Red Scare Poster

Red Scare #2                                

The Red Scare during the 1950's was actually the second of two, the first one occurred in 1919-1921 due to the Bolshevik Russian Revolution of 1917.  The second began in 1947-1954  following the end of WWII this was caused by McCarthy (shown above) who increased the fear of a Russian espionage 

                                         

The Red Scare got completely out of hand due to the fears of the people.  When people were accused they were asked to give the names of others who were affiliated with communism to clear their names, those that did received a reduced punishment.  So may people were falsely accused much like in the play the Crucible, which Arthur wrote to show the country what was going on through a likeness so that he could not be punished for making a communist play.