McCarthy and McCarthyism - Reds Under the Beds

Aggressive, intimidating, and unfazed by the truth, Joe McCarthy single-handedly whipped 1950s USA into a frenzy of anti-communist fear and paranoia.

It was near the beginning of the Cold War: the Soviet Union had surged ahead of America in the arms race, Chairman Mao had not long come to power in China, and Americans everywhere feared the presence of 'Reds Under the Beds' within their own communities. In stepped Joseph McCarthy to shock the nation with a sensational announcement that confirmed their worst fears.

McCarthy exposes the Reds
On this evening, sixty years ago, February 9, 1950, at a Republican Women's Club meeting in West Virginia, when 41-year-old McCarthy declared that he had in his hand a list of 205 names of State Department employees known to be members of the American Communist Party. (A month later, McCarthy had reduced the figure to fifty-seven.)

These informants, said McCarthy, were passing on information to the Soviet Union: "The reason why we find ourselves in a position of impotency is not because the enemy has sent men to invade our shores, but rather because of the traitorous actions of those who have had all the benefits that the wealthiest nation on earth has had to offer."

And so began the era of the Communist witch-hunts. The eruption of the Korean War four months later with the Communist North invading the democratic South Korea, merely confirmed the aggressiveness of global communism.

McCarthy's rise
A Republican, Joseph McCarthy slandered his opponents on his way up the political pole, accusing them in turn of senility, financial irregularity, draft-dodging, and war profiteering. But when his own political career came under threat with claims that he had lied about his role during the war, McCarthy played on American's fear of Communism, and overnight became the most talked about politician in America.

Red Hollywood
Hollywood, already under suspicion, became the target of McCarthy's intense scrutiny. From the struggling novice to the stars, actors were interrogated. Those who confessed could wipe the slate clean by repenting and providing names of others. One screenwriter named 162 Hollywood actors, writers or directors who were Communist, ex-Commie, or sympathetic to the socialist cause. Many were purged, not to work again for years. Others fled abroad rather than face their turn in the McCarthy spotlight.

The studios, desperate to claw back the trust of the American people, turned out a series of propagandist films, I Married a Communist, or I Was A communist for the FBI (which won the 1951 Oscar for Best Documentary).

Next in McCarthy's glare came the universities, the "Reducators" of the impressionable American youth. Libraries were targeted and 30,000 anti-American titles banned from the shelves.

Joe and Ilk
Republican President candidate, Dwight Eisenhower, disliked McCarthy but needed his support to win the 1952 election. McCarthy had the gall to accuse George C. Marshall, originator of the post-Second World War Marshall Plan, of having communist leanings and being “part of a conspiracy so immense, an infamy so black, as to dwarf any in the history of man.” Eisenhower planned to defend Marshall but, concerned at losing McCarthy's support at such a vital time, failed to do so.

Once in power Eisenhower still felt reluctant to pull in the increasing excesses of McCarthyism, which by now were targeting members of Eisenhower's administration. "Attacking him," said one purged victim, "is regarded as a certain method of committing suicide.”

In 1953 a young New York couple, the Rosenbergs, were executed for passing atomic secrets to the Soviets. The case intensified still further the paranoia of mid-50s America. McCarthyism was rampant.

McCarthy takes on the US Army
In 1954 McCarthy decided to take on the US Army, right up to the Secretary of the Army, Robert Stevens. The army, according to McCarthy, was full of "dangerous spies". The Republican Party tried to stop their renegade senator but too late - the subsequent investigations based on McCarthy's allegations were televised throughout a 36-day hearing.

The nation watched aghast as McCarthy shouted, heckled and bullied his way through the hearing, with little regard for etiquette or procedure and failing to back up his wild claims with any substantial evidence.

Fall from grace
This time he had gone too far. The media, for so long in awe of McCarthy, attacked him for his "degrading travesty of the democratic process". The Republican Party finally brought his misadventures to an end and in December 1954 stripped him of office, asking of McCarthy on live television: "You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"

McCarthy faded into obscurity. "McCarthyism," said Eisenhower, "was now "McCarthywasm."

