This crusade, inititated by the government, spread rapidly and produced mass hysteria. Government workers had to take loyalty oaths and there was a massive attack with ill-founded accusations towards people, based on the suspicion that they were communist spies. Also, homosexuals were smeared as not being able to fight the communists. In general, people that were not ready to pledge loyalty to anti-communism were subject to many deprivations, from not having a driving license to being despised upon and smeared in newspapers.