McCarthyism
During the late 1940's and early 1950's, the topic of Communism had initiated to develop as an everyday conversation for all Americans considering the end of World War II, and the beginning of the Cold War. In 1952, A man name Joseph McCarthy had been elected to Senator for the state of Wisconsin, winning primarily because of his exploits of the issue Communism (a system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single, often authoritarian party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in which all goods are equally shared by the people). Using his theory of "McCarthyism," McCarthy began to root out the communism he thought still existed in America at that time. He accused people of all occupations including, government workers, college professors, playwrights and Hollywood screenwriters, actors, artists, musicians, gays, Jews, and anyone with a goatee. Teaming up with J. Edgar Hoover (Director of FBI at the time), McCarthy would get all his suspects from Hoover tracking down anyone who had been suspected of believing in Communism. Sometimes, they even made false accusations to attract more attention to McCarthy's cause and magnetize more people into believing this was really
The thing that is so striking is that America is based upon an uncertain amount of freedoms, including the ability to believe in communism, and all of a sudden Joseph McCarthy decided to take some of these freedoms away and accuse people for doing nothing wrong. McCarthy however was extremely smart, using his theory to get elected Senator. America had gone haywire all because of some nobody out of Wisconsin and his theory. " People were afraid to speak up or truly speak their minds, because they were afraid to be accused of being a communist. McCarthy attacked every little thing, varying from the accusation of an author of a book, to the assaulting of the Constitution of the United States. McCarthy was cleared of the charges against him but was censured by the Senate for the methods he had used in his investigations and for his abuse of certain senators and Senate committees. For the sake of not being called a communist, some of these people went to the extreme of giving up their constitutional right of the 5th Amendment (which enables you not to incriminate yourself by talking about the past) and making up lies to back themselves up. He remained in Senate until his death, which came three years later on May 2, 1957. There was an extreme amount of pressure to avoid controversial subject matter in films, on Television or even in books. All of McCarthy's accusations were backed up by little evidence and hardly ever proven. It has been closely related that the acts of Joseph McCarthy have been connected to Salem Witch Trials of 1692, which were the convictions of witches on some "spectral evidence," just like the convictions of communist were in the 1950's. The Federal Government abandoned the unfinished agenda of the New Deal. This theory is insane, which is why many people refused to take the pledge on principle, given the reason they live in a free country. McCarthy first attracted national attention in February 1950, with the charge that the Department of State had been infiltrated by Communist. Many Writers and performers moved to Mexico and Europe to avoid being jailed.
Common topics in this essay:
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Communism Sometimes,
Joseph McCarthy,
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McCarthyism America,
Truman Ike,
Anti-Communist Action,
Witch Trials,
joseph mccarthy,
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