Mccarthyism:a Review From The Perspective Of Political And Social History

In the context of the Cold War, the ideological conflict between Communism and Americanism was so greatly magnified because of the high risk of the national security. In another word, the American society was challenged by Communism both in the field of theory and reality. As a result of the broad anxiety spread widely inside the whole American society, not only the government, but also many social groups were mobilized to defend "the Free World" and fight against Communism. That aroused a broad wave of anti-Communism. At first, it was a normal reaction that still restricted by the laws. But in McCarthy Era, such a reaction began to jump out of "the American way", and that was named "McCarthyism". Since the crazy performance had gone too far during that period, it became an even worse threat to "Americanism" than Communism did. Fortunately, it was usually restricted by the law and eventually ceased after the reviving of "decency" in1954.Besides exordium and epilogue, there are three chapters in this dissertation. In exordium, it is about the academic research in the past years, and defined the two kinds of "McCarthyism" mentioned in this paper. The crazy performance led by Senator McCarthy during1950-1954is called "the specific McCarthyism" or "McCarthyism of narrow sense", which has a direct relation with Senator McCarthy. The other one is called "McCarthyism of broad sense", which appeared earlier and based on American value, it last longer and far beyond the career of Senator McCarthy.In Chapter one, two question has been discussed. One is the challenge to American value from the theory of Communism, and the other is the spy problem which made the public begin to worry about the national security. Both the challenges came from Communism question, and raised the emotion of anxiety broadly in American society. That was the background of the huge wave of anti-Communism and gradually led to "McCarthyism of broad sense"How did "McCarthyism of broad sense" aroused so great a social movement is discussed in Chapter two. As Communism was a challenge to the faith of liberty which has always been embraced by Americans, Truman’s "Loyal-Security Program" meant to make a normal reaction against the "security risk in government", the investigations in charge of HUAC were trying to find out Communist spies, Communist, and even fellow travelers. As "the Waldorf Statement" appeared, social groups joined the movement of anti-Communism and stood with their government shoulder by shoulder. It was a special way to deal with the communist problems, because the government found it hard to make a proper reaction in the restriction of the law. So the public was mobilized, and the movement of anti-Communism developed fast.The political career of Joseph McCarthy and how the word "McCarthyism" became the symbol of the whole movement is mentioned in Chapter three. Meanwhile, how did "McCarthyism of broad sense" replaced by "the specific McCarthyism" is analyzed. In the Cold War, the idea of collectivism advocated by Communists seriously clashed with the mainstream values in American society, and that was why the government and social groups made a cooperation to fight against Communism. But they went so far that "the specific McCarthyism" came out and led a social confusion, which actually violated the principles of "Americanism". Ironically, the objective of anti-Communism or anti-Totalitarianism unexpectedly led a totalitarian way which did an even worse harm to "the Free World". Fortunately, with the legal assurance provided by the democratic system, American society finally came back to its own way, and continued to pursue the dream of free.The epilogue is a summary of the main idea of the whole paper. In a short word,"McCarthyism of broad sense" stemmed from the objective of defending the principle of free, but "the specific McCarthyism" became an even worse threat to such an objective. Though the McCarthy Era is usually censured for its social hysteria, the legal assurance provided by democracy and tolerance offered by the spirit of free might be the most valuable thing to be mentioned.