<P> Initially, the press praised the raids; The Washington Post said, "There is no time to waste on hairsplitting over (the) infringement of liberty", and The New York Times said the injuries inflicted upon the arrested were "souvenirs of the new attitude of aggressiveness which had been assumed by the Federal agents against Reds and suspected - Reds". In the event, the Palmer Raids were criticized as unconstitutional by twelve publicly prominent lawyers, including (future Supreme Court Justice) Felix Frankfurter, who published A Report on the Illegal Practices of The United States Department of Justice, documenting systematic violations of the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution via Palmer - authorized "illegal acts" and "wanton violence". Defensively, Palmer then warned that a government - deposing left - wing revolution would begin on 1 May 1920--May Day, the International Workers' Day . When it failed to happen, he was ridiculed and lost much credibility . Strengthening the legal criticism of Palmer was that fewer than 600 deportations were substantiated with evidence, out of the thousands of resident aliens arrested and deported . In July 1920, Palmer's once - promising Democratic Party bid for the U.S. presidency failed . Wall Street was bombed on September 2, 1920, near Federal Hall National Memorial and the JP Morgan Bank . Although both anarchists and Communists were suspected as being responsible for the bombing, ultimately no individuals were indicted for the bombing in which 38 died and 141 were injured . </P> <P> In 1919--20, several states enacted "criminal syndicalism" laws outlawing advocacy of violence in effecting and securing social change . The restrictions included free speech limitations . Passage of these laws, in turn, provoked aggressive police investigation of the accused persons, their jailing, and deportation for being suspected of being either communist or left - wing . Regardless of ideological gradation, the Red Scare did not distinguish between communism, anarchism, socialism, or social democracy . </P> <P> The second Red Scare occurred after World War II (1939--45), and was popularly known as "McCarthyism" after its most famous supporter, Senator Joseph McCarthy . McCarthyism coincided with increased popular fear of communist espionage consequent to a Soviet Eastern Europe, the Berlin Blockade (1948--49), the Chinese Civil War, the confessions of spying for the Soviet Union given by several high - ranking U.S. government officials, and the Korean War . </P> <P> The events of the late 1940s, early 1950s - the trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg (1953), the trial of Alger Hiss, the Iron Curtain (1945--1991) around Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union's first nuclear weapon test in 1949 (RDS - 1) - surprised the American public, influencing popular opinion about U.S. National Security, that, in turn, connected to fear of the Soviet Union hydrogen - bombing the United States, and fear of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA). </P>

Who started the red scare in the united states in the 1950s