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Comparing Joseph Mccarthy's Communism And The Red Scare

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America in the 1950’s was a time where neighbor was told to watch neighbor in fear of a spy from Soviet Russia. After the second World War, many had believed that the atheistic communists had infiltrated the United States government on a mission to shape its policies. Politicians became disgraced after accusations of being a Communist member or sympathizer. In his “Speech Delivered in Wheeling West Virginia, February 9, 1950”, Republican senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, exemplified McCarthyism and the Red Scare by presenting a list of more than two hundred State Department employees that had been a Communist. Going into the Cold War between the Soviet Union and The United States had been a heated time for politicians named a communist; a near equivalent to being called a witch in Salem, Virginia. The biggest accuser who rose to power by targeting and belittling the Democrats in office, was Joseph McCarthy. He preached against the …show more content…

Alger Hiss had been accused of being a part of the Russian spy ring, but had friends such as Dean Acheson who said he could completely vouch for Hisss’ innocence. After The FBI had done nothing with the accusation, the Un-American Activities Committee had found proof that he was a spy after President Truman had told them to stop. Truman called this incident a red herring. Hiss will become a convicted spy during the Russo-German alliance pact giving McCarthy all he needed to influence the American people through fear of infiltration. Hiss had decided a number of postwar peace settlements at the Yalta Conference like the American settlement in Berlin with Stalin controlling all around it resulting in the Berlin Airlift(costing 31 American lives) and many more; all compromises seemed to be so in favor of Soviet Russia it was almost a

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Compare And Contrast The Red Scare And Joseph Mccarthyism

347 Words | 2 Pages

In the 1940 's and 1950 's, an anti-Communist movement swept the United States of America. Fueled by the anti-Communist actions of Congress, particularly a Senator from Wisconsin by the name of Joseph McCarthy, the movement escalated and many people lost their jobs as a result of various blacklists. Congressional hearings, both in front of HUAC and McCarthy Senate committee were a study in organized persecution. The actions taken during the "Red Scare" were eventually given the general name McCarthyism. McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence.

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The Controversy Of The Rosenberg Trial During The Mccarthy Era

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These years are often referred to as the “McCarthy era”, named after a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin who blamed many of his colleagues of Communist subversion. In many cases, defendants were pitted against their own friends, whose only evidence were their words. Cultural and racial bias ran rampant, and often those accused of a crime against the country, such as espionage or conspiracy of espionage, were not given fair trials. In one such case, a husband

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McCarthy manipulated the media, told outrageous stories about the communist conspiracy in the United States, and used his power and America’s fear to besmirch any opponents as “communist sympathizers” to make sure he remained at the top. Actually, most conservative members of Congress supported McCarthy because it helped them gain votes during elections. The majority of McCarthy 's movement attacked liberals and members of the Democratic Party and this aided anyone who was not part of those topics and organizations. Then McCarthy began to target the Army because they wouldn’t favor David Schine, one of his former investigators, who had been drafted in. “Senator Joseph McCarthy began hearings investigating the United States Army, which he charged with being ‘soft’ on communism.

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The Crucible Vs Mccarthy

665 Words | 3 Pages

Rod Serling, by creating the episode “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street”, Serling is trying to show an aspect of history like McCarthyism. During the episode, a lot is going on and it causes the residents to lose their sanity. The problem starts off small, and soon the whole situation is flipped from being about a power outage to blaming each other about who caused it. Lastly, the end of the show is total chaos. Much like McCarthyism which is making accusations to transform the established social order and treason without regards to evidence, the show represents that in a way that’s subtle.

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928 Words | 4 Pages

The term McCarthyism was adopted in the 1950s by one Joseph McCarthy, a Republican senator who used his power to ensure that communism was not spread throughout the United States. This time period is known as the “Red Scare”, in which McCarthy accused 205 officials from the U.S. Department of State of being communists or communist sympathizers. Not only were US officials targeted, but many of those involved in the entertainment business got blacklisted when they would refuse to answer questions about their involvement with the Communist Party at the time. Consequently, this caused the public to avalanche into a state of mass hysteria and paranoia because no one wanted to be accused of such a crime knowing that this could cause major repercussions.

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Joseph Mccarthy Embodies The Cold War

424 Words | 2 Pages

Joseph McCarthy embodies the essence of the Cold War. Between 1950 and 1954, McCarthy rose to become one of the most powerful people in America, during this era. The Cold War was focused on the fight against communism, and preventing its spreading. McCarthy was anti-Communist in every sense of the word. In 1950, he exposed employees of the State Department for their “communist infestation”.

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With all of the accusations going around, people were forgetting that everyone can have their own opinion. Edward R Murrow, a television host of See It Now bashed McCarthy by saying “’We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty’” (Roberts, 2). Murrow was saying that just because a person disagrees with what the president or a government official says, does not mean they are a communist. The United States has freedom of speech, and citizens can say whatever they want about the government.

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his skepticism towards McCarthy. He saw through McCarthy’s tactics and knew he was an opportunist using this petty form of bullying for his own social gains. Around 1950, McCarthy had formed accusations against policy makers and clerks, maintaining that there had to be traitors in the administration. Murrow responded to these accusations by saying that while it might have been a possibility that there were in fact Communists in Washington, those individuals were protected by the Bill of Rights. More importantly, he pointed out that McCarthy’s accusations were unfounded and held no signs of proof (Edwards 102).

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In order to convict someone of being a Communist back in the 1950’s all that was needed was an accuser to speak out against that person and claim they saw them at a Communist meeting and then the prosecution would only intensify and then, even without solid evidence, that person would be jailed, added to the blacklist, or deported. Also, there was not any real evidence that the Communists were doing anything bad to the society in America. As exhibited after mail bombs were sent to executives, people instantly blamed Communists without any sufficient evidence implicating them. A key accuser during the Red Scare was Joseph McCarthy, “The climax of the McCarthy era was a series of televised hearings in 1954 about the supposed communist infiltration in the U.S. Army. The accusations against the army were made by McCarthy after military officials rejected Cohn's request that the army grant special privileges to G. David Schine, a member of McCarthy's staff who was drafted in November 1953.

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462 Words | 2 Pages

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1223 Words | 5 Pages

In foreign affairs, the President and his advisers established many of the basic foundations of America foreign policy, especially in American-Soviet relations, that would guide the nation in the decades ahead. The all-male group of screenwriters, producers and directors (Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr., John Howard Larson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz, Adrian Scott and Dalton Trumbo) refused to cooperate with the investigation and used their HUAC appearances to denounce the committee’s tactics. Legislators defeated, for instance, a measure for national compulsory health insurance. The most infamous case began in August 1948, when a self-confessed former member of the American Communist Party named

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462 Words | 2 Pages

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