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- McCarthyism - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
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- McCarthyism - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
Also known as: Second Red Scare
Written by
Paul J. Achter
Fact-checked by
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated: •Article History
Joseph McCarthy
See all media
- Date:
- c. 1950 - c. 1954
- Location:
- United States
- Key People:
- Owen Lattimore
- Joseph McCarthy
- J. Robert Oppenheimer
See all related content →
Top Questions
What is McCarthyism?
What is McCarthyism?
McCarthyism is part of the Red Scare period of American history in the late 1940s and 1950s. During that time, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy produced a series of investigations and hearings to expose supposed communist infiltration of various areas of the U.S. government. Other aspects of the Red Scare included the House Un-American Activities Committee and the Hollywood blacklist. The term McCarthyism has since become a byname for defamation of character or reputation by indiscriminate allegations on the basis of unsubstantiated charges.
Joseph McCarthyRead more about Joseph McCarthy.
What led to McCarthyism?
What led to McCarthyism?
The idea that it was necessary to guard against people seeking to overthrow the U.S. government took root early in the 20th century. Advances made by the Soviet Union following World War II, coupled with the victory in 1949 of the Chinese Communist Party in establishing the People’s Republic of China and the apparent inability of the United States to prevent the spread of communism, were among the factors causing fear of communist infiltration in the United States.
communismLearn more about communism.
How did McCarthyism begin?
How did McCarthyism begin?
In 1950, Joseph McCarthy, who had been elected to the U.S. Senate in 1946, made a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, in which he stated that the U.S. was engaged in a “battle between communistic atheism and Christianity” and declared that he had “here in my hand” a list of a large number of communists working in the State Department—a number that he gave at various times as 205, 81, and 57.The accusations triggered investigations and kept McCarthy and his search for communist subversion within the U.S. government in the spotlight.
Joseph McCarthyRead more about Joseph McCarthy.
When and how did McCarthyism end?
When and how did McCarthyism end?
Joseph McCarthy’s accusations of communist infiltration into the U.S. Army Signal Corps and the army’s charge that McCarthy had sought preferential treatment for a recently drafted associate led to 36 days of televised Senate hearings, known as the McCarthy hearings, that began in April 1954. The event showcased McCarthy’s bullying tactics and culminated when, after McCarthy charged that the army’s lawyer, Joseph N. Welch, employed a man who had once belonged to a communist front group, Welch responded, “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?” Also in 1954, journalist Edward R. Morrow produced an exposé of McCarthy on his news program See It Now. The public turned against McCarthy, and the Senate censured him.
Joseph McCarthyRead more about Joseph McCarthy.
What were the results of McCarthyism?
What were the results of McCarthyism?
Joseph McCarthy’s charges that various government entities were infested with communists or communist sympathizers were mostly undocumented, and he was unable to make plausible charges against any person or institution. Nonetheless, his accusations resulted in some people losing their jobs and others facing popular condemnation. The persecution of innocent persons on the charge of being communist and the forced conformity that the practice engendered in public life came to be called McCarthyism.
communismLearn more about communism.
McCarthyism, name given to the period of time in American history that saw U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin produce a series of investigations and hearings during the 1950s in an effort to expose supposed communist infiltration of various areas of the U.S. government. The term has since become a byname for defamation of character or reputation by means of widely publicized indiscriminate allegations, especially on the basis of unsubstantiated charges.
McCarthy was elected to the Senate in 1946 and rose to prominence in 1950 when he claimed in a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, that 57 communists had infiltrated the State Department, adding:
More From BritannicaDid Joseph McCarthy cause the Red Scare of the 1950s?One thing to remember in discussing the Communists in our government is that we are not dealing with spies who get thirty pieces of silver to steal the blueprints of a new weapon. We are dealing with a far more sinister type of activity because it permits the enemy to guide and shape our policy.
McCarthy’s subsequent search for communists in the Central Intelligence Agency, the State Department, and elsewhere made him an incredibly polarizing figure. After McCarthy’s reelection in 1952, he obtained the chairmanship of the Committee on Government Operations of the Senate and of its Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. For the next two years he was constantly in the spotlight, investigating various government departments and questioning innumerable witnesses about their suspected communist affiliations. Although he failed to make a plausible case against anyone, his colourful and cleverly presented accusations drove some persons out of their jobs and brought popular condemnation to others.
McCarthyism both reached its peak and began its decline during the “McCarthy hearings”: 36 days of televised investigative hearings led by McCarthy in 1954. After first calling hearings to investigate possible espionage at the Army Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, the junior senator turned his communist-chasing committee’s attention to an altogether different matter, the question of whether the Army had promoted a dentist who had refused to answer questions for the Loyalty Security Screening Board. The hearings reached their climax when McCarthy suggested that the Army’s lawyer, Joseph Welch, had employed a man who at one time had belonged to a communist front group. Welch’s rebuke to the senator—“Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”—discredited McCarthy and helped to turn the tide of public opinion against him. Moreover, McCarthy was also eventually undermined significantly by the incisive and skillful criticism of a journalist, Edward R. Murrow. Murrow’s devastating television editorial about McCarthy, carried out on his show, See It Now, cemented him as the premier journalist of the time. McCarthy was censured for his conduct by the Senate, and in 1957 he died. While McCarthyism proper ended with the senator’s downfall, the term still has currency in modern political discourse.
Paul J. Achter The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
