Existing comment:
Red Scare:
In the 1950s the nation feared the increase in communist-run countries after World War II. Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy's four-year public smear campaign began in 1950 and paralleled the intimidation tactics already underway by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), which had been founded in 1938 to root out subversive activities related to communism. McCarthy's initial popularity with the American public was fed by the Cold War-fueled fear of communist influence, which led some cartoonists to agree with him. However, by January 1954, a Gallup poll found that only 50 percent of the American public supported McCarthy. The televised McCarthy-Army hearings later that year further eroded his public support. In June 1954, McCarthy was censured and by December condemned by the Senate. |