A Decade Of Fear Summary

515 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Mccarthyism cause and effect

Sam Robert in the article, A Decade of fear argues that americans turned against each other because of McCarthyism. Robert supports his claim by explaining , contrasting and demonstrating by. The author’s purpose is to persuade in order to convince the reader that McCarthyism sparked betrayal and fear among americans.The author writes in a factual tone for this educated,political audience. I strongly agree with Roberth’s claim. McCarthyism resulted in americans turning against each other because of self preservation, fear, repression, and political power.
Clearly, McCarthy's ambition for political power contributed to the United States society to a cold war that caused a stir in the nation.’’USA UU Encased in a tense Cold War with the Soviet Union, news of McCarthy's indictment of President Harry Truman's State Department caused nationwide turmoil’’(1).In the same way that fear also arose because persecutions were given to individuals and organizations accused of anti-communism.’’persecution of individuals and organizations accused of anti-communism’’.It was unclear why McCarthy was elected senator as he was supported by documents that were false.Clearly, …show more content…

‘’ En un esfuerzo enérgico por descubrir actividades de espionaje y para luchar contra la amenaza del comunismo’’.In the same way that different programs were started to fight communism during the proshee, Barias people were destroyed in the middle of suspicions because the accusations continued. ’’The US government initiated several programs that led to a climate of terror and persecution of ideas’’.It was frustrating to see how people who managed to achieve careers, in seconds they were removed by the mere fact that accusations continued to arrive.Obviously, the cold war contributed to the nation to evict people from their jobs and in the fight against communism, accusations happened too

Show More
Related

  • The Great Fear

    819 Words  | 2 Pages

    When the Tydings Committee issued a majority report dismissing all of McCarthy’s allegations and condemning them as “a fraud and a hoax perpetrated on the Senate of the United States and the American people.” Republican members of the American sub-committee condemned the majority report and the Democrats who signed it and McCarthy turned his defeat into a victory through the great publicity he received. Soon after Tydings report was considered pro-Communist. Like the Salem Witch Trials lack of substantial proof, many people were willing to believe McCarthy’s charges without any evidence. Soon world events seemed to be playing into McCarthy’s hands and he could use it all against the Truman administration. McCarthy’s fame grew and he because more careless, and instead of hinting nameless lists, he started naming names.

    Read More

  • The Dangers of Fear

    948 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Dangers of Fear Irish Playwright, George Bernard Shaw, once said, “The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity.” Inhumanity is mankind’s worst attribute. Every so often, ordinary humans are driven to the point where they have no choice but to think of themselves. One of the most famous examples used today is the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night demonstrates how fear is a debilitating force that causes people to lose sight of who they once were.

    Read More

  • Juxtaposition In Joseph Mccarthy Enemies From Within

    888 Words  | 2 Pages

    With the onset of the Cold War, a growing Red Scare would cripple American society – effectively plunging the nation into mass hysteria and unrest over the fallacious threat of communist infiltration. This reaction was precipitated by Republican senator, Joseph McCarthy, in his speech, “Enemies from Within”, delivered in Wheeling, West Virginia, on 9 February 1950. McCarthy paints communists in a particularly harsh light to generate anti-Soviet sentiment within the American public. He uses juxtaposition to engender both indignation and fear in the audience to achieve this effect.

    Read More

  • Who Is The Boy Who Cried Wolf In The Crucible

    807 Words  | 2 Pages

    McCarthy was a virtually unknown politician until February 1950, where in a speech at Wheeling, West Virginia, he proclaimed “have here in my hand a list of 205 . . . a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department” (History Matters). This speech coined the “Enemies from Within” propelled McCarthy to the political spotlight and gave him huge power along with the support of the American public. McCarthy, realizing he had a great political opportunity, and continued his “anti-communist” tirade accusing powerful people in hollywood and members of the armed forces as being communists or communist sympathizers. As his skeptics grew, so did his blacklist, with McCarthy accusing every single one of his critics as communists destroying their lives and careers in the process (Victims of McCarthyism). McCarthy used this tactic to discourage any opposition, with many potential critics seeing the potential implications of their skepticism, they simply redacted their statements or never spoke

