In between the late 1940s and early 1950s there was a fear of communist subversion in the United States. The fear is what is now popularly referred to as the Second Red Scare by historians. A red scare is a tactical tool used to spread fear by a government of nation on the potential emergence of communism, anarchism or radical leftism (Storrs, 2013) . The Second Red Scare is also known as McCarthyism and followed immediately after the Second World War. I agree with the statement that Joseph McCarthy started and persecuted supposed anti-communists during the red scare period.
A number of events were occurring both within and without the American borders that proved the Red Scare as real. For example, in August 1949 the first atomic bomb was exploded by the Soviet Union which was later followed by a declaration by the communist forces of victory in the Chinese Civil War (Storrs, 2013) . This is what led to the creation of the People’s Republic of China. There was also the 1950 Korean War which saw North Korea’s army which was backed by the Soviet Union attack its neighbors who were considered as being pro-western (Storrs, 2013) . In addition, there was also the Berlin Blockade of 1948 to 1949 and high number of reported cases of communist espionage.
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The public symbol of this Second Red Scare was Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy. The senator’s name is where the ‘McCarthyism’ name is drawn from. During his political career, McCarthy spent about five years trying to expose communists and other left-wing extremists who he alleged to be working for the government as high-ranking officials (Storrs, 2013) . Keeping in mind that it is during this period of time that the cold-war sensation rocked most Americans, it was easy for the senator through his allegations to convince most people that their government was infiltrated with spies. These accusations by McCarthy were so intimidating to the extent that some people came out and spoke against him.
Growing from this agitation by McCarthy, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) started a campaign to end a communism subversion that was allegedly growing big in the American soil (Storrs, 2013) . The committee targeted individuals considered as radicals in Hollywood and high-ranking government officials considered as left-wingers. This saw the passing of an Internal Security Act in 1950 which required all alleged communist subversives to report to the government for supervision (Storrs, 2013) . The passing of this act was opposed by the then president on grounds that it violated human rights but was, nonetheless, passed by a house majority.
In 1950, McCarthy during a speech in West Virginia, stated that he had a list of 205 known communist individuals who were involved in crucial decision-making activities at the State Department (Storrs, 2013) . This led to the senate investigating, unfortunately, no proof of subversive activity was found. Despite there not being proof, tension could be noted amongst most Americans with more awareness being raised against communists.
In 1953, the senator was appointed as head of the Committee on Government Operations. This gave him more opportunity to launch his war against the so-called communists who he said had infiltrated the federal government. A number of hearings were held by the committee where witnesses were aggressively interrogated. Human rights watchdogs termed this as gross violation of human rights (Storrs, 2013) . Fellow politicians, including President Dwight Eisenhower, censured the senator of his tactics. It is reported that during this period over 2000 government officials were fired following from these hearings and investigations. This was despite there being lack of any proof.
In 1954 the senator’s actions got strong condemnation from the U.S Senate and this owed to the fact that he had attacked the U.S army (Storrs, 2013) . The senator claimed that the communists had infiltrated the armed services. Hearings were conducted to investigate these accusations, hearings which were conducted on live television. This was greatly criticized because it was termed as destroying the lively hood of these individuals blacklisting them from future jobs. However, the army counter attacked these accusations by McCarthy by putting into question his credibility (Storrs, 2013) . The armed services showed evidence that McCarthy had tried to influence the service to appoint his friend.
At the end of these public hearings, McCarthy had lost favoritism among most of his allies. The senate condemned him for his unethical conduct and eventually he lost power in 1957 which saw the end of the Second Red Scare. However, at the end of this era, many people had lost their jobs on mere allegations of being communist sympathizers. They had definitely been persecuted on mere allegations.
Reference
Storrs, L. R. Y. (2013). The second Red Scare and the unmaking of the New Deal left . Princeton: Princeton University Press.
