Joe
Although Joseph McCarthy was not the only factor that played into the Red Scare in the 1950's, he was the driving force behind the mass hysteria that gripped our nation as it faced its darkest days following the war. The anti-communist movement was already planted into American culture by the time that McCarthy came to prominence which is evident by the loyalty programs and security measures that were taken by our government to combat communist infiltration into our State Department. Fried contends that McCarthyism already existed in our country long before his arrival but it was his actions that brought the hysteria to a fever pitch. This era takes with it a long lasting legacy that historians have studied through the decades. One of the grimmest legacies deals with McCarthy's victims. His careful selection of these individuals sheds some light on his tactics and his motives that tried to lead him to his ultimate goal. One of McCarthy's victims was Esther Caukin Brunauer. Brunauer devoted her entire career to the pursuit of education as she earned her M.A. and Ph.D from Stanford. She worked for the American Association of University Women, a group that attempted to obtain college educations for women. She was pa
The last and most prominent of these victims was Owen Lattimore, deemed by McCarthy as the "architect of our far eastern policy". Although McCarthy knew he had overplayed his hand on this one, he built his case on unidentified leaks and circumstantial evidence in an attempt to raise his popularity to unimaginable proportion. Lattimore was a journalist and an expert on China and Central Asia. He had limited connection with the State Department and he was very active in affairs concerning the Pacific, especially China. The FBI cleared Lattimore of any disloyalty but once again McCarthy found yet another unreliable witness that would turn the tide in his favor. Louis Brudenz's testimony linked Lattimore to the CP but his inclusion of Lattimore happened on the last day of an exhausting interrogation. Lattimore liberal views on China and Russia made this easier to swallow than maybe it should have been. Although nothing could ever be proven against Lattimore, nothing could be disproved either. This raised McCarthy's credibility with the public to its highest level which was McCarthy's intention from the beginning. Once again McCarthy used a diplomat, who made some questionable decisions when he was young, to his advantage. Their was no evidence that Lattimore was a red but McCarthy was able to produce a phony witness and use the Red Scare to his advantage. Another victim of McCarthyism was John Stewart Service, a diplomat to China. Service observed the events that were unfolding in China and advised the government cool their relations with Jiang's Nationalist regime. He was recalled to the United States, went before a grand jury, and was cleared by a loyalty board. Although he was cleared, his days in the department were numbered. This backgroun
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1183
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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