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of The Red Scare

    531 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Venona Project

    1044 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...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

    Read More

  • Red Scare Dbq Analysis

    829 Words  | 2 Pages

    As a counter product of this McCarthy intensified the Red Scare more and more. His ideals got through to the citizens creating more accusers and accusations. This only of course led to more and more fingers being pointed. The Red Scare was alive and well before McCarthyism but in the creation of McCarthy’s over the top actions he made it worse for the country as a whole, creating more and more fear inside the American

    Read More

  • The Crucible and Modern Day McCarthyism

    720 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Joseph McCarthy and Communism

    1037 Words  | 3 Pages

    From 1949 to 1954, the citizens of the United States were overcome with terror of the possibility of being accused of Communism. Joseph McCarthy was an anti-communist zealot obsessed with rooting out perceived Communist spies and activities in the United States. Common opinion showed that McCarthy was a bully and a liar. The Senate condemned him for it because at the time, there was no evidence to support him. However, in recent years, evidence has come out that confirms the basis of what McCarthy said. There were Communists infiltrating America, and it seemed McCarthy was the only one who actively trying to find it. McCarthy governed the U.S. people with fear for three year, was censored, and now is being proven correct, despite people trying to hide the truth.

    Read More

  • Connecting McCarthyism and The Crucible

    1363 Words  | 3 Pages

    Similarly, McCarthy accused innocent people of being communists in order to get what he wanted: popularity in the political race for reelection as senator of Wisconsin (“Persecution” 1). McCarthy gained his credibility through Whittaker Chambers’ admittance of being a communist and Chambers’ revelation of other communists (“Whittaker Chambers” 1).

    Read More

  • Mass Hysteria

    1218 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    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

  • Joseph Mccarthyism In Today's Society

    1565 Words  | 4 Pages

    Joseph McCarthy is alive and kicking in today's society. He has been for many centuries, bringing fear, doubt, and uncertainty with him. Those ideals have been the unspoken anthem for many political movements throughout America's history. However, it wasn't until the 1950s that the movement claimed the iconic name and face that we associate with it now. Even though it can show fruitfulness in the long run, McCarthyism remains a dangerous political tactic that completely bypasses the individuals' constitutional rights. It is dangerous considering it ignores the individuals' right to privacy, while also providing a powerful political weapon for politicians to generate a wary and uncertain view of a particular group of people. This helps them successfully rally the public behind them. Not only that, McCarthyism also goes against the major

    Read More

  • Harmfulness Of Fear Essay

    1535 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the words of Bertrand Russell, “Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom” (Russell). Fear causes many problems in our lives. Fear influences many of a person’s actions and decisions. However, people usually regret the decisions or actions they made out of fear. Also, these actions and decisions can cause problems for those people in their future. Fear is a harmful emotion, for it clouds people’s judgement, disables them from taking action, and causes them to make decisions that they will regret later.

    Read More

  • Mccarthyism And Mccarthyism

    1744 Words  | 4 Pages

    It was during the year of 1953 that McCarthy decided to “go after the military and the Communism that was found there”, he soon tested his own power by accusing “Robert Stevens, Secretary of the Army” as being involved in Communistic affairs. Due to this severe accusation by McCarthy the army begun to leak information about him, some of the information that was leaked explained that McCarthy had abused his power by trying to receive special privileges in the past . There was a televised hearing between McCarthy and the army that deflated the power of the words that McCarthy held, McCarthy was placed as a “Contemptuous, contumacious, and denunciatory” man and soon lost the place as chairman of “The Committee on Government Operations” (Heale, 1998) (Latham, 1973) (Schrecker, 1994) (Steinberg,

    Read More

More about A Decade Of Fear Summary

Open Document