Red Scares, Lavender Scares, and the Quest for Equality during the Early Cold War

Learning Objectives

Explain how the development of atomic weapons affected the relationship between America and the Soviet Union. Examine the ways that the military and diplomatic concerns about nuclear proliferation affected US culture and society.
Describe the Red Scare and the Lavender Scare in the context of the Cold War. Explain why the government feared that leftists and homosexuals threatened the security of the nation. Finally, explain the impact of the Lavender Scare on the later Gay Rights Movement.
Place the importance of the integration of the military and Brown v. Board within the larger narrative of the black freedom struggle. Explain the role of African Americans in these events, and explain why the government decided to end segregation in two of its leading institutions after years of enforcing racial separation.

Even as America embraced its new role as the global industrial leader and entered an era of unprecedented abundance, scarcity continued to dominate the lives of one in five Americans living below the poverty line. For many of these, racial and ethnic discrimination compounded the problems of poverty. However, more and more Americans directly confronted the violations of their civil rights through direct action and the courts. The early Cold War period also witnessed the worst persecution of homosexuals since the colonial era and the second major attack on the extreme left in the last two generations. For cultural critics such as Arthur Miller, America’s attack on the left resembled the Salem Witch trials. And perhaps most ironic of all, the new military technologies that provided America’s global supremacy seemed to intensify existing concerns regarding global security.

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