Joseph Mccarthy Greater Good Analysis

Superior Essays
In between the tales of two important historical stories, there is one common relation, which is the demand for power without the cognizance of the importance of their consequences. In multiple scenarios, nefarious actions are taking place with malicious consequences. Throughout the past, history has a tendency to repeat itself in multitudinous ways. Actions threatening oodles of people and others promoting “Greater Good.” The circumstances of the incidents that occurred, don’t get acknowledged by the higher power and therefore the information is delineated to their supporters, which in return can cause hardship and misery.
People with political power have a tendency to sway radical ideas and cause followers to pursue vile beliefs. Presidents, kings, popes, judicial leaders, and public speakers have influence on their supporters and can make them do repugnant deeds. Role models are everything, and in that case, people will do almost anything to make sure that their role models are on their side. Their followers will do good deeds and others will do bad, actions beyond one's imagination and as far as unsubstantiated murder. The higher powers in the world are
…show more content…
McCarthy was well liked as well as Abigail Williams within their social circles and their communities, and because of this they could cultivate absurd propositions within the people. McCarthy brought up the idea of communism within the Department of State and he also accused the army for being soft for communism. McCarthy had accused over 200 people, just in the Department of State, of a relation for communism and for those that opposed his accusations he called them “communist sympathizers.” McCarthy did this within the perfect environment but as soon as Eisenhower was elected into the White House, his spree of allegations started falling apart (History.com

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The Front written by Walter Bernstein and directed by Martin Ritt is a dramatic-comedy which was released in 1976. It attempts to explore McCarthyism in the 1950’s, the work of The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and the effect backlisting had on Hollywood and the entertainment business. During the ‘red scare’ when there was a fear of communism senator Joseph McCarthy produced a series of investigations in an effort to expose communism. Hollywood was subject to these investigations. If anyone is the entertainment industry was found to be so monist or have had any communistic relations or ties in their past they would be black-listed.…

    • 1199 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The country was in the middle of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, so people were more prone to be scared of the ideas of Communism. The accusations from McCarthy made him famous (Roberts 16). McCarthy exploited the fear the people of the United States of America had about Communism in order to be elected as a Senator. The ongoing fear was a danger for the rest of the government and McCarthy used the government and the fear of the American people as an advantage for personal gain. The most recent example of questioning loyalty of Americans amid a war, was during the McCarthyism era (Roberts 16).…

    • 915 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The first reason that America should not have trusted McCarthy is because of the outcome of the Red Scare. The Red scare was an event that happened around 1950. It was when fear took over the Americans, and they did crazy things. What happened was the HUAC looked for communists, and tried to expose them. They began to…

    • 959 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Joseph McCarthy Few people in American history have ever plunged the country into panic as Joseph McCarthy did in the 1950s. He single-handedly fabricated a scandal he claimed reached into the highest branches of the US government. Lacking substantial evidence, he accused various senators, representatives, and officials of being communist spies. His infamous “list” of such people was comprised of information that was “either taken from other sources or misremembered or just made up” (Kelley).…

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Innocent until proven guilty”, a principle set forth by the founder fathers is fundamental for the protection of human and civil rights. However, “guilty until proven innocent” seemed to be the new slogan the judicial branch abided by during a dark time known as the red scare. The red scare can best be defined as a widespread series of actions by individuals and organizations whose, “intentions were to frighten Americans with false and highly exaggerated charges of Communist subversion for the purpose of political, economic, and psychological profit (Carleton 14).” The apparent threat of communism was one that erupted throughout the nation beginning during the cold war and lasted well into the 1960s. The face of this movement was Joseph McCarthy, a Republican Wisconsin senator, who’s movement and political tactics are now commonly referred to as a McCarthyism.…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Why Is Joseph Mccarthy Bad

    • 1656 Words
    • 7 Pages

    McCarthy at this point was way too valuable, hence neither party wanted to bring him down. When China entered the war, McCarthy blamed Dean Acheson (Secretary of State) and after a while of tormenting, he moved to General Marshall to attack. In 1952, Eisenhower had become president and Mccarthy and Eisenhower weren 't on such great terms to begin with because Eisenhower did not like that McCarthy criticized Marshall, a friend of his. But with all that tension, Eisenhower kept quite on his views. Eisenhower refused to work with McCarthy and McCarthy gave him a hard time with almost every action…

