Welcome to CyberEssays Website

The Red Scare - Extensive Analysis Of Its Causes And Effects

"The tumult and the shouting dies, The captains and the kings depart."
-Kipling, The Recessional

        Mr. Kipling was wrong. War does not always end with the last
cry on the battlefield. World War I certainly did not. After the war
formally ended on November 18, 1918, there was an ideological war
still going on in the US. An ideological war which prompted mass
paranoia and caused, among many other things, what would be known as
the Red Scare, which began in 1919 and ended in 1921. Red Scare was
the label given to the actions of legislation, the race riots, and the
hatred and persecution of "subversives" and conscientious objectors
during that period of time. It is this hysteria which would find
itself repeated several decades later in history when Senator Joeseph
R. Macarthy accused high government officials and high standing
military officers of being communist. Undoubtedly the most important
topic of an investigation into a historical occurrence is its
inception. What caused the Red Scare?

        At the heart of the Red Scare was the conscription law of May
18, 1917, which was put in place during World War I for the armed
forces to be able to conscript more Americans. This law caused many
problems for the conscientious objector to WWI, because for one to
claim that status, one had to be a member of a "well-recognized"
religious organization which forbade their members to participation in
war. As a result of such unyeilding legislation, 20,000 conscientious
objectors were inducted into the armed forces. Out of these 20,000,
16,000 changed their minds when they reached military camps, 1300 went
to non-combat units, 1200 gained furloughs to do farm work, and 100
did Quaker relief work in Europe. 500 suffered court-martial, and out
of these, 450 went to prison. However, these numbers are small in
comparison with the 170,000 draft dodgers and 2,810,296 men who were
inducted into the armed forces....