title: Renault

text: In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Renault sold various assets to finance its inversions and acquisitions, refocusing itself as a car and van manufacturer. In 1999, the company sold its industrial automation subsidiary, Renault Automation, to Comau and its engine parts division to TWR Engine Components. In 2001, Renault sold its 50% stake in bus/coach manufacturer Irisbus to co-owner Iveco and its logistics subsidiary, CAT France, to Global Automotive Logistics. Following the sale of Renault Industriels to Volvo in 2001, the company retained a minority (but controlling) stake (20%) in the Volvo Group. In 2010 Renault reduced its shareholding to 6.5% and in December 2012 sold its remaining shares. In 2004, Renault sold a 51% majority stake in its agricultural machinery division, Renault Agriculture, to CLAAS. In 2006, CLAAS increased its ownership to 80% and in 2008 took full control.


title: Renault

text: In the twenty-first century, Renault developed a reputation for distinctive, outlandish design. The second generation of the Laguna and Mégane featured ambitious, angular designs that turned out to be successful, The 2000 Laguna was the second European car to feature "keyless" entry and ignition. Less successful were the company's more upmarket models. The Avantime, a unique coupé multi-purpose vehicle, sold poorly and was quickly discontinued while the luxury Vel Satis model also disappointed. However, the design inspired the lines of the second-generation Mégane, the maker's most successful car. As well as its distinctive styling, Renault was to become known for its car safety by the independent company Euro NCAP Thus, in 2001, the Laguna achieved a five-star rating, followed in 2004 by the Modus, and acquired control of AvtoVAZ in 2008.


title: Renault

text: In April 2010, Renault–Nissan announced an alliance with Daimler. Renault supplied Mercedes-Benz with its brand new 1.6-litre turbo-diesel engine and Mercedes-Benz provided a 2.0 litre four-cylinder petrol engine to Renault–Nissan. The resulting new alliance was to develop a replacement for the Smart based on the Twingo.


title: Renault

text: In February 2010, Renault opened a new production factory near Tangier, Morocco, with an annual output capacity of 170,000 vehicles. Initially, it manufactured the Dacia Lodgy and Dacia Dokker models followed in October 2013 by the second generation Dacia Sandero. The output capacity increased to 340,000 vehicles per year with the inauguration of a second production line. The site is located in a dedicated free trade area, neighboring Tanger Automotive City. According to Renault, the new factory emits zero carbon and industrial liquid discharges. Over 100,000 vehicles were produced there in 2013. Renault expects to eventually increase production at the Tangier plant to 400,000 vehicles per year.


title: Renault

text: In the 2010s, Renault increased its efforts to gain market share in the Chinese market. In 2013, it formed a joint venture with Dongfeng Motor Group named as Dongfeng Renault, based on a failed previous venture with the Chinese company Sanjiang. In December 2017, it signed an agreement with Brilliance Auto to create a new joint venture (Renault Brilliance Jinbei) aimed at producing light commercial vehicles and minivans under the Renault, Jinbei and Huasong marques. In December 2018, Renault announced it would acquire a "significant" stake in JMCG's electric vehicle subsidiary JMEV. In July 2019, Renault took a 50% majority stake from JMEV through capital increase. In April 2020, Renault announced it planned to withdraw from the Dongfeng Renault venture, transferring its stake to Dongfeng.


title: Renault

text: In December 2012, the Algeria's National Investment Fund (FNI), the Société Nationale de Véhicules Industriels (SNVI), and Renault signed an agreement to establish a factory near the city of Oran, Algeria, with the aim of manufacturing Symbol units from 2014 onwards. The production output was estimated at 25,000 vehicles. The Algerian State has a 51% stake in the facility.


title: Renault

text: In September 2013, Renault launched its brand in Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, with the aim of becoming one of the top European brands there until 2016. The model range at the time of the launch consisted of the Duster (locally assembled), the Koleos and the Mégane RS. Later, the Clio and the Captur were also added.


title: Renault

text: In April 2015, the French government upped their stake in Renault from 15% to 19.73% with the aim of blocking a resolution at the next annual general meeting that could reduce its control over the company. In 2017, the government sold back shares and returned to a 15% stake as agreed with Renault.


title: Renault

text: During 2016, Renault changed position on the viability of small (B-segment) diesel cars in Europe, as they become significantly more expensive when re-engineered to comply with new emissions regulations as a result of the Volkswagen emissions scandal. Renault believes that all small and some mid-size (C-segment) will no longer be diesels by 2020. However, on Friday, 13 January 2017, Renault shares fell as the Paris prosecutor started an investigation into possible exhaust emissions cheating. The company later recalled 15,000 cars for emission testing and fixing. Renault, along with several other automobile companies, has been accused of manipulating the measurement equipment for pollution from diesel cars. Independent tests carried out by the German car club ADAC proved that, under normal driving conditions, diesel vehicles, including the Renault Espace, exceeded legal European emission limits for nitrogen oxide () by more than 10 times. Renault denied any foul play, stating compliance with French and European standards.


title: Renault

text: In November 2018, Renault's CEO Ghosn was arrested by Japanese officials for allegedly underreporting his Nissan's salary, following an internal review conducted by the Japanese company. Renault traded shares fell more than 15% after the arrest was known. After Ghosn's arrest, the chief operating officer and company deputy chief Thierry Bolloré became the acting CEO and the board director Philippe Lagayette the acting chairman. In January 2019, following Ghosn's resignation, Renault announced it had appointed Jean-Dominique Senard as chairman and the acting CEO Bolloré as CEO. In October 2019, Bolloré was fired and replaced by Renault's CFO Clotilde Delbos as acting CEO. Bolloré said his dismissal was a "coup" by Senard. In January 2020, Renault announced it had named Italian Luca de Meo as its new CEO, with him taking his post on 1 July. Delbos was named as his deputy.


title: Renault

text: In May 2020, Renault announced a cost-cutting plan aimed at eliminating 15,000 jobs worldwide, about 10% of the company's workforce, due to falling sales and the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Renault

text: In January 2021, as part of a company revamp, Renault said it would divide its automotive division into four business units: Renault, Dacia and Lada, Alpine, and Mobilize (the latter for new "new mobility services").


title: Renault

text: In April 2021, Renault said that its revenue fell by 1.1% from the beginning of 2021 until March and it will reduce car production and focus on models with higher margins.


title: Renault

text: In November 2022, Renault said it plans to spun off the electric car development into a subsidiary company called Ampere. It also plans to spun off its powertrain production and development operations (including internal combustion engines and hybrid systems) into a joint venture company with Geely as co-owner.


title: Renault

text: Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine which began on 24 February, many international, particularly Western companies pulled out of Russia. Unlike most of its Western competitors, Renault has been slow to announce any divestments or scaling back of its operations in Russia, drawing criticism. On 21 March, after a brief halt, Renault resumed production at the Renault Russia car plant near Moscow. On 23 March, while addressing the French National Assembly, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for French companies, including Renault, to leave Russia. Later that day, Renault said it had "suspended" Renault Russia operations and was "assessing the available options" regarding its AvtoVAZ ownership. In May 2022, Renault signed agreements to sell 100% of its shares in Renault Russia to Moscow City entity and its 67.69% interest in AvtoVAZ to NAMI (the Central Research and Development Automobile and Engine Institute). The agreement provides an option for Renault to buy back its interest in AvtoVAZ, exercisable at certain times during the next 6 years.


title: Renault

text: Renault took part in motorsport at the beginning of the 20th century, promoted by Marcel Renault's racing interests and over the years acquired companies with a sporting connection such as Gordini and Alpine.


title: Renault

text: In the seventies, Renault set up a dedicated motorsport division called Renault Sport, and, in 1978, won the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the Renault Alpine A442. Renault has also achieved success in both rallying and in Formula One over the past few decades.


title: Renault

text: The company has also backed various one-make single-seater series such as Formula Renault and the Formula Renault 3.5. These two racing series were a step in the career of thousands of drivers, including Formula One champions Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Räikkönen and Lewis Hamilton, as well as IndyCar champion Will Power.


title: Renault

text: Renault Sport develops and manufactures the Renault Sport-badged cars, as the Renault Clio RS (for Renault Sport) and the Renault Mégane RS, which own the world records in their categories, such as the Nürburgring, and the Suzuka circuit and awards from "What Car?", "Evo", and other magazines.


title: Renault

text: Renault introduced the turbo engine to Formula One when they debuted their first car, the Renault RS01 at Silverstone in 1977. The Renault team continued until 1986. From 1989 Renault supplied engines for the successful Williams-Renault car.


title: Renault

text: Renault took over the Benetton Formula team in 2000 for the 2001 season and renamed it Renault F1 in 2002. In 2005 and 2006 the team won the Constructors' and Drivers' titles (with Fernando Alonso). At the 2005 French Grand Prix Carlos Ghosn set out his policy regarding the company's involvement in motorsport:


title: Renault

text: Renault powered the winning 2010 Red Bull Racing team, and took a similar role with its old team in December 2010, when it sold its final stake to the investment group Genii Capital, the main stakeholder since December 2009, ending Renault's direct role in running a F1 team for the second time.


title: Renault

text: Renault bought the Enstone-based team for the 2016 season, rebranding it Renault. In 2021, the team was renamed Alpine F1 Team and became part of the new Alpine business unit, with Renault retained as the engine nameplate.


title: Renault

text: Renault has been involved in rallying from an early era. Marcel Renault won the 1902 Rallye Paris-Vienna, but lost his life while competing in the 1903 Paris-Madrid rally.


title: Renault

text: During the 1950s and 1960s, Renault manufactured several small cars with rear wheel drive in some cases, as the 4CV, the R8 or the Dauphine. These cars were well-adapted to the rally of the time, and the tuner Amedee Gordini collaborated with its performance. In the 1950s the Renault Dauphine won several international rallies, including the 1956 Mille Miglia and the 1958 Monte Carlo Rally.


title: Renault

text: In 1973, Renault took control of Automobiles Alpine, a related company for several years, which was responsible for building successful rally cars such as the A110. A highly evolved A110 won the first World Rally Championship, representing Alpine-Renault.


