McCarthyism

Named for the US Senator Joseph McCarthy, a Republican of Wisconsin, McCarthyism was a period of intense anti-communism in the United States primarily from 1950 to 1954, when the U.S. government was actively engaged in countering American Communist Party subversion, its leadership, and others suspected of being Communists or Communist sympathizers. During this period people from all walks of life became the subject of aggressive "witch-hunts," often based on inconclusive or questionable evidence. It grew out of the Second Red Scare that began in the late 1940s.

Background

In June of 1947, members of the Senate Appropriations Committee sent a confidential report to Secretary of State George Marshall, in which they stated:

Related Topics:
Senate Appropriations Committee - George Marshall

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It is evident that there is a deliberate calculated program being carried out not only to protect Communist personnel in high places, but to reduce security and intelligence protection to a nullity. . . . On file in the Department is a copy of a preliminary report of the FBI on Soviet espionage activities in the United States, which involves large numbers of State Department employees. . . this report has been challenged and ignored by those charged with the responsibility of administering the department...

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In a six hour speech on the Senate floor on February 20, 1950, McCarthy raised the issue of some eighty individuals who had worked in the State Department, or wartime agencies such as the Office of War Information (OWI) and the Board of Economic Warfare (BEW). McCarthy began with a half truth, that a large foreign espionage ring existed within the government and the Truman administration was doing nothing about it; the other half truth was the Truman administration was doing nothing about it because it did not know of the existence of the Venona project. This created several ironies.

Related Topics:
February 20 - 1950 - State Department - Office of War Information - Board of Economic Warfare - Truman administration - Venona project

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Although McCarthy went on a crusade against leaks of government information, it appears his knowledge of 205 known Communists came itself from a partial leak of classified information. While innocent persons may have been persecuted, some who may have been guilty walked away free under the cloak of being McCarthy victims.

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