Mccarthyism Essay Research Paper To talk about

Mccarthyism Essay, Research Paper

To talk about McCarthyism we must first look at what was going on in the United States at the time. WW II had just ended a few years prior, and the cold war was in full swing. Following WW II, for the US Government to be able to spend so much of the taxpayers money on the cold war, the Government had to get the US citizens behind them. To do this the US government started a propaganda campaign to scare the public into thinking the communists were bad and very dangerous people. That the communist people, their way of thinking, and their type of government had to be contained. There were several things that happened to help in-force what the government was saying. First Czechoslovakia and China fell to communism. Then the Russians had a successful explosion of an atomic bomb. There was also the arrest and conviction of the Rosenbergs as spies who were giving our atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. The Korean War was also starting up, Russia was supplying the North Korean Communists with military equipment to invade the non communist South Korea (Reeves 1). With all of this going on in the world and in the United States, the stage was set for McCarthy.

In 1950 after 5 years of the cold war, a relatively unknown Senator Joseph McCarthy, delivered a speech to the Ohio Country Women’s Republican Club. In this speech he talked about the spread of communism around the world. McCarthy pointed out that this was the “time of the cold war” (Chafe 50). He said that the world was split into two camps, that of communistic atheism and that of Christianity. He also says that communism is on the move and that “the chips are down-they are truly down” (Chafe 50). So he is telling these women that communists are trying to take over the world and he is putting a religious spin on it calling the communists atheists and pitting them against Christianity. McCarthy then starts backing up his position by quoting some very large numbers. He quotes that there were 180,000,000 Russians under Soviet rule after WW II and 6 years later there were almost 800,000,000 now under Soviet rule. He points out that this was an increase of over 400%. He then puts the numbers in ratios saying that the “odds have changed from 9 to one in our favor to 8 to 5 against us.” (Chafe 50). In this he is emphasizing the us against them and selling the idea that Communism is growing fast and that the United States is loosing the cold war.

This is where McCarthy starts the real setup for his bombshell. He is quoted, “When a great democracy is destroyed, it will not be because of enemies from without, but rather because of enemies from within.” (Chafe 50). He then says that these traitors are not the minority of this country but are of the wealthiest of this country, and have the finest jobs in the Government. So he is telling these people that it is not them, but those rich people in the government who are selling out this country. This is where he drops the bomb. McCarthy insinuates that one of the most important government agencies, the State Department “is infested with Communists” (Chafe 50). He then says that he had a list of 57 people he believed to be “either card carrying members or certainly loyal to the Communist Party” (Chafe 50). The truth is there was no list, no names, it was just made up to get his speech recognized by the press. He then goes on to explain how this happened to the American people, and that our morals have not been distorted. He then ends his speech with the idea that this will only end “when the whole sorry mess of twisted, warped thinkers are swept from the national scene .” (Chafe 50). Here he is saying we need to find these traders and remove them from Government.

So who is McCarthy and why did he give this speech. Well, Joseph R. McCarthy was an unknown Wisconsin Republican Senator who was up for reelection. He needed a reelection issue and needed to get his name known. He was good at talking to the press and knew what they wanted, and he gave it to them. The Republican party also encouraged McCarthy as they could use him and his “list” as a weapon against the Liberals and Democrats. It was also well known that politicians who have served on some of the anti-Communist committees had boosted their political careers significantly. So McCarthy would target people and if it did not work out he would just pick another person. The one thing that seemed to make McCarthy perfect for this job is that he seemed to have no conscience. It did not seem to matter to him who he targeted, what he said about them, truthful or not, or what happened to them as a result of his accusations.

It is hard to tell who was really behind McCarthy. It appears middle and lower class Americans may have been the only group behind him. That was probably because of the perceived threat of communism and communist traders in our society. Don’t forget we already found two spies giving nuclear secrets to Russians. It may have also been because McCarthy was targeting the wealthy and powerful in this country. The middle and lower class Americans did not necessarily trust or like these people anyway. If it weren’t for the lower and middle class voters along with the media, McCarthyism may have never taken off. It seems that most people in the government, major corporations, the media, and major universities did not like McCarthy. However in the public eye they went along