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CR 1.4 - The Role Of McCarthy In The Red Scare - Coggle Diagram
CR 1.4 - The Role Of McCarthy In The Red Scare
Joseph McCarthy
He became senator in 1946.
After the Hiss trial, he made a speech claiming to have a list of 205 people working in the State Department and for the Communist Party.
He continued to make several other speeches where the number varied and finally settled on 57.
Despite this many people demanded an investigation.
The Tydings Committee was set up to investigate but found his claims to be untrue.
McCarthy responded by calling Tydings a communist sympathiser and he was not re-elected the next year.
His accusation helped to explain why both Korean and Cold War was not going well for America. And he striked where they were most worried and likely to turn on one another.
Therefore McCarthy was still supported by the Republican Party to continue investigations.
They encouraged him as he was popular and gave them a way to attack the Democrats in the 1952 election campaign.
The Republicans won the election and most Democrats who opposed McCarthy lost their seats.
The new president, Eisenhower, made McCarthy the Chairman of Government Committee on Operations of the Senate.
For the next two years he carried out more investigations.
Methods used by McCarthy
He held hearings firstly in private and then public.
He used bullying and aggression towards those suspected of communism.
In order to gain publicity he attacked high-profile people.
He gathered evidence much of which was given to him by the FBI or fabricated by himself.
He called the Democratic senators and journalists who spoke against him 'soft-on communism'.
He won popular appeal despite never convicting anyone of spying.
Thousands attended his speeches and watched his television appearances.
Just being called to be questioned by him ended people's careers as they were assumed to be guilty.
McCarthy's Downfall
His accusation grew increasingly extreme.
He accused a popular war general of trying to aid communists with world domination, through the Marshall plan, and his failure to prevent a communist victory in China.
Opinion polls in 1953 still showed people agreed with McCarthy's actions.
By autumn McCarthy was leading a new senate sub committee investigating communism in the US army.
in 1954 the Army - McCarthy hearings began,
This was the first time they were public and Americans were shocked at his bullying tactics.
The army retaliated sending evidence of McCarthy using his place in Congress to find evidence to journalists who disagreed with him.
More anti-McCarthy material appeared in the press.
On 9th March Ed Murrow hosted a tv episode criticising McCarthy's tactics.
On December 1954 the Senate formally condemned his work.
Impact of McCarthyism
McCarthyism had a direct impact on those who lost their jobs or whose careers and lives were damaged by McCarthy.
The US government was impacted as many people for instance lost their jobs in the State Department and they could have shaped and steered US politics in a vital way.
There was also the indirect impact - hysteria about communism grew and everyone in America became feared the 'enemy within'.
People turned on each other giving the FBI information on anyone they worried may be communist.
People were known as red if they had any radical or socialist ideas.
Many people stopped talking about politics as they were afraid of accusations people might make about them.
Politicians rarely campaigned for left-wing policies and those who did weren't voted into office.
America was seen as hostile to other people's views and intolerant.
Arguable the Red Scare lasted until the end of the Cold War in 1991 and had a huge impact on America.