McCarthyism

A detailed Summary of McCarthyism

During the late 1940's and early 1950's, the topic of Communism had initiated to develop as an everyday conversation for all Americans considering the end of World War II, and the beginning of the Cold War. In 1952, A man name Joseph McCarthy had been elected to Senator for the state of Wisconsin, winning primarily because of his exploits of the issue Communism (a system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single, often authoritarian party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in which all goods are equally shared by the people). Using his theory of "McCarthyism," McCarthy began to root out the communism he thought still existed in America at that time. He accused people of all occupations including, government workers, college professors, playwrights and Hollywood screenwriters, actors, artists, musicians, gays, Jews, and anyone with a goatee. Teaming up with J. Edgar Hoover (Director of FBI at the time), McCarthy would get all his suspects from Hoover tracking down anyone who had been suspected of believing in Communism. Sometimes, they even made false accusations to attract more attention to McCarthy's cause and magnetize more people into believing this was really

going on in the American society. All of McCarthy's accusations were backed up by little evidence and hardly ever proven. A numerous amount of jobs and careers were destroyed just by knowing the wrong person or associating with the wrong crowd. Many Writers and performers moved to Mexico and Europe to avoid being jailed. There was an extreme amount of pressure to avoid controversial subject matter in films, on Television or even in books. McCarthy made this time period full of secret informants, and frightened, distrustful people. McCarthy created a climate in which a reason gave way to nervous outburst, trust to suspicion and friendship to self-preservation.

During the period of "McCarthyism," many Anti-Soviet Propaganda was published including a book called, "A Guide To Anti-Communist Action," and a magazine like Look which contained the article, "Is This Tomorrow?" This literature was designed to make Americans aware of communist invasion. Hollywood also responded to the demand by creating many films portraying "bad" Russian. The Federal Government abandoned the unfinished agenda of the New Deal. Measures like national health insurance, which had been embraced by the rest of the world, had fell by the way side all because of Joseph McCarthy and his theory of "McCarthyism." People were afraid to speak up or truly speak their minds, because they were afraid to be accused of being a communist. Even the Pres

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Approximate Word count = 956
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: People