MC Carthyism

MC CARTHYISM

by Léa Pasquier

Victims of MC Carthyism ?

There were many innocent victims of McCarthyism and hundreds were imprisoned. Most of the victims however, did have some connection to the Communist party at some point in their lives. Lots of victims were blacklisted including several actors, authors, civil rights activists and physicists.

MC Carthyism ? What is it ?

The term McCarthyism is based on the actions of Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy during the 1940’ and

1950’. McCarthyism signifies the extreme anti-Communist movement that occurred in the UnitedStates.

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• Liste à puces

Joseph Raymond McCarthy was an American politician and attorney who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period in the United States in which Cold War tensions fueled fears of widespread communist subversion.

United States

URSS ( actually Russia)

McCarthy'’ws itch-hunt began in 1950 when he announced he had a list of 205 known communists employed by the state department. His charges led to years of senate and house investigations and were responsible for many people losing their jobs. The Rosenberg (wife and husband) were accused to be spies for the USSR and to deliver the secret of the nuclear bomb: they were found guilty during a political trial and condemned to the electric chair in 1953.

Beginning of MC Carthyism

The HUAC, led by J.Parnell Thomas, decided to launch into Hollywood and the movie industry in order to track down anyone supposed to be communist. Actors such as Ronald Regan or directors such as Jack Warner accused some people who were blacklisted, but the evidences were not always relevant.

McCarthy insulted the Army and the American public. These accusations led to the decline of McCarthy’s popularity. The hearings of his Army accusations were for the first time televised nationally so that the American public could see the Senator in action.

Communism.

During World War II, when Russia and the USA were allies, American communists spied for the Russians. When the Cold War came and the American spies were unmasked an attempt to eliminate was put in place. This long period of political reprehension led to the abolition of modern art. In the late 1940s, the director of the FBI Hoover tracked down the Communists.

United States

URSS ( actually Russia)

Black list:

Orson Bean

John Berry

Alvah Bessie

Herbert Biberman

Charlie Chaplin

Lester Cole

Jeff Corey

Jules Dassin

Edward Dmytryk

Carl Foreman

Sterling Hayden

Lillian Hellman

Marsha Hunt

Leo Hurwitz

Ring Lardner Jr

John Howard Lawson

Joseph Losey

Ben Maddow

Albert Maltz

Burgess Meredith

Zero Mostel

Samuel Ornitz

Dorothy Parker

Leo Penn

Marguerite Roberts

John Sanford

Adrian Scott

Gale Sondergaard

Lionel Stander

Dalton Trumbo

Michael Wilson

After the establishment of communism in the United States during the Second World War, many members of the Hollywood company denounced the dubious activity of HUAC members. The latter were then imprisoned and blacklisted: they are called Hollywood teens.

The United States having united with Russia during the Cold War, communism then settled on American lands.

Modern witches hunt