The Second Red Scare was a period of heightened fears of the Soviet Union and the political ideology of Communism. The paranoia and hysteria inherent to this period led to discrimination of Communists. Joseph McCarthy was a main player in this Red Scare, which was sometimes called the “Witch-Hunts in Washington.” He was a Wisconsin senator who made claims against those whom he suspected of being Communists or Communist sympathizers. Joseph McCarthy was born in a small town in Wisconsin on November 15, 1908. After quitting school at the age of fourteen, he had a short stint as a chicken farmer and became the manager of a local grocery store (“McCarthy”). At the age of twenty he completed the four year high school curriculum in nine short months and proceeded to attend law school where he was elected president of his class. Immediately after graduating he opened his own law firm but then became a partner in another law firm in 1937 (“Joseph”). McCarthy’s political career began in 1936 when he ran in vain for District Attorney of Shawano, Wisconsin. However, the true beginning was in 1939 when he became the youngest circuit judge ever elected in Wisconsin at the age of thirty (“McCarthy”). McCarthy was later reprimanded by the Wisconsin Supreme Court after he destroyed court records and then for violating the ethical code when he ran for a non-judicial position. After a time in the Marines, he retook his seat as circuit judge and began readying himself for the 1964 Senate campaign. At the age of 38, Joseph McCarthy became the youngest member of the new senate after his victory against opponent Robert La Follette, Jr. (“Joseph”). In his early years, McCarthy fought successfully for a housing legislation and worked to ease sug... ... middle of paper ... ...>. “McCarthy as Student.” My History Museum. Ed. Joshua Ranger. N.p., 4 Jan. 2004. Web. 9 Oct. 2011. . “Presidential Reactions to Joeseph McCarthy.” American Decades Primary Sources, 1950-1959. Ed. Cynthia Rose. Farmington Hills, 2004. 204-8. Print. “The Second Red Scare.” Digital History. U of Hudson, et al., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2011. . Thomma, Steven. “Not Satisfied with U.S. History, Some Conservatives Are Rewriting It.” McClatchy. N.p., 1 Apr. 2010. Web. 16 Oct. 2011. . U.S. Senate. Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations (McCarthy Hearings 1953-54). 5 vols. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 2003. U.S. Government Printing Office. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. .
Times change and people come and go, but fear is a constant, and in “The Great Fear” by J. Ronald Oakley, he describes the wave of fear that occurred in the 1950s. In 1692, the townspeople of Salem were scared into believing that they were among witches, and in 1950’s the “Red” Scare destroyed thousands of peoples lives that were accused of being Communists. Those accused in both witch hunts were put on trial, and while many were killed in Salem, the Red Scare had blacklisted those persecuted.
Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage. Sculley Bradley, Richard Beatty, and E. Hudson Long Eds. New York: W.W. Norton, 1962.
By the time Joseph McCarthy gave his Lincoln day speech the Red Scare in America was on full blast. Just a year prior to the speech the Soviets had successfully tested a nuclear bomb and China fell to the communists. There were problems both internationally with the Soviet incursion into Eastern Europe and domestically with Soviet spies in the United States. On February 9th 1950 this Senator from Wisconsin took advantage of the opportunity at his speech to the Republicans Women’s Club of Wheeling, West Virginia.
...y Wheeling speech created nationwide hysteria, and with its impeccable timing just days after the conviction of the State Official Alga Hiss for lying under oath about his association with the communist Soviet as a spy, fueled the fight on communism. (citation) McCarthy war on communism during the “Second Red Scare” did not leave any individual safe from accusations. He attacked government agents, entertainment industry workers, educators, union members, and alienated the left-wing Democrats. McCarthy helped to create the atmosphere of suspicion and panic with his growth in media coverage. McCarthy’s words made for big headlines and the media was quick to cover his stories. This exposure helped facilitate American approval of McCarthy and empowered him to make more accusations on those suspected of subversion. In 1953, McCarthy headed the Government Operations Commit
The Red Scare was given its name because everyone feared the idea of communism (“Red”) in America. Fear, especially spread out among a group, is a dangerous and chaotic thing that can cause people to do things that they would not normally do. It can cause people to betray others close to them or not trust some people they would normally trust.
