2. Context
Following the Second World War, the combatant
nations largely separated into armed camps defined
by ideology.
The Cold War began nearly as soon as the fighting
stopped.
The twelve Western democracies, dominated by the
United States, founded NATO as a mutual defense
organization in 1949.
In response, the communist nations, dominated by
the Soviet Union, formed the Warsaw Pact in 1955.
This alignment would serve as the basic framework
of the Cold War over the next fifty years.
3.
4. Communist Expansion in Asia
Shortly after the defeat of Japan in the
Second World War, China resumed its civil
war.
In 1949, communist forces, led by Mao
Zedong, expelled the government of
Chiang Kai-Shek to the island of Taiwan
and formed the Peoples’ Republic of
China.
In the United States, the adoption of
communism in China was viewed as
evidence of Soviet expansionism, though
later documents showed that the Soviets
Chairman Mao had little to do with it.
Truman’s unwillingness to fight a larger
war with China fueled attacks from the
right that he was soft on communism.
5. The Rosenbergs
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a young
couple living in New York, were
arrested for conspiracy to commit
treason in helping Soviet agents
ferret atomic secrets out of the
United States.
While they were both members of
the Communist Party, the espionage
charge was far more dubious.
All the same, they were convicted of
treason, largely on the strength of
the vigorous prosecution presented
by Roy Cohn.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were
executed in the electric chair on 19
June 1953.
6. Alger Hiss
Alger Hiss was a bright up and
coming State Department
attaché.
Time Magazine editor Whittaker
Chambers accused him of
passing secrets to the Soviets.
At trial, Hiss was twice acquitted
of treason, though he was
convicted of perjury.
This distinction did not matter to
many of Hiss’ critics on the right,
who continued to label him a
traitor.
7. House Un-American Activities
Committee
HUAC was an investigative
committee of the US Senate.
In 1947 HUAC investigated alleged
communist infiltration of the
motion picture industry.
Hearsay, innuendo, and rumor were
perfectly acceptable forms of
evidence.
HUAC decided the Fifth
Amendment did not apply in its
hearings so those refusing to testify,
branded the “Hollywood Ten”,
were imprisoned for contempt.
Through pressing witnesses to
Ronald Reagan testifies to HUAC. “name names,” HUAC claimed to
have identified 324 communists
working in the motion picture
industry.
8. Senator Joseph McCarthy
Elected to the Senate from
Wisconsin in 1946.
Rabid anti-communist and alleged
communist infiltration into the
American government.
On 20 February 1950, McCarthy
made a six hour Senate speech
claiming that the Democratic Party
had been engaged in twenty years
of treason.
In 1952, the Republicans gained
control of the Senate.
The Republicans named McCarthy
as Chairman of the Senate Sub-
Committee on Investigations.
9. McCarthy Hearings
In the Senate Sub-Committee
for Investigations, Senator
McCarthy applied the methods
of HUAC to the American
government, military, and
defense industry.
According to McCarthy’s own
numbers, his investigations
drove 400 suspected
communists from the
American government, though,
in reality, few were guilty of
anything more than liberal
politics or associations
10. Opposition to McCarthyism
Senator Margaret Chase Smith, a
Republican from Maine, criticized his
tactics as being detrimental to
individual freedom.
In March 1954, McCarthy began to
investigate Annie Lee Moss, a middle
aged African American woman who
worked for the Army Signal Corps.
For this, Moss lost her job with the
Army, was dragged before
McCarthy’s hearings, and publicly
interrogated on national television.
Senator Symington pointed out that
there were four Annie Lee Mosses
listed in the Washington D.C.
Margaret Chase Smith phonebook and that there was no
indication that this was the proper
one.
11. "See it Now"
The downfall of Senator McCarthy would
begin on 20 October 1953 on Edward R.
Murrow’s CBS television newsmagazine
“See it Now.”
After “See It Now” exposed the Air
Force for using secret evidence and guilt
by association in the firing of an officer
whose father and sister were suspected
communists, Murrow and Friendly’s next
attack on McCarthy was not nearly as
oblique.
On 9 March 1954, “See it Now” took on
McCarthy directly. Using his own words
against him, Murrow and Friendly
demonstrated McCarthy’s inconsistencies
and fabrications.
Edward R. Murrow CBS News offered McCarthy equal
airtime to refute the charges, an offer the
Senator took advantage of on 6 April
1954.
McCarthy’s rambling, incoherent diatribe-
like defense of himself was devastating.
12. Army McCarthy Hearings
In 1953, McCarthy began an
investigation of the automatic
promotion of an Army dentist with
leftist political views.
On 11 March 1954, the Army released
a memo detailing the efforts that
McCarthy and Cohn made to secure an
Army commission for drafted
McCarthy staffer David Schine.
With such an allegation of improper
use of his office, the Senate Sub-
Committee on Investigations was now
turned onto McCarthy.
McCarthy now alleged that the
McCarthy at the Army Hearings
investigation was a conspiracy to
protect communists including FBI
Director J. Edgar Hoover and
President Eisenhower.
13. Censure
On 2 December 1954 the Senate voted 67-22 to
censure Senator McCarthy.
The Republican leadership stripped McCarthy of his
committee chairmanship.
When the Democrats took control, McCarthy was
marginalized further; when McCarthy would enter a
room, any other Senators present would leave.
McCarthy continued to serve in the Senate until his
death in 1957 at the age of 49 from complications of
alcoholism.