Already an alcoholic, McCarthy drank himself into hospital and on May 2, 1957, aged only 48, died of an inflammation of the liver.

Rupert Colley
To learn more about the Cold War, see the History In An Hour ebook The Cold War In An Hour

The Marshall Plan

George C. Marshall, the originator of the post-Second World War Marshall Plan, was born today, 31st December, in 1880. US President, Harry S. Truman, once referred to Marshall as "the greatest living American", and in January 1947 appointed him as his Secretary of State where Marshall formulated his plan, the European Recovery Programme (ERP).

The Cold War

More commonly known as the Marshall Plan, the ERP aimed to revive Europe's post-war economies, to alleviate the hardship, and to deprive communism its foothold in Europe just as the Cold War began taking shape. Once these economies were stabilised, America too would benefit as trade between Europe and America increased.

The offer was extended to the countries of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union itself. The Soviet Union had received huge loans from America during the war to help defeat Germany and now, during the immediate post-war years, further aid would have been hugely beneficial to a country still suffering economically from the consequences of its war effort.

Stalin says no

But Stalin was never going to allow American / capitalist interference with the Soviet economy, and nor would he permit his satellites. However, Czechoslovakia and Poland saw the obvious benefits of American aid, and both accepted invitations to attend a conference, set for July 1947, to discuss the Marshall Plan.

Furious, Stalin forbade them to go. Meekly, representatives of the Czechoslovakian and Polish governments traipsed to Moscow to face their dressing-down from Stalin, and returned home to politely decline the invitation to Paris.

"If Italy goes red"

In April 1948, Italy went to the polls. American Congress was worried: "If Italy goes red, Communism cannot be stopped in Europe," and threatened to prohibit Italy from receiving Marshall Aid if the Communists won. They did not.

The Marshall Plan, therefore, had the effect of reaffirming Churchill's concept of the Iron Curtain by forcing countries to decide whether their loyalties lay to the west or east. Loyalties that would endure throughout the Cold War. Sixteen countries finally accepted aid, which by 1951, had amounted to $13 billion.

Marshall was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace for his contribution to the recovery of Europe after the Second World War. He died in on October 16th, 1959.

Rupert Colley.

Read about the whole of the Cold War in just sixty minutes.

Solidarity - the last nails in the coffin of communism

A wonderful country Poland. Only a couple hours from London by plane. But it wasn't always the case.

When I was a sixth former in England during the early eighties and the era of the Cold War, Poland might as well have been on the other side of the world for all we knew about it. Apart from the occasional England v Poland football match, Poland could have been North Korea.

In September 1980, the workers formed Solidarity - the first trade union, of sorts, within the Eastern Bloc. When Lech Walesa, Solidarity's leader, signed the charter, he did so with a large pen bearing the image of Pope John Paul II, the Polish pope, and such a figure of inspiration for the Poles living under communism. But at the time my friends and I were more interested that The Police had got to number one ('Don't Stand So Close To Me').

I visited Gdansk, home of Solidarity, in 2005 and my souvenir mug is a treasured possession.

But 28 years ago today, 13 December 1981, the Polish government, fearful of Solidarity's increasing influence, clamped down on its people, proclaimed martial law, imposed curfews and sent in the tanks. Solidarity was banned, its leaders, including Lech Walesa, arrested. When they came for him, Walesa said: "This is the moment of your defeat. These are the last nails in the coffin of communism."

I remember watching on TV at home: the tanks on the street, the scattering crowds, the frightened faces. Although 17, I could not understand what it all meant. My mother tried to explain, tried to tell me about "freedom" - this thing that I had and had no idea I had it.

I know now but I still don't really appreciate it. No one can unless they've experienced the opposite. It's similar to trying to explain the full meaning of hunger. We know we're lucky; we just can't fathom how lucky.

Rupert Colley
Read about the Cold War in just one hour at historyinanhour.com