Who Is McCarthy?
Joseph Raymond McCarthy, born 14 November 1908, was a United States Senator from 3 January 1947 until 2 May 1957. In this time, he was able to accuse many people of supporting communism. In that time period, the Red Scare (see below for more information) had a hold on everyone's mind at the time and to have a political figure such as him accusing people from the government of being communists was terrifying. This lead to the term known as McCarthyism which is the practice of making accusations of other people without evidence (more information below). He started to lose people's attention when he accused certain WWII heroes of being communists. He died while in office at the age of 48 on 2 May 1957.
The Red Scare |
McCarthyism |
The Red Scare was a time of fear for America. The Cold War was going at full intensity so Communism was essentially an unspoken word at the time. Everyone was scared that communism would spread to other countries in Europe or even to America. Everyone was on edge and aware. The Red Scare actually started in the 1920's with the Bolshevik Russian Revolution of 1917 but later intensified in 1947 with McCarthy. Such events like the Ethel and Julius Rosenburg trial (passed information onto the Soviet Union), the Iron Curtain, and the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons shocked the American people. No one knew what to do.
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As stated above, McCarthy was very good at accusing people of being followers of communism that it eventually became its own word: McCarthyism. Essentially, McCarthyism was the art of accusation without any information, specifically communism in the United States. During this time, many of the people that were accused lost their jobs and were blackmailed but hardly any of them were actually part of the communist party.
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The Alien Registration Act
The Alien Registration Act was passed by Congress on 29 June 1940. It made it a illegal for anyone to try and overthrown the government. The law required all alien (foreigner) residents to write a statement declaring their political beliefs as long as they were over 14 years of age. Within four months of the passing of the law, a total of 4,741,971 aliens had been registered. The reason behind this bill was to deter the communist party from trying to live in the United States or trying to overthrow the government.