”Robbery, not war, is the ideal of communism. This has been demonstrated in Russia, Germany, and in America. As a foe, the anarchist is fearless of his own life, for his creed is a fanaticism that admits no respect of any other creed. Obviously it is the creed of any criminal mind, which reasons always from motives impossible to clean thought. Crime is the degenerate factor in society.”
Alexander Mitchell Palmer
Already far before post-World War II the United States of America tried to cope with the so-called Red Scare. In 1917, the fear of ‘non-American’ activities had resulted in a law on espionage and the conscription law for the armed forces to be able to conscript more Americans fighting against the Reds. The Red Scare was at its climax in 1919-1920. For this reason it is often referred to as the Red Scare of 1919-1920.
The collective paranoia peeked in December 1919, when a large number of left-wing labour leaders were arrested on suspicion of revolutionary activities. Directly after World War I, significant strikes aimed for compensating loss of income because of inflation by demanding higher salaries. At the same time anarchists sent explosive packages to dignitaries. One revolutionary threw a bomb to the house of Minister of Justice/Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer, after which a true campaign broke loose against everything that was radical in one way or another.
A little of the Red Fear was reproduced in Europe. Worries that the revolutionary atmosphere would shift to European countries, made these nations convey 250 labour leaders to Russia.
Five social democrats, politicians without any revolutionary ambitions whatsoever, were removed from the House of Representatives in the state of New York. They supposedly were enemies of the state. Palmer predicted that on May 1, 1920 (Labour Day) the revolutionaries would try to seize power in the US.
Of course nothing happened. Although people spoke of 150,000 anarchists in the United States, that one journalist came so much closer when he said: "The whole lot were about as dangerous as a flea on an elephant."