McCarthyism
In the United States, decade following World War II should have beenan era of prosperity and peace. After all, the Great Depression that hadpervaded the 1920s through the 1930s was over. The United States hademerged victorious from the war. The country's position as a militarysuperpower was rapidly being solidified by its emerging economic might. However, the United States of 1940s and the 1950s can also becharacterized by a hysterical wave of anti-Communist paranoia. The resultwas a government-sanctioned system of political repression and widespreadviolation of the rights of many citizens. One of the most importantperiods of this era was the McCarthy trials, during which Congressionalhearings were conducted to expose and in many cases, persecute people for It is difficult for the modern reader to understand how suchrepressive practices could have happened, particularly in a country thatemerged victorious from a war, was experiencing economic upheaval and was astrong advocate for individual civil liberties. This situation is evenmore ironic given how "McCarthyism" enjoyed strong public support among the
While she waived the Fifth Amendmentand agreed to testify about herself, Hellman emphatically stated that shewould not lie about her peers in order to avoid jail time. The Court eventually ruled that the book itself couldbe considered crime paraphernalia, and that people who owned the book couldbe seen as planning a crime (Budenz 1949, p. There was even less information that they were engaged in espionageor other illegal activities. By looking at these factors, this paper hopes to contribute to agreater understanding of the conditions that spawned not only McCarthyism,but also the movement's strong public support for this mass violation ofcivil liberties. By the late 1940s, it is important to note that virtually everygovernment agency was involved in the anti-Communist activities. Throughout the trial, prosecutorsfailed to prove that the 11 American communists had any ties to the SovietUnion. In addition to targeting individual Communists, the FBI hunts and thecriminal justice trials sent other strong messages to the public. First, it painted communism as somethinginherently alien to the country. In fact, Hiss was a New Deal government official who was charged withmembership in the Communist Party and later, with copying confidentialgovernment documents for transmission to the Soviets. she stated how parts of the movie --such as the playing of the American national anthem in front of a communistmob -- made her "feel sick. In 1946,the Republicans frequently mentioned the "Red Menace" in relation to thesesocial conditions, intimating that any form of liberalism would make theseconditions even worse. These inquiries were euphemisticallyreferred to as "loyalty checks" (Fariello 1995, p.
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Acceptance Essays