title: Renault

text: In 1976, the Alpine's competition department and the Gordini factory at Viry-Chatillon were merged into Renault Sport. The focus shifted to Formula One, although Renault achieved several victories including the 1981 Monte Carlo Rally with the Renault 5 Turbo before retirement from the world rally in late 1994.


title: Renault

text: Renault cars also participate of cross-country races, most prominently the Dakar Rally. The Marreau brothers won the 1982 edition driving a Renault 20 Turbo 4x4 prototype.


title: Renault

text: Later, Renault provided a Renault Megane platform and sponsored the Schlesser-Renault Elf buggies that won the 1999 and 2000 editions. The 1999 car was the first two-wheel drive Dakar's winner.


title: Renault

text: Renault's head office is in Boulogne-Billancourt. The head office is located near the old Renault factories; Renault has maintained a historical presence in Boulogne-Billancourt since the company's opening in 1898.


title: Renault

text: Renault is administered through a board of directors, an executive committee and a management committee. , members of the 19-seat board include Jean-Dominique Senard (as chairman), Cherie Blair, Catherine Barba and Pascale Sourisse. Clotilde Delbos is the acting CEO.


title: Renault

text: Renault concept cars show future design and technology directions. Since 2008, Renault has displayed various all-electric car concepts under the name "Z.E.", for zero emission, starting with a concept based on the Renault Kangoo Be Bop. Further concepts and announcements followed, with the production of the Fluence Z.E. saloon beginning in 2011 and the Renault Zoe in 2012.


title: Renault

text: Renault revealed the Ondelios hybrid concept in 2008. but this was overtaken by the Z.E. programme. However, Renault presented a new hybrid car in September 2014, the Eolab, which incorporates various innovations that the company said will be added to production models by 2020.


title: Renault

text: In 2014 at the New Delhi Auto Show, Renault announced a new model, the Kwid Concept, which comes with helicopter drone.


title: Renault

text: In 2013, Renault became the leader of electric vehicles sales in Europe, thanks to its large range of vehicles (Twizy, Zoe, Fluence, Kangoo). The Renault Zoe was Europe's best selling all-electric car in 2015 and 2016. Global Zoe sales reached the 50,000 unit mark in June 2016, and achieved the 150,000 unit milestone in June 2019. Groupe Renault global electric vehicle sales passed the 100,000 unit milestone in September 2016. Since the launch of the Renault electric program, the Group has sold more than 273,550 electric vehicles worldwide through December 2019. Since inception, a total of 181,893 Zoe city cars, 48,821 Kangoo Z.E. electric vans, 29,118 Twitzy heavy quadricycles, and 10,600 Fluence Z.E. cars have been sold globally through December 2019.


title: Renault

text: Beginning in 2008, Renault made agreements for its planned zero-emissions products, including with Israel, Portugal, Denmark and the US states of Tennessee and Oregon, Yokohama in Japan and the Principality of Monaco. Serge Yoccoz is the electric vehicle project director.


title: Renault

text: In 2008, Renault–Nissan signed a deal to produce electric cars for an initiative in Israel with Better Place, a US company developing new non-petroleum–based transport infrastructure. Renault aimed to sell 10–20,000 cars a year in Israel. Renault also agreed to develop exchangeable batteries for the project. Renault collaborated with Better Place to produce a network of all-electric vehicles and thousands of charging stations in Denmark, planned to be operational by 2011. The Renault Fluence Z.E., was selected for the Israel project. It became the first zero-emission vehicle with a switchable battery, with trials in 2010 undertaken with the Renault Laguna. Renault ended the partnership in 2013, following Better Place's bankruptcy, with only 1,000 vehicle sales in Israel and 240 in Denmark.


title: Renault

text: Renault–Nissan and the largest French electric utility, Électricité de France (EDF), signed an agreement to promote electric vehicles in France. The partnership planned to pilot projects on battery management and charging infrastructure. Renault–Nissan also signed deals with Ireland's Electricity Supply Board (ESB), and in Milton Keynes as part of the UK's Plugged in Places national project.


title: Renault

text: According to Ghosn, the Renault–Nissan alliance was a fundamental step in electric car development, and that they needed each other for other issues such as battery manufacturing, charging infrastructure and business strategy.


title: Renault

text: The Renault–Nissan group is a member of the PHEV Research Center. In September 2013, Renault and Bolloré announced an agreement to collaborate on a new electric vehicle and in car-sharing project.


title: Renault

text: In 2021, Renault launched a new EV and mobility brand called Mobilize and showed a prototype for a small Twizy-style EV called the EZ-1. Renault Group also invested into a start-up company Verkor, that should develop EV batteries and about in 2026 build a gigafactory in France.


title: Renault

text: In 2007 Renault introduced a new line of eco-friendly derivatives marked eco² that were based on production platforms. A minimum of 5% recycled plastic was used and the vehicle's materials were 95% reusable. Eco²'s CO emissions were not to exceed 140g/km, or would be biofuel compatible. At the 2008 Fleet World Honours, Renault received the Environment Award. The chairman of Judges, George Emmerson, commented, "This was the most hotly contested category in the history of the Fleet World Honours, such is the clamour for organizations' green credentials to be recognised. There were some very impressive entries, but the panel felt that Renault's impressive range of low-emission vehicles was the most tangible, and the most quantifiable.


title: Renault

text: The R-Link infotainment system, developed by Renault and the CCETT labs during the 1980s, produced with TomTom and fitted in Renault's vehicles, was ranked first in a user accessibility study performed by an independent consulting British company SBD. R-Link received 85% of the users' satisfaction, whereas the second "big five" automotive maker got a 10% lower satisfaction from the users.


title: Renault

text: Renault plans to introduce autonomous vehicle technology by 2020. The company unveiled a prototype, the Next Two (based on the Zoe), in February 2014.


title: Renault

text: During its early years, Renault only manufactured the cars' chassis, while the bodywork was completed by coachbuilders. The first car with Renault's bodywork was the "Taxi de la Marne" introduced in 1905. Most Renault-made bodyworks were simple and utilitarian until the Reinastella unveiling in 1928. In the 1930s, Renault developed streamlined cars such as the Viva Grand Sport. In the 1950s, the company worked with Ghia designers.


title: Renault

text: In 1961, with the assistance of the independent designer Philippe Charbonneaux (responsible for the R8), the company created Renault Styling as a design department, led by Gaston Juchet since 1963. In 1975, Robert Opron was named chief designer and Renault Styling was divided into Interior, Exterior and Advanced Design groups.


title: Renault

text: In the 1960s, an in-house computer-aided design (CAD) computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) system called UNISURF was introduced, led by Pierre Bézier (who popularised Bézier curves and worked at Renault from 1933 until 1975).


title: Renault

text: In 1987, Renault named Patrick le Quément as chief designer and created the Industrial Design Department to replace Renault Styling. The new division incorporated a new management system, with more technology and personnel. Renault gave it the same importance as Engineering and Product Planning, participating in product development.


title: Renault

text: Le Quément was responsible for bold designs such as the Mégane II and the Vel Satis, giving Renault a more coherent and stylish image. In 1995, Design and Quality were merged under le Quément's direction. Later, the new department moved to Guyancourt's Technocentre, which also became the base for Engineering and Product Planning. The group was organised in three sections: Automobile Design; Truck, LCV and Bus Design; and Concept Cars and Advanced Design. During the next years, satellite centres opened in Spain (1999), Paris (2000), South Korea (2003), Romania (2007), India (2007), Brazil (2008) and China (2019).


title: Renault

text: At the end of 2009, le Quément was replaced by Laurens van den Acker, who introduced the "cycle of life" concept to Renault's design.


title: Renault

text: Most of Renault engineering was decentralised until 1998, when the Technocentre became the main Renault's engineering facility. Satellite centres exist, including Renault Technologies Americas (with branches in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico), Renault Technologies Romania (branches in Morocco, Russia, Slovenia and Turkey) and Renault Technologies Spain (branch in Portugal). , Renault's engineering section had over 6,500 employees worldwide, of which 34% were engineers and 63% technicians. Engine development is in charge of a specific division, Renault Powertrains, with nearly 65 engineers. Overseas engineering is increasing and research and design teams are in charge of adjusting existing vehicles to local needs and budgets.


title: Renault

text: , Engineering, and Product Planning, are directed by Gaspar Gascon Abellan and Philippe Klein respectively.


title: Renault

text: The Renault Technocentre () is the main research and development facility. It is located in Guyancourt. It covers and integrates all departments involved in developing products and industrial processes (design, engineering and product planning) as well as supplier representatives. The Technocentre gathers more than 8,000 employees and comprises three main sections: The Advance Precinct, The Hive and the prototype build centre. The Advance Precinct, a stepped structure surrounded by a lake, has design studios and other departments related to early design stages. The Hive is the tallest structure and includes research and engineering facilities dedicated to the development process of new vehicles. The prototype build centre is an extension of The Hive. The three main structures are accompanied by smaller technical buildings.


title: Renault

text: Renault Tech is a division of Renault Sport Technologies, headquartered in Les Ulis. It was established in 2008 and is in charge of modifying cars and vans for special purposes (mobility cars, driver's school cars, and business fleets).


title: Renault

text: In February 2008, Renault acquired a 25% share in AvtoVAZ, known for its Lada range of vehicles. VAZ had been seeking a strategic partner since the late nineties. After severing its original ties with Fiat, the company had little success in forming an alliance with various firms.


title: Renault

text: Renault began intermittent talks with AvtoVAZ in 2005, initially insisting that CKD assemble Logans at its facilities, while VAZ intended to keep its own Lada brand and sought only a new platform and engine. After several rounds of talks, interrupted by VAZ's attempts to ally with Fiat and Magna, Renault agreed to the partnership under terms similar to its Nissan deal. Renault and Rosoboronexport, the state corporation that was a major stockholder of VAZ, discussed Renault increasing its stake in VAZ to 50%. Following an AvtoVAZ recapitalisation in 2016, Renault held 73.3 of the company, making it a subsidiary. On May 16, 2022, Renault Group announced it sold its 67.69% interest in AvtoVAZ to the Central Research and Development Automobile and Engine Institute, NAMI.


