Let’s Learn about the Cold War: Part 9 - McCarthyism

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Sean D. Smith
  • Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs
MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. --  As tensions between the West and the USSR intensified, one of the key figures to emerge in the United States was Joseph McCarthy, a Republican senator from Wisconsin.

In 1950, McCarthy made a speech in West Virginia during which he claimed to have a list of known communists working for the State Department.

Though no confirmed transcript of the speech exists, McCarthy is believed to have said "The State Department is infested with communists. I have, here in my hand, a list of 205 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 speech would become known as the Wheeling Speech. Though the exact number of alleged communists given by McCarthy in the Wheeling Speech is subject to debate, the end result was a focus on communism within the United States that would eventually be called the Red Scare.

The attention McCarthy garnered with his Wheeling Speech gave him a powerful political platform and presence in the public consciousness. Investigations were launched in response to McCarthy's allegations of communist influence in the government. McCarthy exploited the fear of communism, using aggressive tactics to assert the United States was not sufficiently diligent in seeking out and dealing with domestic communism.

His aggressive methods were what got him into trouble. The term "McCarthyism" was coined shortly after he rose to national prominence, associated with the baseless defamation and wild accusations that characterized the climate of fear that was being cultivated.

McCarthy was involved in several committees and investigations intended to root out communists and communist sympathizers in America, yet he was such an abrasive figure that he attracted considerable opposition. While his message of vigilance resonated with many Americans, after the controversy that arose of his disastrous investigation into the United States Army, many of McCarthy's fellow Republicans distanced themselves from him. 

In 1954 McCarthy was censured by the Senate, eliminating his influence and ending his time as a public figure -- but he had raised public awareness of the possibility of dangerous Soviet influence in America, and those suspicions would linger after he left the spotlight.

McCarthyism has since become synonymous with fearmongering and the notion of a modern-day witch hunting.

Though communist influence was less widespread than McCarthy feared, Soviet espionage was taking place in America, much of it under the direction of the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti or KGB.

Next time: the KGB