Communism is a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and everyone works and is paid according to their abilities and needs. It was a hated thing in America, and most people feared it. That being said, it was the cause of the Red Scare in America. America should not have trusted McCarthy with the issue of the Red Scare.
The first reason that America should not have trusted McCarthy is because of the outcome of the Red Scare. The Red scare was an event that happened around 1950. It was when fear took over the Americans, and they did crazy things. What happened was the HUAC looked for communists, and tried to expose them. They began to …show more content…
The soviets had sent spies into the U.S. in order to get information from them. If you were seen as one of the Reds, you would be blacklisted. Blacklisting was made due to Congress's pressure. They made the blacklist policy, and went on a banning raid. 325 people had their work banned. There were some famous people who had been blacklisted. The author of the play The Crucible was also blacklisted. The Crucible was written by Arthur Miller about a similar event called the Salem Witch Trials. He purposefully made the play like the the Red Scare. The Red Scare is pretty much like the witch hunts, but they were anti-communist and not anti-witch. These “hunts” were led by a man named Joseph McCarthy, and were just like the witch hunts. There is a famous saying that says History repeats itself. This is one of those times that history repeated itself. The Red Scare of 1950 and The Salem Witch Trials are very similar events. During both of these events, there was a man leading a hunt for someone he thought was dangerous. They both involved a cruel punishment if someone claimed that you were one of these ¨dangerous¨ people, and there was not a fair trial. There were people who felt that the Red Scare was very personal. Many felt that their lives …show more content…
During the Red Scare, a guy named Joseph R. McCarthy started to rise to power. He was a very persuasive man who had been seen as crazy. His ideas were a bit harsh, but he knew what he was talking about. The way that McCarthy was going about things, he was going to be famous. Good or bad, he was rising to fame. He was manipulative, and feared by many. He saw the army as being too gentle with communism. He had these hearings to show the public what he could do. They just ended up seeing him as reckless and a bully. Everything got better when McCarthy was out of power. He became well known for his anti-communism. Bans were lifted after he was gone. A guild was made for writers, and they changed the writing credit of 23 films. These films were made when the blacklisting happened. Some of what had happened was reversed, but it could not be fixed perfectly. McCarthy's trials were called the Army-McCarthy hearings. They were on TV a lot from April to June. Some thought that he might be using improper influence to win, especially with one trial in particular. It was of a former member of the senator's staff. He counter charged others for his embarrassment, with blackmail and intimidation. His number of communists changed a lot. According to the newspaper, it was 205. It seemed to lower itself more and more every time. There was no evidence at all to back him up, so no one knew what to believe