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[[File:Is this tomorrow.jpg|thumb|225px|A 1947 comic book published by the Catechetical Guild Educational Society warning of the supposed dangers of a Communist takeover]]
'''McCarthyism''' is the politically motivated practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term specifically describes activities associated with the period in the United States known as the [[Red_Scare#Second_Red_Scare_.281947.E2.80.9357.29|Second Red Scare]], lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by heightened fears of [[Communism|communist]] influence on American institutions and [[espionage]] by [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] agents. Originally coined to criticize the [[anti-communism|anti-communist]] pursuits of [[United States Senator|U.S. Senator]] [[Joseph McCarthy]], "McCarthyism" soon took on a broader meaning, describing the excesses of similar efforts. The term is also now used more generally to describe reckless, unsubstantiated accusations, as well as [[Demagogy|demagogic]] attacks on the character or patriotism of political adversaries.

During the post–World War II era of McCarthyism, many thousands of Americans were accused of being Communists or communist sympathizers and became the subject of aggressive investigations and questioning before government or private-industry panels, committees and agencies. The primary targets of such suspicions were government employees, those in the entertainment industry, educators and [[Trade union|union]] activists. Suspicions were often given credence despite inconclusive or questionable evidence, and the level of threat posed by a person's real or supposed leftist associations or beliefs was often greatly exaggerated. Many people suffered loss of employment, destruction of their careers, and even imprisonment. Most of these punishments came about through trial verdicts later overturned,<ref>For example, ''[[Yates v. United States]]'' (1957) and ''[[Watkins v. United States]]'' (1957): Fried (1997), pp. 205, 207.</ref> laws that would be declared unconstitutional,<ref>For example, California's "Levering Oath" law, declared unconstitutional in 1967: Fried (1997), p. 124.</ref> dismissals for reasons later declared illegal<ref>
For example, ''Slochower v. Board of Education'' (1956): Fried (1997), p. 203.</ref> or [[Lawsuit|actionable]],<ref> For example, ''Faulk vs. AWARE Inc., et al.'' (1956): Fried (1997), p. 197.</ref> or extra-legal procedures that would come into general disrepute.

The most famous examples of McCarthyism include the speeches, investigations, and hearings of Senator McCarthy himself; the [[Hollywood blacklist]], associated with hearings conducted by the [[House Committee on Un-American Activities]]; and the various anti-communist activities of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI) under Director [[J. Edgar Hoover]]. McCarthyism was a widespread social and cultural phenomenon that affected all levels of society and was the source of a great deal of debate and conflict in the United States.

==Origins==
[[File:Herblock1950.jpg|thumb|[[Herbert Block]] (aka Herblock) coined the term ''McCarthyism'' in this ''[[Washington Post]]'' cartoon of March 29, 1950.]]
The historical period that came to be known as the McCarthy era began well before [[Joseph McCarthy]]'s own involvement in it. Many factors contributed to McCarthyism, some of them extending back to the years of the [[First Red Scare]] (1917–20), inspired by Communism's emergence as a recognized political force. Thanks in part to its success in organizing [[Trade union|labor unions]] and its early opposition to [[fascism]], the [[Communist Party USA|Communist Party of the United States]] (CPUSA) increased its membership through the 1930s, reaching a peak of about 75,000 members in 1940–41.<ref>Weir (2007), pp. 148–149.</ref> While the United States was engaged in [[World War II]] and allied with the [[Soviet Union]], the issue of anti-communism was largely muted. With the end of World War II, the [[Cold War]] began almost immediately, as the Soviet Union installed repressive Communist [[puppet régime]]s across Central and Eastern Europe.

Although the [[Igor Gouzenko]] and [[Elizabeth Bentley]] affairs had raised the issue of Soviet espionage as far back as 1945, events in 1949 and 1950 sharply increased the sense of threat from Communism in the United States. The Soviet Union [[Soviet atomic bomb project|tested an atomic bomb]] in 1949, earlier than many analysts had expected. That same year, [[Mao Zedong]]'s Communist army gained control of mainland China despite heavy American financial support of the opposing [[Kuomintang]]. In 1950, the [[Korean War]] began, pitting U.S., U.N., and South Korean forces against Communists from North Korea and China. The following year also saw several significant developments regarding Soviet Cold War espionage activities. In January 1950, [[Alger Hiss]], a high-level [[United States Department of State|State Department]] official, was convicted of perjury. Hiss was in effect found guilty of espionage; the statute of limitations had run out for that crime, but he was convicted of having perjured himself when he denied that charge in earlier testimony before the [[House Committee on Un-American Activities]]. In Great Britain, [[Klaus Fuchs]] confessed to committing espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union while working on the [[Manhattan Project]] at [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]] during the War. [[Julius and Ethel Rosenberg]] were arrested in 1950 on charges of stealing atomic bomb secrets for the Soviets and were executed in 1953.

There were also more subtle forces encouraging the rise of McCarthyism. It had long been a practice of more conservative politicians to refer to liberal reforms such as [[Child labor laws in the United States|child labor laws]] and [[women's suffrage]] as "Communist" or "Red plots."<ref>Fried (1990), p. 41.</ref> This tendency increased in the 1930s in reaction to the [[New Deal]] policies of President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]. Many conservatives equated the New Deal with [[socialism]] or Communism, and saw its policies as evidence that the government had been heavily influenced by Communist policy-makers in the Roosevelt administration.<ref>Brinkley (1995), p. 141; Fried (1990), pp. 6, 15, 78–80.</ref> In general, the vaguely defined danger of "Communist influence" was a more common theme in the rhetoric of anti-Communist politicians than was espionage or any other specific activity.

[[File:Joseph McCarthy.jpg|thumb|left|Senator Joseph McCarthy]]
Joseph McCarthy's involvement with the ongoing cultural phenomenon that would bear his name began with a speech he made on [[Lincoln Day]], February 9, 1950, to the Republican Women's Club of [[Wheeling, West Virginia]]. He produced a piece of paper which he claimed contained a list of known Communists working for the State Department. McCarthy is usually quoted as saying: "I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department."<ref>Griffith (1970), p. 49.</ref> This speech resulted in a flood of press attention to McCarthy and established the path that made him one of the most recognized politicians in the United States.

The first recorded use of the term ''McCarthyism'' was in a [[political cartoon]] by ''[[Washington Post]]'' editorial cartoonist [[Herbert Block]] (aka Herblock), published on March 29, 1950. The cartoon depicted four leading Republicans trying to push an elephant (the traditional symbol of the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]]) to stand on a teetering stack of ten tar buckets, the topmost of which was labeled "McCarthyism". Block later wrote that there was "nothing particularly ingenious about the term, which is simply used to represent a national affliction that can hardly be described in any other way. If anyone has a prior claim on it, he’s welcome to the word and to the junior senator from Wisconsin along with it. I will also throw in a set of free dishes and a case of soap.”<ref>Block (1952), p. 152.</ref>

==Institutions==
There were many anti-Communist committees, panels, and "loyalty review boards" in federal, state, and local governments, as well as many private agencies that carried out investigations for small and large companies concerned about possible Communists in their work force.

