Senator Joseph Mccarthy Communism Analysis

After WW2 on february 9, 1950 Joseph McCarthy gave a speech “Enemies from Within” when communism was the biggest threat to the whole world. Joseph McCarthy was a Republican Senate who got famous after his speech. He claimed that there were people in U.S. government who are a member of communist society and also mentioned in his speech that he have a list 57 people. In the speech Joseph McCarthy is appealing to the Republicans and christians, trying to influence them to take action and fight against communism. He uses people's emotional fear to turn them against each other. In his speech he uses allusion, metaphor, and rhetorical appeals.

McCarthyism- McCarthy was a senator famous for the communist hysteria in the 50’s. He blamed 205 State Department workers for having ties with communists. He gained support by playing into American’s fears of the spread of communism. Though some of these people accused of not being loyal were in fact not loyal, most weren’t. His accusations were mainly built on speculation. His smear tactics became known as McCarthyism. Once he questioned the army’s loyalty that was it and he was called out by Eisenhower.

Senator Joseph McCarthy was born on November 15, 1908, in Grand Chute, Wisconsin. Joseph attended Marquette University after completing the Little Wolf High School’s 4 year curriculum in just nine months. While at Marquette he practiced law and became the president of his law school class. After gaining his law degree in 1935, he joined a firm in Shawano and became partner in just 2 years.

All of the incidents were similar as well by that they revolved around numerous amounts of prosecutions that were the effect of suspected association with undisclosed, treacherous groups: Witches and Communists. The only way to forestall from being condemned was to indict other people of malicious acts. It was frightening to come to think that anyone could be a communist or a witch; of course this made many people were apprehensive. People would lose control and become obsessive thinking that “the person next door” or “their best friend” could be a witch or a communist. The situation became so perceptive that you could trust no one. After the occurrences of two similar things centuries after each other, it is very believable that it can and will happen again.

Senator Joseph McCarthy is notorious for his speech where he claimed to have a list of two hundred five communists. He became partially responsible for the communist witch hunts, which cost many people their jobs and their reputations. In his speech “Enemies From Within,” he uses metaphors and appeals to ethos and pathos in order to convince his audience that communism is a major threat to the US, and many powerful people are communist. The United States and USSR were allies during World War II, and only after the war did tensions arise. McCarthy uses metaphors to explain why communism was not treated as such a threat until after the war. He states that the apathy towards communism was due to an “emotional hangover” caused by the war, and “this

Since the late 1940s, American cinema has been obsessed with the idea of the atomic bomb and what it stands for; whether that be destruction or absolute power depends on the film. This symbolism would then come to define the 1950s, and later on American cinema as well. This symbolism then must be addressed from the lenses of, both, history and socio-political commentary. Then the question must be posed why specifically these two lenses? The answer to this question, then, lies in the films of the 50s, and beyond. Whether this answer lies in the apocalyptic imagination present in the films or the politics of the time, McCarthyism would influence American culture far beyond the 50s, depends on the historian who is asked. The answer, then,

During the Cold War communist began to emerge. Communist are people who follow or believe in communism. They were such a small group that no one paid much attention to them until after World War 2. When WW II ended communist started causing problems. They already took power in other countries and Americans began to fear they would do the same to the U.S. They wondered if Soviet Spies were in America secretly advertising communism. U.S. citizens even questioned if communist were involved in U.S. government jobs or in schools miseducating students and children. To help calm down these fears Joseph Raymond McCarthy started McCarthyism. (Shmoop.com)

In Senator McCarthy’s speech delivered on February 9, 1950 he showed the world a whole new side of the trusted government they thought the United States had; the Communist side. In McCarthy’s speech he begins by speaking of the day being the birthday of our past President Abraham Lincoln. Then gradually alludes to the fear that he feels for the security of the United States. One of the first points that McCarthy makes is, “This is a time of ‘the cold war.’ This is a time when all of the world is split into two vast, increasingly hostile armed camps… Today we can almost physically hear the mutterings and rumblings of an invigorated god of war.” McCarthy uses words like “hostile” and “invigorated god of war” showing the people that the threat is real. That they shouldn’t ignore it. McCarthy is looking for a response in his

“This is the time of the cold war. This is the time when the entire world is split into two vast increasingly hostile armed camps” (Joseph McCarthy). He thought that to find the peace that people wanted they could no longer close their eyes and close their ears to the problems in the government and in the world. To think that the communist revolution could not be carried out peacefully within the framework of a Christian democracy means one has either gone out of ones mind and lost all normal understanding, or has grossly repudiated the communist revolution. He knew that “The time was now”, that when a great democracy is destroyed, it will not be because of enemies from without but because of enemies from within (The Annals of America).

