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Sep 10, 2024 · McCarthyism, name given to the period of the 1950s when Senator Joseph McCarthy produced a series of investigations and hearings in an effort to expose supposed communist infiltration of the U.S. government. McCarthyism reached its peak and began its decline during the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954.
- McCarthyism is part of the Red Scare period of American history in the late 1940s and 1950s. During that time, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy pr...
- The idea that it was necessary to guard against people seeking to overthrow the U.S. government took root early in the 20th century. Advances made...
- In 1950, Joseph McCarthy, who had been elected to the U.S. Senate in 1946, made a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, in which he stated that the U....
- Joseph McCarthy’s accusations of communist infiltration into the U.S. Army Signal Corps and the army’s charge that McCarthy had sought preferential...
- Joseph McCarthy’s charges that various government entities were infested with communists or communist sympathizers were mostly undocumented, and he...
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The most notable examples of McCarthyism include the investigations of alleged communists that were conducted by Senator McCarthy, and the hearings conducted by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).
Sep 17, 2024 · McCarthyism describes the practice of publicly accusing government employees of political disloyalty and using unsavory investigatory methods to prosecute them.
This essay aims to unpack the multifaceted reasons behind McCarthyism’s rise and influence. It seeks to argue that McCarthyism can be explained as a synthesis of political opportunism, the public’s palpable fear of communism, and the broader geopolitical tensions of the Cold War era.
- First Red Scare: 1917-1920
- Cold War Concerns About Communism
- Joseph Mccarthy and The House Un-American Activities Committee
- J. Edgar Hoover and The FBI
- Hysteria and Growing Conservatism
- Red Scare Impact
The first Red Scare occurred in the wake of World War I. The Russian Revolution of 1917 saw the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, topple the Romanov dynasty, kicking off the rise of the communist party and inspiring international fear of Bolsheviks and anarchists. In the United States, labor strikes were on the rise, and the press sensationalized ...
Following World War II (1939-45), the democratic United States and the communist Soviet Union became engaged in a series of largely political and economic clashes known as the Cold War. The intense rivalry between the two superpowers raised concerns in the United States that Communists and leftist sympathizers inside America might actively work as ...
One of the pioneering efforts to investigate communist activities took place in the U.S. House of Representatives, where the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was formed in 1938. HUAC’s investigations frequently focused on exposing Communists working inside the federal government or subversive elements working in the Hollywood film indu...
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI, and its longtime director, J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972), aided many of the legislative investigations of communist activities. An ardent anticommunist, Hoover had been a key player in an earlier, though less pervasive, Red Scare in the years following World War I(1914-18). With the dawning of the new anti...
Public concerns about communism were heightened by international events. In 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested a nuclear bomb and communist forces led by Mao Zedong (1893-1976) took control of China. The following year saw the start of the Korean War (1950-53), which engaged U.S. troops in combat against the communist-supported forces of No...
Americans also felt the effects of the Red Scare on a personal level, and thousands of alleged communist sympathizers saw their lives disrupted. They were hounded by law enforcement, alienated from friends and family and fired from their jobs. While a small number of the accused may have been aspiring revolutionaries, most others were the victims o...
McCarthyism created a dark mood of mistrust and suspicion, stunting freedom of speech and public debate. It also had a divisive effect on American communities, as people lost their jobs or became social outcasts because of tenuous doubts about their political views and loyalty.
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May 23, 2018 · A term coined in 1950, McCarthyism described the escapades of Republican Senator Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin (1908–1957). It was later applied to the broader excesses that characterized anti-Communism in America during the Cold War (1946–1991).