In Congress, the primary bodies that investigated Communist activities were the [[House Committee on Un-American Activities]], the [[United States Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security|Senate Internal Security Subcommittee]], and the [[United States Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations|Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations]]. Between 1949 and 1954, a total of 109 investigations were carried out by these and other committees of Congress.<ref>Fried (1990), p. 150.</ref>

===Executive Branch===
====Loyalty-security reviews====
In the federal government, [[Harry S. Truman|President Harry Truman]]'s [[Executive Order 9835]] initiated a program of loyalty reviews for federal employees in 1947. Truman's mandate called for dismissal if there were "reasonable grounds...for belief that the person involved is disloyal to the Government of the United States."<ref>McCoy, Donald R., "The Constitution of the Truman Presidency and the Post–World War II Era", in
{{cite book
| author = Martin Fausold and Alan Shank (eds.)
| year = 1991
| title = The Constitution and the American Presidency
| publisher = SUNY Press
| page = 116
| isbn = 0-7914-0468-4
}}</ref>
Truman, a [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]], was probably reacting in part to the Republican sweep in the [[United States House election, 1946|1946 Congressional election]], and felt a need to counter the growing criticism from conservatives and anti-communists.<ref>Fried (1997).</ref>

When [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|President Dwight Eisenhower]] took office in 1953, he strengthened and extended Truman's loyalty review program, while decreasing the avenues of appeal available to dismissed employees. [[Hiram Bingham III|Hiram Bingham]], Chairman of the Civil Service Commission Loyalty Review Board, referred to the new rules he was obliged to enforce as "just not the American way of doing things."<ref>Fried (1990), p. 133.</ref> Similar loyalty reviews were established in many state and local government offices and some private industries across the nation. In 1958 it was estimated that roughly one out of every five employees in the United States was required to pass some sort of loyalty review.<ref>Brown (1958).</ref>

Once a person lost a job due to an unfavorable loyalty review, it could be very difficult to find other employment. "A man is ruined everywhere and forever," in the words of the chairman of President Truman's Loyalty Review Board. "No responsible employer would be likely to take a chance in giving him a job."<ref>Schrecker (1998), p. 271.</ref>

The [[United States Department of Justice|Department of Justice]] started keeping a list of organizations that it deemed subversive beginning in 1942. This list was first made public in 1948, when it included 78 items. At its longest, it comprised 154 organizations, 110 of them identified as Communist. In the context of a loyalty review, membership in a listed organization was meant to raise a question, but not to be considered proof of disloyalty. One of the most common causes of suspicion was membership in the Washington Bookshop Association, a left-leaning organization that offered lectures on literature, classical music concerts and discounts on books.<ref>Fried (1990), p. 70.</ref>

====J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI====
[[File:Hoover-JEdgar-LOC.jpg|thumb|240px|J. Edgar Hoover in 1961]]
In ''Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America'', historian [[Ellen Schrecker]] calls the [[FBI]] "the single most important component of the anti-communist crusade" and writes: "Had observers known in the 1950s what they have learned since the 1970s, when the [[Freedom of Information Act]] opened the Bureau's files, 'McCarthyism' would probably be called 'Hooverism.'"<ref>Schrecker (1998), pp. 239, 203.</ref> FBI director [[J. Edgar Hoover]] was one of the nation's most fervent anti-communists, and one of the most powerful.

Hoover designed President Truman's loyalty-security program, and its background investigations of employees were carried out by FBI agents. This was a major assignment that led to the number of agents in the Bureau being increased from 3,559 in 1946 to 7,029 in 1952. Hoover's extreme sense of the Communist threat and the politically conservative standards of evidence applied by his bureau resulted in thousands of government workers losing their jobs. Due to Hoover's insistence upon keeping the identity of his informers secret, most subjects of loyalty-security reviews were not allowed to cross-examine or know the identities of those who accused them. In many cases they were not even told what they were accused of.<ref>Schrecker (1998), pp. 211, 266 et seq.</ref>

Hoover's influence extended beyond federal government employees and beyond the loyalty-security programs. The records of loyalty review hearings and investigations were supposed to be confidential, but Hoover routinely gave evidence from them to congressional committees such as HUAC.<ref>Schrecker (2002), p. 65.</ref>

From 1951 to 1955, the FBI operated a secret "Responsibilities Program" that distributed anonymous documents with evidence from FBI files of Communist affiliations on the part of teachers, lawyers, and others. Many people accused in these "blind memoranda" were fired without any further process.<ref>Schrecker (1998), p. 212.</ref>

The FBI engaged in a number of illegal practices in its pursuit of information on Communists, including burglaries, opening mail and illegal wiretaps.<ref name=C312>Cox and Theoharis (1988), p. 312.</ref> The members of the left-wing [[National Lawyers Guild]] were among the few attorneys who were willing to defend clients in communist-related cases, and this made the NLG a particular target of Hoover's. The office of this organization was burgled by the FBI at least fourteen times between 1947 and 1951.<ref>Schrecker (1998), p. 225.</ref>

Among other purposes, the FBI used its illegally obtained information to alert prosecuting attorneys about the planned legal strategies of NLG defense lawyers.

The FBI also used illegal undercover operations to harass and disrupt Communist and other dissident political groups. In 1956, Hoover was becoming increasingly frustrated by [[U.S. Supreme Court|Supreme Court]] decisions that limited the Justice Department's ability to prosecute Communists. At this time he formalized a covert "dirty tricks" program under the name [[COINTELPRO]].<ref name=C312/> COINTELPRO actions included planting forged documents to create the suspicion that a key person was an FBI informer, spreading rumors through anonymous letters, leaking information to the press, calling for [[Internal Revenue Service|IRS]] audits, and the like. The COINTELPRO program remained in operation until 1971.

===House Committee on Un-American Activities===<!-- This section is linked from [[Pete Seeger]] -->
{{main|House Committee on Un-American Activities}}
The House Committee on Un-American Activities—commonly referred to as the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)—was the most prominent and active government committee involved in anti-Communist investigations. Formed in 1938 and known as the Dies Committee for [[Martin Dies, Jr.|Rep. Martin Dies]], who chaired it until 1944, HUAC investigated a variety of "activities," including those of German-American Nazis during World War II. The Committee soon focused on Communism, beginning with an investigation into Communists in the [[Federal Theatre Project]] in 1938. A significant step for HUAC was its investigation of the charges of espionage brought against [[Alger Hiss]] in 1948. This investigation ultimately resulted in Hiss's trial and conviction for perjury, and convinced many of the usefulness of congressional committees for uncovering Communist subversion.

HUAC achieved its greatest fame and notoriety with its investigation into the [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood film industry]]. In [[Hollywood blacklist#The blacklist begins (1947)|October 1947]], the Committee began to subpoena screenwriters, directors, and other movie industry professionals to testify about their known or suspected membership in the Communist Party, association with its members, or support of its beliefs. It was at these testimonies that what became known as the "$64 question" was asked: "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party of the United States?" Among the first film industry witnesses subpoenaed by the Committee were ten who decided not to cooperate. These men, who became known as the [[Hollywood blacklist#The Hollywood Ten|"Hollywood Ten"]], cited the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment's]] guarantee of free speech and free assembly, which they believed legally protected them from being required to answer the Committee's questions. This tactic failed, and the ten were sentenced to prison for [[contempt of Congress]]. Two of the ten were sentenced to six months, the rest to a year.

