McCarthy may have given his name to an era but there was much more to McCarthyism than just one man. In this essay the argument will be that there were many factors leading up to the McCarthy era both internal and external and that McCarthy found a platform in anticommunist fear, as it was popular issue at the time. And his fall from grace in 1954 may also be attributed to both internal and external factors that appeared to alleviate the anticommunist threat.

Today we call it the McCarthy era. While convenient, the tribute is not without reason. McCarthy's villainy was so plain that his name became a curse in the year of his control. Characterised as 'crass and unprincipled, an unimaginative opportunist, and a distinctly second rate politician', McCarthy was also a 'shrewd judge of public attitudes and temper' . This blend made him an overpowering enemy. Elected into the senate in 1946 McCarthy was almost invisible on the public scene until 9 February 1950 . It was then in Wheeling, West Virginia, that he stumbled upon his cause. But the elements of McCarthyism were hardly McCarthy's alone, nor did they diminish after hi

The best thing that could have happen to McCarthy was the beginning of the Korean War on 25 July 1950, the same year as his Wheeling speech. As it provided the back drop for anticommunism and also enhanced the fears of the outbreak of a third world war. McCarthy said of the Korean War 'American boys are dying because a group of untouchables in the State Department sabotaged' . And the arrests of the Rosenberg's had supplied evidence of spies in the government. However without McCarthy the Korean War would still have taken place and American boys would still be dying. Again the arrests of the Rosenberg's at a similar time to the beginning of the war was more of a coincidence than evidence that spies were responsible of the deaths of Americans in Korea.

The fear that surrounded America during the fifties culminated in a most sensational case involving the 'beau ideal of liberal politics Alger Hiss and a podgy unattractive editor of Time magazine, Wittaker Chambers' . Hiss had been a senior official in the State Department and at the time had Democratic friends. The Republican dominated HUAC listened to the self-confessed former communist Chambers and Elizabeth Bentley who testified that there were communists in the State Department and that Hiss was one of them .

This was a major factor in the McCarthy period as the American government was afraid of the communists gaining control of West Germany and then using the American communists there to overthrow the American government. The idea to airlift in supplies and end the blockade was more about containing communism than helping out an ally in crisis. This was a platform that McCarthy could have used in his rise to prominence as it showed that the communists overseas would try anything to gain power.

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Approximate Word count = 3438
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page double spaced)