Following the realization that US spies working for the Soviet Union had accelerated Russia’s development of the atomic bomb, anti-communist hysteria swept through 1950s America. In 1953, a married couple, the Rosenbergs, were sent to the electric chair for passing atomic secrets to the Soviets. A series of witch-hunts, orchestrated by Republican senator, Joseph McCarthy (pictured below), targeted Hollywood, universities and even the originator of the Marshall Plan, George C. Marshall. Richard Nixon, then a congressman, unmasked communist agent Alger Hiss, a former insider in Roosevelt’s government, who served forty-four months in prison as a result. In an atmosphere reminiscent of Soviet Russia, people were encouraged to inform on each other and to maintain vigilance against the internal enemy.
Joseph McCarthy