Communists

[ck1]

Why were people so fearful of communists during the cold war, was it just the possibility of enticing revolution? I'm referring to the individual sympathisers as opposed to the USSR/China as a whole.

[Peter Pedant]

same reason that the Germans wanted to live in West Germany rather than the East

and people disappeared into concentration camps even when I was a teenager ( in england of course - I was not the camps) -

ask a Ukrainian - they will tell you what their grandparent went thro during the 1922 gt hunger

I grew up in a town with around 200 dp s - eastern european refugees. they had no illusions about Russian liberation

[fiction-factory]

Are you referring to things like McCarthyism?

[Peter Pedant]

see

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brezhnev_Doctrine

russia reserved the right to intervene in any communist country if they showed an inclination to elect a less socialist communist govt.

jesus theres democracy and freedom to choose for you

[Peter Pedant]

as the evil colonial regimes in Africa fell in the latter part of the last century
everyone knew that there would be marxist paradises replacing the colonists' abject slavery and oppression - freedarm of everything !

what they didnt expect was the liberated nations Zim and Angola and many others (congo, rwanda,mali)to turn into economic basket cases ....

[fiction-factory]

The OP said "I'm referring to the individual sympathisers as opposed to the USSR/China as a whole. " so I was thinking of Hollywood's blacklisted people

[tiggerblue10]

I did this in history many years ago but can't remember much about it.

Don't know if this helps:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Un-American_Activities_Committee

[ck1]

Yes I guess McCarthyism is an element of it. Communist seems like it was much more of a significant label than any other political ideal, wasn't membership even illegal in the US?

[allenlondon]

Every oppressive society needs an Enemy, a Bogeyman.

Capitalists - the rich, if you will - never want the workers (the poor) to turn their rightful anger on them, so it is in their interests to maintain an enemy - it used to be the Communists, now it is messier - foreigners, Moslems, Europeans.

That the Soviet Union went badly wrong in its goal of socialism is another argument, and as another oppressive regime, it suited its purposes having the West as Bogeyman.

You have to stand back from it all and decide whose side you’re on.

A