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.

Notes

• {{anb|contempt}} On May 31, 1957 Miller was found guilty of contempt of Congress for refusing to reveal the names of members of a literary circle suspected of Communist affiliation to the House Unamerican Activities Committee, although his conviction was reversed by the US court of appeals on August 8, 1958.