The term Red Scare denotes two different periods of strong anti-communism in the United States: the First Red Scare, from 1917 to 1920, and the Second Red Scare, from 1947 to 1957. The First Red Scare started with the Russian Revolution and was centered in socialist workers and political radicalism. The Second Red Scare centered on an intense suspicion about communists (nationals and foreigners) who influenced society or who may been infiltrated the United States Government.
The first period of the Red Scare arose during the American participation in the First World War (1917-1918). The tension was raised by the acts of violence of several groups of Bolshevik inspiration.
The second period of the Red Scare took place between 1947 and 1957, coinciding with the growing fear of communist espionage and the beginning of the Soviet influence in Eastern Europe (1946), the Berlin Blockade (1948-1949), the Chinese Civil War (1949) and the Korean War (1950-1953). This fear fueled aggressive investigations, the "hunt for red," the creation of blacklists and the imprisonment and deportation of people suspected of sympathizing with communism or other leftist ideologies.
