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The Impact of McCarthyism

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What was the impact of McCarthyism on the U.S.?

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Solution Summary

The solution focuses on what McCarthyism brought to the American society at it's height, notably the Red Scare that encouraged witch hunts within the ranks of the government as suspicion grew fanned by Senator Mccarthy's unbridled accusations & stories of communist inflitration - hate & fear politics.

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Dear Student,
Here is your solution. I have earlier on put together information for a similar inquiry & I decided to adopt it for you,focusing on 'The Red Scare' as this was what impacted Americans the most out of all the actions that Senator McCarthy did from the early 50's. I have also attached an .rtf file that contains the opinion of Ed Murrow, then host of See It Now, a popular political documentary on 50's tv, the t.v. version of the political talk show Hear It Now. His speech/opinion is important in that it somehow summarizes & shows how McCarthy affected the public & then politics from a historically situated perspective. Good Luck & thank you for using Brainmass.

OTA 105878

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The Red Scare

Senator Joseph McCarthy's (State of Wisconsin, Republican Senator 1947-57) visibility begun in the early 1950's in the early stages of the Cold War. Riding the issue of Communism, he sensationalized it by coming up with various testaments and accusations of spying, information leakage and such, releasing such information for public consumption. He headed various committees that 'combed through' the U.S. military, private companies & the government looking for 'moles'. His sensationalized versions of 'Communist Infiltration' stemmed earlier on from a political rally/speech where he won public attention by gambling on the 'Red Scare'--- the build up of communist mistrust among Americans at the end of World War 2 when treaties were broken upon the disagreement between the two remaining superpowers, Russia & USSR on how to rebuild the World, particularly. Russia became suspicious of U.S. Democracy & the U.S. & the democratic allies became wary of the Communism practiced by Russia. This escalated to the Cold War & the wars by proxy that later on came. While abroad the U.S. debated, discussed & pushed for the implementation of the Marshall plan, in domestic America (where the success of the war was received with great honour & pride) this wariness translated to tension in fear that perhaps the Russians are really 'conspiring' at 'getting to America'. This was the situation that Senator McCarthy exploited in his speeches and witch hunts. At first, his efforts were welcomed. The problem was he rode through this sensationalism, planting his own 'moles' in certain offices including the reconstruction offices of the U.S. army in Europe whereupon he would gather so called 'evidences' of Russian interference that instead of aiding the reconstruction efforts & gaining him positive recognition among his ...

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