Words: 3247
The ability to be a credible person can go a long way in a time of panic, which was the case with Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Red Scare in the asses. During that time Senator McCarthy made some accusations of people being communist that were for the most part believed during the early 1 sass. It is arguable that people believed him not because he had proof, but because he was a senator and worked for government.
When looked at, this reason seams very reasonable since most Americans or even the average American did not understand what was occurring during hat time or were uninformed. Thus, it would be very easy to take advantage of the people living in America, with false accusations and propaganda and get support from them. Also, it helps that McCarthy was a senator during that time because it is easier to believe a politician who says he has proof to back up his accusations as opposed to someone that is not known to the public that is accusing people of being communist.
The Red Scare was very prominent in the asses and as well as in the asses in America. Also, it was an unfair occurrence in the sense that no one ever had a fair chance to get their air say in if they were accused of being an anarchist in the asses or communist in the asses. The accused were immediately seen as a threat and as a result faced many problems, such as losing their jobs and losing credibility. The most crucial problem was that some were killed for speculation and not facts, which was the case for some people.
Thus, with the issue of the accused not having a say and McCarthy having credibility as a result of being a senator the question of “to what extent where McCarthy accusation of people being communist during the Red Scare credible? Arises. Although McCarthy did have evidence to support his accusations of communism in America, the evidence was not entirely credible, as some evidence was inaccurate. Therefore, Senator McCarthy accusations during the Red Scare were not credible as his evidence was inaccurate and manipulated to seem like there were more communists in America, than there were actually.
As a result his accusations were believed when they were not credible at all. The Red Scare by definition is the sudden mass fear or anxiety over anticipated events. In America there have been two Red Scares hat occurred, one in the asses and the other in asses. Both Red Scares in America arose out of fear of communism and foreign policy that could have impacted America greatly, especially since both Red Scares occurred after World War One and World War Two. After World War Two the United States developed a policy of containment to try and stop the spread of Communism.
After the Second World War the United States entered the Cold War against the Soviet union. The first Red Scare occurred after the end Of the First World War and during the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. The reason Americans darted to grow fear in communists and anarchists was due to a series of bombings by anarchists. Because of the Red Scare in the 1 adds many people that were innocent were arrested because they expressed their views. As well, civil liberties were ignored and this lead to a fear that a revolution in the united States, like the Bolshevik Revolution would occur.
The people who were suspected, or thought to be a communist or an anarchist, during the first Red Scare were those who did not seem as patriotic as everyone else or were not as patriotic as they could have been. The government responded to his Red Scare in the form of the General Intelligence Division of Bureau of Investigation, which was created to uncover Bolshevik conspiracies and to find and incarcerate or deport conspirators. As a result many people were arrested and deported because they were thought to be radicals and leftists. Civil liberties were not taken into consideration and warrants were not used to arrest people either.
Efforts were made to say that the General Intelligence Division of Bureau of Investigation violated some civil rights that people had, such as the First Amendment since people were not allowed to voice their pinions during this time. The Second Red Scare of the United States occurred after the Second World War had ended in the 1 sass. The difference between the situation of the Second Red Scare to the First Red Scare was the Second Red Scare occurred in a time when the United States were looking to contain communism from spreading to Western Europe and most importantly to the rest of the world.
During the Second Red Scare, the Cold War began between the Soviet Union and the United States. There was no actual fighting between both sides in terms of weapons or violence during the Cold War. The Second Red Scare had The House Committee on Un-American Activities or HIJACK The House Committee on Un-American Activities was made so it would investigate UN-American and subversive activities and originally investigated both left wing and right wing political parties, which would later go on to change.
Eventually communist related issues during the period of the Red Scare were being investigated. The House Committee on Un-American Activities then switched its attention to the possibility that the CAP or American Communist Party had infiltrated the Federal Writers Project and other New Deal projects. The HUGH eventually would end up investigating the Hollywood Motion Picture Industry during the period of the Second Red Scare and eventually the investigation lead to the Hollywood Ten, the Red Channels, which were documents that revealed people who were communist in the United States.
The Second Red Scare can mostly be sum upped by one name or man, Senator Joseph McCarthy, who wanted to find communists at any cost. Due to Senator McCarthy a word arose which is very synonymous with the Second Red Scare, McCarthy. McCarthy by definition is the practice of publicizing accusations of political disloyalty or version with insufficient regard to evidence or the use Of unfair investigatory or accusatory methods in order to suppress opposition. McCarthy was also known as the witch hunt of communist during the Second Red Scare.
Senator Joseph McCarthy was born in Appleton, Wisconsin, on 14th November, 1908 to Catholic Parents. Senator Joseph McCarthy after returning and completing high school in 1928 attended Unrepresentative. Originally Senator Joseph McCarthy was part of the Democratic Party and was a supporter of the New Deal and of President Franklin Roosevelt, but because Senator Joseph McCarthy did not become the candidate for the Democratic Party for the position of District Attorney, he changed political parties and became a Republican. During World War Two Senator Joseph McCarthy became a marine.
After the war ended he ran to become a republican candidate for the senate against Robert La Foliate. Senator Joseph McCarthy succeeded and eventually became a member of the senate. Senator McCarthy s methods of winning were not the cleanest as he did attack Robert La Foliate on matters that were true, but they were justified for La Foliate. Robert La Foliate enlisted for the war, but La Foliate was too old to enlist, and therefore could not participate in World War Two. Senator McCarthy took advantage of this formality by saying La Foliate did not participate in the war.
This act by McCarthy showed that he did not care how he won and as well that he manipulated information to make La Foliate look terrible. Senator Joseph McCarthy was unimpressive during his years in the senate and when there was a chance of losing he wanted a way where he was assured he could retain his seat. As a result of Senator Joseph McCarthy fear of losing his seat, name a suggestion to Senator McCarthy from one of his friends. The suggestion from his friend was for Senator Joseph McCarthy to begin a campaign against communist subversives working in the Democratic Administration.
Senator McCarthy had help from one of his friends, Jack Anderson who was a journalist who gave Senator McCarthy information on people he thought or suspected of being a communist. As well Senator Joseph McCarthy received information that was known only to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Later in the year 1950 McCarthy made a speech at a eating of the Republican Women’s Club in Wheeling, West Virginia basically stating that he had a list of 205 people in the State Department that were known to be members of the American Communist Party and were passing secret information to the Soviet Union.
Drew Pearson later pointed out that that only three people on the list that were State Department officials and that none of the people on the list mentioned by McCarthy were actually apart of the American Communist party, meaning that the information was embellished to seem more dangerous than it was, making it not credible. Outside the United States the war in Korea increased the power of McCarthy and Senator Joseph McCarthy since the Korean War was not in the favor of the United States.
As well, there were communist advances in Eastern Europe and with this knowledge the United States’ people were afraid about the possibilities of internal subversion, which Senator Joseph McCarthy no doubt exploited. For the next couple of years Senator Joseph McCarthy started investigating various government departments. As well Senator Joseph McCarthy questioned a large number of people about their political sat and a downside to this was that people lost their jobs when they admitted they had been or were members of the Communist Party.
It is to be noted that the people being questioned said they had been part of the Communist party, meaning they were no longer in it. If it was not bad enough to admit to being communist during the Red Scare, Senator Joseph McCarthy gave the people who admitted to being communist a sort of ultimatum in saying the only way they could show that they had left their left-wing views was by naming other members of the party.
In a sense this method may have mimed like a good way to find communists if indeed there were ever any communist, but at the same time it seemed like another way that false accusations could have arisen from the investigating of Senator Joseph McCarthy and McCarthy during the Second Red Scare. As well, this method by the McCarthy could of lead to unreliable numbers of communists and evidence that was not credible. It is somewhat quite interesting that only the people targeted by Senator Joseph McCarthy were only Democratic people who had a left wing view on politics and left wing people as well, like communists.
Besides that Senator McCarthy targeted Democrats associated with the New Deal policies introduced by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the asses, which ironically was the time when Senator Joseph McCarthy was still a Democrat and still supported Democratic views. Senator Joseph McCarthy even accused Harry S. Truman who was portrayed by Senator Joseph McCarthy as a dangerous liberal and members of his Democratic Administration, such as George Marshall and Dean Achaeans, of being soft on communism. Continuing with the accusations of Democrats, Senator Joseph McCarthy with his accusations of Harry Truman eventually helped the
Republican candidate, Dwight Eisenhower, win the presidential election in 1952. Again Senator Joseph McCarthy and McCarthy looked like a way for Senator Joseph McCarthy to support right wing ideas as he helped a Republican become president instead of a Democrat, who was a left wing politician. To this point it seemed Senator McCarthy motives of McCarthy during the Second Red Scare seemed to have shown actions in which he wanted the right wing to become the superior political party in the united States over the left wing. Senator McCarthy investigations helped as more
Democrats were questioned and were said to be communist, thus making a Republican seem better during this period. Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Second Red Scare developed a presence as no one dared to criticize him politically, since the person who chose to criticize would end up being criticized themselves by Senator Joseph McCarthy followers. Drew Pearson who earlier stood up to Senator Joseph McCarthy had radio shows were he would disprove Senator Joseph McCarthy claims on who was or was not a communist, which caused a rivalry’ between Drew Pearson and Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Senator Joseph McCarthy even accused Drew Pearson of being the voice of international Communism and a Moscow-directed character assassin. As well Senator Joseph McCarthy helped raise money to help Fred Napoleon Hawser, the Attorney General of California, so he could sue Drew Pearson for $350,000 as Hawser was suing for libel (anything that is defamatory or that maliciously or damagingly misrepresents). The libel resulted from Pearson having reported In 1948 that Hawser had ties to gamblers, as Hawser had accepted money from a well known Long Beach gambler.
Although Senator McCarthy attempted to get him Drew Pearson dude, his attempts were unsuccessful as Drew Pearson was ruled by the courts to have not committed libeled against Hawser. McCarthy rivalry’ with Pearson is of great importance because he tried to get Pearson sued, meaning he saw him as a threat. This further leads into the possibility that McCarthy had false information as he worried that Pearson was disapproving of his accusations, further leading to McCarthy losing support. If people were not enough to attack Senator Joseph McCarthy, he attacked books which he believed were anti-American books in libraries.
Senator Joseph McCarthy had search done by his researchers into the Overseas Library Program and discovered 30,000 books by communists, pro-communists and former communists. This had the same result as the list of people being communists had as the books were put into a list which was publicized and the books were later burned. Up to this point Senator McCarthy had attacked both books and people and with more time came a new target to which Senator McCarthy would investigate to see if there was communism within the United States Military.
Senator Joseph McCarthy had been for the most part purported by a majority of the American people up to this point in time; the military investigation would turn out to be Senator Joseph McCarthy biggest mistake. The investigation Of the military began on October Of 1 953 and Senator Joseph McCarthy while investigating made attempts to discredit Robert Stevens, who at the time of the investigation was the Secretary of the Army. Senator Joseph McCarthy investigation into the military and the possibility that communism was within the military made president Dwight Eisenhower furious at what he was doing with his investigation on the litany.
President Eisenhower came to the conclusion that it was time to bring an end to Senator McCarthy activities due to Senator Joseph McCarthy investigation of the military. What was done to stop Senator Joseph McCarthy actions was that the military passed information about Senator Joseph McCarthy to journalists known to be opposed to him. Also included in the attempts to stop Senator Joseph McCarthy was the news that he and Roy Cohn had abused congressional privilege by tying to prevent David Chine from being drafted and ultimately this attempt failed.
Roy Cohn ND David Chine were known to have had a homosexual relation with each other and were aides of McCarthy in accusing people of being communists. Roy Cohn was the man who prosecuted the Rosenberg and David Chine published a pamphlet entitled Definition of Communism, which downgraded communism. When this attempt failed it was claimed that Cohn tried to pressurize the Army to grant Chine special privileges and an article would later go on to be published. President Eisenhower instructed Richard Nixon, his vice-president at the time to attack Joseph McCarthy.
What Richard Nixon id was give a speech about communism “Men who have in the past done effective work exposing Communists in this country have, by reckless talk and questionable methods, made themselves the issue rather than the cause they believe in so deeply”. The speech was not directed at anyone, but it was clear it aimed at Senator Joseph McCarthy as the speech talked about a man who exposed communists in the past via questionable methods that has caused for him to be the issue.
The speech mentions questionable methods of exposing communists which leads to McCarthy accusations not being redouble as he had questionable methods. The tide was changing and it was changing quickly on Senator Joseph McCarthy as he started to lose influence and his tactics and ways were exposed showing the person he really was. The investigations of the united States Army would go on to be televised were his tactics were shown and later on the Louisville Courier-Journal, it reported that: “In this long, degrading travesty of the democratic process McCarthy has shown himself to be evil and unmatched in malice. This point McCarthy had made himself look terrible and this was something other politicians greed with and Senator Joseph McCarthy would later go on to lose the chairmanship of the Government Committee on Operations of the Senate to a vote of 65 to 22. As a result Senator Joseph McCarthy was now without a power base and the media lost interest in his claims of a communist conspiracy and some reports refused to file McCarthy stories and most papers would not have printed them anyway.
It seemed that McCarthy had now come to an end. Looking back at the Red Scare of the 1950 it was clear that it had many actions that were aimed at finding out if indeed there were communists within the United States. With these actions came information that was obtained, but it is clear that most information by Senator Joseph McCarthy cannot be seen as credible as there were many flaws that made the credibility of the information obtained unreliable, thus, making Senator McCarthy accusations unreliable.
Senator McCarthy used the tactics of fear to get the answers he wished to get out of the people he was investigating. McCarthy forced people to say they were a communist, making his information false and adding to a number of accused communists, making his data unreliable. And if they were an actual communist they were arced to reveal other names of people who were communists, which cannot be trusted as well because any name COUld have been said so the person could have been let go.
Another attack to McCarthy credibility was that on 4th March, 1954, Richard Nixon made a speech where, although not mentioning McCarthy, Nixon made it clear who he was talking about. By looking at the quote it sclera that McCarthy ways of exposing communist were questionable, meaning that the information was well cannot be trusted. The most important piece of evidence that makes McCarthy evidence not credible was what started the Red Scare.