1. Joseph McCarthy & The Second Red Scare

2. 2nd Red Scare: My Q’s How was communism being fought in America?
What was HUAC and what did they do?
How did Joseph McCarthy take advantage of the hysteria over communism?

3. The 2nd Red Scare
Afraid of the recent actions of the Soviet Union, many Americans were now afraid that communism was taking over the United States. Like the First Red Scare in the 1920s, communist hysteria was taking over America.
Magazines and comic books published stories about the “red” menace and “subversives” that were taking over the country. Captain America even fought Commies!
Teachers and professors were monitored and usually fired if they promoted communism in any way.
Ford Motor Company secretly hired FBI agents to make sure communists were not working on the assembly line.

4. Investigating Communism
In 1947, a congressional committee called the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) started to investigate communist influence in America.
The HUAC often accused people—who were actually just being critical of the government—for trying to overthrow the government.
If you admitted to being a communist to HUAC, you were usually forced to implicate others. If you pleaded the First or Fifth Amendments you risked livelihood and public image.
For example, one salesman from D.C. who pleaded the Fifth immediately lost his license to sell furniture. A scientist from Stanford University, knowing his life was already ruined because of HUAC, poisoned himself.
The HUAC especially targeted television and movie stars and producers and once they were supposedly found to be communists, they were blacklisted and unlikely to be hired ever again.

5. McCarthyism
Republicans especially took advantage of the 2nd Red Scare by accusing Democrats of communism and gaining their political offices.
Of all Republicans, Senator Joseph McCarthy exploited the Cold War, anti-communist hysteria the most.
In public, McCarthy was known to falsely accuse Democrats and other public officials of either being communists or harboring communist spies.
At first, much of the public admired the senator for his bravery and anti-communist fervor.
If a politician decided to cross or anger McCarthy, the senator would simply accuse that person of communist leanings and they would lose their next bid for election.

6. Downfall of McCarthy
President Eisenhower privately hated McCarthy, but was afraid to speak out against him.
However, McCarthy “hung himself” when he accused the army of protecting communist spies after a buddy did not get a favorable position in the army.
McCarthy was called before Congress to testify in what are today called the McCarthy hearings.
Recorded live on television, thousands of Americans tuned in to see McCarthy make a fool of himself on TV.
Congress and the American public eventually caught on that McCarthy was only full of lies and hot air. They simply ignored him after 1954 until his alcohol-induced death in 1957.