In the future, witnesses (in the entertainment industries and otherwise) who were determined not to cooperate with the Committee would claim their [[Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifth Amendment]] protection against self-incrimination. While this usually protected them from a contempt of Congress citation, it was considered grounds for dismissal by many government and private industry employers. The legal requirements for Fifth Amendment protection were such that a person could not testify about his own association with the Communist Party and then refuse to "name names" of colleagues with Communist affiliations.<ref>Fried (1990), pp. 154–155; Schrecker (2002), p. 68.</ref> Thus many faced a choice between "crawl[ing] through the mud to be an informer," as actor [[Larry Parks]] put it, or becoming known as a "Fifth Amendment Communist"—an epithet often used by Senator McCarthy.<ref name=SIN>{{cite web| title = See it Now: A Report on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (transcript)| publisher = CBS-TV| date = March 9, 1954| url = http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/murrowmccarthy.html| accessdate = 2007-03-16 }}</ref>

===Senate committees===
[[File:Pat McCarran.jpg|thumb|Senator Pat McCarran]]
In the Senate, the primary committee for investigating Communists was the [[United States Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security|Senate Internal Security Subcommittee]] (SISS), formed in 1950 and charged with ensuring the enforcement of laws relating to "espionage, sabotage, and the protection of the internal security of the United States." The SISS was headed by Democrat [[Pat McCarran]] and gained a reputation for careful and extensive investigations. This committee spent a year investigating [[Owen Lattimore]] and other members of the [[Institute of Pacific Relations]]. As had been done numerous times before, the collection of Scholars and diplomats associated with Lattimore (the so-called [[China Hands]]) were accused of "losing China," and while some evidence of pro-communist attitudes was found, there was nothing to support McCarran's accusation that Lattimore was "a conscious and articulate instrument of the Soviet conspiracy". Lattimore was charged with perjuring himself before the SISS in 1952. After many of the charges were rejected by a Federal Judge and one of the witnesses confessed to perjury, the case was dropped in 1955.<ref>Fried (1990), pp. 145–150.</ref>

Joseph McCarthy himself headed the [[United States Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations|Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations]] in 1953 and 1954, and during that time used it for a number of his Communist-hunting investigations. McCarthy first examined allegations of Communist influence in the [[Voice of America]], and then turned to the overseas library program of the State Department. [[Card catalogs]] of these libraries were searched for works by authors McCarthy deemed inappropriate. McCarthy then recited the list of supposedly pro-communist authors before his subcommittee and the press. Yielding to the pressure, the State Department ordered its overseas librarians to remove from their shelves "material by any controversial persons, Communists, [[fellow traveler]]s, etc." Some libraries actually burned the newly forbidden books.<ref>Griffith (1970), p. 216.</ref>

McCarthy's committee then began an investigation into the [[United States Army]]. This began at the [[United States Army Signal Corps|Army Signal Corps]] laboratory at [[Fort Monmouth]]. McCarthy garnered some headlines with stories of a dangerous spy ring among the Army researchers, but ultimately nothing came of this investigation.<ref>Stone (2004), p. 384.</ref> McCarthy next turned his attention to the case of a U.S. Army dentist who had been promoted to the rank of major despite having refused to answer questions on an Army loyalty review form. McCarthy's handling of this investigation, including a series of insults directed at a [[brigadier general]], led to the [[Army-McCarthy hearings]], with the Army and McCarthy trading charges and counter-charges for 36 days before a nationwide television audience. While the official outcome of the hearings was inconclusive, this exposure of McCarthy to the American public resulted in a sharp decline in his popularity.<ref>Fried (1990), p. 138.</ref> In less than a year, McCarthy was censured by the Senate and his position as a prominent force in anti-communism was essentially ended.

===Blacklists===
[[File:RedChannelsCover.jpg|thumb|200px|''[[Red Channels]]'', a 1950 publication claiming to document "Communist influence in radio and television"]]
On November 25, 1947 (the day after the House of Representatives approved citations of contempt for the [[Hollywood Ten]]), [[Eric Johnston]], President of the [[Motion Picture Association of America]], issued a press release on behalf of the heads of the major studios that came to be referred to as the [[Waldorf Statement]]. This statement announced the firing of the Hollywood Ten and stated: "We will not knowingly employ a Communist or a member of any party or group which advocates the overthrow of the government of the United States[...]" This open capitulation to the attitudes of McCarthyism marked the beginning of the [[Hollywood blacklist]]. In spite of the fact that hundreds would be denied employment, the studios, producers and other employers did not publicly admit that a blacklist existed.

At this time, private loyalty-review boards and anti-communist investigators began to appear to fill a growing demand among certain industries to certify that their employees were above reproach. Companies that were concerned about the sensitivity of their business, or who, like the entertainment industry, felt particularly vulnerable to public opinion made use of these private services. For a fee, these teams would investigate employees and question them about their politics and affiliations. At such hearings, the subject would usually not have a right to the presence of an attorney, and as with HUAC, the interviewee might be asked to defend himself against accusations without being allowed to cross-examine the accuser. These agencies would keep cross-referenced lists of leftist organizations, publications, rallies, charities and the like, as well as lists of individuals who were known or suspected communists. Books such as ''[[Red Channels]]'' and newsletters such as ''Counterattack'' and ''Confidential Information'' were published to keep track of communist and leftist organizations and individuals.<ref>Fried (1997), p. 116.</ref> Insofar as the various blacklists of McCarthyism were actual physical lists, they were created and maintained by these private organizations.

===Laws and arrests===
Efforts to protect the United States from the perceived threat of Communist subversion were particularly enabled by several federal laws. The Alien Registration Act or [[Smith Act]] of 1940 made it a criminal offense for anyone to "knowingly or willfully advocate, abet, advise or teach the [...] desirability or propriety of overthrowing the Government of the United States or of any State by force or violence, or for anyone to organize any association which teaches, advises or encourages such an overthrow, or for anyone to become a member of or to affiliate with any such association". Hundreds of Communists and others were prosecuted under this law between 1941 and 1957. Eleven leaders of the Communist Party were charged and convicted under the Smith Act in 1949. Ten defendants were given sentences of five years and the eleventh was sentenced to three years. All of the defense attorneys were cited for [[contempt of court]] and were also given prison sentences.<ref>Fried (1997), pp. 13, 15, 27, 110–112, 165–168.</ref> In 1951, twenty-three other leaders of the party were indicted, including [[Elizabeth Gurley Flynn]], a founding member of the [[American Civil Liberties Union]]; many were convicted on the basis of testimony that was later admitted to be false.<ref>Fried (1997), pp. 201–202.</ref> By 1957, 140 leaders and members of the Communist Party had been charged under the law, with 93 being convicted.<ref>Levin, Daniel, "Smith Act", in
{{cite book
| author = Paul Finkelman (ed.)
| year = 2006
| title = Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties
| publisher = CRC Press
| page = 1488
| isbn = 0415943426
}}</ref>

The [[McCarran Internal Security Act]], which became law in 1950, has been described by scholar Ellen Schrecker as "the McCarthy era's only important piece of legislation"<ref>Schrecker (1998), p. 141.</ref> (the Smith Act technically predated McCarthyism). However, the McCarran Act had no real effect beyond legal harassment. It required the registration of Communist organizations with the [[United States Attorney General|U.S. Attorney General]] and established the [[Subversive Activities Control Board]] to investigate possible Communist-action and Communist-front organizations so they could be required to register. Due to numerous hearings, delays and appeals, the act was never enforced, even with regard to the Communist Party of the United States itself, and the major provisions of the act were found to be unconstitutional in 1965 and 1967.<ref>Fried (1990), p. 187.</ref> In 1952, the [[Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952|Immigration and Nationality, or McCarran-Walter, Act]] was passed. This law allowed the government to deport immigrants or naturalized citizens engaged in subversive activities and also to bar suspected subversives from entering the country.

