why....why do you not know who joe mccarthy is?
*breaks out history badge despite the fact that my final on it was yesterday, i will bust my knowledge once again*
je mccarthy was a senator from wisconsin in the 1950s. [you will all remember that wwii had ended in 1945 (or if you didn't, wwii ended in 1945, reference V-E and V-J days {5/8/45 and 8/14/03 respectively}) and americans and the soviets weren't friends anymore because the soviets were communist. and since that's not democracy, clearly it's wrong. so in the 1950s the cold war started.] back to joltin joe......so he was a staunch anti-communist. alger hiss, former state department beaureaucrat, was found to be a communist. so mccarthy went on communist rampages "finding" communists all over the federal government. most notably, he created the red scare in hollywood, creating a blacklist of actors like lucille ball who were labelled as communist and therefore couldn't work. mccarthy accused everyone of being communist, it was a lot like the salem witch trials, you didn't have to *do* anything to be hunted down by mccarthy and co. he said he knew of 200+ communists working in the federal government, then as reporters kept asking the numbers kept dwindling -150, 87, 49..etc. he ruined hundreds of political careers and reputations. all in all he actually only identified one communist - alger hiss, who had admitted to being one in 1950.
now. mccarthy was a nut. he did nothing progressive but create a massive -and unfounded- fear of communism in america.