HIST 2334A: A Brief View Of The Impact Of Communist Hysteria U.S. (Essay Sample)

Student Name
HIST 2334A
March 16, 2015
Communist Hysteria
After the end of World War II, the United States entered into a Second Red Scare, that is, a second era where fears of communist infiltration of America became widespread.
According to the textbook authors, "legitimate suspicious and real fears, along with political opportunism, combined to fuel the nation into a communist scare that came to be known as McCarthyism.
One of the chief political opportunists was Senator Joseph McCarthy, who used fears of communist infiltration of the government to attack President Harry Truman and his administration.
The author of this crucial source document is Joseph McCarthy, who was participant and member of the United States Senate from Wisconsin. As a senator, McCarthy would have been a white, middle-to-upper-class male. Senator McCarthy's time in office coincided with the Red Scare and he "had an extraordinary talent for whipping up anti-communist hysteria."
This source, which included a discourse delivered in Wheeling, West Virginia in February of 1950, launched his anti-communist crusade.
His purpose in giving the speech was to incite anti-communist feelings among the American people thought McCarthy gave the address to an immediate audience in West Virginia, the publicity that it garnered gave him a national audience.
In the speech, the Senator McCarthy claimed the fight against communism was a part of the against atheism, indirectly associating America and capitalism with Christianity.
Indeed, he believed that Christianity was losing to atheism Fitzgerald, Brian. 2007. McCarthyism. Minneapolis, Minn.: Compass Point Books.
The main thrust of McCarthy's speech dealt with espionage. He declared that America found herself in a tenuous position because of the disloyal activities of those who had been preserved by the Nation, specifically the well-educated affluent people who worked in the State Department.5McCarthy alleged to have many cases of persons who would seem to be either card membe...