The [[Communist Control Act of 1954]] was passed with overwhelming support in both houses of Congress after very little debate. Jointly drafted by Republican [[John Marshall Butler]] and Democrat [[Hubert Humphrey]], the law was an extension of the Internal Security Act of 1950, and sought to outlaw the Communist Party by declaring that the party, as well as "Communist-Infiltrated Organizations" were "not entitled to any of the rights, privileges, and immunities attendant upon legal bodies". The Communist Control Act never had any significant effect, and was perhaps most notable for the odd mix of liberals and conservatives among its supporters. It was successfully applied only twice: in 1954 it was used to prevent Communist Party members from appearing on the New Jersey state ballot, and in 1960 it was cited to deny the CPUSA recognition as an employer under New York State's unemployment compensation system. ''[[The New York Post]]'' called the act "a monstrosity", "a wretched repudiation of democratic principles," while ''[[The Nation]]'' accused Democratic liberals of a "neurotic, election-year anxiety to escape the charge of being 'soft on Communism' even at the expense of sacrificing constitutional rights."<ref>McAuliff (1978), p. 142.</ref>

==Popular support==
[[File:Unholy three.png|right|thumb|200px|Flier issued in May 1955 by the Keep America Committee urging readers to "fight communistic world government" by opposing public health programs]]
McCarthyism was supported by a variety of groups, including the [[American Legion]] and various other anti-communist organizations. One core element of support was a variety of militantly anti-communist women's groups such as the [[American Public Relations Forum]] and the [[Minute Women of the U.S.A.]]. These organized tens of thousands of housewives into study groups, letter-writing networks, and patriotic clubs that coordinated efforts to identify and eradicate subversion.<ref>Nickerson, Michelle M., "[http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/conservatism/nickerson.html Women, Domesticity, and Postwar Conservatism]", ''OAH Magazine of History'' 17 (January 2003). ISSN 0882-228X.</ref>

Although far-right radicals were the bedrock of support for McCarthyism, they were not alone. A broad "coalition of the aggrieved" found McCarthyism attractive, or at least politically useful. Common themes uniting the coalition were opposition to internationalism, particularly the [[United Nations]]; opposition to [[social welfare provision]]s, particularly the various programs established by the [[New Deal]]; and opposition to efforts to reduce inequalities in the [[social structure of the United States]].<ref name=R21>Rovere (1959), pp. 21–22.</ref>

One focus of popular McCarthyism concerned the provision of [[public health]] services, particularly [[vaccination]], [[mental health]] care services and [[fluoridation]], all of which were deemed by some to be communist plots to poison or brainwash the American people. This viewpoint led to major collisions between McCarthyite radicals and supporters of public health programs, most notably in the case of the [[Alaska Mental Health Enabling Act|Alaska Mental Health Bill]] controversy of 1956.<ref>Marmor, Judd, Viola W. Bernard, and Perry Ottenberg, "Psychodynamics of Group Opposition to Mental Health Programs", in
{{cite book
| author= Judd Marmor
| title=Psychiatry in Transition
| publisher=Transaction
| year=1994
| edition=2d
| pages = 355–373
| isbn = ISBN 1-5600-0736-2
}}</ref>

Right-wing intellectuals found the decisiveness of McCarthyism refreshing. [[William F. Buckley, Jr.]], the founder of the influential conservative political magazine ''[[National Review]]'', wrote a defense of McCarthy, ''McCarthy and his Enemies'', in which he asserted that "McCarthyism ... is a movement around which men of good will and stern morality can close ranks."<ref>Buckley (1954), p. 335.</ref>

In addition, as Richard Rovere points out, many ordinary Americans became convinced that there must be "no smoke without fire" and lent their support to McCarthyism. In January 1954, a [[Gallup]] poll found that 50% of the American public supported McCarthy, while only 29% had an unfavorable opinion of the senator. [[Earl Warren]], the [[Chief Justice of the United States]], commented that if the [[United States Bill of Rights]] had been put to a vote it probably would have been defeated.<ref name=R21/>

==Views of Communists==
Those who sought to justify McCarthyism did so largely through their characterization of Communism, and American Communists in particular. Proponents of McCarthyism claimed that the CPUSA was so completely under Moscow's control that any American Communist was inevitably a puppet of the Soviet Union. As J. Edgar Hoover put it in a 1950 speech, "Communist members, body and soul, are the property of the Party." This attitude was not confined to arch-conservatives. In 1940, The [[American Civil Liberties Union]] ejected founding member [[Elizabeth Gurley Flynn]], saying that her membership in the Communist Party was enough to disqualify her as a civil libertarian. In the government's prosecutions of Communist Party members under the Smith Act (see above), the prosecution case was based not on specific actions or statements by the defendants, but on the premise that a commitment to violent overthrow of the government was inherent in the doctrines of Marxism-Leninism. Passages of the CPUSA's constitution that specifically rejected revolutionary violence were dismissed as deliberate deception.<ref>Schrecker (1998), pp. 161, 193, 194.</ref>

In addition, it was often claimed that the Party did not allow any member to resign, so a person who had been a member for a short time decades previously could be considered as suspect as a current member. Many of the hearings and trials of McCarthyism featured testimony by former Communist Party members such as [[Elizabeth Bentley]], [[Louis F. Budenz|Louis Budenz]], and [[Whittaker Chambers]], speaking as expert witnesses. Despite the obvious contradiction, these ex-communists were the source of some of the most vivid descriptions of how the Party permanently enslaved its members.<ref>Schrecker (1998), p. 133.</ref>

==Victims of McCarthyism==
It is difficult to estimate the number of victims of McCarthyism. The number imprisoned is in the hundreds, and some ten or twelve thousand lost their jobs.<ref>Schrecker (1998), p. xiii.</ref> In many cases, simply being subpoenaed by HUAC or one of the other committees was sufficient cause to be fired.<ref>Schrecker (2002), pp. 63–64.</ref> Many of those who were imprisoned, lost their jobs or were questioned by committees did in fact have a past or present connection of some kind with the Communist Party. But for the vast majority, both the potential for them to do harm to the nation and the nature of their communist affiliation were tenuous.<ref>Schrecker (1998), p. 4.</ref> Suspected [[homosexuality]] was also a common cause for being targeted by McCarthyism. The hunt for "sexual perverts", who were presumed to be subversive by nature, resulted in thousands being harassed and denied employment.<ref>D'Emilio (1998), pp. 41–49.</ref>

In the [[Cinema of the United States|film industry]], over 300 actors, authors and directors were denied work in the U.S. through the unofficial [[Hollywood blacklist]]. Blacklists were at work throughout the entertainment industry, in universities and schools at all levels, in the legal profession, and in many other fields. A port security program initiated by the Coast Guard shortly after the start of the [[Korean War]] required a review of every maritime worker who loaded or worked aboard any American ship, regardless of cargo or destination. As with other loyalty-security reviews of McCarthyism, the identities of any accusers and even the nature of any accusations were typically kept secret from the accused. Nearly 3,000 seamen and longshoremen lost their jobs due to this program alone.<ref>Schrecker (1998), p. 267.</ref>

A few of the more famous people who were blacklisted or suffered some other persecution during McCarthyism are listed here:

