Red scare

The Red Scare was the fear of communism taking over countries. The term is most often used to refer to two periods in the history of the United States although "Red Scares" also happened in other parts of the world.

The First Red Scare started after the Bolsheviks took power in Russia during the October Revolution of 1917, and it lasted from the late 1910s to the late 1920s. It led to an increased fear and perceived threat of revolution and political radicalism from national and foreign anarchists and from the American labor movement, which was mainly leftist.

The Second Red Scare happened after the Second World War, during the start of the Cold War, and lasted from the late 1940s to the mid-to-late 1950s. It led to a fear of national or foreign communist spies infiltrating and taking over American society, institutions, and governments. The Second Red Scare is also known as McCarthyism.