What made them listen? How about the poor? Did they fear it just because it's what everyone else feared? I'd be really interested to hear what everyone thinks about this, and it will probably help me to write a more informed paper.

Dan

 

[tranceport]

clicking the back button now...

 

[axelfox]

Two words:

Joe McCarthy

 

[TommyVercetti]

Because it is a major change in ideology and our beliefs in individualism and freedom.

 

[HappyPuppy]

I am now officially and confirmed terrified for the future of the democratic Western World. What the hell has our educational system come to?

 

[CubicZirconia]

The soviets had lots of weapons. They had nukes. They were a threat to our superpower status. And they were communist.

I am now officially and confirmed terrified for the future of the democratic Western World. What the hell has our educational system come to?

Don't worry, this is obvious to most people.

 

[dmurray14]

Originally posted by: HappyPuppy
I am now officially and confirmed terrified for the future of the democratic Western World. What the hell has our educational system come to?

What the hell are you talking about?

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: CubicZirconia
The soviets had lots of weapons. They had nukes. They were a threat to our superpower status. And they were communist.

I am now officially and confirmed terrified for the future of the democratic Western World. What the hell has our educational system come to?

Don't worry, this is obvious to most people.

And relations weren't exactly warm between us.

 

[Glitchny]

Originally posted by: axelfox
Two words:

Joe McCarthy

i will ahve to agree, i did a paper on McCarthyism for my AP History class, and he was by far the biggest factor in the "red scare" and all the anti-communist sentiment in the country

 

[AccruedExpenditure]

Originally posted by: CubicZirconia
The soviets had lots of weapons. They had nukes. They were a threat to our superpower status. And they were communist.

I am now officially and confirmed terrified for the future of the democratic Western World. What the hell has our educational system come to?

Don't worry, this is obvious to most people.

I think (hope) what he means is why Americans feared communism within the united states as an alternative to capitalism

 

[CubicZirconia]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: CubicZirconia
The soviets had lots of weapons. They had nukes. They were a threat to our superpower status. And they were communist.

I am now officially and confirmed terrified for the future of the democratic Western World. What the hell has our educational system come to?

Don't worry, this is obvious to most people.

And relations weren't exactly warm between us.

Yes. Remember we had that thing called the Cold War. That also probably had something to do with the Communist hatred. Also the the fact that communism is an almost polar opposite of democracy.

 

[TommyVercetti]

Was there actually a communist party in the US between the 50's to the 80's? I am sure there is one now.

 

[AccruedExpenditure]

Originally posted by: TommyVercetti
Was there actually a communist party in the US between the 50's to the 80's? I am sure there is one now.

There's been a communist party in the United States since the early 20th century.

 

[CubicZirconia]

Originally posted by: Gnote

Originally posted by: CubicZirconia
The soviets had lots of weapons. They had nukes. They were a threat to our superpower status. And they were communist.

I am now officially and confirmed terrified for the future of the democratic Western World. What the hell has our educational system come to?

Don't worry, this is obvious to most people.

I think (hope) what he means is why Americans feared communism within the united states as an alternative to capitalism

The same reasons apply. The soviets were communism. We hated everything about the soviets. It was natural that we would hate their economic system as well. There's more to this I'm sure, but it's really not that complicated.

 

[vladbot]

USSR was the greatest country on earth and had weapons that could destroy the world. The US feared that they werent the strongest, and most powerful country. The idea of communism was perfectionism, and the US also feared that that would overpower the whole world.

 

[dmurray14]

Originally posted by: Gnote

Originally posted by: CubicZirconia
The soviets had lots of weapons. They had nukes. They were a threat to our superpower status. And they were communist.

I am now officially and confirmed terrified for the future of the democratic Western World. What the hell has our educational system come to?

Don't worry, this is obvious to most people.

I think (hope) what he means is why Americans feared communism within the united states as an alternative to capitalism

Yes, that is exactly what I mean. Was this some knowledge I was supposed to be born with? If it would help, I will restate my question. Why did the people of America fear the invasion of communism IN America? Specifically, why did the upper, middle, and lower classes fear it, and how did the reasons for their fear differ?

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: vladbot
USSR was the greatest country on earth and had weapons that could destroy the world. The US feared that they werent the strongest, and most powerful country. The idea of communism was perfectionism, and the US also feared that that would overpower the whole world.

Thanks. I needed a laugh.

ZV

 

[TheBoyBlunder]

Originally posted by: dmurray14

Originally posted by: Gnote

Originally posted by: CubicZirconia
The soviets had lots of weapons. They had nukes. They were a threat to our superpower status. And they were communist.

I am now officially and confirmed terrified for the future of the democratic Western World. What the hell has our educational system come to?

Don't worry, this is obvious to most people.

I think (hope) what he means is why Americans feared communism within the united states as an alternative to capitalism

Yes, that is exactly what I mean. Was this some knowledge I was supposed to be born with? If it would help, I will restate my question. Why did the people of America fear the invasion of communism IN America? Specifically, why did the upper, middle, and lower classes fear it, and how did the reasons for their fear differ?

Have you tried researching at your library at ALL? I'm almost positive there's at least one or two books on the subject.

 

[Orsorum]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt

Originally posted by: vladbot
USSR was the greatest country on earth and had weapons that could destroy the world. The US feared that they werent the strongest, and most powerful country. The idea of communism was perfectionism, and the US also feared that that would overpower the whole world.