{{col-begin}}
{{col-3}}
*[[Nelson Algren]], writer<ref>Publication canceled after FBI contact: {{cite book
| author = Horvath, Brooke
| year = 2005
| title = Understanding Nelson Algren
| publisher = University of South Carolina Press
| page = 84
| isbn = 1570035741}}</ref>
*[[Elmer Bernstein]], composer and conductor<ref>On Hollywood "graylist": {{cite web|url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5753311/|title=Composer Elmer Bernstein Dead at 82|date=August 19, 2004|accessdate=2009-02-27|publisher=MSNBC.com (Associated Press)}}</ref>
*[[Leonard Bernstein]], composer and conductor<ref name=blacklist2>On the ''Red Channels'' blacklist of artists and entertainers: Schrecker (2002), p. 244.</ref>
*[[Charlie Chaplin]], actor and director<ref>Harassed by anti-Communist groups, denied reentry to United States while traveling abroad: {{cite book
| author = Lev, Peter
| year = 1999
| title = Transforming the Screen, 1950–1959
| publisher = University of California Press
| page = 159
| isbn = 0520249666}}</ref>
*[[Aaron Copland]], composer<ref name=blacklist2/>
*[[Bartley Crum]], attorney<ref>Blacklisted in his profession, committed suicide in 1959: {{cite book
| author = Bosworth, Patricia
| title = Anything Your Little Heart Desires: An American Family Story
| publisher = Touchstone
| year = 1998
| isbn = 0684838486}}</ref>
*[[Jules Dassin]], director<ref>On Hollywood blacklist: Buhle and Wagner (2003), p. 105.</ref>
*[[Dolores del Río]], actress<ref>Harassed by anti-Communist groups, denied reentry to United States, thus prevented from acting in the movie ''[[Broken Lance]]'': {{cite book
| author = Ramón, David
| year = 1997
| title = Dolores del Río
| publisher = Clío
| page = 44
| isbn = 9686932356}}</ref>
*[[W. E. B. Du Bois]], civil rights activist and author<ref>Indicted under the [[Foreign Agents Registration Act]]: {{cite book
| author = Du Bois, W. E. B.
| title = The Autobiography of W. E. B. Du Bois
| publisher = International Publishers
| year = 1968
| isbn = 0717802345 }}</ref>
*[[Howard Fast]], writer<ref>Blacklisted, imprisoned for contempt of Congress: Sabin (1999), p. 75.</ref>
*[[John Garfield]], actor<ref name=blacklist2/>
*[[Lee Grant]], actress<ref>On Hollywood blacklist: Buhle and Wagner (2003), p. 31.</ref>
*[[Dashiell Hammett]], author<ref name=blacklist2/>
{{col-3}}
*[[Elizabeth Hawes]], clothing designer, author, equal rights activist<ref>{{cite book| author = Berch, Bettina| title = Radical By Design: The Life and Style of Elizabeth Hawes| publisher = Dutton Adult| date = 1988| pages = | isbn =0525247157}}</ref>
*[[Lillian Hellman]], playwright<ref name = blacklist2/>
*[[Langston Hughes]], writer<ref name = blacklist2/>
*[[Sam Jaffe (actor)|Sam Jaffe]], actor<ref name=blacklist2/>
*[[Garson Kanin]], writer and director<ref name = blacklist2/>
*[[Gypsy Rose Lee]], actress and ecdysiast<ref name = blacklist2/>
*[[Philip Loeb]], actor<ref>Blacklisted and unemployed, committed suicide in 1955: Fried (1990), p. 156.</ref>
*[[Joseph Losey]], director<ref name=blacklist2/>
*[[Burgess Meredith]], actor<ref name = blacklist2/>
*[[Arthur Miller]], playwright and essayist<ref name = blacklist2/>
*[[Zero Mostel]], actor<ref name=blacklist2/>
*[[Robert Oppenheimer|J. Robert Oppenheimer]], physicist, "father of the atomic bomb"<ref>Security clearance withdrawn: Schrecker (2002), p. 41.</ref>
*[[Dorothy Parker]], writer<ref name=blacklist2/>
{{col-3}}
*[[Linus Pauling]], chemist, winner of two Nobel prizes<ref>Repeatedly denied passport: {{cite web|author=Thompson, Gail, and R. Andrew Viruleg|url=http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/ci/1992/Pauling.html| title=Linus Pauling|publisher=Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation|accessdate=2007-12-11}}</ref>
*[[Martin Ritt]], actor and director<ref>On Hollywood blacklist: Buhle and Wagner (2003), p. 18.</ref>
*[[Paul Robeson]], actor, athlete, singer, writer, political and civil rights activist<ref>Blacklisted, passport revoked: {{cite book
| author = Marable, Manning, John McMillian, and Nishani Frazier (eds.)
| year = 2003
| title = Freedom on My Mind: The Columbia Documentary History of the African American Experience
| publisher = Columbia University Press
| page = 559
| isbn = 0231108907}}</ref>
*[[Edward G. Robinson]], actor<ref name = blacklist2/>
*[[Waldo Salt]], screenwriter<ref>On Hollywood blacklist: Buhle and Wagner (2003), p. 208.</ref>
*[[Pete Seeger]], folk singer<ref name = blacklist2/>
*[[Artie Shaw]], jazz musician<ref name = blacklist2/>
*[[William L. Shirer]], journalist<ref name = blacklist2/>
*[[Paul Sweezy]], economist and founder-editor of ''[[Monthly Review]]''<ref>Subpoenaed by New Hampshire Attorney General, indicted for contempt of court: {{cite book
| author = Heale, M. J.
| title = McCarthy's Americans: Red Scare Politics in State and Nation, 1935–1965
| publisher =University of Georgia Press
| year = 1998
| page = 73
| isbn = 0820320269}}</ref>
*[[Tsien Hsue-shen]], physicist<ref>Passport revoked, incarcerated: {{cite book
| last = Chang, Iris
| year = 1996
| title = Thread of the Silkworm
| publisher = Basic Books
| isbn = 0465006787}}</ref>
*[[Orson Welles]], actor, writer, and director<ref name = blacklist2/>
{{col-end}}

==Critical reactions==
The nation was by no means united behind the policies and activities that have come to be identified as McCarthyism. There were many critics of various aspects of McCarthyism, including many figures not generally noted for their liberalism.

For example, in his overridden [[veto]] of the [[McCarran Internal Security Act]] of 1950, President Truman wrote, "In a free country, we punish men for the crimes they commit, but never for the opinions they have."<ref>{{cite web|author=Truman, Harry S.|date=September 1950| url = http://trumanlibrary.org/publicpapers/viewpapers.php?pid=883| title = Veto of the Internal Security Bill| accessdate = 2006-08-07| publisher = Truman Presidential Museum and Library}}</ref> Truman also unsuccessfully vetoed the [[Taft-Hartley Act]], which among other provisions denied [[trade unions]] [[National Labor Relations Board]] protection unless union leaders signed [[affidavit]]s swearing they were not and had never been Communists. In 1953, after he had left office, Truman criticized the current Eisenhower administration:
{{cquote|It is now evident that the present Administration has fully embraced, for political advantage, McCarthyism. I am not referring to the Senator from Wisconsin. He is only important in that his name has taken on the dictionary meaning of the word. It is the corruption of truth, the abandonment of the due process law. It is the use of the big lie and the unfounded accusation against any citizen in the name of Americanism or security. It is the rise to power of the demagogue who lives on untruth; it is the spreading of fear and the destruction of faith in every level of society.<ref>Doherty (2005), pp. 14–15.</ref>}}

On June 1, 1950, Senator [[Margaret Chase Smith]], a [[Maine]] Republican, delivered a speech to the Senate she called a "[[Declaration of Conscience]]". In a clear attack upon McCarthyism, she called for an end to "character assassinations" and named "some of the basic principles of Americanism: The right to criticize; The right to hold unpopular beliefs; The right to protest; The right of independent thought." She said "freedom of speech is not what it used to be in America," and decried "cancerous tentacles of 'know nothing, suspect everything' attitudes."<ref>{{cite web|author=Smith, Margaret Chase|date=June 1, 1950| url = http://www.mcslibrary.org/program/library/declaration.htm| title = Declaration of Conscience| accessdate = 2006-08-04| publisher = Margaret Chase Smith Library}}</ref> Six other Republican Senators—[[Wayne Morse]], [[Irving M. Ives]], [[Charles W. Tobey]], [[Edward John Thye]], [[George Aiken]], and [[Robert C. Hendrickson]]—joined Smith in condemning the tactics of McCarthyism.

