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McCarthyism: ideological purging of communism within the US government and…
McCarthyism
: ideological purging of communism within the US government and wider society
causes
In 1950
Alger Hiss
was perjury as he lied about passing on information to the USSR whilst working for the US state department. This led to accusations that Truman was being 'soft' on communism
McCarthy delivered a speech in Wheeling,West Virginia about his ideas
China had recently become a communist state, and so the USA needed to defend itself
There was a long history of Anti-socialism in the US,they were generally very suspicious
the Bolshevik revolution created a huge backlash against Jews
Truman signed the loyalty order, which gave the FBI consent to hunt down communists in the State Department. As a result, rallies and organisations were shut down and people got deported (this is before McCarthy even came to power)
1949 saw the Soviets successfully test their first nuclear weapons, breaking the US monopoly
Julius and Esther Rosenberg were arrested for giving information to the USSR about nuclear weapons in 1950
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people already tended to be anti-war, so people on the left who supported the war were targeted
effects
HUAC:
its purpose was to investigate communist infiltration . Those brought before the committee were often perfectly innocent but served as a sacrificial victims.
members of the film industry, State Departments, and Teachers were targeted. Hoover called teachers 'reducators', which came from 'reds' (a way to describe communists
In 1954, he made the accusation that 'reds' had infiltrated the US army, which led to his downfall
it resulted in the US moving away from eurocentric policies and towards those with an 'asia first' viewpoint, as he took the position that Asia was much less secure from the threat of communism
By 1950, Britain had become concerned about the USA's aggressive stance in the Cold War. eg. they were worried their aggressive stance over Korea may lead to the USSR destabilizing Europe. It also increased Britain's defence spending in a time of continuing austerity. In the eyes of the British, the Korean war to place the stability and territorial status quo that the creation of NATO had established in Jeopardy.
the FBI is given lots of money to investigate people
lots of anti-communist films coming out of Hollywood 'eg. I married a communist'
the Lavender scare
resulted in lots of LGTBQ+ government officials being blacklisted.
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however- keeping close relations with the US was Britain's top priority, so they contributed to the Korean war