TheMcCarthywitchhunts
The late 1940s andth e 1950swerean x ious years
for American s. Despite their prosperity , they
wereworriedby fearsofwar. The nation they
fearedwas the Soviet Union.
BothPresidentTruman and Pre sidentEisenhower
believed rh ar theSovietU n ion'sco m mu n istway
ofrunningacountrywas cruel andw rong.T hey
m adeup their mindstostopit fromsp read ingto
o the rcoun rricsc-ro "contain"it. 13m"contain -
ment "was no renough fo rsomeAm erican s.They
sawcomm u n ism as adange rou s disease. They
believed th atit th reatened bo th th e freedomo f
in divid ualA m ericans and th e"capitalist"ccon -
ouucsystemo f t he UnitedStat es.Theywantedto
d estroy com m u n ism, not mer elycontain it.
In19-1-9 suchpeo p lereceivedtw ounpleasant su r-
prises.T he firs twaswhen communistrulerswon
control o f C h ina. The second was when the
Sovie t Unio nexplodedan atom ic bomb. Only
theAmerican s hadpo ssessedato m icbo mbsuntil
then.
A wave of fea r sweptacross th eUnitedStates.
ManyAmerican sstartedtoseccommunistplots
everywh ere. When so ldie rs from co m m un ist
NorthKorea inva de d SouthKo reain Jun e 1950,
the ir fears became stronger still. Some even::!(, PIl 0 SPERIT'I'fr.NO1' 1l0llLB1Sbelieved that the government itselfwas full of
traitors plotting to betray th e country to the
Russians.
Anam b itio usandu nscru pu louspolitician name d
josephMcCarthyusedth ese fearsto win fameand
power for him self. H e starredwhat cameto be
called a "witch hum"- a search fo r peopleh e
couldblame fo rthesup posedthr eatstotheUnited
States. In the early 1950sMcC art hy accusedall
k indsofpeoplc-egovemmcntofficials. scien tis ts,
famo usente rta iners -ofsecretly worki ngfo r the
SovietUnion. He nev er gave proof, but Ameri cans
wereso full of fearsaboutcom m u nism thatmany
believed h im. McCanhy ru ined hundred s of
inn ocent people.Peo plegrewafraidtogivejobs
oreventoshowfriendshiptoanyoneh e accuse d.
Ifthey d id, theyriskedbeingnamedast raitors
themselves.
Then peoplebegan to doubrM cC.art h y. T hey
watchedhimquestioning"suspects"ontelev ision.
T heysawthat he was abullyand a liar. Uy the
mid 1950s McCarthyhad lo sth is pO\ver.He went
on makingwild accusation s.butnobody lis tened.
ln1957 he d ied .13m'"McCan hYlSln "had done
serio us dama ge torhc Un ited Sta res' rep utation
fo rjusticeand fair play.109