The Campaign Of Joseph Mccarthy

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.”

Through the 1940s and 1950s, America was beleaguered with anxieties about the menace of communism arising in Eastern Europe and China. Profiting out of such worries of the nation, young Senator Joseph McCarthy made an open charge that hundreds of "card-carrying" communists had penetrate in the United States government. Although his allegations were found ultimately to be false and the Senate reproached him for improper ways, his ardent shakeup heralded as one of the most tyrannical era in 20th-century American politics. While the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAA) had been made in 1938 as a body to resist communists, McCarthy's charges enhanced the political nervousness of the epoch. The suspicious chase for moles,

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

In the war, the U.S. and the Soviets fought as allies, but after the war, their alliance fractured due to the conflicting ideologies of government. This controversy brought up an old phenomenon of anticommunism. Americans feared communism was seeping into the U.S. government and arguments were brought up that communist sympathizers posed a threat for national security. This fear lead U.S. senator Joseph McCarthy to start a crusade to find and expose American communists, later these tactics came to be known as McCarthyism. His campaign lasted from 1950 to 1954 and it became one of the most controversial movements in U.S. history (Ventura).

McCarthy was the senator of Wisconsin and he makes no name for himself. It is a list of 200 members of the Department of State that are referred to as Communists. The punishments of being accused of being a Communist is it could lead to “loss of employment and destroyed reputation, could be jailed.” (McCarthy’s List). The people could lose their jobs and be jailed if they do not confess or release information on former Communists. If they refuse they would be punished with a series of false accusations that could not be justified. It did many damage to peoples lives and careers. The people felt threatened because if they do not release the information their careers would be over and they would have no life. The people did not known what to do. Finally, McCarthy did not find any communists and his “personal power collapsed in 1954 when he accused the Army of coddling known Communists.” His false accusations resulted in his downfall. The people were threatened because their lives could have been taken away from them with no concrete

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

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

McCarthy started the age of McCarthyism on February 9, 1950 when he announced his first list. McCarthy stated, “I have in my hand a list of 205, a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who, nevertheless, are still working and shaping policy in the State Department.” Within the following weeks, McCarthy claimed that there were different numbers of communists within the United States that he had listed, including 57, as he told reporters, and later 81, as he told the Senate. McCarthy’s

Senator Joseph McCarthy took advantage of the massive nationwide fear to accelerate his own political career. McCarthy accused thousands of people, in a wide variety of different occupations, of being loyal to the Communist Party. A copious amount of the people accused of being communists suffered after losing their jobs, even though there was no evidence proving that they were communists. He also incited massive paranoia by claiming that there were Soviet spies working inside the United States government, and were working to destroy it. This, later became known as McCarthyism: “the political practice of publicizing accusation of disloyalty or subversion with insufficient regard to evidence,” as defined by the American Heritage Dictionary. Regardless of Senator McCarthy’s inability to recognize a single solitary communist in the federal administration, a few national reinforcements supplied his accusations validity with the general public. The histrionic espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, in 1951, energized McCarthy’s charges. The Rosenbergs were executed in 1953 after being indicted for passing U.S. government nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union. “Also fueling McCarthy’s charges were a series of trials of American Communists between 1949 and 1955 for violation of the 1940 Smith Act, which prohibited Americans from advocating the violent overthrow of the government.

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.

Just as McCarthy tried to develop fear in fellow senators and the public, he needed to justify his claims. Taking a conservative, Christian approach to the ordeal, Joseph McCarthy explained how the principles of Communism stated that the human life is “valueless” (Oshinsky 82). It was Communist philosophies such as this that solidified the mentality that Communist ideals were a threat to life as we know it. In the words of McCarthy himself, the infiltration of Communists in the State Department meant “world demise” for America (Oshinsky

In the United States, the 1950s was a time riddled with heightened political repression due to the fear of communism. This fear was instilled in the people by the American government, who saw the growing fondness of communism around the world as a threat to the American way of life. With Senator Joseph McCarthy as the head of the communist witch hunt, this period in time is often referred to as the McCarthy Era. The McCarthy Era is marked by unjust accusations of disloyalty to the United States without consideration for appropriate evidence. During this time, thousands of American citizens were accused of communism and communist sympathy. Of these thousands, a particular case stands out amongst the others. This was the case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the first Americans ever executed for espionage against the United States. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were a married couple who were accused by the United States government of conspiracy against America by running the operation of a Soviet spy ring that was leaking information about the atomic bomb back to the Soviet Union. Although Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were both eventually convicted as spies, there was little hard evidence ever presented at their trial. However, many co-conspirators testified for the trials, which would eventually lead to their conviction. The Rosenberg’s may have been spies for Soviet Russia, but they were American citizens nonetheless who deserved a just trial. The Rosenberg’s did not have any

If there was a crisis at hand, the elections were the perfect time to sway anyone’s minds. Since the United States could only talk about communism, Joseph McCarthy knew it was the right time to persuade fellow voters to vote for him. According to an article, “McCarthy enthusiastically agreed and took advantage of the nation’s wave of fanatic terror against communism, and emerged on February 9, 1950, claiming he had a list of 205 people in the State Department who were known members of the American Communist Party.” (Oh & Latham, n.d.)

There was an uprise in the political world during the 1950’s that most blamed Senator Joseph McCarthy for. The fear of communism had many American’s distraught. Anti-communism was on the rise, which caused hysteria within the U.S citizens and their leaders. Senator Joseph McCarthy started most of the uproar and took charge exposing communist and those thought to be flight-risks; this time was known as the McCarthy era or The Red Scare. It was called the red scare because communists were often referred to as “Reds” for their allegiance to the red Soviet flag.

February 9th, 1950 is the day that the belief of McCarthyism came to be known. “McCarthy delivers a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia and displays a list of 205 Communist in the State Department”( The Era of McCarthyism). Using his power as the senate and the rising threat of Communism, McCarthy uses this to help win his upcoming election and start one of the worst things ever, known as, a witch hunt. Although, having a small interest in anti-communist, using the threat helped McCarthy stay in the limelight as the patriotic American. However, it does not end there, since the time of his speech he has and framed people who could have been innocent as communist