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One of the many 1920 Red Raids
At 9p.m. on this day, agents of the Bureau of Investigation, together with local police, executed a series of well publicized and violent raids in twelve cities.
Red Raids went from 1919-1920 and what took place was that the capitalist government of the US used these raids to save the government by rounding up radicals and communists and these accused persons would be jailed or deported. These people were deported under the influence of Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer. -
Book Burning in Germany
German students gathered in Berlin and other German cities to burn books with "un-German" ideas as a Nazi salute. The volumes were collected, stacked and lit afire by the Nationalist German Students Organization. -
World War II Begins
Germany invades Poland, starting the war when Britain defends Poland and declares war against Germany. The second world war involved everyone in the world including the USA. The eventual outcome was the extension of the Soviet Union's power to nations of Eastern Europe and it enabled a communist movement to eventually achieve power in China. The power shifted to the US and the Soviet Union away from Eastern Europe. The war ended when Germany surrendered to the Soviets after a hard fought battle. -
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World War II
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Japan Attacks Pearl Harbour
The attack on Pearl Harbour began when warplanes from Japan launched a surprise attack on the US Navy base at Pearl Harbour, near Honolulu, Hawaii. The attack itself lasted only about two hours but it left many years worth of struggle. The Japanese destroyed almost twenty American naval vessels and tore apart almost two hundred airplanes. About two thousand soldiers and sailors died. The day after, President Franklin Roosevelt declared war on Japan. America had finally joined the war. -
The Office of Censorship
The Office of Censorship was crated to aid in the censorship of communications of every kind entering and leaving the US. On this day, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8985 which established the Office of Censorship which had the power to censor international communications under the order of it's director Byron Price. -
Censorship Activities
Army and Navy personnel took part in censorship activities, moving from the War and Navy Department to the Office of Censorship. They monitored 350000 overseas telegrams and 25000 phone calls each week. Separate offices in places like New York and LA reviewed films the public would watch. Mail was also censored. The widespread news also presented a major security problem: any military secrets accidentally leaked in the papers or on the radio would be automatically available to America's enemies. -
The Creation of the Policy of Containment
A US news magazine shows the beginnings of the American containment policy.
At the beginning of the Cold War, around 1947, the United States initiated a Policy of Containment, which was a massive campaign against communism throughout the world. This was basically a US foreign policy that sought to prevent the expansion of communist power. -
Second Red Scare
Senator Joseph McCarthy claims he has a list of 205 cases of individuals who appear to be loyal or involved with the communist party within the US.
McCarthy's fears about the spread of communism led to the creation of committees that were to interview people suspected of knowing about communism. McCarthyism was the term used for this movement. During this period, people who had differing views than that of the government were considered threats to society and many people were blacklisted. -
Senator McCarthy's Forbidden Book Proposal
On this day, Senator McCarthy proposed a list to his subcommittee and the press, which supposedly contained pro-communist authors whose books were found in libraries in Europe. The Eisenhower State Department bowed to McCarthy's orders and ordered its overseas libraries to remove "material by any controversial persons, communists, etc..." from their shelves. Some libraries burned these forbidden books.
