Transcript McCarthyism and the Black List

Do Now
Please respond to the following scenario in 4 or more
sentences:
At the beginning of class tomorrow, a teacher comes in and
hands you a note informing you that you have been found
guilty of stealing (something you know you have not done).
This note provides no proof, does not make the accuser
known, and tells you that you will be suspended. Five
minutes later, this same teacher turns to you and informs
you that, if you name the student(s) who helped you, that
you will receive no punishment at all.
How would you feel? How would you react? What would you
do (if anything) regarding your suspected coconspirators?
What do you think of this kind of justice?
C
M CARTHYISM:
THE
ND
2
RED SCARE
Context
 Product of the Cold War:
 Post WWII
 Nations defined by ideology
 USA (democracy) vs. USSR (communism)
Fear and the New Red Scare
 The search for communists began before
WWII
 1940: Alien Registration Act (Smith Act)→Made it
illegal to advocate or to organize any group with
the intent of overthrowing any government in the
United States
 House Un-American Activities Committee
(HUAC)
 Investigated subversive infiltration into
government, industry, organized labor, the movie
industry, and the universities
 Hearsay, innuendo, and rumor were perfectly
acceptable forms of evidence
HUAC and the Movies
 1947: HUAC investigated
the motion picture industry.
 HUAC decided the Fifth
Amendment did not apply
in its hearings
 Those refusing to testify:
branded the “Hollywood Ten”,
 Were imprisoned for
contempt.
 The Black List
 Through pressing witnesses
to “name names,” HUAC
claimed to have identified
324 communists working in
the motion picture industry.
Ronald Reagan testifies to HUAC.
A Few were Guilty
 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg of
NY were arrested for
conspiracy to commit treason
in helping Soviet agents ferret
atomic secrets out of the
United States.
 Convicted of treason
 Executed June 1953
 Alger Hiss of the State
Department
 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.
Senator Joseph McCarthy
 1946: Elected to Senate from
Wisconsin.
 Rabid anti-communist
 Alleged communist infiltration
into the American
government.
 “I have here in my hand a list of
205 . . . a list of names that were
made known to the Secretary of
State as being members of the
Communist Party and who
nevertheless are still working
and shaping policy in the State
Department. . . .”-The Wheeling
Speech; February 20, 1950
 1952: Republicans gained
control of the Senate.
 The Republicans named
McCarthy as Chairman of the
Senate Sub-Committee on
Investigations.
McCarthy Hearings
 Senate Sub-Committee
for Investigations
 McCarthy applied methods
of HUAC (Black List) to the
American government,
military, and defense
industry.
 According to McCarthy’s
own numbers, his
investigations drove 400
suspected communists
from the American
government
 In reality, few were guilty
of anything more than
liberal politics or
associations
Opposition
 Senator Margaret Chase Smith
(R-ME) criticized his tactics as
being detrimental to individual
freedom.
 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
Margaret Chase Smith
that there were four Annie Lee
Mosses listed in the Washington
D.C. phonebook and that there
was no indication that this was
the proper one.
McCarthy’s Downfall
 October 20, 1953: Edward R.
Murrow’s CBS television
newsmagazine “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
 March 9, 1954: Using his own
words against him, Murrow
demonstrated McCarthy’s
inconsistencies and
fabrications.
 CBS News offered McCarthy
equal airtime to refute the
charges
 April 6, 1954:, McCarthy
presented his side.
 McCarthy’s rambling,
incoherent diatribe-like defense
of himself was devastating.
Edward R. Murrow
Army-McCarthy Hearings
 1953: McCarthy began an
investigation of the automatic
promotion of an Army dentist
with leftist political views.
 March 11 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
McCarthy at the Army Hearings
improper use of his office, the
Senate Sub-Committee on
Investigations was now turned
onto McCarthy.
 McCarthy now alleged that the
investigation was a conspiracy
to protect communists
including FBI Director J. Edgar
Hoover and President
Eisenhower.
Censure and the End
 December 2, 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.