McCarthyismMcCarthyismThe Modern Salem Witch

Trials

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills

• US 6F– Describe the impact of…McCarthyism…

Reasons for ParanoiaReasons for Paranoia

• Chinese civil war ends with Communist victory in China.

• Communist spies discovered in America.

• Increase of the Communist Party in the United States.

• Nuclear arms race with Soviets– Soviets detonate nuclear

bomb in 1949

Alger Hiss Alger Hiss Soviet Spy?Soviet Spy?

• HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) formed to investigate communist influence in the US.

• Alger Hiss, a former State Dept. official was accused of spying for the Communists in 1948.

Whitaker Chambers accuses HissWhitaker Chambers accuses Hiss

• Whitaker Chambers, a former member of the US Communist Party, told HUAC that Hiss had been a fellow Communist in the 1930’s.

Another Red ScareAnother Red Scare• With all the cases of

Communism, people begin to fear that there are Communists all around them.

• Widespread fear leads to tolerance of tactics by Joseph McCarthy.

Who was Joseph McCarthy?Who was Joseph McCarthy?

• Republican Senator from Wisconsin.

• Ran unsuccessfully in 1944.

• Ran against Robert LaFollette Jr. and was elected in 1946.

• Gave a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia in 1950– Claimed to have evidence of 81 State Dept.

employees that were Communists.

Frequent Targets of McCarthy

• Dean Acheson-Secretary of State

• General George Marshall (Marshall Plan)

• Prominent Hollywood movie directors and actors.

• US Army

McCarthy’s DownfallMcCarthy’s Downfall

• McCarthy begins to investigate the Army.

• Millions of American spectators watch as McCarthy bullies witnesses.

• McCarthy accuses a young lawyer in the Army attorney’s office of Joseph Welch of having been affiliated with a Communist organization.

• Welch struck back at McCarthy charging that he had “no decency” to try and ruin this young man’s reputation.

No decency

Downfall of McCarthyDownfall of McCarthyAnd the crowd goes wild…And the crowd goes wild…

• Joseph McCarthy is exposed for the bully he is.

• Later that year, he was censured by the Senate (a vote of formal disapproval).

• He died in 1957 a broken and embittered man.