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?

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 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 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. Margaret Chase Smith

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 : 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 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. McCarthy at the Army Hearings

Censure and the End  December 2, 1954: the Senate voted 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.