The Red Scare followed the Bolshevik Russian Revolution of 1917, lead by Vladimir I. Lenin and his followers. He overthrew the czarist regime and established a new Communist State. Causing panic in the United States to begin in 1919. The Communist or "Reds" would wave their symbolic red flags and cry out for a worldwide revolution that would get rid of capitalism everywhere. A Communist Party was formed in the U.S.
70,000 radicals joined the Communist Party, including some Industrial Workers of the World(WWI). A former member of the Communist Party, Murray B. Levin wrote that the "Red Scare" was "a nation-wide anti-radical hysteria provoked by a mounting fear of red monkeys and anxiety that a Bolshevik revolution in America was immient-a resolution that would change Church, home, marriage, civility, and the American way of Life." The press misrepresented legitimate labor strikes as "crimes against society," "conspiracies against the government," and "Plots to establish Communism."
Authorities discovered a plot for mailing 36 bombs to members of the U.S. political and economic establishments, in April of 1919. On June 2,1919, in eight cities, eight bombs stimultaneously exploded, one target was the Washington, D.C., house of U.S. Attorney General Palmer. After this the public grew fearful that Communist were taking over, Plamer took action to combat this "Red Scare," known as the Palmer Raids.
I think this would be terrifing because you don't know if the Communist would take over and you would have to worry about bombs.
Sources:
1. The Americans Reconstruction to the 21st Century
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