Summary Of A Decade Of Fear

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.”

How do you account for the appeal of McCarthyism in the United States in the era following the Second World War?

Beginning in the early 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy released a monumental rampage across the United States. For fear of governmental infiltration by Communists, an outbreak of accusations swept the nation as a result of the Wisconsin senator, and helped create what is known as the second Red Scare (“McCarthyism”)

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

Just like the 1920s with the red scare, a senator joseph McCarthy rose to national fame after confidently knowing of 300 supposedly communists in the federal government, and told president Truman that these communists have to be discharged(Doc C). Joseph admits to already having a list of 57 communists within the federal government but refuses to sell it out to the public, making up excuses as to why. A shady move by McCarthy which shows how hysteria during post-war can lead to false accusations. It was then later noticed by Truman that all his accusations were lies, and he was disgusted by joseph McCarthy. McCarthy was kicked out of congress as a senator, seen as a misery and a failure by the public, and died 3 days later(Doc D). However, his actions were not his fault he only exploited the fear that was occurring in America.(Doc F) In the 1920s, after the bolshevik revolution, the public feared immigrants and suspicious looking citizens since they did not want radicals in the U.S.

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

“Burdened by an uneventful political career and having an eye towards reelection, McCarthy claimed that 205 communists had infiltrated the U.S. State Department and soon after claimed to have the names of 57 State Department communists, despite having little knowledge of international espionage”(“Joseph McCarthy”). This led McCarthy to be chairman of the Senate’s Committee on Government Operations in 1952 and be re elected in the senate. He took over this committee for two years with anti communist investigations and questioned suspected officials. This all began the “Red Scare” which was the fear of communism and it coming into the United States. McCarthy continued to make claims about people, but he was not able to validate any of these claims. Although he could not validate a claim, he was still popular widely throughout America due to concerns of communism in China and Eastern Europe”(“Joseph McCarthy”).

McCarthy scared Americans into thinking they were next to be convicted of being a communist. Many Americans turned against each other by believing their next door neighbor was a communist. According to the article, “Thousands of alleged Communist in the U.S. were arrested and deported during what became known as the Red Scare. Neighbors did not trust one another after this event, imagine living next to a suspected Communist. The article states, “ McCarthy dropped a bombshell:The State Department is infested with Communist.” McCarthy shocked the media and the American people, McCarthy gained instant fame as this accusation sent shock waves through the nation. The tension that was already between America and the Soviet Union made

During the late 1940s and early 1950s, the idea of communist subversion was becoming frighteningly real. These fears came to define–and, in some cases, corrode–the era’s political culture. For many Americans, the most enduring symbol of this “Red Scare” was Republican Senator Joseph P. McCarthy of Wisconsin. McCarthy spent almost five years trying in vain to expose communists and other left-wing “loyalty risks” in the U.S. government.In February 1950, appearing at the Ohio County Women’s Republican Club in Wheeling, West Virginia, McCarthy gave a speech that boosted him into the national spotlight. Waving a piece of paper in the air, he declared that he had a list of 205 known members of the Communist Party who were “working

In the 1700's and 1800's the United States was plagued by diseases like cholera and measles, however in the mid to late 1900's the U.S. suffered from a different kind of disease that infected its citizens and stripped them of their fundamental rights; McCarthyism. During the 1950's, the junior senator of Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, started a campaign to expose all communists. Although trusted reporters like Edward R. Murrow and Congress members like Margaret Chase Smith confronted Senator McCarthy, he was still able to tarnish the reputations of hundreds of falsely accused people. There were a variety of different reasons and methods behind McCarthy becoming extremely powerful, he was able to accomplish this through manipulating, lying and

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.

The career of Joseph McCarthy took off in 1946 when he won senate, become the youngest member in senate at the time ever. McCarthy leaned toward conservation and the ideas it withheld. He believed that not only should we protect the U.S. but we should also preserve and restore it. Not long after being elected into office, in 1950 McCarthy suspected that over 205 communist had infiltrated the U.S. Government. He also claimed to have the names of 57 state department communist. After this McCarthy realized the charges necessary, and called for a wide-reaching investigation that would be known today as what we call the “red scare”. The Red Scare was the promotion of fear of a potential rise of communism and radical leftism. In the United States,

McCarthy’s rule over America’s conscious was carried out with an iron fist while he served as a Republican U.S. Senator of Wisconsin from 1947-1957. He spent five years trying to single out accused communists and other left-wing loyalty risks in the United States government, thus exposing what he thought were traitors and spies that were lurking on our homeland after the post-World War II era. McCarthy’s main tactic of control during this time was fear. Suspicions and hyper attacks were common, and the fear that was instilled bordered on baseless accusations, testimony with the support of secret evidence, and partial trial

While McCarthy may have been an adept manipulator of America’s fear of communism, by the time he made his allegations, these fears were already firmly entrenched in the American consciousness. Dating back as far the first Red Scare, during which a number of labor strikes were falsely attributed to communist agitation, Americans had been lead to believe that communism not only posed a threat to their way of life, but that communist agents were actively at work within not only America, but the American government. These fears were further exacerbated by the onset of the cold war following World War II, and by Truman’s announcement in 1949 that Russia had developed nuclear capabilities roughly 10 years ahead of schedule, which had lead to allegations of soviet espionage. Additionally, the case of Alger Hiss, which had been tried concurrently with McCarthy’s allegations, had presented the possibility that there were in fact a large number of high-level American government officials who were transmitting classified documents to Russia (the fact that Hiss had was a former member of the State Department of course helped McCarthy’s cause), despite the fact that this was probably not the

Even though McCarthy was a man of noble status, he still possessed a tragic flaw, which stemmed from his fear of losing his reelection. After an unimpressive and uneventful first term in the Senate, McCarthy was willing to take extreme measures to remain in power, so he quickly absorbed himself in false claims against those he suspected to be communists, causing nationwide hysteria and putting him directly in the spotlight. To begin his rise to fame, “On February 9, 1950, McCarthy addressed the Ohio County Women’s Republican Club in Wheeling, West Virginia. In the Wheeling speech, McCarthy played on the Cold War and Red Scare fears (fear of a communist takeover) by asserting that the communist world, particularly the Soviet Union, was in a showdown with the democratic nations led by the United States. McCarthy dramatically held up a list that he claimed contained names of U.S. State Department employees who supposedly were known members of or influenced by the Communist Party” (McCarthy, Joseph R.).