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Mccarthism

McCarthism
Axia
Instructor Amy Schmelzer
July 31, 2008

Throughout the early 1950’s, the nation was deeply engrossed in fears of a Communist takeover. At a time when America’s fears were at their very height, Joseph McCarthy, a Republican Senator from Wisconsin pushed America’s fears to an extreme. As a ploy to be re-elected, and to make America hate Communism as much as he did, the Senator devised a devious scheme. McCarthy while giving a speech, held up a piece of paper and stated “he had a list of 205or perhaps 81, 57, or a lot ofCommunists in the State Department (Davidson, p. 815). The reaction to McCarthy’s announcement was absolute panic. Until that time, the nation had a sense of security. Now all peace of mind was lost, and America wanted some people that were on McCarthy’s so called “Blacklist” (Davidson, 2006).
Senator Joseph McCarthy instilled fear into the minds of the Americans with his deep-rooted beliefs in anti-Communist. Suring 1950-1954, Senator McCarthy disrupted the United States with his HUAC (House of Un-American Activity Committee) Hearings. These hearings brought government workers, college professors, playwrights and Hollywood screenwriters, actors, artists, musicians, gays, Jews, and anyone with a goatee under suspicion. These actions proved in many cases to be outrageous and extreme.
This writer does not agree with the tactics Senator McCarthy chose to take. The way people feared him and the fear he put into these people was uncalled. Being a public leader, he should have given the people more respect. These people have been through a terrible ordeal with the war and a public figure should have not added to it.

Davidson, J. (Ed.). (2006). Nation of nations: A concise narrative of the American
republic (4th ed., Vol. 2). New York: McGraw-Hill.

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