Senator Joseph McCarthy and The Committee of Unamerican Activities (HUAC)

The political cartoon “It’s Okay--Were Hunting Communists”manages to sum up the events and political chaos of "The Red Scare"(751, Government and Law). Specifically, the artist is able to mock President Harry Truman, Senator Joseph McCarthy, and The Committee of Unamerican Activities(HUAC). The artist use of facial expression and symbolism paints a picture for the audience, and their feelings towards these issues. The use of this political cartoon also take historical events, and helps to illustrate the meaning and consequences of these events.

The average person, or everyday citizens of the United States are those gathered in the streets. The ones whom were run over are likely to be those accused of communism, a popular fear during this time period. On the side of the car one can see a woman jumping out-of-the-way. This is likely symbolic of what many americans were forced to do at this time: agree with the government or be labelled a communist. If one wanted to look for a more specific population, they could see these people in the streets as Hollywood workers. During 1947 when the cartoon was written HUAC targeted hollywood as a source of communist influence (735). As a result studios began to blacklist those with any potential communist ties, and turn on those they worked with in order to avoid these blacklists.

In the passenger seat of the car we see then president Harry Truman. Driving the car we see Senator Joseph McCarthy, Truman’s lead accuser in many communist trails. (Murrin 738). One can see that Truman is simply waving, and sitting back relaxing which is probably indicative of his continuation to ignore the American people, and allow the “Red Scare” to take place. Meanwhile McCarthy is depicted with a determined...

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...e see events such as the holocaust and wonder how could this happen, we can look at our own history and reference similar events. When faced with the prospect of jail or death, Americans would turn even on their own friends (737). This exercise will not only help me to make these connections, but it also helped me to learn details on the sequence of events and the chain reactions they caused during this time period. However, I believe the book would have been more helpful had it clarified more on why people were so anti-communist. This exercize also aids in connecting the events at the time to each other. Rather than simply learning the events in a sequence, one can now look at them as a web of interconnecting facts, such as the bridge between HUAC and McCarthyism.

Works Cited

Murrin, J. Liberty, Equality, Power. 5th. 2. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, 2007. 723-751. Print.