title: Renault

text: In 1999, Renault acquired a 51% controlling stake from the Romanian-based manufacturer Automobile Dacia, which was later increased to 99.43%. As part of the Renault group, Dacia is a regional marque of entry-levels cars focused on Europe and Northern Africa which shares various models with the Renault marque.


title: Renault

text: Renault acquired the car division of Samsung on 1 September 2000 in a $560 million deal for 70% of the company, eventually increasing its stake to 80.1%. Renault Samsung Motors is a marque used almost exclusively in South Korea (although some models are sold in Chile). The majority of the company's production at its Busan plant is exported under the Renault badge.


title: Renault

text: RCI Banque is a wholly owned subsidiary that provides financial services for Renault marques worldwide and Nissan marques in Europe, Russia and South America.


title: Renault

text: Renault Retail Group is Renault's wholly owned automobile distributor for Europe. In 1997, the French branches were merged to establish the subsidiary Renault France Automobiles (RFA). In 2001, it served as the basis for Renault Europe Automobiles (REA), which managed sales in Europe. In 2008, the company adopted its current name. Renault Retail Group operates in France, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.


title: Renault

text: Renault has a 43.4% stake in Nissan, and Nissan holds a 15% stake (with no voting rights) in Renault, thereby giving it effective control. Renault has a 50% stake in the joint venture Renault-Nissan b.v., which was established to manage the Renault-Nissan alliance. The company is responsible for the management of two joint companies, RNPO (Renault Nissan Purchasing Organization) and RNIS (Renault-Nissan Information Services). Combined vehicle sales in 2008 reached 6.9 million (including AvtoVAZ), making the Renault-Nissan Alliance the world's third-largest automotive group.


title: Renault

text: As well as sharing engines and joint-development of zero-emissions technology, Nissan increased its presence in Europe by badging various Renault van models such as the Renault Kangoo/Nissan Kubistar, Renault Master/Nissan Interstar and the Renault Trafic/Nissan Primastar. Some passenger cars have also been badge-engineered, such as the Renault Clio-based Nissan Platina in Brazil. The "Renault Production System" standard used by all Renault factories borrowed extensively from the "Nissan Production Way" and resulted in Renault productivity improving by 15%. The alliance led to the loss of 21,000 jobs, and the closure of three assemby and two powertrain plants.


title: Renault

text: In March 2010 the Renault-Nissan alliance opened its first joint facility in Chennai, India, investing 45 billion rupees (US$991.1 million). The facility builds the Nissan Micra. The Renault Fluence and Renault Koleos are intended to be assembled there from completely knocked-down units. As a result of opening its own factory, Renault ended its five-year Mahindra Renault joint venture with Mahindra & Mahindra company to make and sell the Renault Logan in India.


title: Renault

text: On 7 April 2010 Ghosn and Daimler AG CEO Dieter Zetsche announced a partnership between the three companies. Daimler acquired a 3.10 per cent stake in Renault-Nissan and Renault and Nissan each took a 1.55 per cent stake in Daimler.


title: Renault

text: In 1979, Renault entered into an agreement with American Motors Corporation (AMC) to sell cars in the US. A year later, Renault acquired a 22.5% interest in AMC. This was not the first time the two companies had worked together. In the early 1960s, Renault assembled CKD kits and marketed Ramblers in France. In 1982, Renault increased its stake in AMC to 46.4%. The Renault Alliance/Encore (a modified version of the Renault 9 and 11) entered production in the US, but following AMC's continued decline, Renault withdrew from the US in 1987 and sold its share to Chrysler.


title: Renault

text: On 30 June 2006, the media reported that General Motors convened an emergency board meeting to discuss a proposal by shareholder Kirk Kerkorian to form an alliance with Renault-Nissan. However, GM CEO Richard Wagoner felt that an alliance would disproportionately benefit Renault's shareholders and that GM should receive compensation accordingly. Talks between GM and Renault ended on 4 October 2006.


title: Renault

text: In 2007, Renault-Nissan entered talks with Indian manufacturer Bajaj Auto to develop a new ultra-low-cost car along the lines of the Tata Nano. Renault's existing partner in India, Mahindra, was not interested in the project. The proposed joint venture did not come to fruition and in late 2009 the companies announced that Bajaj would develop and manufacturer the vehicle and supply Renault-Nissan with completed cars.


title: Renault

text: On 7 October 2008 a Renault executive said the company was interested in acquiring or partnering with Chrysler. On 11 October 2008, the "New York Times" reported that General Motors, Nissan and Renault had all been in discussions over the past month with Chrysler's owner Cerberus Capital Management about acquiring Chrysler.


title: Renault

text: In May 2019, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles proposed merging its business with Renault. The proposal was later withdrawn.


title: Renault

text: Renault cars have won numerous national-level awards in Spain, Australia, Ireland, the United States, Denmark, and elsewhere. Renault and its Dacia subsidiary have won three "Autobest" car of the year awards for the Duster, Logan, and Symbol models.


title: Renault

text: Under the patronage of the Italian Ministry of Culture, in the 2016 edition of the Corporate Art Awards Renault received by pptArt the award for its Art Collection that inspired the creativity of its car designers.


title: Renault

text: Renault markets its products under five marques: Renault, Lada, Dacia, Renault Samsung Motors, and Alpine.


title: Renault

text: Renault's first badge was introduced in 1900 and consisted of the Renault brothers' intertwined initials. When the company started mass production in 1906, it adopted a gear-shaped logo with a car inside it. After World War I the company used a logo depicting an FT tank. In 1923 it introduced a new circle-shaped badge, which was replaced by the "diamond" or lozenge in 1925. The lozenge of Renault means a diamond that expresses the brand's firm desire to project a strong and consistent corporate image.


title: Renault

text: The Renault diamond logo has been through many iterations. To modernise its image, Renault asked Victor Vasarely to design its new logo in 1972. The transformed logo maintained the diamond shape. The design was later revised to reflect the more rounded lines of the brand's new styling cues. The current badge has been in use since 1992.


title: Renault

text: The logo for web and print use was updated three times thereafter. In 2002 a more realistic representation inside a yellow rectangle was made which is still used as the Renault Trucks logo albeit in red. In 2004 the logo received the "Renault Identité" typeface. In 2007, Saguez & Partners produced a version with the wordmark and logo inside a square.


title: Renault

text: In April 2015, Renault introduced new designs to differentiate the company from the product brand, as part of the 'Passion for life' campaign. The new brand logo replaced the yellow background with a yellow stripe. A new typeface was also introduced. A corporate logo was unveiled at the 2015 Annual General Meeting, incorporating Renault, Dacia and Renault Samsung Motors.


title: Renault

text: January 2021 saw the introduction of a new flat diamond logo alongside the Renault 5 Prototype electric concept car. The logo received so much positive feedback that Renault officially introduced the new symbol as their logo in March 2021, according to Renault's design director Gilles Vidal, who joined the group in 2020. They plan to introduce the new diamond on many online platforms in June 2021 and the first model with the new logo featured will be revealed in 2022.


title: Renault

text: The yellow associated with the company appeared initially in the diamond badge of 1946, when Renault was nationalised.


title: Renault

text: Both the Renault logo and its documentation (technical as well as commercial) historically used "Renault MN," a custom typeface developed by British firm Wolff Olins. This type of family is said to have been designed mainly to save costs at a time where the use of typefaces was costly.


title: Renault

text: In 2004, French typeface designer Jean-François Porchez was commissioned to design a replacement. This was shown in October of that year and was called "Renault Identité". The OpenType font family was developed from the Renault logotype created by Éric de Berranger.


title: Renault

text: Since 2007, as part of the Saguez & Partners revamp, all graphic advertising makes use of Helvetica Neue Condensed.


title: Renault

text: The Renault Life font family was built by Fontsmith Limited, based on the foundry's FS Hackney font family.


title: Renault

text: The family consists of six fonts in three weights (Life, Regular, and Bold) and one width, with complimentary italic.


title: Renault

text: Renault's flagship showroom, L'Atelier Renault (), is located on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, with other manufacturers such as Peugeot, Citroën and Toyota. It opened in November 2000, located on the site of Pub Renault, which operated from 1963 until 1999. The first Renault venue at the location was the "Magasin Renault" in 1910, a pioneering car showroom.


title: Renault

text: L'Atelier features a Renault Boutique as well as regular exhibitions featuring Renault and Dacia cars. An upmarket restaurant is located on the second floor, looking out onto the Champs-Élysées. The ground floor can hold up to five exhibitions at any one time. As of March 2009, 20 million visitors had visited L'Atelier Renault.


title: Renault

text: Renault Classic is a department within Renault that seeks to collect, preserve and exhibit notable vehicles from the company's history. Originally named Histoire & Collection, the collection was assembled in 2002 and its workshops formally opened on 24 April 2003.


title: Renault

text: Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Renault's European advertising made extensive use of Robert Palmer's song "Johnny and Mary". Television advertisements initially used Palmer's original version, while a range of special recordings in different styles were produced during the 1990s, most famously the acoustic interpretation by Martin Taylor that he released on his album "Spirit of Django".


title: Renault

text: Renault has sponsored films as an advertising technique since 1899. A Renault Voiturette Type A, driven by Louis Renault, appeared in one of the Lumières' early films. Between 1914 and 1940, the company commissioned a series of documentary films to promote its industrial activities. Renault also backed some films set in Africa during the 1920s to promote the reliability of its products on tough conditions. Since 1983, the company sponsors the Cannes Film Festival and it has also sponsored other festivals as the Venice Film Festival, the Marrakech Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival.


title: Renault

text: Through its foundations and institutes, Renault funds projects around the world that focus on: education through scholarships, road safety and diversity.


title: Lucie Arnaz

text: Lucie Désirée Arnaz (born July 17, 1951) is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of actors Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.


title: Lucie Arnaz

text: Arnaz was born at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of actors Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, and is the sister of actor Desi Arnaz Jr.


title: Lucie Arnaz

text: She lived for a few years in New York City when she was 10 years old, and attended St. Vincent Ferrer School, along with her brother, and attended the Roman Catholic Immaculate Heart High School.


title: Lucie Arnaz

text: Having had walk-on roles on her mother's television series "The Lucy Show", Arnaz made her acting debut in a continuing role in the series "Here's Lucy" from 1968 to 1974. She played Kim Carter, the daughter of the eponymous Lucy—who was played by Arnaz's real-life mother, Lucille Ball.


