The climate of wartime hysteria and suspicion which led to the repression of civil liberties in the name of national unity and patriotism was intensified in November 1917. Lenin and his followers seized power in Russia in the Bolshevik Revolution, and in March 1918 made peace with Germany. In 1918 a communist uprising broke out in Hungary, and a communist group called the Spartacists attempted to seize power in Bavaria. The West was terrified of the spectre of communism sweeping across Europe, and the first Red Scare was born.

Whereas previously labor unrest and dissent had been denounced as pro-German, after November 1917 it was denounced as "communist" or "communist-inspired." Anti-German suspicion and hysteria gave way to anti-Russian and anti-communist hysteria. The United States sent an expeditionary force into Siberia, partly to keep tabs on the Japanese who had sent forces into the region. The US and 13 allied nations sent troops to Russia's Arctic ports (Murmansk, Archangel). In August 8,000 American troops were sent there. Also in August 7,000 American troops and 72,000 Japanese troops ended up fighting against the Bolsheviks in Siberia. In this they were taking sides in the Russian civil war and interfering in the internal affairs of the Soviet Union. The Americans withdrew in 1920.

PALMER RAIDS

Fear of communism intensified in April 1919 when the postal service intercepted 40 bombs addressed to prominent citizens. One slipped through, and the maid of Senator Thomas Hardwick of Georgia was injured (lost her hands). In June a bomb destroyed the front of the home of Attorney general A. Mitchell Palmer. Franklin D. Roosevelt, assistant secretary of the navy, was standing across the street when the bomb went off, and made the call to the police (Tindall, America: A Narrative History, p. 1023). It was not known who was behind these bombings, but communists wee suspected.

In this climate Palmer decided to deport radical aliens. Palmer appointed a new head of the General Intelligence Division. His name was J. Edgar Hoover, and he began to compile a cardfile on radicals.

On November 7, 1919 agents swooped of the GID and the Justice Dept. swooped down on the Union of Russian Workers in 12 cities. On Dec. 22 some 249 Russian anarchists and others were placed on board the Buford and deported to Finland without benefit of a court hearing.

This was followed by a series of police raids on January 2, 1920, in 33 cities. Some 5,000 suspects were arrested. Many were taken from their homes without arrest warrants, and detained and held in custody without charges. In New York the state legislature expelled five duly-elected Socialists The Palmer raids of 1919-20 were not aimed at only real communists. They were also used as a smokescreen to falsely accuse labor leaders and to repress the labor movement. Any kind of labor militancy was conveniently stigmatized and vilified as "communist" or communist-inspired. Government repression was used to crush labor and deport radical foreigners.

Palmer predicted massive disruptions for May Day, May 1st. But nothing happened. He began to look like an alarmist. The threat of revolution in Hungary and Germany had receded, and Congress refused to pass peacetime sedition laws. However 32 states adopted laws making it a crime to join any group that called for the overthrow of the government by force.

Employers launched the 100% American campaign to stigmatize labor as radical and to portray the open or non-union shop as "American." By inference the union shop was "un-American."