McCarthyism and those who practiced it were riddled with logical fallacies. Because of the errors made by this and their effectiveness on swaying the popular opinion of America, the freedom of speech and expression of many were suppressed and subverted. Long after McCarthy’s time in the forefront of politics, American citizens were still paying for the repercussions of the Communist scare, as in the case of Julius Scales. Scales never met McCarthy, nor was he questioned by the HUAC, but he was still a victim to the fallacies in reasoning that dictated the American court system at the time. It was a time where patriotism and fear overpowered logic that McCarthyism existed to its full potential in America, taking away one of the most fundamental

The Communist regime in China and the Korean war had such an impact on the Red Scare and the rise of McCarthyism. Many Americans were unjustly persecuted as being communists with no evidence. At the height of Joseph McCarthy’s political power a constitutional right was taken from everyday citizens. Senator Joseph McCarthy was a main politician who played on many persons fear of communism for political gain. According to Encyclopedia of World Biography (2016) He was born on November 14, 1908 in Grand Chute, Wisconsin. Joseph was one of nine children who was of Irish descent. His family was Catholic, literate but uneducated. It wasn't until 1935 Joseph graduated from Marquette University practicing law. According to American Political Leaders(2001),

McCarthyism has a lot to do with America 's history, even still today examples of McCarthyism are seen in america . Most victims of mccarthyism are hollywood actors and famous people because they impact american society more than regular people. Famous people such as Helen Keller, Leonard Bernstein , Burl Ives, Pete Seeger, Artie Shaw, Zero Mostel, Charlie Chaplin, Langston Hughes, Orson Welles, and Dolores del Rio were blamed for supposedly being part of the communist party. But that was not all, there was also another 205 average people that were blamed for being a part of the communist party as well. McCarthy’s committee then started investigating the United States Army. His charges kept affecting more and more powerful people.

The late 1940s and 1950s saw the rise of political and cultural hysteria among Americans following fears of an impending Soviet threat on American soil. The effect was that Americans thought soviet communists were working behind the scenes to ensure the downfall or harm of the United States (Lovett). As a result, there was regular charging among each other that one was either a communist or a sympathizer of communists, thereby continuing this trend of fear. Under this threat then, several American politicians withdrew their political ideas, values and lived communist-free lives (Schrecker). It was during this rise that McCarthyism was at its peak. This was a movement that would use communism

Joseph McCarthy, the notorious US senator who causes the McCarthyism era in the 1940s to the 1960s to arise, deceives the American people to lose trust with each other because of suspicion of Communism. McCarthy does not have a really great reputation before following the route of corruption. He simply over exaggerates the growing tension of Communism credits from President Harry Truman’s speech. His reign continues to grow until, “In early 1954 he opened hearings investigating the promotion of an Army dentist, Irving Peress, who was suspected of being a Communist. The Army-McCarthy hearings were televised and made for grand theater as McCarthy sparred with the Army's counsel Joseph Welch” (Capps). Joseph McCarthy is an arrogant and an overconfident man who thinks he can win every court cases until the very end. He believes that whatever

The late 1940′s were a time when much change happened to the American society. As a result to the expanding threat of the Soviet Union, or its Communistic ideals, America took a stand that lead it to the Cold War.  Although the war didn’t involve fighting directly with Russia, it still affected the American society and domestic policy. The war affected America so much that it lead to a fear of livelihood; precisely when Joseph McCarthy began his “witch hunt”. The Cold war lead to an enlarged fear of nuclear war; as well, it affected many of the domestic policies.