This is hardly the first time engineered paranoia has gripped the country ... I was a kid during the mid-to-late Cold War (post "duck and cover") and somehow I was never able to take it seriously.
Unfortunately, the threat was (and still very much is) real:
I first got the impression you meant something like "the Red Menace", but I take it you meant:
Engineered paranoia is still very real and a danger to our societies because of its reality-distorting effects that can result in violent overreactions.
Unfortunately, the threat was (and still very much is) real:
Stanislav Petrov: The man who may have saved the world http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-24280831
Thank you Vasili Arkhipov, the man who stopped nuclear war https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/27/vasili...
Not that paranoia is a particularly useful response, but it did not require much engineering.