McCarthyism

Since the 1950s, McCarthysim has become synonymous with acts of libel or defamation of character or reputation by means of widely publicized indiscriminate allegations, especially on the basis of unsubstantiated charges. On February 9, 1950, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy made a speech to the Republican Women’s Club in Wheeling, West Virginia, where he accused members of the U.S. Department of State of being communists. The so-called “Wheeling speech” launched a period of “McCarthyism”—a “Red Scare” that did not end until the late 1950s. His rise to power through his claim that more than 200 ‘communists’ have infiltrated the federal ranks and his subsequent search for Communist figures in the CIA and in every sphere of American life made him a starkly polarizing figure. McCarthyism targeted individuals for having socialist or communist sympathies and at the peak of Cold War, this translated to being disloyal or traitors to US. Thousands of teachers, writers, union supporters, and government employees were “blacklisted” and lost their jobs after being accused of supporting communism. Celebrities too faced accusations including musician Leonard Bernstein, civil rights activist W.E.B. DuBois, and physicist Robert Oppenheimer. McCarthyism both reached its peak and began its decline during the “McCarthy hearings” which were 36 days of televised investigative hearings led by McCarthy in 1954 which culminated in a turn of public opinion against this ideology. Today McCarthyism has become synonymous with a climate and practice of surveillance and defamation without adequate corroboration.