History- Mcarthyism

• Red Scare


  Fear of communism in the 1920s in the US
• Communism


  Opposite of America's values of capitalism and democracy
• Communist states


  • Run by dictators
  • Economies directed by governments to create classless societies
• Communism


  Seen as a threat to the American way of life
• Joseph McCarthy


  Led a ruthless anti-communist campaign against suspected communists in America
• Second Red Scare


  Conflicting ideologies of the Soviet Union (communist) and the USA (capitalist) led to the Cold War
• Truman Doctrine


  Pledged that US foreign policy would be committed to containment: stopping the spread of communism around the world
• In 1949, civil war in China came to an end when its leader, Chairman Mao Zedong, announced the founding of the People's Republic of China, a communist nation
• In 1949, the Soviet Union began testing its own nuclear weapons
• Concerns that communists were infiltrating America, even within government agencies
• Loyalty programme and security checks within the federal government

  1. Even a "sympathetic association" with an un-American organisation could lead to someone losing their job

  2. No communist spies were uncovered, but hundreds of federal government workers were fired for being deemed 'security risks'
• House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)


  Set up in 1938, tasked after WWII with uncovering and identifying communist threats in the USA, notorious for bullying and pressurising witnesses
• Alger Hiss, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg


  • Exposed as Soviet spies
• Joseph McCarthy


  Became a key figure in the anti-communist campaign, made unsubstantiated claims of communists in the US State Department
• McCarthy's methods


  • Publicly accused influential people of being communists or communist sympathisers with little or no evidence
  • Aggressively tried to intimidate those he accused by attacking their personal character and questioning their loyalty to America
• McCarthy's tactics gave him power, publicity and popularity, and people who spoke out against him ran the risk of being accused of being communists and blacklisted
• McCarthyism


  Outlandish, sensationalist, unproven accusations of communist sympathy and connections
• Fall of McCarthy


  1. Claimed the US army was "soft" on communism

  2. Hearings into the army were televised, revealing the extent of McCarthy's accusations

  3. Senate voted to censure McCarthy, his influence declined rapidly until his death in 1957