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Essay / The Hunt for Communism During the Period of McCarthyism in America Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and Roy Cohn, the three men worked tirelessly to find and expose communists in the American community. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay McCarthyism began during the Cold War era, in the mid-1940s. HUAC was established shortly before the war in 1938. The House Committee on Un-American Activities used fear and distrust of people in the community for denouncing communists. The Cold War was not a real war in the sense that there was hand-to-hand combat between the Soviet Union and the United States. The war can best be described as a nuclear arms race, aimed at establishing deterrence with superior firepower. During this "war" there was growing hysteria over the threat of communism in the United States (history.com). It was called the Red Scare. The Red Scare threatened Americans because they believed that if the Soviet Union took control of the arms race, continued communism would overthrow the American government. This sense of paranoia increased when the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb in 1949. On October 1 of that year, China was declared a communist nation under Mao Zedong. The United States also joined the Korean War the following year (1950–1953) to fight North Korea's communist partisans. The rise of communism in powerful countries pushed American citizens over the edge and caused severe paranoia and suspicion of communist activities and spies in the United States. Senator Joseph McCarthy capitalized on this state of hysteria in the United States by intimidating and accusing people of supporting communism. the communist party. McCarthy spoke before a crowd on February 9, 1950, claiming that 205 State Department employees were communists or supported the communist party. Senator McCarthy's speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, is known as the beginning of McCarthyism (history.com). McCarthyism focused primarily on those in power. Artists, civil servants and high-ranking officials were the people in question. Suspected supporters could face harsh, life-changing penalties. Even though there was often not enough evidence to truly find them guilty, the suspicion was enough to ruin their reputation. These people would be prosecuted by Roy Cohn, a New York lawyer. Cohn worked as chief counsel for the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and became known for his intense questioning. HUAC, Cohn, and McCarthy all worked together to fight communists in the United States when in reality they were only ruining the reputations of thousands of people (pbs.org). However, McCarthy did not stay in power forever. Eventually, his colleagues began to question the tactics he had used to bring down the communist threat in the country. The Secretary of the Army gathered evidence from telephone calls between Roy Cohn and Joseph McCarthy harassing and threatening officials. The Army's lawyer, Mr. Welch, even said, "...Have you no sense of decency, sir?" Do you finally no longer have any sense of decency? (Miller, David). McCarthy's investigation was followed by millions of people and.
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