Ominous Communist Fifth Columnists: The Making of McCarthyism and the Second Red Scare
Keywords:
Red Scare, McCarthyism, Anti-Communism, Cold WarAbstract
The 'Age of McCarthyism' of the late 1940s and earlu 1950s is often remembered as a deplorable period in American political history. Rampant fear swept through all branches of society, creating an environment of suspicion and hysteria. This essay will attempt to explain this seemingly inexplicable phenomenon. It will argue that the Second Red Scare was a result of long-standing Anti-Communist sentiment, combined with the reverses of American fortune in the early Cold War.References
J. Edgar Hoover, Testimony before HUAC (26 March 1947), in The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents, Ed. Ellen Schrecker (Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2002), 127.
Ellen Schrecker, Ed. The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents (Boston: Bedford Books, 2002), 12.
Ted Morgan, Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-century America, (New York: Random House, 2004), 56.
Morgan, 61.
Larry Ceplair, Anti-communism in Twentieth-century America: A Critical History, (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2011), 20.
Ellen Schrecker, Ed. The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents (Boston: Bedford Books, 2002), 14.
Ceplair, 39.
Ibid.
Ceplair, 124.
Schrecker, 59.
Resolution on Expulsion of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America, (November 1949), in The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents, Ed. Ellen Schrecker (Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2002), 222-225.
The Attorney General’s List of Totalitarian, Fascist, Communist, Subversive, and Other Organizations, (16 November 1950), in The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents, Ed. Ellen Schrecker (Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2002), 190-196.
J. Edgar Hoover, Testimony before HUAC (26 March 1947), in The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents, Ed. Ellen Schrecker (Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2002), 132.
Joseph McCarthy, Speech at Wheeling, West Virginia (9 February 1950), in The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents, Ed. Ellen Schrecker (Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2002), 240.
John Howard Lawson, Testimony before HUAC (27 October 1947), in The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents, Ed. Ellen Schrecker (Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2002), 230.
The Waldorf Statement (3 December 1947), in The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents, Ed. Ellen Schrecker (Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2002), 243.
Ceplair, 114.
James F. O’Neil, How You Can Fight Communism (August 1948), in The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents, Ed. Ellen Schrecker (Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2002), 122-125.
Ceplair, 123-129.
Harry S. Truman, Veto of the Internal Security Act of 1950 (22 September 1950), in The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents, Ed. Ellen Schrecker (Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2002), 127.
J.N. Westwood, Endurance and Endeavour (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), 336.
David M. Oshinsky, A Conspiracy So Immense (New York: The Free Press, 1987), 101.
Irving Kaufman, Sentencing of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (5 April 1951), in The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents, Ed. Ellen Schrecker (Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2002), 166.
Ibid, 167.
Ceplair, 91.
Oshinsky, 101.
Ellen Schrecker, Ed. The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents (Boston: Bedford Books, 2002), 75.
M. Stanton Evans, Blacklisted By History (New York: Crown Forum, 2007), 102.
Ibid, 112.
Joseph McCarthy, Speech at Wheeling, West Virginia (9 February 1950), in The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents, Ed. Ellen Schrecker (Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2002), 239.
Fred Vinson, Majority Opinion in Dennis et al. v. United States (4 June 1951), in The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents, Ed. Ellen Schrecker (Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2002), 210.
Ibid, 211.
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