How Did Joseph Mccarthy's Use Of Fear After The Cold War

232 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effects of WW 2 on America

After WWII, many Americans were apprehensive towards what the future of the United States would be like and what that would mean for their new coming families. Not only were Americans worried about other countries but, “…we were extremely suspicious of what was happening right here at home.”(From Lecture) During the Cold War, we were so frightened by the potential of the Soviets attacking us with our own weapon of mass destruction, we began teaching each other to “Duck and Cover”, a technique used to ‘protect’ us against falling glass from the dropping of an atomic bomb. Consequently, a man by the name of Joseph McCarthy exploited American’s fears’ by persuading citizens that communists were overpowering the government in order to gain votes

Show More
Related

  • Cold War Dbq Essay

    750 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the biggest fears of the American people is that the concept of communism contrasts drastically from the concept of capitalism, which the United States was essentially founded upon. The United States, as the public believed, was not a land of perfect communal equality, but rather a land of equal opportunity. However, what made communism so dangerous can be succinctly described by Eisenhower who compared the spread of communism as the domino effect. As his secretary of state, Dulles, put it, the propagation of communism “would constitute a threat to the sovereignty and independence” of America (Doc B). In addition, the Cold War also planted the seeds of rational fear of a global nuclear war. As Russia caught up to the United States in terms of technological advancements, they successfully developed the atomic bomb as well as the hydrogen bomb, which caused Americans to believe that the USSR would use these weapons of mass destruction to forcefully extend their ideologies to the USA. In fact, Americans were so frantic about a potential nuclear disaster that it...

    Read More

  • Mary Dudziak's Cold War Civil Rights

    1814 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...e Great Society was moving forward, the race problem had ended, as far as the foreign countries could see. The impact of domestic problems in the transnational sphere was non-existent; there was no one to impress any longer, even though the Cold War did not officially end until the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. In the end, Vietnam was not a part of her dichotomy between Civil Rights and the Cold War, even though the War in Vietnam was definitely a portion of United States interaction in the Cold War. The great point of Cold War Civil Rights is the important of looking at domestic issues in a transnational perspective. Most books and scholarly journal articles cannot see the 1950s and 1960s America from a global standpoint, nor do they make an attempt. Mary Dudziak is one step ahead in this approach; it just makes sense, especially for this particular time period.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Joseph Mccarthy Speech

    602 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The great difference between our western Christian world and the atheistic Communist world is not political, gentlemen, it is moral,” is one of the many examples throughout McCarthy’s speech of him assuming an overconfident or superior tone. His claim to own a list of 205 names in the State Department of communist sympathizers gave support for this arrogant tone, but when asked McCarthy refused to provide anyone with the aforementioned list. McCarthy also used this tone when he said, “The reason why we find ourselves in a position of impotency is not because our only powerful potential enemy has sent men to invade our shores . . . but rather because of the traitorous actions of those who have been treated so well by this Nation,” expressing the idea that no one but the United States’ own countrymen had the strength to defeat their homeland. McCarthy’s tone throughout the article is one of absolute certainty, and gave his audience the incentive to trust

    Read More

  • Joseph McCarthy and Communism

    772 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the beginning of McCarthy’s political career, he was already walking on thin ice. He launched a series of charges against the government. The first charge was against the communist global apparatus. McCarthy said that the organization had made a sustained attempt to penetrate the United States government and attempt to subvert its foreign policy decisions. The second charge was against the United States government itself. McCarthy said that the official defenses against foreign penetration ranged from weak to nonexistent. The third and final charge was against the government of America, ...

    Read More

  • An Analytical Essay Explaining Why Arthur Miller Wrote The Crucible

    740 Words  | 2 Pages

    experiencing a modern “witch hunt” of its own. Senator Joseph McCarthy, provoked by the Cold War, became fearfully convinced that Communists, or “Reds,” were polluting American

    Read More

  • The Sources of Kennan’s Conduct: George F. Kennan as a Shaper of U.S. Foreign Policy

    2030 Words  | 5 Pages

    Freeland, R.M. (1989) The Truman Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthyism: Foreign Policy, Domestic Policy, and Internal Security, 1946-48, New York: New York University Press.

    Read More

  • Reagan Administration's Foreign Policy in Latin America

    1885 Words  | 4 Pages

    The pattern of US action was impressively consistent. Washington’s perception of “communist” dangers and tendencies rested upon exceedingly broad, loose, and often-irresponsible criteria. Most so called “communists” were civilian reformers, more akin to European social democrat than to Soviet KGB operatives. More over, even those who declared opposition to the United States did so only after Washington adopted blatantly hostile policies. Much of what happened was the result of exaggeration, misperception, and misunderstanding between countries.

