The Red Scare: The Era Of Mccarthyism

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The Era of McCarthyism Multitudes of terror and mass hysteria resulted from the era of McCarthyism. From the Cold War, to the reading of two hundred and five names of suspected communists working in the United States government, communism was widely feared among the American people. This came to be known as “The Red Scare” which was the constant fear that communism was going to become present in the ideological principles of government in the United States. Joseph McCarthy was a U.S. Senator who joined the fight to prevent communism from spreading and urged the American People to do the same. However, McCarthy’s accusations towards suspected communists did not work well in his favor. Joseph McCarthy was a Wisconsin native who had later become…show more content…
The United States had vast knowledge on the Soviet Union’s nuclear strength as they exploded their first A-bomb in 1949. As a result of the Soviet Union's influence on Eastern Europe, most of the countries in that area had communist governments that had modeled the Soviet Union or the Soviet Union had complete control over them. Communism was also present in China, one of the U.S. main trading partners, under the rule of Mao Zedong. The spread of communism did not make Americans feel safe considering that it might spredt to the United States. This fear of communism became to be known as the Red Scare. The Red Scare can be defined as the trepidation of the “Reds” which is a nickname for communists. Atomic threats from the Soviet Union was a recurrence during this time period and the American People did not want anything to do with communists infiltrating their government. This fear resulted in the people doing whatever needed to be done, to abolish any suspected communist that would be considered a threat. For example, the House Committee on Un-American Activities Committee also known as HUAC was established as an investigative committee that ran within the United States Government’s house of representatives. This committee had targeted the film industry, Hollywood. HUAC threatened many producers, actors, writers and others involved in the film industry to give names of those who are to be suspected communists within their industry. Those who did not provide the committee with names, “...were blacklisted from jobs in the entertainment industry.” (“McCarthyism”) Overall, the United States during the McCarthy era was a prime example of

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