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MCCARTHYISM NOTES
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following slides! This information will be on The
Crucible Unit Test!
MCCARTHYISM

The practice of making accusations of disloyalty,
especially of pro-Communist activity, in many
instances unsupported by proof or based on
slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence.
JOSEPH MCCARTHY

Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin gained
power by accusing others of subversion. (Subversion
refers to an attempt to transform the established social order and its
structures of power, authority, and hierarchy.)
In February 1950, a few months after the USSR
detonated its first atomic device, McCarthy
claimed to have a list of 205 Communists who
worked in the State Department.
 Although his accusations remained unsupported
and a Senate committee labeled them “a fraud
and a hoax,” McCarthy won a national following.

COMMUNISM
A system of social organization in which all
economic and social activity is controlled by a
totalitarian state, dominated by a single and selfperpetuating political party.
 An example of communism is the governing
system in Cuba where the government controls
everything and doles out benefits such as money,
health care and food.

COLD WAR
A state of political tension that stops short of fullscale war.
 At the end of World War II, the United States
and the USSR emerged as the world’s major
powers. They also became involved in the Cold
War, a state of hostility (short of direct military
conflict) between the two nations.
 Many Americans feared not only Communism
around the world but also disloyalty at home.
Suspicion about Communist infiltration of the
government was feared.

AMERICAN COMMUNISM PARTY


The Communist Party of the United States of America
(CPUSA) was a Moscow-controlled Marxist-Leninist party in
the United States.
Membership in the CPUSA was a high maintenance
commitment--the Party demanded full control of people's
ideas, friendships, jobs and activities. There were repeated indepth investigations, humiliating interrogations, forced
confessions, and purges. Many sympathizers (or "fellow
travelers") supported Communist goals but refused to become
members. Of those who did join turnover in membership was
very high, with most people staying less than a year before
they quit in disgust with the intellectual and social
regimentation of the party and its structure as a top-down
dictatorship that took orders from Moscow. The CPUSA did
not execute anyone, but many--probably most--of the American
Communists who traveled to Russia were killed there.
SENATE PERMANENT SUBCOMMITTEE FOR
INVESTIGATION


In the 83rd Congress, under its new chairman, Joseph
McCarthy of Wisconsin, the subcommittee (now known as
the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations or PSI)
greatly increased the number of investigations and number
of witnesses called.
His subcommittee held 169 hearings throughout 1953 and
1954. Of the 653 people called by the Committee during a
15 month period, 83 refused to answer questions about
espionage and subversive activities on constitutional
grounds and their names were made public. Nine
additional witnesses invoked the Fifth Amendment in
executive session, and their names were not made public.
Some of the 83 were working or had worked for the U.S.
Army, the U.S. Navy, the Government Printing Office, the
US Treasury Department, the Office of War Information,
the Office of Strategic Services, and the Veterans
Administration.
HUAC
Congress began to investigate suspicions of
disloyalty. The House Un-American Activities
Committee (HUAC) sought to expose Communist
influence in American life.
 Beginning in the late 1940s, the committee called
witnesses and investigated the entertainment
industry. Prominent film directors and
screenwriters who refused to cooperate were
imprisoned on contempt charges.
 As a result of the HUAC investigations, the
entertainment industry blacklisted, or refused to
hire, artists and writers suspected of being
Communists.

ARTHUR MILLER- BLACKLISTED
One of the Hollywood Ten
 Arthur Miller, author of The Crucible, admitted
to the HUAC that he had attended meetings, but
denied that he was a Communist.



He had attended, among others, four or five writer's
meetings sponsored by the Communist Party in 1947,
supported a Peace Conference at the Waldorf-Astoria
in New York, and signed many appeals and protests.
Refusing to name others who had associated with
leftist or suspected Communist groups, Miller
was cited for contempt of Congress.
THE END OF MCCARTHYISM
McCarthy’s influence continued until 1954, when
the Senate censured him for abusing his
colleagues. His career collapsed.
 Fears of subversion continued. Communities
banned books; teachers, academics, civil
servants, and entertainers lost jobs; unwarranted
attacks ruined lives.

ARTHUR MILLER’S THE CRUCIBLE


Miller wrote The Crucible not simply as a
straight historical play detailing the Salem witch
trials, but as a parable* for the McCarthy era, in
which similar “witch hunts” occurred targeting
citizens as communists rather than disciples of
the devil.
*Parable: A simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson.
COLOR TERMINOLOGY
Red – communist
 Red scare – widespread fears of Communist
influence on U.S. society and Communist
infiltration of the U.S. government
 Blacklisted – a list of persons or organizations
that have incurred disapproval or suspicion and
are to be boycotted or otherwise penalized.
 Yellow – cowardly
 Pinko – communist sympathizer
