“I have here in my hand a list of two hundred and five people that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department.
-Senator Joseph McCarthy, West Virginia Communism in the early 1950’s in the United States was something that everyone feared. People did not know how to handle the topic of communism. Everyone was a suspect. So when Senator Joseph McCarthy claimed that he had a list of people that the United States government knew to be communists but were not being thrown in jail or even questioned about their ties to the communist party people freaked out. Everyone was turning their trust towards Senator McCarthy, and going along with anything he said. This turned to be a dangerous time for anyone even associated with the Communist Party.
Historical Context In the 1920’s the United States went through its first communism phase labelled as a Red Scare. A Red Scare is a period where people fear the thought of rising communism power. When people feel fear they act in a dangerous way. Fear can cause people to do things that they would never do when they are in the right frame of mind. In the 1920’s people feared communism, so they started to accuse and point fingers at people. Immigrants were deported back to their home countries without just reasons and any immigrant in some people’s eyes could be a communist.
World War I ended in 1918 causing a decline for the
The First and Second Red Scare of the United States paved the way for a long standing fear of communism and proved to be one of America’s largest periods of mass hysteria. Throughout the years authors and analysts have studied and formed expository albeit argumentative books and articles in an attempt to further understand this period of time; the mindset held during this period however is shown to be completely different compared to now.
After WW2 on february 9, 1950 Joseph McCarthy gave a speech “Enemies from Within” when communism was the biggest threat to the whole world. Joseph McCarthy was a Republican Senate who got famous after his speech. He claimed that there were people in U.S. government who are a member of communist society and also mentioned in his speech that he have a list 57 people. In the speech Joseph McCarthy is appealing to the Republicans and christians, trying to influence them to take action and fight against communism. He uses people's emotional fear to turn them against each other. In his speech he uses allusion, metaphor, and rhetorical appeals.
At the end of the 1940’s and the beginning of the 1950’s, the United States were in the midst of the Second Red Scare and a fear that Communism might over throw the American way of life. Cold War tensions were at an all time high, which only fueled the widespread fears of Communist subversion. It was here that Senator Joseph McCarthy became a public face when he began making claims that the U.S. Government, as well as many other areas of the country, including the entertainment industry, had been invaded by Soviet and Communist spies, looking to destroy America from within. Hearings before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Hollywood Blacklisting, and anti-communist activity from the FBI soon followed. McCarthy was under intense analysis
In the 1950’s, Senator Joseph McCarthy turned Americans against each other by installing fear in the people regarding toward Communism. During this time, in fact, people were getting blacklisted even if they weren't communist. In an incident at the Republican Women’s Club of Wheeling, McCarthy delivered a speech. The situation involving the Senator escalated when he stated that the State Department is infested with Communist. In this point in time, due to the false allegations, people went on a decade long period of witch hunts. Sam Roberts, the author of “A Decade of Fear” stated that in fact, “...thousands of alleged Communists in the U.S. were arrested and deported during what became known as the Red Scare.”
Joseph McCarthy falsely accused many people in our government of being a communist. Document one states, “I have in my hand 57 cases of individuals who would appear to be either card carrying members or certainly loyal to the Communist party, but who nevertheless are still helping to shape our foreign policy.” This text is showing that the government was accused of having members of the communist party. With McCarthy and these accusations, people began to worry about if there were really communists in our government or if there were other communists they didn’t know about. Thus causing, The Red Scare. Document 6 is an image of people in a car and
During the Cold War communist began to emerge. Communist are people who follow or believe in communism. They were such a small group that no one paid much attention to them until after World War 2. When WW II ended communist started causing problems. They already took power in other countries and Americans began to fear they would do the same to the U.S. They wondered if Soviet Spies were in America secretly advertising communism. U.S. citizens even questioned if communist were involved in U.S. government jobs or in schools miseducating students and children. To help calm down these fears Joseph Raymond McCarthy started McCarthyism. (Shmoop.com)
Post World War 1 there was a manifestation of Communist influence in the United States. The influence began forming itself in 1919. There was a division within the country between those who followed the beliefs of Communism and those who were against it. However the majority of Americans were against Communism and the spread of it. In J.Edgar Hoover’s testimony before the HUAC,
McCarthyism was important during the 1950s, because many people feared Communism. Consequently people (falsely) accused each other of being a communist and people often lost big parts of their lives, like their job. Nobody trusted each other, so without evidence people started accusing each other.
