Alger Hiss Case

In 1950 the emergence of the Second Red Scare’s driving force, Senator Joseph McCarthy, appeared and gave a speech proclaiming that America will soon be lost to communism if the people do not stand up to combat it. He revealed that night a list of 205 people working for Soviet Russia in the United States’ State Department whose intentions were to mold America from the inside to become a socialist nation. (Fitzgerald, p. 14) It was thanks to this newfound hysteria that began to break out thanks to McCarthy’s claims that the HUAC and other like-minded organizations began to gain momentum during this time period.

The House Un-American Activities Committee, also know as HUAC, investigated alleged communist activities in the United States during the early years of the Cold War. The committee called high-profile citizens to testify in hearings before Congress. Gary Cooper, a Hollywood actor, was a “friendly” witness questioned in October of 1947. Cooper was called to appear before HUAC under the false accusation of promoting communism in Philadelphia. Albert Maltz, a movie writer, was an “unfriendly” witness questioned in 1947. Maltz was called to appear before the committee because he was an active member of the Screen Writers Guild and had a large influence in Hollywood. Although Gary Cooper’s and Albert Maltz’s testimonies before HUAC contain different answering methods, the two testimonies compare in that points of view of the person on trial and methods of questioning.

In February of 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy made a speech with the purpose of accusing democratic representative, Alger Hiss, of working with the communist Soviets in order to convince the American people to support the Republican party. McCarthy convinces his audience by using syntactical devices, such as anaphoras, rhetorical questions, and parallelism.

“Miller also observes the tremendous forces that mere accusation had at this time, something that was evident as well in the McCarthy witch-hunts. A man’s career could be ruined if he were merely asked, “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist party?””

McCarthyism- McCarthy was a senator famous for the communist hysteria in the 50’s. He blamed 205 State Department workers for having ties with communists. He gained support by playing into American’s fears of the spread of communism. Though some of these people accused of not being loyal were in fact not loyal, most weren’t. His accusations were mainly built on speculation. His smear tactics became known as McCarthyism. Once he questioned the army’s loyalty that was it and he was called out by Eisenhower.

It’s always good to start investing money at an early age, however, it’s a hard start. Many banks have improved interest rates as well as no opening fees to start a savings account. Stocks, such as health and technology are also currently going up. Billy should start by saving small amounts of money per week for two years and placing it in a savings account. He should also buy health and tech stocks, such as Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), and keep a diversified portfolio, along with buying bonds.

In the 1950’s there was a scare of communism and people were being accused of being communist. From the article “McCarthyism: Witch Hunting and Blacklisting in the 1950s” “McCarthy's claims continued into 1954, this time targeting the Army. For eight weeks, in front of millions of television viewers, McCarthy questioned Army officials, including many war heroes.” Many people were getting questioned about being communist even though there wasn’t any real proof. McCarthy had questioned a lot of people including two people that had been Secretary of State. He had made a list of questionable claims, he didn't have any real proof but the Senate called for a full investigation. In the article “Famous Speeches: Joseph McCarthy's “Enemies from Within”, “This is glaringly true in the State Department, where those who were born with every possible advantage are the ones who have been most traitorous.” He is saying that the people with the most opportunities and that the country has been good too have been traitors. There is no actual evidence to this statement. He is picking out a group of people and using them. Because of his experience in the Red Scare he was able to write “The Crucible”.

Although prosperity filled the 50s, controversy and dissatisfaction surrounded it also. As the picture "Senator McCarthy Extinguishes the Torch of Liberty" conveys, McCarthyism hushed the freedom of speech. (Kennedy, Cohen, and Bailey A127)The man who gave McCarthyism a name, Joseph McCarthy, ruined many lives by accusing tons of Americas of being Communists for about 5 years. The post-cold war paranoia about spies and infiltrates in the American government escalated the allegations to a whole other level, despite the lack of evidence. Many people lost their jobs, went to jail, or became shunned by the public. Senator McCarthy conducted countless numbers of speeches, investigations, and hearings. His actions proved to be so terrifying that very few spoke out against him. Only when taking the claims to the military did the people finally take a stand. Weeks afterward, the Senate condemned McCarthy for “practicing conduct unfit for a member.”

