In the post World War II Era communism was viewed as a tremendous threat to the livelihood of average Americans. The Red Scare immersed the American population in the activity of identifying and eliminating communist members in the United States. Based in partial facts, but perpetrated through fear and paranoia many U.S.citizens were arrested, charged and imprisoned, under the guise of cooperating with communist forces that sought to see democracy and capitalism fall within the United States. Containment and the communist threat was a political topic that was necessary to address, particularly during an election. Politicians identified the threat and posed a plan of action to secure the United States against communist infiltration. In his bid to win a seat to the Senate, John F. Kennedy identifies the "powerful enemy" in a speech to the Massachusetts chapter of the American Federation of Labor; they are "unrelenting and
implacable who seeks to dominate the world by subversion and conspiracy". Ultimately elected to the Senate, Mr. Kennedy continued to view the communism as a plague that would spread throughout the hemispheres if not checked and contained.
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Think about:
- Explain Kennedy's political position on communism.
- Are there similarities between the threat of communism in 1952 and political issues that face the United States in 2015?