Joseph McCarthy

McCarthyism has come to mean an attempt by a politician or politicians, to influence the government to do something even though the information being presented is false or misleading. It is sort of a bully in politics. At the peak of his power, McCarthy managed to strike fear in many politicians. Many Senators were afraid to speak out against the man for fear he would attack them as being a communist and ruin their career. Even Eisenhower, candidate for President in 1952, was afraid to praise Secretary of State Marshall while on a campaign tour of Marshall's home state, Wisconsin, because the former Secretary was one of McCarthy's "traitors." Eisenhower feared McCarthy would attack his campaign. Liberals in Congress rushed to prove their loyalty by voting for laws like the McCarran Act, which outlawed the communist party. Only a few outside politics refused to be intimidated by McCarthy's bullying. Edward R. Murrow and Herbert Block were two. The lesson of McCarthyism is that a politician can build a career by exploiting and agravating anxieties in society. The American public has to examine the statements of politicians carefully to weed out the untruths.

Five years after World War II

Because of the House Un-American Activities Committee, film producers avoided making movies about controversial subjects.

His 'Red Scare" policy in which he accused people left and right (but mostly 'left') of being Communist sympathizers. Although he almost never produced a single scrap of hard evidence, he browbeated people in either confessing to having Communist - also meaning 'Socialist', or just liberal - leanings, or he threatened to 'expose' them unless they named others.

Although he had been accusing political rivals and basically anyone who crossed him of being Communists for all his adult life, he now had world events giving him some credibility: the recent installing by the USSR of Communist regimes in eastern Europe, plus several cases of USSR espionage in the US, especially in the field of US atom bomb technology. And he had an eager supporter of his Communist witch hunt: the FBI's J. Edgar Hoover.

When he started to also accuse hundreds of public servants of being 'secret' Communists and - even worse in the eyes of his fellow Senators - promised to 'expose' members of US Congress as Communists, his fellow Senators finally stepped in. In an official report by the US Congress it was shown that he had in almost all cases persecuted people for no good reason and without any proof. It proved to be the end of McCarthy's career.

In Salem, Massachusetts; innocent people were accused of being witches and warlocks, many were tried and executed. Joseph McCarthy accused innocent people of being communists. Many lost their jobs, were sent to prison, and died in poverty or had their lives destroyed and never fully recovered.

They were not justified. Senator Joe McCartney branded many people communists who were not and ruined their lives. He was a disgrace to the USA and to the Senate. One of the worst elected officials in the history of our nation. Communism was a threat in the 1950s, but, that did not excuse McCarthy's witch hunts. He was a terrible person. Cruel and evil. The ends did not justify the means.

In February, 1950 a little-known senator from Wisconsin made a speech in WHEELING, WEST Virginia. The senator, Joseph R. McCarthy, charged that the State Department was infested with communist agents.

Saying that he had a list of Communists employed by the State Department

Joseph McCarthy was a US Senator in the late 1940's who was looking for people,such as Communists who were plotting to subvert the US government.

People in the 1950s were genuinely afraid that the Communists could take over the United States and that fear led to people accepting Joseph McCarthy's witch-hunt for "Communists" in the US government and popular culture as a method of protecting the US and its values.

by making irresponsible allegations

they found him w/ george bush behind the coke machines "wresteling".

It proved to the world how crazy his allegations were when he accused so many innocent Americans of communism.

Joseph Benedict McCarthy is 5' 10".

he had a list of Communist agents working for the gov. in high capacities

He made suspected communists get interviewed. If they could prove themselves innocent, they were freed. If not, they were sent to jail. Miller was called in and was asked to name other communists he knew of so that they could go after them too. Miller refused and was sentenced to jail. His sentence was eventually taken back. Miller and McCarthy did not personally know each other.

He believes there were communists in the State Department and the Army. His main target was Alger Hiss.

State Department

1. people from all walks of life throughout American society
   
   
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Joseph McCarthy was a United States Senator representing the state of Wisconsin.

The american politician Joseph McCarthy (1908 - 1957) was at the Democratic party from 1936. In 1944 he left the Democrats and was then at the Republican party until his death in 1957. He was Republican Senator of Wisconsin from 1947 - 1957.

For the most part the US Senate hearings conducted by Senator Joseph McCarthy in the early 1950s were designed to expose communists in the film industry and to an extent question whether communists had penetrated the US Government. Eventually the Senate censured McCarthy for practices not in line with the Senate's respect for policies and procedures and personal privacy.
For a time, however, the general public was, to a degree, alarmed by McCarthy's accusations. His position was given some credence by the conviction of Alger Hiss and the trial of the Rosenbergs, charged with giving atomic bomb secrets to the Soviet Union.
Of note is that for short time New York lawyer Roy Cohn and Robert F. Kennedy were on McCarthy's staff.

spies for the Soviet Union

spies for the Soviet Union

Joseph Hewes was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He famously said, 'It is done, and I will abide by it,' in reference to separation from England. He'd opposed the idea.

By accusing people of communism, he could cost them their jobs