The Red Scare (1950s).

1. HUAC was one organization dedicated to investigate possible communist influence; they began in the movie industry where they accused movies made during WWII of being communists because there was pro-Soviet influence and propaganda in the films.

2. Blacklist was made by Hollywood executives where they had made a list of people in the movie industry who had a communist background, which ended up completely ruining the accused people's careers.

3. Alger Hiss was accused by Whittaker Chambers of being a Soviet spy and sending U.S. government documents to USSR, he was found guilty with no evidence to prove it and went to prison.

4. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were accused of being communists and helping to send some of the atomic bomb making notes to USSR; they were found guilty with no evidence proving this and were given the death sentence by the electric chair.

5. Joseph McCarthy was a Republican Senator of Wisconsin who wanted to win reelection and saw it as far-fetched inless he had a good platform. He used the subject of communists taking over America and the government, and went on "witch hunts" where he would give numbers of supposid communists but never did he have any names.

6. McCarthyism is the word made to describe the attacks that McCarthy made against supposid communists, nowadays it means attacks against people of disloyalty without having any evidence.


7. In a paragraph, describe the motivations and actions of Joseph McCarthy during the 1950s. What prompted his actions? What did he do? What happened as a result of his actions?

Joseph McCarthy started his "witch hunts" mainly because he needed a good platform that would win him reelection as the senator for Wisconsin. He figured that if he used the communists as one that he could get votes by telling the people he would do something about it like getting rid of them. McCarthy made accusations of supposid communists in the Senate and the American government. He only made numbers though, he never had any names to prove the accusations. However, he did use names in the Senate because there was a law that protected him from being sued for slander. Also, he accused the Democratic party of being disloyal and pro-communists for twenty years, he said that they were guilty of "20 years of treason." McCarthy accused the Democratic party for allowing communism into the government. Lastly, Joseph McCarthy accused the U.S. army of being pro-communists, which made the Senate televise an investigation on them. As a result, people and the Senate saw how out of control he was getting, therefor he lost many votes and lost the election. As well as the Senate condemning him of misconduct that made the Senate look untruthful and dishonorable.