title: Lucie Arnaz

text: Arnaz branched out into television roles independent of her family from the mid-1970s. In 1975, she played murder victim Elizabeth Short in an NBC telefilm of "Who Is the Black Dahlia?",


title: Lucie Arnaz

text: Arnaz also had a short-lived series of her own, "The Lucie Arnaz Show", on CBS in 1985. The reviewer for "The New York Times" described the show as "the always ingratiating Miss Arnaz as a psychologist who not only writes an advice column, but also takes calls from listeners on her own radio program."


title: Lucie Arnaz

text: Another eponymous series, this one a late-night-style talk show, aired for one season from 1995 to 1996. It was unsuccessful, but "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" would use the same format a year later to much greater success, prompting Arnaz's agent to pitch a revival that would not be picked up.


title: Lucie Arnaz

text: Arnaz won an Emmy Award in 1993 for Outstanding Informational Special for her documentary about her parents, "Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie".


title: Lucie Arnaz

text: Arnaz has had a lengthy career in musical theatre. In June 1978 she played the title role in "Annie Get Your Gun" at the Jones Beach Theatre on Long Island, New York. This was the first production at Jones Beach Theatre after the death of longtime producer Guy Lombardo. In 1981, she played the lead female role in "Educating Rita" at The Cape Playhouse in Dennis, Massachusetts.


title: Lucie Arnaz

text: She made her Broadway debut in February 1979 in the musical "They're Playing Our Song". Arnaz won the Theatre World Award


title: Lucie Arnaz

text: She has numerous other theater credits, both in the United States and abroad: "Seesaw" (first national company, 1974), "Whose Life Is It Anyway?", "The Guardsman" (Paper Mill Playhouse, Millburn, New Jersey, January 1984), "" (Concert at Lincoln Center, 1995, televised), "Sonia Flew" (Coconut Grove Playhouse, Florida, April 2006), "The Witches of Eastwick" (London, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, June 2000), "Vanities" (Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, 1976 as "Kathy"), Neil Simon's "Lost in Yonkers" (Broadway), "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" (Broadway, May 23, 2006, to September 3, 2006), and Terence McNally's "Master Class" (Seacoast Repertory Theatre, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, April to May 1999).


title: Lucie Arnaz

text: In 2010, Arnaz performed (along with Raúl Esparza and Valarie Pettiford) in and directed "Babalu: A Celebration of the Music of Desi Arnaz and his Orchestra". A Miami, Florida performance was given in July 2010.


title: Lucie Arnaz

text: She toured in "Pippin" in 2014, playing the role of Berthe, the title character's grandmother. She appeared on Broadway in "Pippin", from October 9, 2014, to November 9, 2014.


title: Lucie Arnaz

text: Arnaz made feature-film appearances, including "The Jazz Singer" (1980) in which she co-starred with Neil Diamond and Laurence Olivier. She earned a nomination for the 1981 Golden Globe Award, Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. She also appeared in the 1982 comedy drama "One More Try" opposite her future husband, Lawrence Luckinbill.


title: Lucie Arnaz

text: Arnaz was married to Philip Vandervort Menegaux from July 17, 1971, to April 1976. On 22 June 1980 she married actor-writer Laurence Luckinbill. Luckinbill and Arnaz live in Palm Springs, California.


title: Lucie Arnaz

text: Arnaz and Luckinbill have three children: Simon, Joseph and Katharine Luckinbill. Luckinbill also has two sons from his previous marriage: Nicholas and Benjamin Luckinbill.


title: Lucie Arnaz

text: Arnaz attended an all-girls Catholic high school, mainly because of its drama program. She is a member of Unity.


title: 20 July plot

text: On 20 July 1944, Claus von Stauffenberg and other conspirators attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of Nazi Germany, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia, now Kętrzyn, in present-day Poland. The name "Operation Valkyrie"—originally referring to part of the conspiracy—has become associated with the entire event.


title: 20 July plot

text: The apparent aim of the assassination attempt was to wrest political control of Germany and its armed forces from the Nazi Party (including the SS) and to make peace with the Western Allies as soon as possible. The details of the conspirators' peace initiatives remain unknown, but they would have included unrealistic demands for the confirmation of Germany's extensive annexations of European territory.


title: 20 July plot

text: The plot was the culmination of efforts by several groups in the German resistance to overthrow the Nazi German government. The failure of the assassination attempt and the intended military , or putsch, that was to follow led the Gestapo to arrest more than 7,000 people, 4,980 of whom were executed.


title: 20 July plot

text: Since 1938, there had been groups plotting an overthrow of some kind within the German Army and in the German Military Intelligence Organization. Early leaders of these plots included Major General Hans Oster, Colonel General Ludwig Beck and Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben. Oster was the deputy head of the Military Intelligence Office. Beck was a former Chief of Staff of the German Army High Command (OKH). Von Witzleben was the former commander of the German 1st Army and the former Commander-in-Chief of the German Army Command in the West. They soon established contacts with several prominent civilians, including Carl Goerdeler, the former mayor of Leipzig, and Helmuth James von Moltke, the great-grandnephew of Moltke the Elder, hero of the Franco-Prussian War.


title: 20 July plot

text: Groups of military plotters exchanged ideas with civilian, political, and intellectual resistance groups in the Kreisauer Kreis (which met at the von Moltke estate in Kreisau) and in other secret circles. Moltke was against killing Hitler; instead, he wanted him placed on trial. Moltke said, "we are all amateurs and would only bungle it". Moltke also believed killing Hitler would be hypocritical: Hitler and National Socialism had turned wrongdoing into a system, something which the resistance should avoid.


title: 20 July plot

text: Plans to stage an overthrow and prevent Hitler from launching a new world war were developed in 1938 and 1939, but were aborted because of the indecision of Army General Franz Halder and Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch, and the failure of the Western powers to oppose Hitler's aggression until 1939.


title: 20 July plot

text: In 1942, a new conspiratorial group formed, led by Colonel Henning von Tresckow, a member of Field Marshal Fedor von Bock's staff, who commanded Army Group Centre in Operation Barbarossa. Tresckow systematically recruited oppositionists into the Group's staff, making it the nerve centre of the army resistance. Little could be done against Hitler as he was heavily guarded, and none of the plotters could get near enough to him.


title: 20 July plot

text: During 1942, Oster and Tresckow nevertheless succeeded in rebuilding an effective resistance network. Their most important recruit was General Friedrich Olbricht, head of the General Army Office headquarters at the Bendlerblock in central Berlin, who controlled an independent system of communications to reserve units throughout Germany. Linking this asset to Tresckow's resistance group in Army Group Centre created a viable coup apparatus.


title: 20 July plot

text: In late 1942, Tresckow and Olbricht formulated a plan to assassinate Hitler and stage an overthrow during Hitler's visit to the headquarters of Army Group Centre at Smolensk in March 1943, by placing a bomb on his plane (Operation Spark). The bomb failed to detonate, and a second attempt a week later with Hitler at an exhibition of captured Soviet weaponry in Berlin also failed. These failures demoralised the conspirators. During 1943 Tresckow tried without success to recruit senior army field commanders such as Field Marshal Erich von Manstein and Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, to support a seizure of power. Tresckow, in particular, worked on his Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Centre, Field Marshal Günther von Kluge, to persuade him to move against Hitler and at times succeeded in gaining his consent, only to find him indecisive at the last minute. However, despite their refusals, none of the Field Marshals reported their treasonous activities to the Gestapo or Hitler.


title: 20 July plot

text: While the main goal of the plotters was to remove Hitler from power, they did so for various reasons. The majority of the group behind the 20 July plot were conservative nationalists—idealists, but not necessarily of a democratic stripe. Martin Borschat portrays their motivations as a matter of aristocratic resentment, writing that the plot was mainly carried out by conservative elites who were initially integrated by the Nazi government but during the war lost their influence and were concerned about regaining it. However, at least in Stauffenberg's case, the conviction that Nazi Germany's atrocities against civilians and prisoners of war were a dishonour to the nation and its military was likely a major motivating factor. Historian Judith Michel assesses the circle around the 20 July Group as a diverse and heterogeneous group that included liberal democrats, conservatives, social democrats, authoritarian aristocrats, and even communists. The common goal was to overthrow Hitler's regime and bring the war to a swift end. There is evidence of the plot encompassing a broad spectrum of plotters which included Communists in that in April, prior to the attempted coup, Stauffenberg agreed to cooperate with the Operational Leadership of the KPD (Communist Party of Germany) remaining in Germany. Contacts were established through the Social Democrats Adolf Reichwein and Julius Leber.


title: 20 July plot

text: Among demands initially countenanced by the plotters for issue towards the Allies were such points as re-establishment of Germany's 1914 boundaries with Belgium, France and Poland and no reparations. Plotters' demands meant a return to pre-1939 German borders; it seems highly unlikely that the Allies would have accepted such enormous demands. Like most of the rest of German resistance, the 20 July plotters believed in the idea of Greater Germany and as a condition for peace demanded that the western allies recognize as a minimum the incorporation of Austria, Alsace-Lorraine, Sudetenland, and the annexation of Polish-inhabited territories that Germany ceded to Poland after 1918, with the restoration of some of the overseas colonies. They believed that Europe should be controlled under German hegemony.


title: 20 July plot

text: The overall goals towards Poland were mixed within the plotters. Most of the plotters found it desirable to restore the old German borders of 1914, while others pointed out that the demands were unrealistic and amendments had to be made. Some like Friedrich-Werner Graf von der Schulenburg even wanted all of Poland annexed to Germany.


title: 20 July plot

text: To Poland, which was fighting against Nazi Germany with both its army and government in exile, the territorial demands and traditional nationalistic visions of resistance were not much different from the racist policies of Hitler. Stauffenberg, as one of the leaders of the plot, stated five years before the coup in 1939 during the Poland campaign: "It is essential that we begin a systemic colonisation in Poland. But I have no fear that this will not occur."


title: 20 July plot

text: Many members of the plot had helped the Nazis gain power and shared revisionist foreign policy goals pursued by Hitler, and even at the time of the plot were anti-democratic, hoping to replace Hitler with a conservative-authoritarian government involving aristocratic rule. They opposed popular legitimation or mass participation in governance of the state.


