The Cold War and Civil Rights 255vote of 67 to 22 , to condemn him on December 2 , 1954 , for “conduct
that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.” Before his
death in 1957 , he had succeeded in making the term “McCarthyism”
synonymous with demagoguery and false accusation.
The Red Scare also inspired Congress to pass the McCarran Inter-
nal Security Act of 1950 and the McCarran-Walter Immigration and
Nationality Act of 1950 , which sought to address the problem of com-
munist infiltration into the United States, both of which were passed
over Truman’s veto. The security measure required communist organi-
zations to register with the attorney general and provide membership
lists and financial statements; the immigration act continued the na-
tional origin quota systems and provided for the exclusion and depor-
tation of aliens with unacceptable political opinions, especially those
from eastern and southern Europe. However, it did rectify an old in-
justice by allowing the annual admission of 2 , 000 Asians on a quota
basis.
The Cold War got worse during the latter part of Truman’s admin-
istration when, on June 25 , 1950 , communist North Korea attacked the
Republic of South Korea. The Japanese had annexed Korea in 1910 but
surrendered it to the Allies in 1945 , at the conclusion of World War II.
Rus sian troops had penetrated Korea down to the 38 th parallel and
established a communist government. The Republic of South Korea
was created in 1948 and recognized by the UN General Assembly and
thirty other member states, including the United States. American
troops in the country were then withdrawn.
When North Korea launched its attack against its southern neigh-
bor it had the approval of the Soviet Union, which assumed, wrongly,
that the United States would make no effort to protect the South Ko-
rean Republic. The UN condemned the invasion—an action the Soviet
Union might have vetoed, except that it had walked out of the Security
Council six months earlier over the refusal to grant Communist China
a seat on that body—and by a vote of nine to zero summoned its mem-
bers to go to South Korea’s rescue. Without asking Congress for a
declaration of war, an action that would be repeated by future Presi-
dents during other military crises, Truman authorized the deployment
of American troops in Korea and dispatched the Seventh Fleet to pro-
tect Taiwan. At the same time the UN placed the troops of fi fteen