How did Mao's victory fuel anti-Communist feelings in the U.S.?
1 Answer
It was a major additional actor to the paranoia of the time.
Explanation:
In the post war world the Soviet Union and USA were the dominant superpowers. Their competing aims and ambitions were brought into sharp contrast by their conflicting social,economic and political systems.
AT the end of the war the USA had a monopoly of nuclear weapons but the Soviets developed their own within two years. Heightened tension in Europe stemmed from the division of Germany, the Berlin Blockade leading to the division of Berlin and the annexation of Eastern Europe by the Soviets.
There was genuine paranoiac fear in the West and in 1949 when the People's Republic of China was declared by Mao on October 1st, this added significantly to the tension between the two sides.
The anti-communist feeling in the USA at the time manifested itself in the McCarthy witch hunts, the hearings of the House Unamerican Activities Committee, the Hollywood Blacklist and the arrest and execution of the Rosenbergs for spying in 1950.