title: 20 July plot

text: By mid-1943, the tide of war was turning decisively against Germany. The army plotters and their civilian allies became convinced that Hitler should be assassinated, so that a government acceptable to the western Allies could be formed, and a separate peace negotiated in time to prevent a Soviet invasion of Germany. In August 1943, Tresckow met, for the first time, a young staff officer named Lieutenant Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg. Severely wounded in North Africa, Claus von Stauffenberg was a political conservative and zealous German nationalist.


title: 20 July plot

text: From early 1942, he had come to share two basic convictions with many military officers: that Germany was being led to disaster and that Hitler's removal from power was necessary. After the Battle of Stalingrad in December 1942, despite his religious scruples, he concluded that the Führer's assassination was a lesser moral evil than Hitler's remaining in power. Stauffenberg brought a new tone of decisiveness to the ranks of the resistance movement. When Tresckow was assigned to the Eastern Front, Stauffenberg took charge of planning and executing the assassination attempt.


title: 20 July plot

text: Olbricht now put forward a new strategy for staging a coup against Hitler. The Replacement Army ("Ersatzheer") had an operational plan called Operation Valkyrie, which was to be used in the event that the disruption caused by the Allied bombing of German cities would cause a breakdown in law and order, or an uprising by the millions of forced labourers from occupied countries now being used in German factories. Olbricht suggested that this plan could be used to mobilise the Reserve Army for the purpose of the coup.


title: 20 July plot

text: In August and September 1943, Tresckow drafted the "revised" Valkyrie plan and new supplementary orders. A secret declaration began with these words: "The Führer Adolf Hitler is dead! A treacherous group of party leaders has attempted to exploit the situation by attacking our embattled soldiers from the rear in order to seize power for themselves." Detailed instructions were written for occupation of government ministries in Berlin, Heinrich Himmler's headquarters in East Prussia, radio stations and telephone offices, and other Nazi apparatus through military districts, and concentration camps.


title: 20 July plot

text: Previously, it was believed that Stauffenberg was mainly responsible for the Valkyrie plan, but documents recovered by the Soviet Union after the war and released in 2007 suggest that the plan was developed by Tresckow by autumn of 1943. All written information was handled by Tresckow's wife, Erika, and by Margarethe von Oven, his secretary. Both women wore gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints. On at least two other occasions Tresckow had tried to assassinate the Führer. The first plan was to shoot him during dinner at the army base camp, but this plan was aborted because it was widely believed that Hitler wore a bullet-proof vest. The conspirators also considered poisoning him, but this was not possible because his food was specially prepared and tasted. They concluded that a time bomb was the only option.


title: 20 July plot

text: Operation Valkyrie could only be put into effect by General Friedrich Fromm, commander of the Reserve Army, so he had to be either won over to the conspiracy or in some way neutralised if the plan was to succeed.


title: 20 July plot

text: During 1943 and early 1944 von Tresckow and von Stauffenberg organised at least five attempts to get one of the military conspirators near enough to Hitler, for long enough to kill him with hand grenades, bombs, or a revolver:


title: 20 July plot

text: As the war situation deteriorated, Hitler no longer appeared in public and rarely visited Berlin. He spent most of his time at his headquarters at the near Rastenburg in East Prussia, with occasional breaks at his Bavarian mountain retreat Obersalzberg near Berchtesgaden. In both places, he was heavily guarded and rarely saw people he did not know or trust. Himmler and the Gestapo were increasingly suspicious of plots against Hitler and rightly suspected the officers of the General Staff, which was indeed the source of many conspiracies against him.


title: 20 July plot

text: By the summer of 1944, the Gestapo was closing in on the conspirators. When Stauffenberg sent Tresckow a message through Lieutenant Heinrich Graf von Lehndorff-Steinort asking whether there was any reason for trying to assassinate Hitler given that no political purpose would be served, Tresckow's response was: "The assassination must be attempted, "coûte que coûte" [whatever the cost]. Even if it fails, we must take action in Berlin , for the practical purpose no longer matters; what matters now is that the German resistance movement must take the plunge before the eyes of the world and of history. Compared to that, nothing else matters."


title: 20 July plot

text: Himmler had at least one conversation with a known oppositionist when, in August 1943, the Prussian Finance Minister Johannes Popitz, who was involved in Goerdeler's network, came to see him and offered him the support of the opposition if he would make a move to displace Hitler and secure a negotiated end to the war. Nothing came of this meeting, but Popitz was not immediately arrested (although he was later executed towards the end of the war), and Himmler apparently did nothing to track down the resistance network which he knew was operating within the state bureaucracy. It is possible that Himmler, who by late 1943 knew that the war was unwinnable, allowed the plot to go ahead in the belief that if it succeeded he would be Hitler's successor, and could then bring about a peace settlement.


title: 20 July plot

text: Popitz was not alone in seeing Himmler as a potential ally. General von Bock advised Tresckow to seek his support, but there is no evidence that he did so. Goerdeler was apparently also in indirect contact with Himmler via a mutual acquaintance, Carl Langbehn. Wilhelm Canaris biographer Heinz Höhne suggests that Canaris and Himmler were working together to bring about a change of regime, but this remains speculation.


title: 20 July plot

text: Tresckow and the inner circle of plotters had no intention of removing Hitler just to see him replaced by the dreaded and ruthless SS chief, and the plan was to kill them both if possible—to the extent that Stauffenberg's first attempt on 11 July was aborted because Himmler was not present.


title: 20 July plot

text: On Saturday, 1 July 1944 Stauffenberg was appointed Chief of Staff to General Fromm at the Reserve Army headquarters on Bendlerstraße in central Berlin. This position enabled Stauffenberg to attend Hitler's military conferences, either at the "Wolfsschanze" in East Prussia or at Berchtesgaden, and would thus give him an opportunity, perhaps the last that would present itself, to kill Hitler with a bomb or a pistol. Meanwhile, new key allies had been gained. These included General Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel, the German military commander in France, who would take control in Paris when Hitler was killed, and it was hoped, negotiate an immediate armistice with the invading Allied armies.


title: 20 July plot

text: The plot was now fully prepared. On 7 July 1944 General Helmuth Stieff was to kill Hitler at a display of new uniforms at Klessheim castle near Salzburg. However, Stieff felt unable to kill Hitler. Stauffenberg now decided to do both, assassinate Hitler and to manage the plot in Berlin.


title: 20 July plot

text: On 14 July Stauffenberg attended Hitler's conferences carrying a bomb in his briefcase, but because the conspirators had decided that Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Göring should be killed simultaneously if the planned mobilisation of Operation Valkyrie was to have a chance to succeed, he held back at the last minute because Himmler was not present. In fact, it was unusual for Himmler to attend military conferences.


title: 20 July plot

text: By 15 July, when Stauffenberg again flew to the , this condition had been dropped. The plan was for Stauffenberg to plant the briefcase with the bomb in Hitler's conference room with a timer running, excuse himself from the meeting, wait for the explosion, then fly back to Berlin and join the other plotters at the Bendlerblock. Operation Valkyrie would be mobilised, the Reserve Army would take control of Germany and the other Nazi leaders would be arrested. Beck would be appointed provisional head of state, Goerdeler would be chancellor, and Witzleben would be commander-in-chief of the armed forces.


title: 20 July plot

text: Again on 15 July, the attempt was called off at the last minute. Himmler and Göring were present, but Hitler was called out of the room at the last moment. Stauffenberg was able to intercept the bomb and prevent its discovery.


title: 20 July plot

text: On 18 July rumours reached Stauffenberg that the Gestapo had knowledge of the conspiracy and that he might be arrested at any time—this was apparently not true, but there was a sense that the net was closing in and that the next opportunity to kill Hitler must be taken because there might not be another. On the morning of Thursday, 20 July Stauffenberg flew back to the "Wolfsschanze" for another Hitler military conference, once again with a bomb in his briefcase.


title: 20 July plot

text: At around 12:30 pm as the conference began, Stauffenberg asked to use a washroom in Wilhelm Keitel's office, saying that he had to change his shirt, which indeed was soaked through with sweat, it being a very hot day. There, assisted by von Haeften, he used pliers to crush the end of a pencil detonator inserted into a block of plastic explosive wrapped in brown paper, that was prepared by Wessel von Freytag-Loringhoven. The pencil detonator consisted of a thin copper tube containing cupric chloride that would take about ten minutes to silently eat through wire holding back the firing pin from the percussion cap. It was slow going due to war wounds that had cost Stauffenberg an eye, his right hand, and two fingers on his left hand. Interrupted by a guard knocking on the door advising him that the meeting was about to begin, he was not able to prime the second bomb, which he gave to his , Werner von Haeften.


title: 20 July plot

text: Stauffenberg placed the single primed bomb inside his briefcase and, with the unwitting assistance of Major Ernst John von Freyend, entered the conference room containing Hitler and 20 officers, positioning the briefcase under the table near Hitler. After a few minutes, Stauffenberg received a planned telephone call and left the room. It is presumed that Colonel Heinz Brandt, who was standing next to Hitler, used his foot to move the briefcase aside by pushing it behind the leg of the conference table, thus unwittingly deflecting the blast from Hitler but causing the loss of one of his legs and his own demise when the bomb detonated.


title: 20 July plot

text: At 12:42 the bomb detonated, demolishing the conference room and killing a stenographer instantly. More than 20 people in the room were injured with three officers later perishing. Hitler survived, as did everyone else who was shielded from the blast by the conference table leg. His trousers were singed and tattered (see photograph below) and he suffered from a perforated eardrum, as did most of the other 24 people in the room.


title: 20 July plot

text: Stauffenberg was seen leaving the conference building by Kurt Salterberg, a soldier on guard duty who did not consider this out of the ordinary as attendees sometimes left to collect documents. He then saw a "massive" cloud of smoke, wood splinters and paper and men being hurled through a window and door. Stauffenberg, upon witnessing the explosion and smoke, erroneously assumed that Hitler was dead. He then climbed into a staff car with his aide Werner von Haeften and managed to bluff his way past three checkpoints to exit the complex. Werner von Haeften then tossed the second unprimed bomb into the forest as they made a dash for Rastenburg airfield, reaching it before it could be realised that Stauffenberg could be responsible for the explosion. By 13:00 he was airborne in a Heinkel He 111 arranged by General Eduard Wagner.