    • 1656 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Did Joseph McCarthy create a “Red Scare” Joseph McCarthy gained attention through his rants about how the United States Government was corrupt and secretly housing Communism to soon blend with mainstream democracy in the United States. McCarthy provided little or no evidence to persecute said government officials, but just solely because of his fear of Communism. Joseph McCarthy used the “scare tactic” to turn the heads of American citizens from post-war recovery, to the spread of Communism within America. Instead of becoming united to stand against the spread of Communism, McCarthy created suspicion between citizens and the government, while also persecuting people that he accused to be Communist sympathizers, ultimately creating the “Red Scare.”…

    • 646 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Why Salem was Different The Witch Trials of Salem in 1692 was a prime example of hysteria overtaking the community. Two dozen people were hanged due to the trials. Although there have been other cases in history that have had large amount of people being frantic, very few led to lives being lost, nor were as accepted in the community as in Salem. Due to certain aspects in the community and due to their beliefs, the frenzied cases of Salem were allowed to take place where the obscure reasonings would not have been accepted in most other places.…

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    According to the video Hunting the Communists! - Joseph McCarthy l THE COLD WAR: McCarthy held up a piece of paper during one of his speeches and claimed he had the names of over 200 communists. Just like him, Abigail stabbed herself with a needle and claimed that Elizabeth Proctor's spirit stabbed her. During both time periods, people believe them without question because they feared witches or…

    • 1043 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The cold war led to many communists to come out and to say what they had to. This led to believe that communists were slowly taking over the government and society. Most of of the communists in the US were referred to as the Red Scare. All these major events did not stop McCarthy to make sure…

    • 878 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The witches were feared in Salem. People were scared to go against McCarthy because then others would consider them a communist. No one was afraid to go up against the witches and get them to get out. Over 320 people were accused of being communists and trying to overthrow the government. Tens of thousands of people were accused of being witches and many were killed.…

    • 1474 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    (Popkin, 139). And finally, if we actually look up the definition of what “McCarthyism” is, it states “the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, especially of pro-Communist activity, in many instances unsupported by proof or based on slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence”. Both events were showed a lack of proof, evidence, and any intelligence that people accused were seen with the devil or part-take in communism. With this support, this shows that McCarthyism was used within The Crucible and Salem Puritans community, before when it was actually given its name almost 250 years…

    • 1096 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Joseph Mccarthyism Dbq

    • 2071 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Main Idea 2: While the Russian Revolution was unfolding during the turn of the 20th century, the United States just began to rationalize the fear of Communism because of the effect it could have on their Capitalist Democracy. American civilians and their government prided themselves on their enduring and prosperous ideology of economic isolationism by protecting the country and their sound economy by distancing themselves from radical ideologies such as Communism. As history, continued the Russian Revolution was successful in their goal by taking over power from the Tzar and restoring power to the people. The overwhelming political, social and economic concern in the United States during the 1940’s and 1950’s was the fear of Communism. In the year 1950, the term “McCarthyism” was created by Herbert Block, a writer from the Washington Post, that described it as “ the practice of attempting to minimize the threat of Communism by accusing and detaining…

    • 2071 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In 1947, the Cold War had begun. (Wolfe). Due to a lingering fear of the Soviets and Communism, people were accused and tried for being Communist. The first reason why these two events are similar is because since children were seen as pure in the time of the witch trials, the young girls abused their power to accuse other people of witchcraft. McCarthy abused his power…

    • 1074 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Profile in Courage In the midst of turmoil and chaos, one woman stood and did what she believed was right. It was nineteen-fifty, tension was running high and the fear of communism permeated throughout American society. Joseph McCarthy’s “Enemies from Within” speech furthered paranoia about communism and instigated rapid accusations, many of the accusations had no solid evidence at all. In the span of twenty-four hours from the “Enemies from Within” speech, Joseph McCarthy became a sensation.…

    • 909 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays