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Cold War
(1947-1991)
 The Red Scare

The Red Scare
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 6 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   7.18

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    anti-war, blacklist, unreasonable, witch-hunt, communism, testify, entertainment, during, guilty, democratic, accuse, belonging, industry, government, participate, meeting
     content words:    Cold War, Red Scare, Leonard Bernstein, West Side Story, To Kill, Pete Seeger, Have All, Flowers Gone, Senator Joseph McCarthy, American Communist Party

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The Red Scare
By Sharon Fabian 		  
1     During the Cold War years, Americans feared communism. We were afraid that communists would sneak in and take over our government. Recent events had given us reasons to be afraid. Communists were taking over in another large country - China. They were gaining ground in Korea and other places too. Then, some American citizens were found guilty of spying for the Communists. Soon, whenever people heard a neighbor talking about communism, they listened closely. Could this neighbor be a communist too?
 
2     Suspicions spread until, soon, people everywhere were being accused. A reasonable fear had turned into an unreasonable witch-hunt. People were accused of being a communist, of helping communists, of spying for the communists, of meeting with communists, and of agreeing with communist ideas. These suspicions and accusations had serious results. People suspected of having communist beliefs were called in to testify before the government. Many lost their jobs and their good reputations.
 
3     The Red Scare really took hold in Hollywood. Employers in the entertainment industry there had a list of people who might have some ties to communism. It was called a blacklist. Anyone whose name appeared on the blacklist would not be hired to work in the entertainment industry. After the blacklist came out, hundreds of actors, musicians, and writers could not find work.

Paragraphs 4 to 9:
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