The first Red Scare climaxed in 19, when United States Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer ordered the Palmer raids, a series of violent law-enforcement raids targeting leftist radicals and anarchists. Bombs went off in a wide number of cities including Boston, Cleveland, Philadelphia, D.C., and New York City. The fear turned to violence with the 1919 anarchist bombings, a series of bombs targeting law enforcement and government officials. The Sedition Act of 1918 targeted people who criticized the government, monitoring radicals and labor union leaders with the threat of deportation. In the United States, labor strikes were on the rise, and the press sensationalized them as being caused by immigrants bent on bringing down the American way of life. The Russian Revolution of 1917 saw the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, topple the Romanov dynasty, kicking off the rise of the communist party and inspiring international fear of Bolsheviks and anarchists.

The first Red Scare occurred in the wake of World War I.

Why was it called a cold war