The word communism has always been something of a taboo word to say. Even today we call communists to mock or make fun of people. Why did all this start? How did communism become a dirty word? Well, communism has always been feared since the birth of our nation. It was the form of government that the majority of Americans did not want. Communism is basically a theory or system based on the ownership of all property and assets by the community as a whole. This system would destroy many of the freedoms we Americans enjoy. There was a certain period when I was extremely paranoid about the Communist Party taking control. From about the 1920s through the 1950s people really feared communism. The Cold War, Ronald Reagan, and the Red Scare were all major factors that contributed to the unreasonable fear of communism during this time period. These three factors helped shape American ideology about communism during this time period. The Cold War brought us to the brink of war with the Soviet Union. This may have been the one thing that started the fear of communism. Russian spies are everywhere. People were suspicious of each other, even their neighbors. Since the Soviet Union was a communist country that was spreading its influence in Europe. America had to do something about it. America felt that the people living in the Soviet Union were oppressed and needed to be free. This so-called war was basically about seeing how far both countries (America and the Soviet Union) could go without going to war. An example of this would be the Truman Doctrine, which was Truman's way of ensuring that Greece and Turkey did not become a communist country (NN787). Another example would be the Marshall Plan, which asked countries that needed help to ask for it and the United States would help. America did not want the Soviets to spread their ideas to other countries by exploiting their country's dissatisfaction. So we helped because we thought our country was in trouble because of the communists (NN787). An even better example of clashes between the United States and the Soviet Union would be the Berlin Airlift. The Soviets blockaded all of Berlin and we flew supplies to Berlin. Now, during all of this at home, there were also a lot of people who were scared of communism. Many were accused of communism due to the Red Scare.