How did Communists infiltrate your government in the 1930's and 1940's?

Answer 1

There was little if any, factual basis to stories about infiltration; a publicity seeking, somewhat paranoid, heavily drinking Senator, named Joe McCarthy set himself up as a "commie detector". He held long, baseless hearings in Congress, accused many, many people of being communists, with only the word of others paid to "speak out", or in some cases, on no more basis than that a relative of the accused, originally came from the USSR. Some of his accusations were made on the basis of no evidence at all.

After ruining many lives, McCarthy was finally disgraced after bizarre allegations against US Army personnel. One of his cadre, Roy Cohn, was particularly brutal, sometimes blackmailing the innocent into sex acts to avoid exposure. Some choose suicide over the disgrace the powerful McCarthy arbitrarily meted out*.

At the end, one brave US Army attorney, Joseph N. Welch, had the courage to stand up for America and denounce the crew of liars. Eisenhower also began to move toward an end to the McCarthy witch hunt.

McCarthy died, drunk, and stripped of power, after losing his iron fist, and one of the darkest periods in 20th century US history came to an end.

*One US soldier, after his parents had been "revealed" by the McCarthyites as having read a Russian language newspaper, took his own life. Several books and movies have been released, detailing the horrors of the McCarthy years.