Mcarthyism

ver that fateful night what could possibly rejuvenate the political career of Joseph McCarthy before the upcoming election of ‘52. The trio of Roberts, Kraus, and Walsh recommended that McCarthy should try taking up a cause, and to do so seriously and passionately. But what should it be? Ideas and issues were tossed about the group concerning old age pension to the St. Lawrence Seaway. McCarthy dismissed them all. But then Walsh suggested communism, and McCarthy’s ears realized that they had just struck gold. “That’s it!” exclaimed an excited McCarthy. “The government is full of Communists. We can hammer away at them. 4” And with that statement, Senator Joseph McCarthy’s witchhunt against communism had begun. 33 days later in Wheeling, West Virginia, Senator Joseph McCarthy stood on a podium before the Ohio Valley Women’s Republican Club. “I have in my hand,” he began, “a list of 205 card-carrying Communists who are now employed in the State Department and whose identities are well known to the State Department as being members of the Communist party. 5” On that night his life, as well as the lives of many other Americans, would forever change. McCarthy would begin a brief but astounding crusade against the so-called Communist infiltration of the U.S. government. During a span of about 4 years, McCarthy accused hundreds of government and former government workers of being Communist with little or no concrete evidence. Even so, McCarthy was able to win many convictions and ‘victories’ without much protest and opposition. Why did McCarthy go relatively unscathed throughout his witchhunt until he was finally censured by the Senate in 1954? According to a nationwide poll taken during the era of McCarthyism, 50% of those polled said they approved of his methods, with 21% undecided6. What allowed him to do this for so long with the approval rather than the condemnation of the people? The key to the success and tolerance of McCarthy was due to a combination of several things. First, there was the recent espionage cases of Hiss and the Rosenbergs. McCarthy also greatly benefited from the pro-McCarthy media, which took up and glamorized his cause. There was also the fact that communism was in many cases a viable scapegoat for a frightened and restless people. McCarthyism was also Americanism; it represented the duty of the patriotic American. McCarthyism became an offensive tool against the threat of the spread of communism. At the time of McCarthy’s infamous Wheeling speech, the nation had just learned that the threat of Communists in high level positions in Washingt

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