Red Scare

A period or campaign of intense anti-communist fear and repression in the United States, most notably during the First Red Scare (post-World War I) and the Second Red Scare (the McCarthy era of the 1950s), characterized by widespread surveillance, blacklisting, and prosecution of suspected communists, leftists, and political dissenters.

Claims that use this term

• Arab American activism drew surveillance paralleling Red Scare treatment of Jewish leftists
• Red Scare repression silenced antiracists to enforce assimilationist orthodoxy
• A legal-technical limit on federal power steered the Red Scare against foreigners