title: 20 July plot

text: By the time Stauffenberg's aircraft reached Berlin about 16:00, General Erich Fellgiebel, an officer at the who was in on the plot, had phoned the Bendlerblock and told the plotters that Hitler had survived the explosion. As a result, the plot to mobilise Operation Valkyrie would have no chance of succeeding once the officers of the Reserve Army knew that Hitler was alive. There was more confusion when Stauffenberg's aircraft landed and he phoned from the airport to say that Hitler was in fact dead. The Bendlerblock plotters did not know whom to believe.


title: 20 July plot

text: Finally, at 16:00 Olbricht issued the orders for Operation Valkyrie to be mobilised. The vacillating General Fromm, however, phoned Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel at the Wolf's Lair and was assured that Hitler was alive. Keitel demanded to know Stauffenberg's whereabouts. This told Fromm that the plot had been traced to his headquarters and that he was in mortal danger. Fromm replied that he thought Stauffenberg was with Hitler.


title: 20 July plot

text: Meanwhile, Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel, military governor of occupied France, managed to disarm the SD and SS and captured most of their leadership. He travelled to Günther von Kluge's headquarters and asked him to contact the Allies, only to be informed that Hitler was alive. At 16:40 Stauffenberg and Haeften arrived at the Bendlerblock. Fromm, presumably to protect himself, changed sides and attempted to have Stauffenberg arrested. Olbricht and Stauffenberg restrained him at gunpoint and Olbricht then appointed General Erich Hoepner to take over his duties.


title: 20 July plot

text: By this time Himmler had taken charge of the situation and had issued orders countermanding Olbricht's mobilisation of Operation Valkyrie. In many places the coup was going ahead, led by officers who believed that Hitler was dead. City Commandant, and conspirator, General Paul von Hase ordered the , under the command of Major Otto Ernst Remer, to secure the Wilhelmstraße and arrest Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. In Vienna, Prague, and many other places troops occupied Nazi Party offices and arrested Gauleiters and SS officers.


title: 20 July plot

text: At around 18:10, the commander of Military District III (Berlin), General Joachim von Kortzfleisch, was summoned to the Bendlerblock; he angrily refused Olbricht's orders, kept shouting "the Führer is alive", was arrested, and held under guard. General Karl Freiherr von Thüngen was appointed in his place but proved to be of almost no help. General Fritz Lindemann, who was supposed to make a proclamation to the German people over the radio, failed to appear and as he held the only copy, Beck had to work on a new one.


title: 20 July plot

text: At 19:00, Hitler was sufficiently recovered to make phone calls. He called Goebbels at the Propaganda Ministry. Goebbels arranged for Hitler to speak to Major Remer, commander of the troops surrounding the Ministry. After assuring him that he was still alive, Hitler ordered Remer to regain control of the situation in Berlin. Major Remer ordered his troops to surround and seal off the Bendlerblock, but not to enter the buildings. At 20:00 a furious Witzleben arrived at the Bendlerblock and had a bitter argument with Stauffenberg, who was still insisting that the coup could go ahead. Witzleben left shortly afterwards. At around this time the planned seizure of power in Paris was aborted when Field Marshal Günther von Kluge, who had recently been appointed commander-in-chief in the west, learned that Hitler was alive.


title: 20 July plot

text: As Remer regained control of the city and word spread that Hitler was still alive, the less resolute members of the conspiracy in Berlin began to change sides. Fromm was freed from his room and fighting broke out in the Bendlerblock between officers supporting and opposing the coup; Stauffenberg was wounded after a shootout. As the fighting was still ongoing, Remer and his forces arrived at the Bendlerblock and the conspirators were overwhelmed and arrested; by 23:00 Fromm and Remer had regained control of the building.


title: 20 July plot

text: Perhaps hoping that a show of zealous loyalty would save him, Fromm convened an impromptu court martial consisting of himself, and sentenced Olbricht, Stauffenberg, Haeften and another officer, Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim, to death, while putting Beck under arrest; Beck, realising the situation was hopeless, asked for a pistol and shot himself—the first of many attempted suicides in the coming days. At first Beck only seriously wounded himself—he was then shot in the neck and killed by soldiers. Despite protests from Remer (who had been ordered by Hitler to arrest the conspirators), at 00:10 on 21 July the four officers were executed in the courtyard outside, possibly to prevent them from revealing Fromm's involvement. Others would have been executed as well, but at 00:30 Waffen-SS personnel led by "Obersturmbannführer" Otto Skorzeny arrived and further executions were forbidden.


title: 20 July plot

text: Over the following weeks, Himmler's Gestapo, driven by a furious Hitler, rounded up nearly everyone who had the remotest connection with the plot. The discovery of letters and diaries in the homes and offices of those arrested revealed the plots of 1938, 1939, and 1943, and this led to further rounds of arrests, including that of colonel general Franz Halder, who finished the war in a concentration camp. Under Himmler's new (blood guilt) laws, many relatives of the principal plotters were also arrested in the immediate aftermath of the failed plot.


title: 20 July plot

text: More than 7,000 people were arrested and 4,980 were executed. Not all of them were connected with the plot, since the Gestapo used the occasion to settle scores with many other people suspected of opposition sympathies. Alfons Heck, former Hitler Youth member and later a historian, describes the reaction many Germans felt to the punishments of the conspirators:


title: 20 July plot

text: Allied radio stations also speculated on who the possible remaining suspects could be, many of whom were eventually implicated in the plot.


title: 20 July plot

text: Very few of the plotters tried to escape or to deny their guilt when arrested. Those who survived interrogation were given perfunctory trials before the People's Court, a kangaroo court that always decided in favour of the prosecution. The court's president, Roland Freisler, was a fanatical Nazi seen shouting furiously and insulting the accused in the trial, which was filmed for propaganda purposes. The plotters were stripped of their uniforms and given old, shabby clothing to humiliate them for the cameras. The officers involved in the plot were "tried" before the Court of Military Honour, a drumhead court-martial that merely considered the evidence furnished to it by the Gestapo before expelling the accused from the Army in disgrace and handing them over to the People's Court.


title: 20 July plot

text: The first trials were held on 7 and 8 August 1944. Hitler had ordered that those found guilty should be "hanged like cattle". Many people took their own lives prior to either their trial or their execution, including Kluge, who was accused of having knowledge of the plot beforehand and not revealing it to Hitler. Stülpnagel tried to commit suicide, but survived and was hanged.


title: 20 July plot

text: Tresckow killed himself the day after the failed plot by use of a hand grenade in no man's land between Russian and German lines.


title: 20 July plot

text: Fromm's attempt to win favour by executing Stauffenberg and others on the night of 20 July had merely exposed his own previous lack of action and apparent failure to report the plot. Having been arrested on 21 July, Fromm was later convicted and sentenced to death by the People's Court. Despite his knowledge of the conspiracy, his formal sentence charged him with poor performance in his duties. He was executed in Brandenburg an der Havel. Hitler personally commuted his death sentence from hanging to the "more honourable" firing squad. Erwin Planck, the son of the famous physicist Max Planck, was executed for his involvement.


title: 20 July plot

text: The Kaltenbrunner Report to Adolf Hitler dated 29 November 1944 on the background of the plot, states that the Pope was somehow a conspirator, specifically naming Eugenio Pacelli, Pope Pius XII, as being a party in the attempt. Evidence indicates that 20 July plotters Colonel Wessel von Freytag-Loringhoven, Colonel Erwin von Lahousen, and Admiral Wilhelm Canaris were involved in the foiling of Hitler's alleged plot to kidnap or murder Pope Pius XII in 1943, when Canaris reported the plot to Italian counterintelligence officer General Cesare Amè, who passed on the information.


title: 20 July plot

text: A member of the SA convicted of participating in the plot was "Obergruppenführer" Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorf, who was the Police Chief of Berlin and had been in contact with members of the resistance since before the war. Collaborating closely with Arthur Nebe, he was supposed to direct all police forces in Berlin to stand down and not interfere in the military actions to seize the government. However, his actions on 20 July had minimal influence on the events. For his involvement in the conspiracy, he was later arrested, convicted of treason and executed.


title: 20 July plot

text: After 3 February 1945, when Freisler was killed in an American air raid, there were no more formal trials, but as late as April, with the war weeks away from its end, Canaris' diary was found, and many more people were implicated. Hans Von Dohnanyi was accused of being the "spiritual leader" of the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler, and executed 6 April 1945. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whom Von Dohnanyi had recruited into the Abwehr, was executed 9 April 1945 along with Canaris, Oster, and 4 others. Executions continued to the last days of the war.


title: 20 July plot

text: Hitler took his survival to be a "divine moment in history", and commissioned a special decoration to be made for each person wounded or killed in the blast. The result was the Wound Badge of 20 July 1944. The badges were struck in three values: gold, silver, and black (the colours denoted the severity of the wounds received by each recipient). A total of 100 badges were manufactured, and 47 are believed to have actually been awarded. Each badge was accompanied by an ornate award document personally signed by Hitler. The badges themselves bore a facsimile of his signature, making them among the rarest decorations to have been awarded by Nazi Germany.


title: 20 July plot

text: For his role in stopping the coup Major Remer was promoted to colonel and ended the war as a major general. After the war he co-founded the Socialist Reich Party and remained a prominent Neo-Nazi and advocate of Holocaust Denial until his death in 1997.


title: 20 July plot

text: Philipp von Boeselager, the German officer who provided the plastic explosives used in the bomb, escaped detection and survived the war. He was the second-to-last survivor of those involved in the plot and died on 1 May 2008, aged 90. The last survivor of the 20 July Plot was Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin, the thwarted plotter of just a few months before. He died on 8 March 2013, aged 90.


title: 20 July plot

text: As a result of the failed coup, every member of the was required to reswear his loyalty oath, by name, to Hitler and on 24 July 1944 the military salute was replaced throughout the armed forces with the Hitler Salute in which the arm was outstretched and the salutation was given.