[[Elmer Davis]], one of the most highly respected news reporters and commentators of the 1940s and 1950s, often spoke out against what he saw as the excesses of McCarthyism. On one occasion he warned that many local anti-Communist movements constituted a "general attack not only on schools and colleges and libraries, on teachers and textbooks, but on all people who think and write[...] in short, on the freedom of the mind."<ref>Fried (1990), p. 29.</ref>

In 1952, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision in ''Alder v. Board of Education of New York'', thus approving a law that allowed state loyalty review boards to fire teachers deemed "subversive." In his dissenting opinion, Justice [[William O. Douglas]] wrote: "The present law proceeds on a principle repugnant to our society&nbsp;— guilt by association.[...] What happens under this law is typical of what happens in a police state. Teachers are under constant surveillance; their pasts are combed for signs of disloyalty; their utterances are watched for clues to dangerous thoughts."<ref>Fried (1997), p. 114.</ref>

The 1952 [[Arthur Miller]] play ''[[The Crucible]]'' used the [[Salem witch trials]] as a metaphor for McCarthyism, suggesting that the process of McCarthyism-style persecution can occur at any time or place. The play focused heavily on the fact that once accused, a person would have little chance of exoneration, given the irrational and circular reasoning of both the courts and the public. Miller would later write: "The more I read into the Salem panic, the more it touched off corresponding images of common experiences in the fifties."<ref>Miller, Arthur, "[http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1996/10/21/1996_10_21_158_TNY_CARDS_000373902 Why I Wrote ''The Crucible'']", ''New Yorker'' (October 21, 1996).</ref>

[[File:Edward r murrow challenge of ideas screenshot 2.jpg|thumb|Broadcast journalist [[Edward R. Murrow]]]]

One of the most influential opponents of McCarthyism was the famed CBS newscaster and analyst [[Edward R. Murrow]]. On October 20, 1953, Murrow's show ''[[See It Now]]'' aired an episode about the dismissal of [[Milo Radulovich]], a former reserve Air Force lieutenant who was accused of associating with Communists. The show was strongly critical of the [[U.S. Air Force|Air Force]]'s methods, which included presenting evidence in a sealed envelope that Radulovich and his attorney were not allowed to open. On March 9, 1954, ''See It Now'' aired another episode on the issue of McCarthyism, this one attacking Joseph McCarthy himself. Titled "A Report on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy," it used footage of McCarthy speeches to portray him as dishonest, reckless and abusive toward witnesses and prominent Americans. In his concluding comment, Murrow said:
{{cquote|We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men.<ref name=SIN/>}} This broadcast has been cited as a key episode in bringing about the end of McCarthyism.<ref>Streitmatter (1998), p. 154.</ref>

In April 1954, Senator McCarthy was also under attack in the [[Army-McCarthy Hearings]]. These hearings were televised live on the new [[American Broadcasting Company]] network, allowing the public to view first-hand McCarthy's interrogation of individuals and his controversial tactics. In one exchange, McCarthy reminded the attorney for the Army, [[Joseph Welch]], that he had an employee in his law firm who had belonged to an organization that had been accused of Communist sympathies. In an exchange that reflected the increasingly negative public opinion of McCarthy, Welch famously rebuked the senator: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"<ref>Doherty (2005), p. 207.</ref>

==Decline==
In the mid- and late 1950s, the attitudes and institutions of McCarthyism slowly weakened. Changing public sentiments had a lot to do with this; the decline of McCarthyism may also be charted through a series of court decisions.

A key figure in the end of the blacklisting of McCarthyism was [[John Henry Faulk]]. Host of an afternoon comedy radio show, Faulk was a leftist active in his union, the [[American Federation of Television and Radio Artists]]. He was scrutinized by [[AWARE, Inc.]], one of the private firms that examined individuals for signs of communist "disloyalty". Marked by AWARE as unfit, he was fired by [[CBS Radio]]. Almost uniquely among the many victims of blacklisting, Faulk decided to sue AWARE in 1957 and finally won the case in 1962.<ref>{{cite book
| author = Faulk, John Henry
| title = Fear on Trial
| publisher = University of Texas Press
| year = 1963
| isbn = 0-292-72442-X }}</ref>
With this court decision, the private blacklisters and those who used them were put on notice that they were [[Legal liability|legally liable]] for the professional and financial damage they caused. Although some informal blacklisting continued, the private "loyalty checking" agencies were soon a thing of the past.<ref>Fried (1997), p. 197.</ref> Even before the Faulk verdict, many in Hollywood had decided it was time to break the blacklist. In 1960, [[Dalton Trumbo]], one of the best known members of the [[Hollywood Ten]], was publicly credited with writing the films ''[[Exodus (film)|Exodus]]'' and ''[[Spartacus (film)|Spartacus]]''.

Much of the undoing of McCarthyism came at the hands of the Supreme Court. As [[Richard Rovere]] wrote in his biography of Joseph McCarthy, "[T]he United States Supreme Court took judicial notice of the rents McCarthy was making in the fabric of liberty and thereupon wrote a series of decisions that have made the fabric stronger than before."<ref>Rovere (1959), p. 264.</ref> Two Eisenhower appointees to the court—[[Earl Warren]] (who was made Chief Justice) and [[William J. Brennan, Jr.]]—proved to be more liberal than Eisenhower had anticipated, and he would later refer to the appointment of Warren as his "biggest mistake".<ref>Sabin (1999), p. 5.</ref>

In 1956, the Supreme Court heard the case of ''[[Slochower v. Board of Education]]''. Slochower was a professor at Brooklyn College who had been fired by New York City for invoking the Fifth Amendment when McCarthy's committee questioned him about his past membership in the Communist Party. The court prohibited such actions, ruling "...we must condemn the practice of imputing a sinister meaning to the exercise of a person's constitutional right under the Fifth Amendment.[...] The privilege against self-incrimination would be reduced to a hollow mockery if its exercise could be taken as equivalent either to a confession of guilt or a conclusive presumption of perjury."<ref>Fried (1997), p. 203.</ref>

Another key decision was in the 1957 case ''[[Yates v. United States]]'', in which the convictions of fourteen Communists were reversed. In Justice Black's opinion, he wrote of the original "Smith Act" trials: "The testimony of witnesses is comparatively insignificant. Guilt or innocence may turn on what Marx or Engels or someone else wrote or advocated as much as a hundred years or more ago.[...] When the propriety of obnoxious or unfamiliar view about government is in reality made the crucial issue, [...] prejudice makes conviction inevitable except in the rarest circumstances."<ref>Fried (1997), p. 205.</ref>