It was perceived that the threat was posed by the communists. Due to this reason, the hysteria adopted the name the “Red Scare”.... ... middle of paper ... ... However, the minority groups started fighting for their rights so as to enjoy their privileges as stipulated by the constitution.
What is McCarthyism? It is the public onslaught of an individual or an individual’s character by means of baseless and uncorroborated charges, basically the repudiation of a person’s reputation. Joe McCarthy was the Wisconsin senator that evoked this era of fear and paranoia by inflaming the current fear of world domination by the Communist party that enveloped the Nation. He did this by announcing that he had discovered “57 cases of individuals who would appear to be either card carrying members or certainly loyal to the Communist Party, but who nevertheless are still helping to shape our foreign policy.” (McCarthy, 1950, p. 2), later the amount of implicated individuals rose to 205. These accusations launched McCarthy into the national spotlight where he then began his smear campaign against many well-known Americans, which was commonly referred to as “witch-hunts”. Because of McCarthy’s actions, up to 12, people lots their jobs hundreds were incarcerated. He then turned his sights to book banning because he claimed there were 30,000 books written by all shades of Communists. After his lists were made public all were removed from the Overseas Library Program. But he was not finished yet, he then assailed members of the entertainment business. He had writers and actors brought to trial. Many of these people were blacklisted and worse, all without a single shred of evidence. When people spoke out against McCarthy they were thrown onto the communist train, until enough people came forward to rebuke McCarthy’s unprecedented tactics. At this point he fell from political power into dishonor on December 2, 1954. This ended the McCarthy era, but not the atmosphere of paranoia that lingers in the nation today.
"Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of
... middle of paper ... ... When people today hear McCarthy’s name, most automatically think ‘liar, he was crazy, he ruined peoples lives.’ Some people, however, would say that ‘yes, he may have been wrong on most of his points, but he knew what was happening and he had been desperately trying to warn the people about Communism.’
Red Scare was the label given to the actions of legislation, the race riots, and the hatred and persecution of "subversives" and conscientious objectors during that period of time. At the heart of the Red Scare was the conscription law of May 18, 1917, which was put during World War I in order for the armed forces to be able to conscript more Americans. This caused many problems in the recollection of soldiers from the war. For one to claim that status, one had to be a member of a "well-recognized" religious organization which forbade their members from participating in war. As a result of such unyielding legislation, 20,000 conscientious objectors were inducted into the armed forces.
McCarthy was elected senate after becoming a lawyer in his sate of Wisconsin. During the first few years of his term nothing major really happened until 1950. In a speech to the Women’s club of wheeling in West Virginia he stated that he had a list in his hand of about 205 known members of the communist party working for the United States department. President Harry Truman had signed an executive order that said that all communists or fascists could not obtain a United States government job. The FBI played a big role in the investigation of this list McCarthy contained. McCarthy’s friend j. Edgar Hoover, which was a violent ant-communist in the federal government, could not wait to expose the people McCarthy accused of being communists. McCarthy’s list created a nationwide scar among the people of the United States. Everything McCarthy said was a lie and he had no evidence to show that the people he accused were really communist but, because of the start of the Korean War and the arrest of two American soldiers accused of spying on the Soviet Union American citizen...
being a Communist, with the only source being a report on how his father reads a Serbian newspaper. (Clooney) Without genuine evidence from a credible source, an argument is as good as a blatant claim. McCarthy’s “evidence” is in fact unsubstantiated in itself. Therefore, his accusations contain no basis, and lack the foundation needed to provide solid and subs...
"(Cook p77). Fear was the greatest underlying cause of the McCarthy movement; fear of communism, fear of the loss of freedom, fear of being accused or fear of what would happen if someone challenged the movement. Works Cited Rogin, Paul. The 'Standard'. The Intellectuals and McCarthy: the Radical.
The Radical Reader: A Documentary History of the American Radical Tradition, ed. Timothy Patrick McCarthy and John McMillian (New York: The New Press, 2011), 584.
The McCarthy era is very similar to the Salem Witch trials. They are both similar, because they both dealt with hysteria. Hysteria is an uncontrollable fear or outburst of emotion. Both things had to do with people accusing each other of people being communist, and people being witches.