AP®︎ US History: Topic 8.3 Flashcards

Postwar fear of communist infiltration, especially from 1947–1954, that produced loyalty investigations, prosecutions, blacklists, political conformity, and civil-liberties abuses

American communist party active in labor and reform movements that followed Soviet policy and included some clandestine ties to the Soviet Union

Democratic president who established the federal loyalty program while opposing some congressional measures and sensational accusations as ineffective and repressive

Truman’s 1947 program screening federal workers for disloyalty, often using associations and undisclosed allegations rather than proof of espionage

1940 law criminalizing advocacy of violent government overthrow and membership in groups devoted to it, used after World War II against Communist Party leaders

1951 Supreme Court decision upholding Smith Act convictions despite no immediate uprising because the threatened harm was considered sufficiently grave

1950 law requiring communist organizations to register and authorizing restrictions and emergency detention; Congress enacted it over Truman’s veto

1952 law retaining national-origins quotas and permitting exclusion or deportation for communist or allegedly subversive affiliations

House committee that publicly investigated alleged communist influence and pressured witnesses to disclose their affiliations and identify others

Ten writers and directors imprisoned for contempt after refusing in 1947 to answer HUAC questions about Communist Party membership

Private entertainment-industry practice denying work to accused communists and uncooperative witnesses without requiring a criminal conviction

Former State Department official accused of Soviet activity who was convicted of perjury in 1950 after denying Whittaker Chambers’s allegations

Former communist who accused Alger Hiss of belonging to an underground network and produced copied documents known partly as the Pumpkin Papers

HUAC member who gained national recognition by aggressively pursuing the Alger Hiss investigation

Couple executed in 1953 for conspiracy to commit espionage; later evidence confirmed Julius’s spying but left Ethel’s operational role much less certain

Wisconsin Republican senator who rose through unsupported claims of communists in government and lost influence after the 1954 Army hearings and Senate condemnation

Use of sensational, poorly supported accusations, guilt by association, and demands to denounce others in order to attack alleged subversion

Televised 1954 hearings that exposed McCarthy’s aggressive methods during his dispute with the Army and accelerated his downfall

Army counsel who publicly rebuked McCarthy during the Army-McCarthy hearings with “Have you no sense of decency, sir?”

Journalist whose 1954 television broadcast used McCarthy’s own statements to expose his contradictions and unsupported accusations

Purge of suspected gay men and lesbians from federal employment based on claims that they were morally unfit or vulnerable to blackmail

President who expanded federal security screening in 1953 and authorized removal or exclusion of suspected homosexual employees

Eisenhower’s 1953 order expanding federal security investigations and listing “sexual perversion” as grounds for exclusion or dismissal

1957 Supreme Court decision narrowing the Smith Act by distinguishing abstract revolutionary advocacy from incitement to concrete illegal action

1957 Supreme Court decision requiring congressional investigations to state a legislative purpose and respect witnesses’ due-process rights