Commies are Caught!

McCarthy should be proud of himself for creating so much tumult in American politics and society. He managed to make citizens of the United States question the decisions made by the White House regarding international affairs and foreign policies. How, you may ask? By accusing numerous officials of being communists and forcing them to be put on trial. McCarthy created a list of 205 people, which he later reduced to 57, who were reported Communists feeding information to the Soviet Union. These names were not kept a secret and were in fact published by th Senate in 1946. McCarthy also investigated different government departments and questioned a great amount of people about their political past. Some people lost their jobs after they admitted they had been members of the Communist Party. McCarthy made it clear to the witnesses that the only way of showing that they had abandoned their Communist views was by naming other members of the party.
Around this time the term "McCarthyism" was created. Many compare this hysteria around the U.S. to that of the witch hunt. So many people were getting caught, in trouble, and losing everything important to them. McCarthy tossed out some pretty strong accusations and got an incredible amount of people in trouble for their actions. There were a great deal of high-up figures who had their lives ruined by this man. McCarthy eventually move on from incriminating American politicians to looking into who was infiltrating the U.S. Army.
McCarthyism is still present in the current world. People fear for being associated with other radicals who have bad reputations. That is an offshoot of the craziness that spewed from all of these trials and hearings. Even some teachers decide to move away from more controversial topics for fear of saying the wrong thing, although I believe that was more popular a long time ago when the trials were actually going on. All in all the McCarthy trials truly taught Americans to watch their backs. Getting involved in shady businesses such as becoming a traitor will catch up with you in the end, and it is not a pretty sight.


http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmccarthy.htm
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/schrecker-legacy.html