Mass Phenomena and the McCarthy Trials
"America is much more than a geographical fact. It is a political and moral fact - the first community in which men set out in principle to institutionalize freedom, responsible government, and human equality" wrote Adlai Stevenson, a famous politician of the 1950s. Sadly, during this time, the concepts of freedom, responsible government, and human equality were disregarded. They were deemed secondary to fear, violation of civil rights, and false accusations. Indeed, the McCarthy era was a dark time in American history. Many Asian and European nations had fallen to communism, each nation successively closer to the United States of America. This pattern was alarming to the democracy-loving Americans. In an effort to calm the panic, Congress passed the Alien Registration Act (ARA) on June 29th, 1940. This piece of legislation stipulated that it was illegal to "advocate, abet, or teach the desirability of overthrowing the government." The sole purpose of this act was to eliminate any threats to the democratic American government while young. The ARA was created especially to eradicate any prominent groups which promoted communism. One such party was the American Communist Party, which had gained recent recognition.
If Americans are cowardly, and do not speak for what they truly believe in, America is doomed. Senator Joseph McCarthy made a speech in 1950, claiming that he had a list of 57 people in the State Department which were members of the American Communist Party. McCarthy's tactics caused hysteria, similar to the Salem Witch Trials. McCarthy was particularly subjective in the people he interviewed. Had McCarthy been screened, he too would have been on that list. During his investigations, he attempted to disrepute Robert Stevens, the Secretary of the Army. Joseph McCarthy proceeded to investigate the communist influence in the military. Each of these men, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Albert Maltz, Adrian Scott, Samuel Ornitz,, Dalton Trumbo, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr. By interrogating 41 unidentified people that worked in the motion picture industry, the HUAC accused nineteen people of holding communist beliefs. also formed the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) under Martin Dies. Thus, the communist lists grew to 320 people including, Charlie Chaplin, Carl Foreman, John Garfield, Arthur Miller, Dorothy Parker, John Randolph, Orson Welles, and Richard Wright. Joseph McCarthy gained momentum quickly and was promoted to Chairman of the Government Committee on Operations of the Senate. In fact, the majority were Democrats, thus publicly humiliating the Democratic Party.
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