Mccarthy: The Fear Of Communism

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struggled to find one focus it could improve, which left them helping McCarthy get away with what he did because politicians were distracted. Education had an immense impact on politicians gaining support from voters. Political events that took place diverging off of McCarthy were Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 and the segregation issues at Little Rock Central High School in September 1957. According to Rick Musser in his article History of American Journalism, when each of these events took place the entire country was drawn to them through the media (Musser, History of American Journalism) . On June 25th, 1950, North Korea attacked South Korea. Due to this event many people thought the United States could be in danger on account of …show more content…
Trying to gain momentum, McCarthy worked hard to demolish Americans lifestyle. Rick Musser stated “McCarthy gave statements that would fit the perfect time frame for it to be televised” (Musser) . McCarthy worked very hard to motivate the press, so in turn they were working in his favor. Searching for information, citizens watched films that were encrypted with the communist fear from their living room. From the film The Whip Hand, viewers watched a Midwest town being engulfed by the fear of Communism (Pearson, “The Red Scare: A Filmograph”) . The fear of Communism raced through America house by house, business by business. Searches took place nationwide, “39 states made teachers and public employees take loyalty oaths” states Wendy Wall (Wall, “Anti-Communism in the 1950s”) . People made the hysteria of communism a vast movement because they were scared they would be convicted next. As people thought about communism more and more during the decade, the fear grew out of …show more content…
The House of Un-American Activities Committee worked hard to fight the spread of the fear of communism. Wendy Wall stated, “Which would become one of the key institutional centers of postwar anti-communism (Wall) .” Without organizations like HUAC, America would have had a difficult time slowing down, and eventually stopping the terror of communism. Wendy Wall quotes, “Anti-Communism continued into the 1960s, but after 1954 it lost much of its fevered pitch. The turning point came when Senator McCarthy began to investigate communists in the Army, and powerful Republicans (including the President) decided he he had finally gone too far (Wall) . ”Communism was over several years before the decade came to a close. HUAC is to credit for part of the success. Stopping communism made citizens feel safe again. Once the fear of communism slowed down, people were willing to stay a nonconformist, and then society began to shift. As quoted by Land of Television, “minorities rarely appeared on television in the 1950’s.”Desi Arnaz was an example of an exception at the time. The Blacklist made it hard for others like Arnaz to get a role. Despite the Blacklist, Arnaz gave the others hope for getting into film and being successful (Land of Television) . The extensive movement was eventually slowed down with the help of some very powerful organizations and
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