Thanks. I needed a laugh.

ZV

lol Exactly what I thought.

 

[dmurray14]

Originally posted by: TheBoyBlunder

Have you tried researching at your library at ALL? I'm almost positive there's at least one or two books on the subject.

Yes, of course I have, and the internet too. I already have most of what I'm going to write about, but I thought it would be an interesting discussion question and would help me write a better paper if I had a more broader range of opinions.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: dmurray14
hokay,

So I have to write a little paper on why the US feared communism so much in the 50s-80s, but in all honesty I'm not exactly sure I know why. The first thing that comes to my mind is that it was the wealthy that feared it most, obviously because it involved them losing a lot of money and power. Usually, it is the wealthy who are in control, so that would explain all the propoganda against communism. But why, specifically, did the middle class fear it? Because the wealthy told them to do so? What made them listen? How about the poor? Did they fear it just because it's what everyone else feared? I'd be really interested to hear what everyone thinks about this, and it will probably help me to write a more informed paper.

Dan

Communism takes away the governing power away from the people, and gives it to a group that makes laws and enforces it as they see fit. They also take away any form of commerce, and are in charge of running business in the country - the people work for the government owned businesses, and get their paycheck from them.

Communist countries treat their people like cattle/slaves - the people are their to support the communist government, not vice versa. What happens is that the people become poorer than ever because there is no commercial competition to force prices of goods to stay low - and the government leaders end up the richest people in the country because they can have whatever they want without any checks/balances.

Since people in communisms are treated so low, the governments tend to not value their lives and typically enforce population controls just by killing people.

Stalin

Communisms also fear religion because it tends to be a counter-control. So the communist government removes any right of religion from people, and kills those who practice a religion. This has been the case in both Russia and China.

Communism was created as the next step beyond Socialism (another system that has never proven to work). Basically the political leaders do not believe people are intelligent/capable enough to govern themselves, so they control them. They use a socialistic approach by making everything equal for everyone (but themselves), but take it one step further by running the businesses and setting the paychecks. Unfortunately many people can't even pick their job - they are forced into work camps.

 

[AccruedExpenditure]

Originally posted by: TheBoyBlunder

Originally posted by: dmurray14

Originally posted by: Gnote

Originally posted by: CubicZirconia
The soviets had lots of weapons. They had nukes. They were a threat to our superpower status. And they were communist.

I am now officially and confirmed terrified for the future of the democratic Western World. What the hell has our educational system come to?

Don't worry, this is obvious to most people.

I think (hope) what he means is why Americans feared communism within the united states as an alternative to capitalism

Yes, that is exactly what I mean. Was this some knowledge I was supposed to be born with? If it would help, I will restate my question. Why did the people of America fear the invasion of communism IN America? Specifically, why did the upper, middle, and lower classes fear it, and how did the reasons for their fear differ?

Have you tried researching at your library at ALL? I'm almost positive there's at least one or two books on the subject.

Aye, wouldn't you consider the collective knowledge of ATOT a valued resource... sans the sarcasm, ATOT is akin to an effective Ask Jeeves

 

[yllus]

In a general sense, you could write that the USA/USSR struggle was of two conflicting idealogies. The major world proponents of each idealogy, the United States (democracy + capitalism) and the USSR (communism) each believed that they were engaged in a 'zero sum' game (one in which one actor?s gain is another?s loss - ie. It describes a situation of pure conflict in which there is one winner and one loser). That's sort of your quick explanation for why Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan et al. occured. Taking a step back from specific conflicts, it meant that in the end one of the two great rivals would end up assimilated by the other side.

Uhh. What else. Oh...okay. The Russians, having a different idealogy, thus sometimes thought quite differently than the Americans. How do you bargain, reason or predict the next move of an opponent whom you don't fully understand? Throw a couple thousand nukes, probably 1+ million men in uniform on either side and the whole world at stake in the bargain and you start getting the picture.

 

[Imdmn04]

True communism(not Russia, not China) is a principle that assumed people will basically be dilligent if given the oppurtunity to do so. Therefore in a perfect world under such an assumption. Everybody will be happy, because everybody will work their hardest and wealth will be shared by all individuals equally, with the elimnation of class seperation. But this principle failed to realize that people will basically slack off if they knew that they would get paid just as much as the next guy working his balls off.

Captalism is based on the flaws of human nature(envy, ambition and laziness), which is a lot more practical. Not everybody will work hard, some will be lazy no matter how much oppurtunity you give them. Some people will not always be happy of being equal to others, basically everybody will try to move up the ladder, bring others down along the way. This creates competition, the lazy and the uneducated will stay on the bottom of the ladder while the elite moves onto the top.

 

[badmouse]

First, communism is anti-religious. That ain't popular in this country.
Second, from the beginning the communists in this country vowed to overthrow the US government - and considering that in Russia they DID have a successful revolution, this was no idle threat.
Third , the Russians (Communists) vowed to eliminate us, and they had the power to do it.
Fourth, after WWII, we got really used to having a specific enemy (Hitler). It became very easy to transfer that hatred to the Russians, our former allies, because of the way they behaved during WWII etc. And their threat of our elimination, of course.
Fifth, China.

It is easy today to dismiss communism as something trivial. It wasn't always that way.