The Thriving of McCarthyism
Thriving from the late 1940s to the late 1950s, a time period called McCarthyism thrived in America setting fear in the mind of the American people. As far as the American community was concerned, communism was going to cause the end of the US way of life, and anything was permitted to defeat it.
A reason why McCarthyism worked so well was the climate of fear that it created. Senator Joe McCarthy had such a tremendous power in the persecutions of supposed communists that not a single person, at the beginning, was willing to go against him. "Attacking him in this state is regarded as a certain method of committing suicide."(Source A). After seeing people getting harassed by McCarthy for standing up against him, they decided that it would be best just to not say anything and to keep their opinions to themselves. It seems almost as if fear and anxiety drove the attitudes of the American people at times of crises. At this point, there was no such thing as an attempt at proof; the simple idea of accusation was enough to destroy one's life.
Another aid to the thriving of McCarthyism was its undisclosed, behind closed doors policy. "As with other loyalty-security reviews of McCarthyism, the identities of any accusers and even the nature of any accusations were typically kept secret from the accused." (Source B). There was a secret aura around the whole operation. This caused for no one to know what was going on. Some that were being charged didn't even know that they were being investigated till later on.
There was also the cause of the fear of communism to consider. Post-war America was still in alarm and cautious to communism. It was past traumatic events that they viewed happening to non-American countries that created this. It was dealings such as Iron Curtain, China, Soviet H-Bomb, Berlin, and Korea. Communism clashes with the ideas of democracy therefore it brought on a sense of intimidation. "…when Communist power in the Far...