McCarthyism, became a term that referred to Senator Joseph McCarthy from Wisconsin and the ruthless tactics he employed and institutionalized while seeking to destroy the threat of Communism to the United States government and society between 1950 and 1954. Fears of communism and self-promotion were utilized by McCarthy to promote himself as a politician end protector of the American way of life. Generally, McCarthyism became synonymous with the Medieval Witch Hunts and trials in that unfair prosecutions were based on fears and rumors. Both, McCarthyism and witch hunts were products of generally unfavorable times. Similarly, testimony and confessions were often forced by threat and coercion. Seemingly plausible accusations containing innuendo …show more content…
American intelligence was aware of the Soviet position and justification of expansionism. Further, the Soviets had made it clear that socialism and capitalism could never be harmonious which lead to U.S. to garner public support for the Cold War. Document 4, House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) testimony by J Edgar Hoover features allegations of Soviet threats to the the U.S. and provides a clear illustration of how the United States government set about shaping public opinion of the dangers of Communist Party by 1947.Within Document 4, highly respected crime fighter, FBI director J.Edgar Hoover articulates reasons why and the details of how and why communism should be found and rooted out of government. Hoover's testimony and statement to the HUAC became the platform from which cooperation, investigation and prosecution of communism had it’s earliest formal roots. More importantly, however, Hoover's testimony lead to America's heightened awakening to the threat of communism as well pushing an institutionalization of an anti-communism network. Details of prosecutions in the 1949 Smith Act trial are found in Document 10 and these details illustrate the extent to which Hoover’s testimony and statement paved the way for such far reaching prosecutions. Government prosecutors made great strides in connecting illegal acts of communism to the subversion of United States laws and Violation of the Smith Act throughout this
Joseph McCarthy was a United States senator in the mid twentieth century who believed that the communists were taking over the State Department and were shaping the foreign policy of America, those same communist that were their foes. Joseph McCarthy’s great fear of the rising of the communist party, in both the Soviet Union and in America, was reflected by a great deal of the country. “The fall of China to communism were the results of the infiltration of communism in to the American government, specially the state department” (The Annals of America).
...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
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...
During the late nineteen forties, a new anti-Communistic chase was in full holler, this being the one of the most active Cold War fronts at home. Many panic-stricken citizens feared that Communist spies were undermining the government and treacherously misdirecting foreign policy. The attorney general planned a list of ninety supposedly disloyal organizations, none of which was given the right to prove its loyalty to the United States. The Loyalty Review Board investigated more than three million employees that caused a nation wide security conscious. Later, individual states began ferreting out Communist spies in their area. Now, Americans cannot continue to enjoy traditional freedoms in the face of a ruthless international conspiracy known as the Soviet Communism. In 1949, eleven accused Communists were brought before a New York jury for abusing the Smith Act of 1940, which prohibited conspiring to teach the violent overthrow of the government. The eleven Communist leaders were convicted and sentenced to prison.
Both The Crucible and “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues” agree with the hypocrisy and lack of sense that the time called the Red Scare or McCarthyism began, fed and ended. The Crucible uses the Salem Witch Trials as an allegory to show this side of the Red Scare while Bob Dylan uses an obvious sarcasm to show his point of view. Both Bob Dylan and Arthur Miller expose the irony of the time period called McCarthyism.
The Salem witch trials and the story of Joseph McCarthy are very similar; they both accused innocent people of doing things that were “bad” at the time. The Salem Witch trials were persecutions of men and woman on account of performing witchcraft. Two girls accused a woman of doing witchcraft and then the accusations continued, people accused other people to relieve their own punishment in a last ditch effort to save their lives, but it was in vein. After the witch trials were over “19 had been killed and an elderly man pressed to death under heavy stones”(Linder). “Some accused of witch craft were burned at the stake all in the name of justice”(Brown). Others were finally let out of jail after being in imprisonment for months at a time. Joseph McCarthy was the U.S senator for the state of Wyoming from 1947-1957, the year that he died. McCarthy became the most visible face in public during the time of the cold war in America. “McCarthy pursued unnecessary investigations, imprisonments and unprovoked acts to those who were being accused of being a communist”(Glitterrich). The term McC...
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) was created in 1938. They were focused on investigating and putting an end to Communists and Communist supporters in the American Society. Their first major attack was on the Hollywood film industry. Communists in the Hollywood industry were said to be placing subversive messages into films. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and others like Senator Joseph McCarthy pestered communists and supporters of the Communist party.
The McCarthyism refers to any chasing of people accused for any porpoise. McCarthyism gets the name from the Senator Joseph R. McCarthy; he was a republican from Wisconsin.
McCarthyism and the Salem Witch Trials are two points in American History when citizens were accused by other people out of a fear of something they did not have an explanation for. Widespread, irrational fear during both these times played on the American psyche and caused mass panic. These were horrible times in history and resulted in many different thoughts that played on people’s brains and caused issues throughout the country.
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.
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).
You didn't tell him that!ABIGAIL: Betty, you never say that again! You will never— BETTY: You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!"(Miller 19). The women accused of being seen with the devil were supposedly witches, they were given unfair trials and if they confessed they would not be killed but if they would not confess they would be hung. John McCarthy accused people for being communism in the 1950's, the accusations came out to be false. After all of the accusations that McCarthy made communism became a national obsession. Many were blacklisted and lost their jobs, others who were accused of being communist were deported or sent to jail. The subject was so serious and damaging some committed suicide as a result. "I have here in my hand a list of 205-a list of names that were known to the secretary of state as being members of the Communist Party"(Price 1). McCarthy was accusing innocent people for being communist and it has left a lasting impact about how easy America could fall into a state of hysteria.
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 ...
The Alien Registration Act passed by Congress on 29th June, 1940, made it illegal for anyone in the United States to advocate, abet, or teach the desirability of overthrowing the government. The law also required all alien residents in the United States over 14 years of age to file a comprehensive statement of their personal and occupational status and a record of their political beliefs. Within four months a total of 4,741,971 aliens had been registered.
The first similarity between the brave new world’s society and today’s society is that there is a way to create false happiness by removing pain and sorrow. In Brave New World, Huxley created a pill called soma that makes everyone happy all the time. In today’s society, everyone has a way to cope with pain and sorrow, for instance some people use technology, or consume drugs or alcohol to create false happiness. These coping mechanisms are similar to soma because they take the pain and sorrow away and allow the person to be happy for a short period of time. Soma is a more permanent solution to eliminating unhappiness, which is just a little more advanced than drugs, alcohol and technology. Mustapha Mond describes soma to John by saying, “‘And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there’s always soma to give you a holiday from the facts’” (Huxley).