18 Facts About McCarthyism

McCarthyism'storians have suggested since the 1980s that as McCarthy's involvement was less central than that of others, a different and more accurate term should be used instead that more accurately conveys the breadth of the phenomenon, and that the term McCarthyism is outdated.

The most notable examples of McCarthyism include the investigations of alleged communists that were conducted by Senator McCarthy, and the hearings conducted by the House Un-American Activities Committee.

McCarthyism'ss was in effect found guilty of espionage; the statute of limitations had run out for that crime, but he was convicted of having perjured himself when he denied that charge in earlier testimony before the HUAC.

McCarthyism brandished a piece of paper, which he claimed contained a list of known communists working for the State Department.

Insofar as the various blacklists of McCarthyism were actual physical lists, they were created and maintained by these private organizations.

Related searches

McCarthyism was supported by a variety of groups, including the American Legion and various other anti-communist organizations.

Those who sought to justify McCarthyism did so largely through their characterization of communism, and American communists in particular.

Proponents of McCarthyism claimed that the CPUSA was so completely under Moscow's control that any American communist was a puppet of the Soviet intelligence services.

Many of the hearings and trials of McCarthyism featured testimony by former Communist Party members such as Elizabeth Bentley, Louis Budenz, and Whittaker Chambers, speaking as expert witnesses.

The critics of various aspects of McCarthyism included many figures not generally noted for their liberalism.

McCarthyism is only important in that his name has taken on the dictionary meaning of the word.

McCarthyism's said "freedom of speech is not what it used to be in America", and decried "cancerous tentacles of 'know nothing, suspect everything' attitudes".

One of the most influential opponents of McCarthyism was the famed CBS newscaster and analyst Edward R Murrow.

McCarthyism was scrutinized by AWARE, Inc, one of the private firms that examined individuals for signs of communist "disloyalty".

Much of the undoing of McCarthyism came at the hands of the U S Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren.

Political divisions McCarthyism created in the United States continue to make themselves manifest, and the politics and history of anti-communism in the United States are still contentious.

John Earl Haynes, while acknowledging that inexcusable excesses occurred during McCarthyism, argues that some contemporary historians of McCarthyism underplay the undemocratic nature of the CPUSA.

Since the time of McCarthy, the word McCarthyism has entered American speech as a general term for a variety of practices: aggressively questioning a person's patriotism, making poorly supported accusations, using accusations of disloyalty to pressure a person to adhere to conformist politics or to discredit an opponent, subverting civil and political rights in the name of national security, and the use of demagoguery are all often referred to as McCarthyism.