During the 1950s there was a rise in the fear of communism called “The Red Scare”. Senator Joseph McCarthy was one of the many people who contributed to people’s fear by making a list of people who he said were communists even though there was no proof in most cases. In an article by Alan Brinkley called “The 1950s Part One: McCarthy and The Red Scare”, it informs, “McCarthy was only one of many who helped create the great fear. The Red Scare was visible in almost every area of American life” (Brinkley). This quote tell us that in the 1950s even though Senator Joseph McCarthy was a huge contributor to The Red Scare. His list of suspected communists made rumors spread and the people on the list get questioned and even go to jail when in some cases they were innocent. It also says in the article by USHistory.org called “McCarthyism: Witch Hunting and Blacklisting in America”, that, “In the 1950s anyone who was considered a communist could be questioned and thrown in jail” (USHistory.org). Which means that his allegations could have easily put people in prison.
You have been gone for so long and I miss the sound of your voice, your gentle touch, and the way you hold me and make me feel safe. Right now I really need that, here in the states people are going crazy and there is mass hysteria about communism. I do not feel safe anymore in our home, I fear that our kids will be persecuted like everyone else and you will not be here to protect us and save us. Senator John McCarthy has “brain washed” everyone into thinking that people who are communists are evil and bad. He says anyone could be a communist and now people are accusing anyone and everyone of being a communist. It is funny, before you left we read
When senator Joseph McCarthy announced the presence of communists in the United States, aroused fear in the public which led to infamous the Red Scare. Senator McCarthy used this fear to his advantage and political standing. The Red Scare took place in the late 1940s and late 1950s, as a result of the cold war conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. According to History , the Soviets had long carried out espionage activities in the U.S. with the aid of American citizens, http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/red-scare. Though there were some spies in America; the methods of searching for communists by McCarthy were not very effective or logical.
Throughout the early 1950's, the nation was deeply engrossed in fears of a Communist takeover. At a time when America's fears were at their very height, Joseph McCarthy, a Republican Senator from Wisconsin pushed America's fears to an extreme. As a ploy to get himself re-elected, and to make America hate Communism as much as he did, the Senator devised a devious scheme. McCarthy, while giving a speech, held up a piece of paper and exclaimed, "I have here a list of 57 known Communists who are currently employed by the U.S. State Department" (Fried, 89). A few days later, McCarthy raised the number of people on the list from 57 to 205. The reaction to McCarthy's announcement was absolute panic. Until that time, the
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s America was overwhelmed with the concerns about the threat of communism. According to an PBS.org article it states a young Senator named Joseph McCarthy made a public accusation that more than two hundred “card-carrying” communists had infiltrated the United States government. Though eventually his accusations were proven untrue, and he was censured by the Senate for unbecoming conduct (PBS.org). People suspected of communism were put on a Blacklist and if you were on this list you were despised and lost your job. Also after the whole thing was over it was still hard for people to get jobs, because they were at one time on the Blacklist.
Also during this time from the late 1940s to the late 1950s began McCarthyism and the scare of Communism being the United States. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin would be pushed into the public spotlight by the issue of anti-Communism. It was discovered later that the FBI had helped give McCarthy the information to help him start his campaign against Communism. For several years, McCarthy operated to seek out and destroy the lives of people whom he or others had declared as being a Communist. Lytle mentions that McCarthy charged that Communists had penetrated the United States by becoming involved in churches, the army, the CIA, and the hydrogen bomb program. Even after McCarthy’s eventual political death, McCarthyism still went on and took longer to fade away. McCarthyism was the lasting legacy of McCarthy that put the nation in a frenzy. It was characterized by false accusations of neighbors, family members, and friends and being part of the Communist party. These accusations meant that these peoples’ lives were over. They had no more authority, respect, or even career opportunities after being accused, albeit falsely.
The Communist Party USA is a minor party of the U.S. that is the largest communist party found within the country. In 1919, the Left Wing Caucus of the Socialist Party made plans of regaining control of the Socialist Party of America by carrying on an active campaign to win a majority of the party’s governing National Executive Committee. Delegations were sent from the sections of the party that had been expelled to the emergency convention of August 30, 1919 to demand that they be seated. The Caucus then split into two separate parties over how to respond to the violations of party legality by the outgoing NEC. One faction, dominated by the language federations, was expelled from the party only to join C.E. Ruthenburg and Louis C. Fraina to turn away from that effort and form the Communist Party of America at a convention on September 1, 1919. Today, the party’s chairman is John Bachtell, and membership of the party is estimated to be about 2,000 members total.