Also in 1957, the Supreme Court ruled on the case of ''[[Watkins v. United States]]'', curtailing the power of HUAC to punish uncooperative witnesses by finding them in contempt of Congress. Justice Warren wrote in the decision: "The mere summoning of a witness and compelling him to testify, against his will, about his beliefs, expressions or associations is a measure of governmental interference. And when those forced revelations concern matters that are unorthodox, unpopular, or even hateful to the general public, the reaction in the life of the witness may be disastrous."<ref>Fried (1997), p. 207.</ref>

In its 1958 decision in ''Kent v. Dulles'', the Supreme Court halted the State Department from using the authority of its own regulations to refuse or revoke passports based on an applicant's communist beliefs or associations.<ref>Fried (1997), p. 211.</ref>

==Continuing controversy and legacy==
Though McCarthyism might seem to be of interest only as a historical subject, the political divisions it created in the United States continue to make themselves manifest, and the politics and history of anti-Communism in the United States are still contentious. Portions of the massive security apparatus established during the McCarthy era still exist. [[Loyalty oath]]s are still required by the [[California Constitution]] for all officials and employees of the [[government of California]], and at the federal level, a few portions of the [[McCarran Internal Security Act]] are still in effect. A number of observers have compared the oppression of liberals and leftists during the McCarthy period to recent actions against suspected terrorists, most of them Muslims. In ''The Age of Anxiety: McCarthyism to Terrorism'', author Haynes Johnson compares the "abuses suffered by aliens thrown into high security U.S. prisons in the wake of 9/11" to the excesses of the McCarthy era.<ref>{{cite book
| author = Johnson, Haynes
| title = The Age of Anxiety: McCarthyism to Terrorism
| publisher =Harcourt
| year =2005
| page = 471
| isbn = 0151010625 }}</ref>
Similarly, [[David D. Cole]] has written that the [[Patriot Act]] "in effect resurrects the philosophy of McCarthyism, simply substituting 'terrorist' for 'communist.'"<ref>Cole, David, "[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20011217/cole National Security State]", ''The Nation'' (December 17, 2001). See also Cole, David, "The New McCarthyism: Repeating History in the War on Terrorism", ''Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review'' 38, no. 1 (Winter 2003).</ref>

From the opposite pole, [[Ann Coulter]] devotes much of her book ''[[Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism|Treason]]'' to drawing parallels between past opposition to McCarthy and McCarthyism and the policies and beliefs of modern-day liberals, arguing that the former hindered the anti-Communist cause and the latter hinder the [[War on Terrorism]].<ref>{{cite book
| author = Coulter, Ann
| title = Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism
| publisher = Three Rivers Press
| year = 2003
| isbn = 1400050324}}</ref>
Other authors who have drawn on a comparison between current [[Anti-terrorism_legislation#United_States|anti-terrorism policies]] and McCarthyism include [[Geoffrey R. Stone]],<ref>{{cite web|author=Stone, Geoffrey R.| title = Essay on McCarthyism and Modern Threats to Liberty| publisher = University of Chicago Law School| year = 2004| url = http://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/stone_mccarthyism.html| accessdate = 2006-11-02}}</ref> [[Ted Morgan]],<ref>{{cite book
| author = Morgan, Ted
| title = Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America
| publisher =Random House
| year =2004
| page = 597 et seq.
| isbn = 081297302X }}</ref>
and [[Jonah Goldberg]].<ref name=Goldberg>{{cite web|author=Goldberg, Jonah| title = Two Cheers for "McCarthyism"?| publisher = National Review Online| date = February 26, 2003| url = http://www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg022603.asp| accessdate = 2007-01-25}}</ref>

McCarthyism also attracts controversy purely as a historical issue. Through declassified documents from Soviet archives and [[Venona project]] decryptions of coded Soviet messages, it has become known that the Soviet Union engaged in substantial espionage activities in the United States during the 1940s. It is also known that the Communist Party USA was substantially funded and its policies controlled by the Soviet Union, and that CPUSA members were often recruited as spies.<ref>Marshall, Joshua, "Exhuming McCarthy", ''American Prospect'' 10, no. 43 (1999).</ref> In the view of some contemporary authors, these revelations stand as at least a partial vindication of McCarthyism. Some feel that there was a genuinely dangerous subversive element in the United States, and that this danger justified extreme measures.<ref name=Goldberg/> Others, while acknowledging that there were inexcusable excesses during McCarthyism, argue that some contemporary historians of McCarthyism often deny the seriousness of Communist espionage during the period.<ref>For example, {{cite book
| author = [[John Earl Haynes|Haynes, John Earl]], and [[Harvey Klehr]]
| title = In Denial: Historians, Communism, and Espionage
| publisher = Encounter
| year = 2003
| isbn = 1-893554-72-4}} {{cite web| author = [[Ronald Radosh|Radosh, Ronald]]| title = The Persistence Of Anti-Anti-Communism| publisher = FrontPageMagazine.com| date = July 11, 2001| url = http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=1491| accessdate = 2009-02-27 }} </ref> The opposing view holds that, recent revelations notwithstanding, by the time McCarthyism began in the late 1940s, the CPUSA was an ineffectual fringe group, and the damage done to U.S. interests by Soviet spies after World War II was minimal.<ref>{{cite book
| author= [[Athan Theoharis|Theoharis, Athan]]
| title = Chasing Spies: How the FBI Failed in Counter-Intelligence But Promoted the Politics of McCarthyism in the Cold War Years
| publisher = Ivan R. Dee
| year = 2002
| isbn = 1-56663-420-2 }}</ref>
Historian Ellen Schrecker wrote that "''in this country,'' McCarthyism did more damage to the constitution than the American Communist Party ever did."<ref>{{cite web|author=Schrecker, Ellen|date=Winter 2000| title = Comments on John Earl Haynes' ''The Cold War Debate Continues''| url = http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/comment15.htm|work=Journal of Cold War Studies|publisher=Harvard University—Faculty of Arts and Sciences| accessdate = 2009-02-27 }} Emphasis in original.</ref>

===Current use of the term===
Since the time of McCarthy, the word ''McCarthyism'' has entered American speech as a general term for a variety of practices: aggressively questioning a person's patriotism, making poorly supported accusations, using accusations of disloyalty to pressure a person to adhere to conformist politics or to discredit an opponent, subverting civil rights in the name of national security, and the use of [[Demagogy|demagoguery]] are all often referred to as McCarthyism.{{fact|date=May 2009}}

