Communism In Joseph Mccarthy's The Red Scare

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The Red Scare Analysis During the rise of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union had been brought into an alliance due to both of their desires to defeat Nazi, Germany. Although the Soviet Union’s aggressive, antidemocratic policy towards Europe created tensions even before World War II had ended. That being said, they tolerated each other as much as they could but weren’t exactly friends. The United States government was initially hostile to the Soviet leaders for their decision to take Russia out of World War I and was opposed to a state ideologically based on communism. The main conflict between them was their inability to agree about communism. Over the next five years the relationship between the two countries’ changed …show more content…

McCarthy was the United States senator at the time, and was also the person most associated with the anticommunist crusade. McCarthy made it to where many Americans were afraid to even question him. “He leveled charges of disloyalty at celebrities, intellectuals and anyone who disagreed with his political views, costing many of his victims their reputations and jobs. McCarthy’s reign of terror continued until his colleagues formally denounced his tactics in 1954.” (The Red Menace) McCarthy used the McCarthyism method. McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, especially of pro-Communist activity, in many instances unsupported by proof or based on slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence. “McCarthyism is Americanism with its sleeves rolled.” (McCarthy) If Joseph McCarthy thought that there was any chance that someone was communist or if they even had communist thoughts, he had people turn against them. Many people chose to follow him out of fear and many out of curiosity. He accused people of being disloyal and leaking information to the Soviet Union, and he even had people killed because of his accusations about disloyal Americans. Many people loved what McCarthy spoke about and were eager to hear that his views were. In essence, during World War II the United States and the Soviet Union had an alliance but eventually tensions raised causing the Cold War and an end to their alliance

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