America's Forgotten History: The Red Scare
Jan 19, 2015 15:28:14 GMT -6
blackcatmagic, emotionallyincorrect, and 4 more like this
Post by whitealice on Jan 19, 2015 15:28:14 GMT -6
For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence--on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.
--John F. Kennedy, The President and The Press, April 27, 1961
--John F. Kennedy, The President and The Press, April 27, 1961
The above quote is one of the most common quotes cited for reference towards a conspiratorial body that exists behind a veil of secrecy whether it be the Illuminati or the NWO. However, this is incorrect as the full entirety of the speech given by John F. Kennedy and its historical context makes it quite clear that he is talking about the Soviet Union. Written in April of 1961, Kennedy makes reference to Karl Marx from the time that he was journalist, himself. Additionally, he mentions the events of the last few weeks as being illuminating and those events would be the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Kennedy was absolutely correct in that there was no greater conspiracy against the economic and sociopolitical ideals than Communism, itself. The Cold War was not the beginning of such fears and Kennedy was quite right about that. He knew his American History.
There has been no other conflict than the conflicts of these two countries--the US and Russia/USSR--that has radically shaped the events on a worldwide level and not just in American History. It's what makes this the ideal "first post" for this subforum, I think, because has had so many impacts both domestically and internationally. On the international side, the countries that were divided after the end of World War II were divided between occupation by either one or the other. North Korea and South Korea, West Germany and East. Even those that we have gone to war with in recent times have almost all been, at one time or the other, socialist or communist countries themselves and frequently allied with the former Soviet Union. However, the Cold War, as I said, is not the beginning of this history. Instead, it began nearly 100 years prior to the eruption of the Cold War when a journalist writing for the New York Tribune decided to switch his focus and wrote on behalf of factory workers. Across the pond, a series of revolts broke out across Europe called the Revolutions of 1848. It was soon after this that Karl Marx began working for the New York Tribune, writing commentary on the American Civil War in the US.
The American Civil War wasn't the only thing going on in the latter half the 19th Century. Worker strikes and riots were also erupting through a variety of states with some very notable events such as the Homestead Strike and more. We have to remember that back in those days, both factories, mines and railways were incredibly dangerous workplaces so some of the backlash was to be utterly expected. In 1905, the Wobblies were formed and they were met with heavy resistance on both corporate, state and federal levels. Things had just started to get scary. Red Scary.
In 1901, President McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist steel worker by the name of Leon Czolgosz. In response to McKinley's assassination, Congress created the Secret Service. Then in 1910, a dynamite explosion rocked the Los Angeles Times, killing 21 and injuring over a hundred.
Soon after, during a steel worker strike, yet another explosion rocked the Llewellyn Iron Works and William J. Burns was hired by the City of Los Angeles to solve the crimes. John and James McNamara of The Iron Workers union were the men he pegged and John McNamara was the secretary-treasure of the aforementioned union. In total, this led to the arrest and charges against 55 other union members and the union. Heck, even the attorney representing the McNamara brothers faced a few charges against including jury tampering and bribery, neither of which led to a conviction.
Kind of an interesting timeline of those events. Do note that the "gas leak" reference is actually what made the blast more severe. www.loc.gov/rr/news/topics/latbomb.html
Not scary enough though for this time period to be considered part of the Red Scare. In fact the year before the "official" start date of the Red Scare, 1916, was filled with unrest, intense labor strikes and outright rioting. The press was on a feeding frenzy over these activities and when the Russian Empire was taken down by the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, they had more fuel than ever to promote fear and hysteria. Bolshevism became the dirty of the day and the threat was everywhere.