Annotate in this margin for
rhetorical strategies present
in this article, such as, but
not limited to: metaphor,
simile, personification,
ethos, pathos, logos,
analogy, parallelism,
hyperbole, imagery.
repetition, etc.
Minimum of 1 annotation
per paragraph required for
rhetorical strategies.
Name
Date
Block
MCCARTHYISM: Article 2
Bibliography (aka Works Cited) Information:
http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/joseph-mccarthy
Paragraph 1:
During the late 1940s and early 1950s, the prospect of communist
subversion at home and abroad seemed frighteningly real to many
people in the United States. These fears came to define–and, in
some cases, corrode–the era’s political culture. For many
Americans, the most enduring symbol of this “Red Scare” was
Republican Senator Joseph P. McCarthy of Wisconsin. Senator
McCarthy spent almost five years trying in vain to expose
communists and other left-wing “loyalty risks” in the U.S.
government. In the hyper-suspicious atmosphere of the Cold War,
insinuations of disloyalty were enough to convince many
Americans that their government was packed with traitors and
spies. McCarthy’s accusations were so intimidating that few
people dared to speak out against him. It was not until he attacked
the Army in 1954 that his actions earned him the censure of the
U.S. Senate.
The Cold War
Paragraph 2:
In the years after World War II ended, events at home and abroad
seemed to many Americans to prove that the “Red menace” was
real. In August 1949, for instance, the Soviet Union exploded its
first atomic bomb. Later that year, Communist forces declared
victory in the Chinese Civil War and established the People’s
Republic of China. In 1950, North Korea’s Soviet-backed army
invaded its pro-Western neighbors to the South; in response, the
United States entered the conflict on the side of South Korea.
Did You Know?
Paragraph 3:
Along with the Army-McCarthy hearings, journalist Edward R.
Murrow’s exposés of McCarthyism played an important role in the
senator’s downfall. On March 9, 1954, millions of Americans
watched as the national news program "See It Now" attacked
McCarthy and his methods.
Annotate in this margin for
your thoughts on what you
are reading, questions you
may have even if you can’t
answer them yet, or any
allusions the author has
made. You must also
identify, look up, and write
the definition of any
unknown words.
Minimum of 3
“thought/question”
annotations per paragraph
required in addition to
allusions and unknown
words that you have
identified.
At the same time, the Republican-led House Un-American
Activities Committee (known as HUAC) began a determined
campaign to extirpate communist subversion at home. HUAC’s
targets included left-wingers in Hollywood and liberals in the State
Department. In 1950, Congress passed the McCarran Internal
Security Act, which required that all “subversives” in the United
States submit to government supervision. (President Truman
vetoed the Act—he said it “would make a mockery of our Bill of
Rights”—but a Congressional majority overrode his veto.)
Joseph McCarthy and the Rise of McCarthyism
Paragraph 4:
All of these factors combined to create an atmosphere of fear and
dread, which proved a ripe environment for the rise of a staunch
anticommunist like Joseph McCarthy. At the time, McCarthy was
a first-term senator from Wisconsin who had won election in 1946
after a campaign in which he criticized his opponent’s failure to
enlist during World War II while emphasizing his own wartime
heroics.
In February 1950, appearing at the Ohio County Women’s
Republican Club in Wheeling, West Virginia, McCarthy gave a
speech that propelled him into the national spotlight. Waving a
piece of paper in the air, he declared that he had a list of 205
known members of the Communist Party who were “working and
shaping policy” in the State Department.
Paragraph 5:
The next month, a Senate subcommittee launched an investigation
and found no proof of any subversive activity. Moreover, many of
McCarthy’s Democratic and Republican colleagues, including
President Dwight Eisenhower, disapproved of his tactics (“I will
not get into the gutter with this guy,” the president told his aides).
Still, the senator continued his so-called Red-baiting campaign. In
1953, at the beginning of his second term as senator, McCarthy
was put in charge of the Committee on Government Operations,
which allowed him to launch even more expansive investigations
of the alleged communist infiltration of the federal government. In
hearing after hearing, he aggressively interrogated witnesses in
what many came to perceive as a blatant violation of their civil
rights. Despite a lack of any proof of subversion, more than 2,000
government employees lost their jobs as a result of McCarthy’s
investigations.
“Have you no sense of decency, sir?”
Paragraph 6:
In April 1954, Senator McCarthy turned his attention to
“exposing” the supposed communist infiltration of the armed
services. Many people had been willing to overlook their
discomfort with McCarthyism during the senator’s campaign
against government employees and others they saw as “elites”;
now, however, their support began to wane. Almost at once, the
aura of invulnerability that had surrounded McCarthy for nearly
five years began to disappear. First, the Army undermined the
senator’s credibility by showing evidence that he had tried to win
preferential treatment for his aides when they were drafted. Then
came the fatal blow: the decision to broadcast the “ArmyMcCarthy” hearings on national television. The American people
watched as McCarthy intimidated witnesses and offered evasive
responses when questioned. When he attacked a young Army
lawyer, the Army’s chief counsel thundered, “Have you no sense
of decency, sir?” The Army-McCarthy hearings struck many
observers as a shameful moment in American politics.
The Fall of Joseph McCarthy
By the time the hearings were over, McCarthy had lost most of his
allies. The Senate voted to condemn him for his “inexcusable,”
“reprehensible,” “vulgar and insulting” conduct “unbecoming a
senator.” He kept his job but lost his power, and died in 1957 at the
age of 48.