Eisenhower had no choice but to fight back. The Army compiled a damaging dossier of dirt on Cohn, showing that he used threats and intimidation to demand that Schine be given plum assignments and easy duty. The White House leaked this dossier to the press and Congress. McCarthy and Cohn now stood accused of abuse of power. Ike went one step further. In May , Ike simply said that administration officials and all executive branch employees would ignore any call from McCarthy to testify.
It was a bold and daring move, and it worked. McCarthy, his credibility in tatters and now starved of witnesses, hit a brick wall—and his fellow senators turned against him. In early December , the Senate passed a motion of condemnation, in a vote of 67 to McCarthy was ruined—and within three years he was dead from alcohol abuse. The era of McCarthyism was over. Ike had helped bring it to a bitter end. In the late s and early s, dramatic radio programs told tales of government agents on a quest to find Communist infiltrators who, in the words of one, "would undermine our America.
David Harding, Counterspy began in as the story of an American operative fighting the Nazis, and the long-running program easily adapted to a Cold War narrative in the late s and early s. Edgar Hoover calling on law enforcement officers, patriotic organizations, and individuals to report on anything that might indicate espionage, sabotage, or subversive activities. Federal employees were also required to take an oath of loyalty to the U. HUAC focused on locating communists within the government, sub-committees of the government, and Hollywood.
The pressure to ostracize communists was so intense that film producers created a black list to prevent suspected communists from gaining employment and influence. The Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI was expanded to handle the increase in inquiries and trials of accused communist supporters. Edgar Hoover, then director of the FBI, was an ardent anti-communist whose influence had perpetuated the first Red Scare.
Hoover and his investigators used espionage tactics of their own to locate potential communists, including wiretaps, surveillance, and infiltrating leftist organizations. The efficiency of the FBI was critical in many high-profile cases. Their evidence aided the prosecution of twelve potent communist leaders in ; later, in the s, evidence gathered by the FBI proved Julius and Ethel Rosenberg guilty.
Senator Joseph McCarthy fed the increasing panic, using unfounded rumors and intimidation to gain notoriety as a potent government figure; with this newfound fame and influence, McCarthy denounced numerous public figures as being communist supporters. His victims included government officials, celebrities, intellectuals—anyone opposed to his view point.
Most people black listed by McCarthy were innocent, but many lost their reputation, and often their employment, regardless. McCarthy dominated the anti-communist sentiment until the Army-McCarthy hearings of all but ruined his credibility. The broad power of the legislature to curtail First Amendment rights subsequently was limited in Yates v. United States and Scales v. United States Still, a requirement in the McCarran Act mandating that Communists register with the attorney general was sustained in Communist Party of the United States v.
Subversive Activities Control Board However, in United States v. Robel , a blanket prohibition against Communists working in defense industries was declared to violate the First Amendment right of association.
Over time, the perception that those investigating Communism had engaged in excess led to the demise of most of their abuses.
Fears eventually diminished as prophecies of imminent Communist takeover proved unfounded. This article was originally published in Marcie Cowley was a professor at Michigan State University. Haynes, John. Red Scare or Red Menace? Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, Murray, Robert K. Truman issued Executive Order , also known as the Loyalty Order , which mandated that all federal employees be analyzed to determine whether they were sufficiently loyal to the government.
Yet it was only one of many questionable activities that occurred during the period of anticommunist hysteria known as the Red Scare. One of the pioneering efforts to investigate communist activities took place in the U. Under pressure from the negative publicity aimed at their studios, movie executives created Hollywood blacklists that barred suspected radicals from employment; similar lists were also established in other industries. Another congressional investigator, U.
McCarthy of Wisconsin , became the person most closely associated with the anticommunist crusade—and with its excesses. McCarthy used hearsay and intimidation to establish himself as a powerful and feared figure in American politics. 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.
Edgar Hoover , aided many of the legislative investigations of communist activities. An ardent anticommunist, Hoover had been a key player in an earlier, though less pervasive, Red Scare in the years following World War I The information obtained by the FBI proved essential in high-profile legal cases, including the conviction of 12 prominent leaders of the American Communist Party on charges that they had advocated the overthrow of the government.
The Rosenbergs were executed two years later. Public concerns about communism were heightened by international events. In , the Soviet Union successfully tested a nuclear bomb and communist forces led by Mao Zedong took control of China.
The following year saw the start of the Korean War , which engaged U. The advances of communism around the world convinced many U. Figures such as McCarthy and Hoover fanned the flames of fear by wildly exaggerating that possibility. As the Red Scare intensified, its political climate turned increasingly conservative.
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