Hundreds of years later, the United States entered the time of the “Red Scare”. In this time, Americans were still very apprehensive of Communists. On April 22, 1954, Army hearings began. Senator Joseph McCarthy accused the United States Army of being too “soft” on communism. This really began in 1950, however, when McCarthy claimed that there were over 200 known communists in the Department of State (“Army-McCarthy” History.com). As Abigail did with the Witch trials, McCarthy began accusing innocents of crime to benefit his own personal agenda.

Senator Joseph McCarthy wildly raged that Soviet spies had infiltrated the State Department and were re-directing it to support Communism abroad. A multitude of these allegations were false. The lives and reputation of hundreds were ruined by McCarthy’s verbal attacks. He led a craze through government to root out suspected communists. As more and more people were accused, the hysteria increased. The government was powerless to stop the rampant forces of McCarthyism, as government officials feared that criticizing McCarthy’s tactics would result in their being accused. As a result of the senators’ unscrupulous statements, “McCarthyism” is defined as “the political practice of publicizing accusations of disloyalty or subversion with insufficient regard to evidence.” He also contributed the Second Red Scare occurring in the 1950, after his crusade created massive hysteria. His downfall occurred after going too far in his communist witch hunt, and soon there was a backlash against him. Ultimately, McCarthy alleged Communist influence in

In the case of Watkins v. United States, John Thomas Watkins was trying to have his conviction of contempt of Congress overturned due to his belief that the subcommittee’s questions were outside the scope of their investigation. The House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities interviewed Watkins on suspicion that he was a card-carrying member of the Communist Party. Watkins was a labor union official for the United Auto Workers union. The subcommittee was given Watkins’s name by Walter Rumsey and Donald Spencer who believed that Watkins was a card-carrying member using the pseudonym of Sam Brown. Watkins made it clear that he was never a member of the communist party and that Spencer

His accusations generated national interest and gained him a significant amount of fame, or rather, infamy. However, it was later found out that the piece of paper he’d been holding during that speech had merely been his laundry receipt (Bates). Even so, McCarthy was already well on his way to becoming one of the most notable communist “hunters” in U.S. history.

Blacklisted writers, such as Walter Bernstein, Abraham Polonsky, and Lester Cole had a very difficult time finding work and trying to survive during the period of the blacklist. Suspected Communist sympathizers went through a horrifying experience during the HUAC hearings, as they were constantly and consistently harassed by the FBI and other agencies and people who tried to force already known Communists to “name names” of other various questionable individuals. The ideas and works of these writers, because of their leftist views, were a cause for alarm in Congress, and a reason for dire concern among the rest of society.

A series of high profile spy scandals, like that of Alger Hiss, were reported in the press. It also became clear that the USSR's rapid progress in mastering atomic energy had been aided by information gathered by spies from the US nuclear program. Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy, grabbed the headlines by declaring in early 1950 that the Truman administration was infiltrated by Communist agents and sympathisers. A modern-day witch-hunt broke out, with widespread panic ensuing. Anti-communist feeling intensified and many people, especially the Republican opposition, claimed that the government was not being tough enough on Communism,

Joseph McCarthy, the notorious US senator who causes the McCarthyism era in the 1940s to the 1960s to arise, deceives the American people to lose trust with each other because of suspicion of Communism. McCarthy does not have a really great reputation before following the route of corruption. He simply over exaggerates the growing tension of Communism credits from President Harry Truman’s speech. His reign continues to grow until, “In early 1954 he opened hearings investigating the promotion of an Army dentist, Irving Peress, who was suspected of being a Communist. The Army-McCarthy hearings were televised and made for grand theater as McCarthy sparred with the Army's counsel Joseph Welch” (Capps). Joseph McCarthy is an arrogant and an overconfident man who thinks he can win every court cases until the very end. He believes that whatever