title: 20 July plot

text: The conspirators had earlier designated positions in secret to form a government that would take office after the assassination of Hitler were it to prove successful. Because of the plot's failure, such a government never rose to power and most of its members were executed.


title: 20 July plot

text: Albert Speer was listed in several notes of the conspirators as a possible Minister of Armaments; however, most of these notes stated Speer should not be approached until after Hitler was dead and one conjectural government chart had a question mark beside Speer's name. This most likely saved Speer from arrest by the SS in addition to Speer being one of Hitler's closest and most trusted friends.


title: 20 July plot

text: Wilhelm, Crown Prince of Germany was also under suspicion as he was touted to be head of state after Hitler.


title: 20 July plot

text: The extent of Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel's involvement in the military's resistance against Hitler or the 20 July plot is difficult to ascertain, as most of the leaders who were directly involved did not survive and limited documentation on the conspirators' plans and preparations exists. Historians' opinions on this matter vary greatly. According to Peter Hoffmann, he had turned into Hitler's resolute opponent and in the end supported the coup (though not the assassination itself). He was even the natural leader of the opposition in France to some extent, considering the fact he had drawn a lot of military and political personnel into his orbit in preparation of a "Western solution". Ralf Georg Reuth thinks that the conspirators perhaps mistook Rommel's ambiguous attitude for approval of the assassination, considering: the conspirators normally did not explicitly mention the assassination; Rommel was very naive and attached to Hitler (who was the personification of National Socialism, which had provided Rommel with a great career) and thus even if Hofacker had mentioned a violent upheaval in Berlin, he would not have interpreted it as an assassination. Thus, Rommel's participation remains ambiguous and the perception of it largely has its source in the subsequent events (especially Rommel's forced suicide) and the accounts by surviving participants.


title: 20 July plot

text: According to a post-war account by Karl Strölin, the of Stuttgart at that time, he and two other conspirators, Alexander von Falkenhausen and Carl Heinrich von Stülpnagel began efforts to bring Rommel into the anti-Hitler conspiracy in early 1944. On 15 April 1944 Rommel's new chief of staff, Hans Speidel, arrived in Normandy and reintroduced Rommel to Stülpnagel. Speidel had previously been connected to Carl Goerdeler, the civilian leader of the resistance, but not to the plotters led by Stauffenberg, and only came to the attention of Stauffenberg due to his appointment to Rommel's headquarters. The conspirators felt they needed the support of a field marshal on active duty. Witzleben was a field marshal, but had not been on active duty since 1942. The conspirators gave instructions to Speidel to bring Rommel into their circle.


title: 20 July plot

text: Speidel met with former foreign minister Konstantin von Neurath and Strölin on 27 May in Germany, ostensibly at Rommel's request, although the latter was not present. Neurath and Strölin suggested opening immediate surrender negotiations in the West, and, according to Speidel, Rommel agreed to further discussions and preparations. Around the same timeframe, however, the plotters in Berlin were not aware that Rommel had reportedly decided to take part in the conspiracy. On 16 May, they informed Allen Dulles, through whom they hoped to negotiate with the Western Allies, that Rommel could not be counted on for support. Three days before the assassination attempt, on 17 July, Rommel's staff car was strafed by an Allied aircraft in France; he was hospitalised with major injuries and incapacitated on 20 July.


title: 20 July plot

text: Rommel opposed assassinating Hitler. After the war, his widow maintained that he believed an assassination attempt would spark a civil war. According to journalist and author William L. Shirer, Rommel knew about the conspiracy and advocated that Hitler be arrested and placed on trial. The historian Ian Becket argues that "there is no credible evidence that Rommel had more than limited and superficial knowledge of the plot" and concludes that he would not have acted to aid the plotters in the aftermath of the attempt on 20 July, while the historian Ralf Georg Reuth contends that "there was no indication of any active participation of Rommel in the conspiracy." Historian Richard J. Evans concluded that he knew of a plot, but was not involved.


title: 20 July plot

text: What is not debated are the results of the failed bomb plot of 20 July. Many conspirators were arrested and the dragnet expanded to thousands. Consequently, it did not take long for Rommel to come under suspicion. He was primarily implicated through his connection to Kluge. Rommel's name also came up in confessions made under torture by Stülpnagel and Hofacker, and was included in Goerdeler's papers on a list of potential supporters. Hofacker confessed that Rommel had agreed to demand for Hitler to step down, and if he refused, Rommel would join the other conspirators in deposing Hitler. Rommel was also planned to become a member of the post-Hitler government in papers drawn up by Goerdeler.


title: 20 July plot

text: Hitler knew it would cause a major scandal on the home front to have the popular Rommel publicly branded as a traitor. With this in mind, he opted to give Rommel the option of suicide via cyanide or a public trial by Freisler's People's Court. Rommel was well aware that being hauled before the People's Court was tantamount to a death sentence. He also knew that if he chose to stand trial, his family would have been severely punished even before the all-but-certain conviction and execution. With this in mind, he committed suicide on 14 October 1944. He was buried with full military honours and his family was spared from persecution; his cause of death did not come to light until after the war.


title: 20 July plot

text: Involvement of the plotters in war crimes and atrocities has been studied by historians such as Christian Gerlach. Gerlach proved that plotters such as Tresckow and Gersdorff were aware of mass murder happening in the East from at least 1941. He writes: "Especially with reference to the murder of the Jews, [it is said that] 'the SS' had deceived the officers by killing in secret, filing incomplete reports or none at all; if general staff officers protested, the SS threatened them." Gerlach concludes: "This is, of course, nonsense."


title: 20 July plot

text: Tresckow also "signed orders for the deportation of thousands of orphaned children for forced labor in the Reich"—the so-called . Such actions lead historians to question the motives of the plotters, which seemed more concerned with the military situation than with Nazi atrocities and German war crimes. However some others assert that, in such actions, Tresckow had to act out of principle to continue with his coup plans.


title: 20 July plot

text: Gerlach pointed out that the plotters had "selective moral criteria" and while they were concerned about Jews being exterminated in the Holocaust, they were far less disturbed about mass murder of civilians in the East. To Gerlach, the primary motivation of the plotters was to ensure German victory in the war or at least prevent defeat. Gerlach's arguments were later supported by historian Hans Mommsen, who stated that the plotters were interested above all in military victory. But Gerlach's arguments were also criticized by some scholars, among them Peter Hoffmann from McGill University and from the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. While acknowledging that Tresckow and other 20 July conspirators had been involved in war crimes, Arnold writes that Gerlach's argument is oversimplified. In 2011, Danny Orbach, a Harvard-based historian, wrote that Gerlach's reading of the sources is highly skewed, and, at times, diametrically opposed to what they actually say. In one case, according to Orbach, Gerlach had falsely paraphrased the memoir of the resistance fighter Colonel Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff, and in another case, quoted misleadingly from an SS document. Hence, Orbach concludes that Gerlach's thesis on the German resistance is highly unreliable.


title: 20 July plot

text: A 1951 survey by the Allensbach Institute revealed that "Only a third of respondents had a positive opinion about the men and women who had tried unsuccessfully to overthrow the Nazi regime."


title: 20 July plot

text: The "first official memorial service for the resistance fighters of 20 July" was held on the tenth anniversary in 1954. In his speech at the event, Theodor Heuss, the first President of the Federal Republic of Germany, said that "harsh words" were necessary, and that "There have been cases of refusal to carry out orders that have achieved historic greatness." After this speech, public opinion in Germany began to shift.


title: 20 July plot

text: Nonetheless, a 1956 proposal to name a school after Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg was opposed by a majority of citizens, and, according to Deutsche Welle,


title: 20 July plot

text: The first all-German commemoration of the event did not take place until 1990. In 2013, the last surviving member of the plot, Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin, died in Munich. , the resistance fighters are generally considered heroes in Germany, according to Deutsche Welle.


title: McCarthyism

text: McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner.


title: McCarthyism

text: The term originally referred to the controversial practices and policies of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, and has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting from the late 1940s through the 1950s. It was characterized by heightened political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals, and a campaign spreading fear of alleged communist and socialist influence on American institutions and of espionage by Soviet agents. After the mid-1950s, McCarthyism began to decline, mainly due to Joseph McCarthy's gradual loss of public popularity and credibility after several of his accusations were found to be false, and sustained opposition from the U.S. Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Earl Warren on human rights grounds. The Warren Court made a series of rulings on civil and political rights that overturned several key laws and legislative directives, and helped bring an end to the Second Red Scare. Historians have suggested since the 1980s that as McCarthy's involvement was less central than that of others, a different and more accurate term should be used instead that more accurately conveys the breadth of the phenomenon, and that the term "McCarthyism" is now outdated. Ellen Schrecker has suggested that "Hooverism" after FBI Head J. Edgar Hoover is more appropriate. Others, including Stanley Kutler, have instead suggested the term McCarranism after Senator Pat McCarran of Nevada, a key legislative figure in the movement.


title: McCarthyism

text: What would become known as the McCarthy era began before McCarthy's rise to national fame. Following the breakdown of the wartime East-West alliance with the Soviet Union, and with many remembering the First Red Scare, President Harry S. Truman signed an executive order in 1947 to screen federal employees for possible association with organizations deemed "totalitarian, fascist, communist, or subversive", or advocating "to alter the form of Government of the United States by unconstitutional means." The following year, the Czech coup by the Czechoslovakian Communist Party heightened concern in the West about Communist parties seizing power and the possibility of subversion. In 1949, a high-level State Department official was convicted of perjury in a case of espionage, and the Soviet Union tested a nuclear bomb. The Korean War started the next year, significantly raising tensions and fears of impending communist upheavals in the United States. In a speech in February 1950, McCarthy claimed to have a list of members of the Communist Party USA working in the State Department, which attracted substantial press attention, and the term "McCarthyism" was published for the first time in late March of that year in "The Christian Science Monitor", along with a political cartoon by Herblock in "The Washington Post". The term has since taken on a broader meaning, describing the excesses of similar efforts to crack down on alleged "subversive" elements. In the early 21st century, the term is used more generally to describe reckless and unsubstantiated accusations of treason and far-left extremism, along with demagogic personal attacks on the character and patriotism of political adversaries.


