McCarthy+hearings-4

Marilyn Joseph McCarthy-McCarthy Hearings

After World War II there was a time period called the Cold War. The Cold War existed from the mid 1940’s- the early 1990’s. In the early 1950’s there was a republican senator from Wisconsin named Joseph McCarthy. He was the center of the McCarthy Hearings.

The McCarthy Hearings were meetings between the Senate, the US Army and McCarthy. These hearings occurred is because McCarthy had made up a fake list of 57 communists who were in the State Department. Then a couple of days later he had another list claiming that now there were 205 Communists in the State Department. The hearings that were broadcast on radios, in speeches and they were also televised. The McCarthy Hearings were a big deal to people. Many people had supported McCarthy and believe that he spoke honestly. People worried that if Communist had inflitrated the government they could influence government policies and potentially their lives. When McCarthy accused the Army of having Communists, the Army fought back. The Senate Hearings took place and the American people could watch or listen.

The people that were involved in the McCarthy Hearings were Roy Cohn, G. David Schine, and Harry S. Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, US army, and Joseph McCarthy. Roy Cohn and G. David Schine were working for McCarthy. The US army, Harry S. Truman, FDR, and Dwight D. Eisenhower were all disagreeing with McCarthy. They said that McCarthy was making up those lists, but the people of the US were a little too scared to start believing in what the US army said.

The McCarthy Hearings took place in Washington DC on April 22, 1954. The reason that McCarthy wanted to have the hearings in Washington is because that is where the government is located. So McCarthy thought that if he could have the people believing that the government was communist then it would scare everybody and McCarthy would be in control.

The topic on the McCarthy Hearings mattered because the people in the US were getting so scared that a proportion of the government was turning communist. They did not even know what to think anymore. This made people realize that you can’t always believe everything a politician says. This started McCarthyism. "McCarthyism is a term for a widespread accusations and investigations of suspected communist activities in the US during the 1950’s." (1)

Some problems in the hearings were there were many other circumstances that caused the Americans to believe in McCarthy’s charges. Some of these circumstances were frustrations of the Korean War, the Chinese communist conquest of midland China, and the conviction of several Americans as Soviet spies. These people who were worried that the list may be true did not even try and find some information on what McCarthy was really doing.

The interesting parts of the hearings were that McCarthy entered the Republican primary election and he won both the primary and the overall election. His first 3 years of office were in mediocre and in lackluster. Then he thought about cleaning up his political reputation back in Wisconsin. After that he moved up to a permanent senator spot and started the McCarthy hearings. His first attack in the Hearings were the US army because he was in the Marine Corps and it was a big part of the US at the time.

The importance of the McCarthy Hearings on history was that the hearings made people understand that the people elected into government may be bad people and that you should always believe in what you think is right. Don’t let people scare you so much that you won’t do anything to stop them. These hearings made people realize that in the end McCarthy was a joke and was making the list up the whole time. These hearings will have an impact on history forever.

Bibliography: (1) Reeves, Thomas C. "McCarthyism." World Book Online Reference Center. 2007. [Place of access. 13 Feb 2007.] <[|http://www.worldbookonline.com.ezproxy.cooklib.org:2048/wb/Article?id=ar350785>.]

"**McCarthy, Joseph R.**." __Britannica Student Encyclopedia__. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Library Edition. 13 Feb. 2007 <[|http://www.library.eb.com/kids/comptons/article-9275575]>.

Bartlett, Charles. "McCarthy, Joseph Raymond." World Book Online Reference Center. 2007. [Place of access.13 Feb 2007.] http://www.worldbookonline.com.ezproxy.cooklib.org:2048/wb/Article?id=ar350760.

"United States History - Civil War to the Present." Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 2007.