    Read More

  • The Cold War

    1177 Words  | 3 Pages

    The American political economy of freedom seemingly was at risk. Thus, the Truman administration switched to an “adversarial relationship”. However, the foreign policy challenge, as Dean Acheson stresses, “was to foster an environment in which our national life and individual freedom can survive and prosper (Leffler, The Specter of Communism, 63).

    Read More

  • Americas Fight on Communism during the 1940s

    1418 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this essay, I am going to discuss various policies and wars that were a huge part in America’s history of fighting against the spread of communism throughout the 1940s and 1950s. These things were policies and ideas that helped to shape and mold our nation’s foreign policies as well as touch on events that forever changed our country.

    Read More

  • Truman Vs. Joe Mccarthy: The Red Scare

    519 Words  | 2 Pages

    The hyped hysteria of a possible threat to America by the Communist was known as the “Red Scare” and no one promoted the “Red Scare” more than Joe McCarthy, a Senator from Wisconsin. If for some reason Harry Truman is responsible for some of the hype, it was only because he was doing his job as Commander and Chief and as President of the United States of America. There was a great deal of concern after World War I that Russia would continue to spread Communism to other territories, threatening America itself. However, Truman acted responsibly when it came to the containment of Communism and did not fully indulge in unwarranted accusations, as did Joe McCarthy.

    Read More

  • The Causes of McCarthyism

    1138 Words  | 3 Pages

    The attitude of the citizens of the United States was a tremendous influence on the development of McCarthyism. The people living in the post World War II United States felt fear and anger because communism was related with Germany, Italy, and Russia who had all at one point been enemies of the United States during the war. If the enemies were communists then, communists were enemies and any communists or even communist sympathizers were a threat to the American way of life. "From the Bolshevik Revolution on, radicals were seen as foreign agents or as those ...

    Read More

  • America, Land of the Free...or Not???

    1749 Words  | 4 Pages

    Senator Joseph McCarthy went from a farm boy in Wisconsin to a famous politician during the Cold War era. His meteoric rise to fame was attributed to his patriotic views and fighting against communism in the name of democracy. McCarthy stated that many communists were attempting to infiltrate and sabotage the United States government, specifically the State Department. He slandered communists as god-hating terrorists of whom people should be cautious towards. McCarthy’s crusade against communism led to many hearings held by the House of Un-American Activities (HUAC) where alleged communists were interrogated and bullied into confessions. Many accused communists were American citizens whose rights had been stripped away in the name of national security. McCarthy’s claims of widespread communist infiltration into American society proved to be fictitious political smears and was later ridiculed out of politics. However, the lies and fear mongering accompanying McCarthyism stripped Americans of their civil liberties. This brings up the question, how did you United States allow for this gross civil injustice, surely this an anomaly as the United States is the “land of the free.” Unfortunately, this i...

    Read More

  • The Influence of Science Fiction

    1074 Words  | 3 Pages

    Even though the United States and the Allies won World War II, there was paranoia about Communism including the fear of invasion by the Soviet Union and China. This fear came from the Cold War and the fai...

    Read More

  • Perspectives on Fear: The Crucible and the McCarthy Era

    916 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lying is bad but the fear that can come from it is worse. Fear can rule a person which drives them to extreme and irrational acts that can shape society in a negative way. We as people are so accustomed to how we should act that during times of fear and crisis our vision is blurred and sometimes our decision making abilities are impaired. We often look past at how much fear can affect us and our society. Starting from Salem 1692 and going to the McCarthy era fear ruled the people and even now in present time America we are constantly living in fear.

    Read More

  • Causes Of The Red Scare

    2213 Words  | 5 Pages

    Within the early and mid-1900s, there were several moments in American history in which we feared that our democracy would be overridden by communist influence and infiltrated by communist groups. These two events were labeled the Red Scare, a time in which “reds”; or communists, were feared to be taking an active participation and role within our democratic government. The first Red scare occurred in the early 1919-1924 after the First World War and the second Red Scare occurred after the World War Two between 1947-1954. Both events, while happening in two totally different eras, carried effects that would impact American society for several future generations and impact the racial prejudice treatment towards those who carried communist beliefs and believed in a supremacist government.

    Read More

More about How Did Joseph Mccarthy's Use Of Fear After The Cold War

Open Document