title: McCarthyism

text: The primary targets for persecution were government employees, prominent figures in the entertainment industry, academics, left-wing politicians, and labor union activists. Suspicions were often given credence despite inconclusive and questionable evidence, and the level of threat posed by a person's real or supposed leftist associations and beliefs were often exaggerated. Many people suffered loss of employment and the destruction of their careers and livelihoods as a result of the crackdowns on suspected communists, and some were outright imprisoned. Most of these reprisals were initiated by trial verdicts that were later overturned, laws that were later struck down as unconstitutional, dismissals for reasons later declared illegal or actionable, and extra-judiciary procedures, such as informal blacklists by employers and public institutions, that would come into general disrepute, though by then many lives had been ruined. The most notable examples of McCarthyism include the investigations of alleged communists that were conducted by Senator McCarthy, and the hearings conducted by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).


title: McCarthyism

text: President Harry S. Truman's Executive Order 9835 of March 21, 1947, required that all federal civil-service employees be screened for "loyalty". The order said that one basis for determining disloyalty would be a finding of "membership in, affiliation with or sympathetic association" with any organization determined by the attorney general to be "totalitarian, fascist, communist or subversive" or advocating or approving the forceful denial of constitutional rights to other persons or seeking "to alter the form of Government of the United States by unconstitutional means".


title: McCarthyism

text: The historical period that came to be known as the McCarthy era began well before Joseph McCarthy's own involvement in it. Many factors contributed to McCarthyism, some of them with roots in the First Red Scare (1917–20), inspired by communism's emergence as a recognized political force and widespread social disruption in the United States related to unionizing and anarchist activities. Owing in part to its success in organizing labor unions and its early opposition to fascism, and offering an alternative to the ills of capitalism during the Great Depression, the Communist Party of the United States increased its membership through the 1930s, reaching a peak of about 75,000 members in 1940–41. While the United States was engaged in World War II and allied with the Soviet Union, the issue of anti-communism was largely muted. With the end of World War II, the Cold War began almost immediately, as the Soviet Union installed communist puppet régimes in areas it had occupied across Central and Eastern Europe. In a March 1947 address to Congress, Truman enunciated a new foreign policy doctrine that committed the United States to opposing Soviet geopolitical expansion. This doctrine came to be known as the Truman Doctrine, and it guided United States support for anti-communist forces in Greece and later in China and elsewhere.


title: McCarthyism

text: Although the Igor Gouzenko and Elizabeth Bentley affairs had raised the issue of Soviet espionage in 1945, events in 1949 and 1950 sharply increased the sense of threat in the United States related to communism. The Soviet Union tested an atomic bomb in 1949, earlier than many analysts had expected, raising the stakes in the Cold War. That same year, Mao Zedong's communist army gained control of mainland China despite heavy American financial support of the opposing Kuomintang. In 1950, the Korean War began, pitting U.S., U.N., and South Korean forces against communists from North Korea and China.


title: McCarthyism

text: During the following year, evidence of increased sophistication in Soviet Cold War espionage activities was found in the West. In January 1950, Alger Hiss, a high-level State Department official, was convicted of perjury. Hiss was in effect found guilty of espionage; the statute of limitations had run out for that crime, but he was convicted of having perjured himself when he denied that charge in earlier testimony before the HUAC. In Britain, Klaus Fuchs confessed to committing espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union while working on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos National Laboratory during the War. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were arrested in 1950 in the United States on charges of stealing atomic-bomb secrets for the Soviets, and were executed in 1953.


title: McCarthyism

text: Other forces encouraged the rise of McCarthyism. The more conservative politicians in the United States had historically referred to progressive reforms, such as child labor laws and women's suffrage, as "communist" or "Red plots", trying to raise fears against such changes. They used similar terms during the 1930s and the Great Depression when opposing the New Deal policies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Many conservatives equated the New Deal with socialism or Communism, and thought the policies were evidence of too much influence by allegedly communist policy makers in the Roosevelt administration. In general, the vaguely defined danger of "Communist influence" was a more common theme in the rhetoric of anti-communist politicians than was espionage or any other specific activity.


title: McCarthyism

text: McCarthy's involvement in these issues began publicly with a speech he made on Lincoln Day, February 9, 1950, to the Republican Women's Club of Wheeling, West Virginia. He brandished a piece of paper, which he claimed contained a list of known communists working for the State Department. McCarthy is usually quoted as saying: "I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department." This speech resulted in a flood of press attention to McCarthy and helped establish his path to becoming one of the most recognized politicians in the United States.


title: McCarthyism

text: The first recorded use of the term "McCarthyism" was in the "Christian Science Monitor" on March 28, 1950 ("Their little spree with McCarthyism is no aid to consultation"). The paper became one of the earliest and most consistent critics of the Senator. The next recorded use happened on the following day, in a political cartoon by "Washington Post" editorial cartoonist Herbert Block (Herblock). The cartoon depicts four leading Republicans trying to push an elephant (the traditional symbol of the Republican Party) to stand on a platform atop a teetering stack of ten tar buckets, the topmost of which is labeled "McCarthyism". Block later wrote:


title: McCarthyism

text: "nothing [was] particularly ingenious about the term, which is simply used to represent a national affliction that can hardly be described in any other way. If anyone has a prior claim on it, he's welcome to the word and to the junior senator from Wisconsin along with it. I will also throw in a set of free dishes and a case of soap."


title: McCarthyism

text: A number of anti-communist committees, panels, and "loyalty review boards" in federal, state, and local governments, as well as many private agencies, carried out investigations for small and large companies concerned about possible Communists in their work forces.


title: McCarthyism

text: In Congress, the primary bodies that investigated Communist activities were the HUAC, the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, and the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Between 1949 and 1954, a total of 109 investigations were carried out by these and other committees of Congress.


title: McCarthyism

text: On December 2, 1954, the United States Senate voted 67 to 22 to condemn McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute".


title: McCarthyism

text: In the federal government, President Truman's Executive Order 9835 initiated a program of loyalty reviews for federal employees in 1947. It called for dismissal if there were "reasonable grounds ... for belief that the person involved is disloyal to the Government of the United States." Truman, a Democrat, was probably reacting in part to the Republican sweep in the 1946 Congressional election and felt a need to counter growing criticism from conservatives and anti-communists.


title: McCarthyism

text: When President Dwight Eisenhower took office in 1953, he strengthened and extended Truman's loyalty review program, while decreasing the avenues of appeal available to dismissed employees. Hiram Bingham, chairman of the Civil Service Commission Loyalty Review Board, referred to the new rules he was obliged to enforce as "just not the American way of doing things." The following year, J. Robert Oppenheimer, scientific director of the Manhattan Project that built the first atomic bomb, then working as a consultant to the Atomic Energy Commission, was stripped of his security clearance after a four-week hearing. Oppenheimer had received a top-secret clearance in 1947, but was denied clearance in the harsher climate of 1954.


title: McCarthyism

text: Similar loyalty reviews were established in many state and local government offices and some private industries across the nation. In 1958, an estimated one of every five employees in the United States was required to pass some sort of loyalty review. Once a person lost a job due to an unfavorable loyalty review, finding other employment could be very difficult. "A man is ruined everywhere and forever," in the words of the chairman of President Truman's Loyalty Review Board. "No responsible employer would be likely to take a chance in giving him a job."


title: McCarthyism

text: The Department of Justice started keeping a list of organizations that it deemed subversive beginning in 1942. This list was first made public in 1948, when it included 78 groups. At its longest, it comprised 154 organizations, 110 of them identified as Communist. In the context of a loyalty review, membership in a listed organization was meant to raise a question, but not to be considered proof of disloyalty. One of the most common causes of suspicion was membership in the Washington Bookshop Association, a left-leaning organization that offered lectures on literature, classical music concerts, and discounts on books.


title: McCarthyism

text: FBI director J. Edgar Hoover designed President Truman's loyalty-security program, and its background investigations of employees were carried out by FBI agents. This was a major assignment that led to the number of agents in the bureau being increased from 3,559 in 1946 to 7,029 in 1952. Hoover's sense of the communist threat and the standards of evidence applied by his bureau resulted in thousands of government workers losing their jobs. Due to Hoover's insistence upon keeping the identity of his informers secret, most subjects of loyalty-security reviews were not allowed to cross-examine or know the identities of those who accused them. In many cases, they were not even told of what they were accused.


title: McCarthyism

text: Hoover's influence extended beyond federal government employees and beyond the loyalty-security programs. The records of loyalty review hearings and investigations were supposed to be confidential, but Hoover routinely gave evidence from them to congressional committees such as HUAC.


title: McCarthyism

text: From 1951 to 1955, the FBI operated a secret "Responsibilities Program" that distributed anonymous documents with evidence from FBI files of communist affiliations on the part of teachers, lawyers, and others. Many people accused in these "blind memoranda" were fired without any further process.


title: McCarthyism

text: The FBI engaged in a number of illegal practices in its pursuit of information on communists, including burglaries, opening mail, and illegal wiretaps. The members of the left-wing National Lawyers Guild (NLG) were among the few attorneys who were willing to defend clients in communist-related cases, and this made the NLG a particular target of Hoover's; the office of the NLG was burgled by the FBI at least 14 times between 1947 and 1951. Among other purposes, the FBI used its illegally obtained information to alert prosecuting attorneys about the planned legal strategies of NLG defense lawyers.


title: McCarthyism

text: The FBI also used illegal undercover operations to disrupt communist and other dissident political groups. In 1956, Hoover was becoming increasingly frustrated by Supreme Court decisions that limited the Justice Department's ability to prosecute communists. At this time, he formalized a covert "dirty tricks" program under the name COINTELPRO. COINTELPRO actions included planting forged documents to create the suspicion that a key person was an FBI informer, spreading rumors through anonymous letters, leaking information to the press, calling for IRS audits, and the like. The COINTELPRO program remained in operation until 1971.


title: McCarthyism

text: Historian Ellen Schrecker calls the FBI "the single most important component of the anti-communist crusade" and writes: "Had observers known in the 1950s what they have learned since the 1970s, when the Freedom of Information Act opened the Bureau's files, 'McCarthyism' would probably be called 'Hooverism'."