ty vs. Socialism.” This kind of political exploitation of the public’s fears is not uncommon among and democratic nation, but in this particular case it became much more than that.The use of the fears of the people in this case became a serious matter. The height of this paranoia came when Senator MacCarthy began hearings on communism and he systematically hunted down those who he felt were communists living and working in the US in government and in the private sector. In his famous speech he stated:I have here in my hand a list of 205 -- a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department." nSenator Joseph R. McCarthy, Feb. 9, 1950, Wheeling, W. Va. This marked the beginning of what democrats of the time called MacCarthyism. These investigations and trials ruined the reputation of many and even destroyed the careers of some innocent civilians in. Ethan Bronner of the New York Times writes:It is one of the most infamous speeches in American politics. Delivered just months after the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic device -- a replica of the American bomb right down to the bolts -- and months before the Communist North invaded South Korea and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were charged with selling nuclear secrets to Moscow, Senator McCarthy's words set off a period of political hysteria. It would be some time before the nation grasped that he not only had no scruples but that he also had no list. By then, many honorable Americans whose sentiments leaned to the left -- among them, teachers and actors, journalists and Government functionaries -- had lost their jobs in a witch hunt. This shows the seriousness with witch this scare was taken. The fear that gripped the American public now had influenced government to the point where innocent people were being deprived of jobs and...