==See also==
*[[Communist Party USA]]
*[[First Red Scare]]
*[[History of Soviet espionage in the United States]]
*[[House Committee on Un-American Activities]]
*[[Pledge of Allegiance]]
*[[Redbaiting]]
*[[Venona project]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite book
| last = Block
| first = Herbert
| title = The Herblock Book
| year = 1952
| publisher = Beacon
| isbn = 149925346X
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Brinkley
| first = Alan
| year = 1995
| title = The End Of Reform: New Deal Liberalism in Recession and War
| publisher = Vintage
| isbn = 0679753141
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Brown
| first = Ralph S.
| year = 1958
| title = Loyalty and Security: Employment Tests in the United States
| publisher = Yale University Press
| isbn = 0306702185
}}
*{{cite book
|last = Buckley
|first = William F.
|year = 1954
|title = McCarthy and His Enemies: The Record and Its Meaning
|publisher = Regnery
|isbn = 0895264722
}}
*{{cite book
| author = Buhle, Paul, and David Wagner
| year = 2003
| title = Hide in Plain Sight: The Hollywood Blacklistees in Film and Television, 1950-2002
| publisher = Palgrave Macmillan
| isbn = 1403961441
}}
*{{cite book
| author = Cox, John Stuart, and Athan G. Theoharis
| year = 1988
| title = The Boss: J. Edgar Hoover and the Great American Inquisition
| publisher = Temple University Press
| isbn = 087722532X
}}
* {{cite book
| last = D'Emilio
| first = John
| year = 1998
| title = Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities
| publisher = University of Chicago Press
| edition = 2d
| isbn = 0226142671
}}
*{{cite book
| first = Thomas
| last = Doherty
| title= Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture
| publisher= Columbia University Press
| year= 2005
| isbn= 023112953X
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Fried
| first = Albert
| year = 1997
| title = McCarthyism, The Great American Red Scare: A Documentary History
| publisher = Oxford University Press
| isbn = 0195097017
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Fried
| first = Richard M.
| year = 1990
| title = Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective
| publisher = Oxford University Press
| isbn = 0195043618
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Griffith
| first = Robert
| title = The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate
| publisher = University of Massachusetts Press
| year = 1970
| isbn = 0870235559
}}
*{{cite book
| author = [[John Earl Haynes|Haynes, John Earl]], and [[Harvey Klehr]]
| year = 2000
| title = Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America
| publisher = Yale University Press
| isbn = 0300084625
}}
*{{cite book
| last = McAuliff
| first = Mary Sperling
| title = Crisis on the Left: Cold War Politics and American Liberals, 1947–1954
| publisher = University of Massachusetts Press
| year = 1978
| isbn = 087023241X
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Rovere
| first = Richard H.
| title = Senator Joe McCarthy
| publisher = University of California Press
| year = 1959
| isbn = 0520204727
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Sabin
| first = Arthur J.
| year = 1999
| title = In Calmer Times: The Supreme Court and Red Monday
| publisher = University of Pennsylvania Press
| isbn = 081223507X
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Schrecker
| first = Ellen
| year = 1998
| title = Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America
| publisher = Little, Brown
| isbn = 0316774707
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Schrecker
| first = Ellen
| title = The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents
| publisher = Palgrave Macmillan
| year = 2002
| edition = 2d
| isbn = 0312294255
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Stone
| first = Geoffrey R.
| title = Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism
| publisher = W. W. Norton
| year = 2004
| isbn = 0393058808
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Streitmatter
| first = Rodger
| title = Mightier Than the Sword: How the News Media Have Shaped American History
| publisher = Westview Press
| year =1998
| isbn = 0813332117
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Weir
| first = Robert E.
| year = 2007
| title = Class in America: An Encyclopedia
| publisher = Greenwood Press
| isbn = 0313337209
}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite book
| author = [[Christopher Andrew|Andrew, Christopher]], and [[Vasili Mitrokhin]]
| title = The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB
| publisher = Basic Books
| year = 2000
| isbn = 0465003125
}}
*{{ cite book | title = Showdown at High Noon: Witch-hunts, Critics, and the End of the Western |
author = Byman, Jeremy | publisher = Scarecrow Press | date = 2004 | ISBN = 0810849984 |
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=WIp2PfC1Mm4C }}
*{{cite book
| first = David
| last = Caute
| authorlink = David Caute
| title= The Great Fear: The Anti-Communist Purge Under Truman and Eisenhower
| publisher= Simon & Schuster
| year= 1978
| isbn= 0671226827
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Haynes
| first = John Earl
| year = 2000
| title = Red Scare or Red Menace?: American Communism and Anti Communism in the Cold War Era
| publisher = Ivan R. Dee
| isbn = 1566630916
}}
*{{cite book
| author = Haynes, John Earl, and Harvey Klehr
| title = In Denial: Historians, Communism, and Espionage
| publisher = Encounter
| year = 2003
| isbn = 1893554724
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Morgan
| first = Ted
| authorlink = Ted Morgan
| title = Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America
| publisher = Random House
| year = 2004
| isbn = 081297302X
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Navasky
| first = Victor S.
| authorlink = Victor Navasky
| title= Naming Names
| publisher= Hill and Wang
| year= 1980
| isbn= 0809001837
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Powers
| first = Richard Gid
| title=Not Without Honor: A History of American Anticommunism
| publisher=Free Press
| year=1997
| isbn= 0300074700
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Schrecker
| first = Ellen
| title = The Age Of McCarthyism: A Brief History With Documents
| publisher = Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press
| year = 1994
| url = http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/congcomms.html
| isbn = 0312083491
}}
*{{cite book
| author = [[Allen Weinstein|Weinstein, Allen]], and Alexander Vassiliev
| year = 2000
| title = The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—The Stalin Era
| publisher = Modern Library
| isbn = 0375755365
}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote|Joseph McCarthy}}
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite web
| author = Badash, Lawrence
| title = Science in the McCarthy Period: Training Ground for Scientists as Public Citizens
| publisher = Oregon State University
| date = October 30, 2007
| url = http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/events/2007paulingconference/video-s3-3-badash.html
| accessdate = 2008-01-16
}}
*{{cite web
| author = Beyer, Mary, and Michael Beyer
| title = McCarthyism Today
| publisher = International Journal of Baudrillard Studies
| date = January 2006
| url = http://www.ubishops.ca/baudrillardstudies/vol3_1/beyer.htm
| accessdate = 2006-11-02
}}
*{{cite web
| author = Navasky, Victor S.
| title = Cold War Ghosts
| work = The Nation
| date = June 28, 2001
| url = http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010716/navasky
| accessdate = 2006-11-02
}}
{{refend}}

{{Cold War}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mccarthyism}}
[[Category:Mass hysteria]]
[[Category:Discrimination in the United States]]
[[Category:McCarthyism| ]]
[[Category:Anti-communism in the United States]]
[[Category:Political repression]]
[[Category:Discrimination]]
[[Category:Hate]]
[[Category:Politics and race]]
[[Category:Political theories]]
[[Category:Political movements]]
[[Category:Political positions of United States Senators]]

[[ar:مكارثية]]
[[bg:Маккартизъм]]
[[ca:Maccarthisme]]
[[cs:Mccarthysmus]]
[[da:Mccarthyisme]]
[[de:McCarthy-Ära]]
[[el:Μακαρθισμός]]
[[es:Macarthismo]]
[[eo:Makartiismo]]
[[eu:McCarthyismo]]
[[fa:مک‌کارتیسم]]
[[fr:Maccarthisme]]
[[ko:매카시즘]]
[[it:Maccartismo]]
[[he:מקארתיזם]]
[[lv:Makartisms]]
[[nl:McCarthyisme]]
[[ja:マッカーシズム]]
[[no:Mccarthyisme]]
[[pl:Makkartyzm]]
[[pt:Macartismo]]
[[ro:McCarthism]]
[[ru:Маккартизм]]
[[simple:McCarthyism]]
[[sv:McCarthyism]]
[[tr:McCarthycilik]]
[[uk:Маккартизм]]
[[zh:麦卡锡主义]]

Revision as of 17:16, 10 September 2009

I hate this class hayden...

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