As is evident by decades of Red Scare propaganda, countless instances of US involvement in regime changes in Latin-American countries, all stemming from its particular stance during the Cold War, the United States of America has quite the troubled history in regards to socialism and communism, to say the least.
October Revolution
The first instances of Red Scare propaganda appeared back in the early 1900s. They were made to intimidate the American public and generate mass hysteria over supposed far-left extremism. The targeted ideologies included communism and anarchism. The First Red Scare lasted from 1917-1920.
This was the time of the October Revolution, in which the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, revolted against Tsarist autocracy. Communism, as the new alternative to capitalism, became highly popular, and spread throughout Europe.
After a series of bombings in 1919, none of which were proven to be linked to communists or anarchists, the United States enacted “criminal syndicalism” laws from 1919 to 1920. These laws had the aim of outlawing any advocacy of violence with the intent of probing societal change. In reality, the policies instigated heavy police monitoring, jailing and deportation of suspected left-wing individuals.
Whether communist, socialist or anarchist — gradation of ideology was not at all considered. In a manner most ironic, the United States, in order to uphold its liberal principles, enacted laws which directly infringed upon the people’s right to free speech.
The Cold War
Fear of communist espionage continued after WWII, and reached its height during the Cold War. With the establishment of the Iron Curtain, a border dividing Europe into a communist, Soviet-run Eastern-, and a capitalist, NATO-controlled Western Bloc, tensions between the two world superpowers at the time, the USSR and the USA, grew rapidly.
The Truman Doctrine, American foreign policy originating in 1947, was announced by then President Harry S. Truman. Truman argued that “it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures”, and the aim of the policy was to contain the geopolitical spread of communism internationally.
In the Americas, countries, such as Cuba and Nicaragua, sided with the Soviet Union. This led to a slew of intervention and covert operations by American Intelligence, namely the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Possibly one of the most infamous instances of CIA intervention was the blundered Bay of Pigs Invasion in April 1961. In an effort to topple the Cuban government and assassinate Fidel Castro, the United States covertly financed and directed the operation.
They supplied Cuban exiles with B-26 bombers as well as other military equipment, though after only three days, the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces defeated the counter-revolutionaries.
The conflict only solidified Fidel Castro as a hero of the people and pushed Cuba further in favor of the Soviet Union. Another example of covertly US backed terrorists, were the right-wing Nicaraguan counter-revolutionaries, the “Contras”, who followed strict anti-communist ideology and are still active to this day in most rural areas of Nicaragua.
