Mccarthyism: After The US Senator Joseph Mccarthy

Is war the greatest weapon that political leaders can use? The answer is no because the manipulation of the minds of citizens can be used to enforce almost any demand imaginable. During the Red Scare, Senator Joseph McCarthy used this tactic to exploit the fear of Communists in ordinary United States citizens. The Red Scare was the most influential event on America in the 20th century because it made the U.S. biased against different forms of political ideology, created a judgmental society that had too large of an ego, and paved the way for America to take part in unnecessary foreign affairs.

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.

McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence. McCarthyism was used to make unfair allegations and using unfair investigative techniques in order to restrict dissent or political criticism. McCarthyism was developed by Joseph McCarthy, the whole purpose of why he did it was to scare Americans in order to make them not want to be a communist. McCarthyism led to several people being accused of being part of the communist party all by people blaming them when they had no hard facts that they were even a part of communism.

To talk about McCarthyism we must first look at what was going on in the United States at the time. WW II had just ended a few years prior, and the cold war was in full swing. Following WW II, for the US Government to be able to spend so much of the taxpayers money on the cold war, the Government had to get the US citizens behind them. To do this the US government started a propaganda campaign to scare the public into thinking the communists were bad and very dangerous people. That the communist people, their way of thinking, and their type of government had to be contained. There were several things that happened to help in-force what the government was saying. First Czechoslovakia and China fell to communism.

Senator Joseph McCarthy fed the increasing panic, using unfounded rumors and intimidation to gain popularity as a potent government figure. With this newfound fame and influence, McCarthy denounced numerous public figures as being communist supporters. His victims included government officials, celebrities, intellectuals, and anyone else opposed to his view point. Most people accused by McCarthy were innocent, but many lost their reputation, and often their employment. People later came to realize that his accusations were false and McCarthy soon after died. The term “McCarthyism” has an everlasting connection with the Red Scare and persecution of the

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

The Red Scare is referred to as America’s fear of communism. Taking a second to look back on History, American suspicion of communism first began in the 1920’s during World War One. Thirty years later, the paranoia over communism was stirred up by the influences of war against the Soviet Union, Un-American Activities committee and McCarthyism. This changed America’s perception of society and politics.

Joseph McCarthy was a senator who used a series of tactics fueled by manipulation, deceit, and scapegoating to achieve his end goal: to gain fame and popularity. This started an era which came to be known as McCarthyism, named after the man himself. He exploited a fear that many people held after World War II, the Red Scare, and out of it came instant fame. Here, in his speech at Wheeling, he earned millions of followers who would join him in the hopes of defeating Communism once and for all. Unfortunately, like all famous fibbers, McCarthy would eventually make a series of bad decisions that would make him unpopular. Beginning with the See it Now broadcasts and the Army-McCarthy hearings, McCarthy would lose the surge of popularity he

Mc McCarthyism was the practice of making accusations of subversion or reason without proper regard for evidence Senator Joe Mc carthy and chief counsel Roy Cohn interrogating suspected communists. At a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, on February 9, 1950, Mc carthy proclaimed that he was aware of 205 card-carrying members of the Communist Party who worked for the United States Department of State.

Many people often question what McCarthyism is and what it stands for but today there will be light shed on the subject and they can figure out how real it was. In the first place, The definition of McCarthyism is, “The practice of making accusations of disloyalty, especially of pro-Communist activity, in many instances unsupported by proof or based on slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence”(McCarthyism). The practices of McCarthyism were very unjust and many people were wrongfully accused of

Joe McCarthy enjoyed a short reign in the spotlight of American politics in the early 1950s. His tactics, the baseless accusations of Communist ties, would come to be called McCarthyism and they set the tone of the American crusade against the ‘threat’ of Communism for years to come. The era in which the heavily anti-Communist McCarthyism reigned in America was one marked by fear, suspicion, and tightly geld ideals. Many found themselves under fire from the political witch hunts and more than one life was destroyed by the accusations brought upon it. The illegalization of the Communist movement and the misfortune that a Communist branding would cause were all unfortunate products of a fallacy filled mindset what stripped Americans of their

McCarthyism, like the Salem Witch Trials and the Holocaust, targeted a specific group of people and was caused from one person blaming others based on suspicion. Senator Joseph McCarthy rose to power because he “capitalized on national paranoia by proclaiming that communist spies were omnipresent and that he was America’s only salvation” (U.S. History, “McCarthyism”). Since there had already been cases where government employees were convicted of being spies for communist countries, fear and panic struck Americans quickly which caused them to turn to Senator McCarthy for safety. During the 1950s, Americans had a logical reason to fear communism because they were at war with other countries that have a communist government. This fear was rooted from the belief that if the United States lost the war, the Americans would lose their freedom of speech, not have their own religious beliefs, and lose their land (“Why did Americans fear communism”). Now that America has been an established federal government, the McCarthyism era is seen as an unnecessary part of United States history because thousands of people lost their jobs based on little to no evidence of committing espionage. The same accusations made by McCarthy are extremely similar to those from Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Parris in the Salem Witch Trials. In both the McCarthyism Hearings and the Salem Witch Trials, the

McCarthyism is a campaign against those who said they were communist in the US government and other institutions carried out under Senator Joseph McCarthy during the time frame of 1950-1954. The people that were accused were blacklisted and they lost their jobs, some said that they knew they didn't belong in the Communist Party. McCarthyism started because Americans were worried about the spread of Communism and afraid that the Russians were going to use the atomic bomb to bomb the United States. The bomb talk lead to hysteria in America which lead to the cold war.(1945-1960)

Joseph McCarthy is a desperate and unlikeable U.S senator who uses fear against others, which leads to the use of the horrific use of McCarthyism. Mccarthy is not a supporter of communists, “Thus he spread terror among his peers. His Republican colleagues were torn between fear of his prowess and willingness to use his attacks on President Harry Truman” (“Joseph”). McCarthy claims that people working within the U.S government are communists and that they should be exposed. Mccarthy blames others so people see him as a hero for saving the country from communist. His desperateness causes him to accuse his peers of being communists. For that reason people do not want to be around him because of the “terror” he causes and “spreads”. Mccarthy wants to do everything to address the problem of communism. Therefore, to prove that there is a problem going on, “McCarthy claimed to have in hand a list of 205 people in the U.S. State Department

McCarthyism is defined as the blatant campaign against supposed communist throughout the US government during the 1950’s by Senator Joseph Mccarthy. The people that were accused of being communist lost their jobs or were blacklisted. McCarthyism is demonstrated in the movies: The Crucible and Good Night, and Good Luck. Although the movies both demonstrate McCarthyism, they display it in completely different ways. In both of films, there are people being deceived. The people of the communities would not speak up about the lies and problems that they are experiencing because they feared for their own lives.