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Senator Joseph Mccarthy And The Red Scare

4404 Words18 Pages

Red Scare: How did the American public’s emotions and reasoning overshadow suspected communist’s constitutional rights in the McCarthy trials during the Red Scare of the 1950’s? By Stacy Omosa History Springbrook High School April 2015 Candidate # Advisor: Word Count: 3802 words 1. Abstract How did the American public’s emotions and reasoning overshadow suspected communist’s constitutional rights in the McCarthy trials during the Red Scare of the 1950’s? The answer to that question remains that emotion and reasoning were the only two justifications Senator Joseph McCarthy manipulated any support to start the widespread investigation of suspected communists in the United States. The Red Scare literally scared everybody into thinking …show more content…

Senator McCarthy’s unlawfulness started when he began to disregard due process by not giving suspects proper court procedures and rights such as forced confessions, aggressive interrogations and biased juries. In addition, McCarthy’s true unlawfulness had happen when Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were arrested in 1954 and the Hollywood Ten in 1947. That moment made 1950’s America question McCarthy’s authority and abuse of power. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit espionage and given the electric chair when Ethel and Julius brother in law David Greenglass testified that they both made him steal secrets from his employers at the Los Alamos Atomic Bomb Project. The Rosenberg’s were suspected of selling nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union, and because of those suspicions they became the first American civilians to be executed on charges of espionage during peacetime. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg maintained their innocence until the day they died. After many years, Greenglass confessed that he lied to the grand jury because the prosecution pressured him to do so. Greenglass was later charged with perjury and served 15 years in prison. Moreover, a Columbia Law Review published in 1954 concluded that the accusations themselves would “induce the jury more readily to return a verdict …show more content…

McCarthy decided to gain more popularity by going after the United States Military, particular their own chief counsel Josh Welch. Evidently, Josh Welch did not give into McCarthy’s planned hysteria and confronted McCarthy during the Army-McCarthy hearings in front of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Josh Welsh looked McCarthy straight in the face and declared, “Senator; you've done enough. Have you no sense of decency.” Welch’s comment was met with an uproar of applause and the end Senator McCarthy’s reign of terror. After being censured by the United States Senate in 1954, Joseph Raymond McCarthy died in 1957. Admittedly Senator McCarthy led a very successful political career as Senator and chairman of the Committee on Government Operations and its Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Sadly he left a trail of damaged individual reputations and a red stain in the history books known as McCarthyism. McCarthyism today is the term used to refer to the time when the nation faced persecution and is a reference to any mistreatment of any group. But even though a small percentage of American citizen lost jobs and two people lost their lives, the damaged reputations of thousands even millions of people who were labeled communist was the actual terrible legacy left behind. But one would think that during those four years of persecution, one person would say something. Not everyone

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