The Cold War brought about an irrational fear of communism and communist activities in the United States. As we are learning this week, one of the most vocal instigators of this paranoia was Senator Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy delivered a speech about the imminent threat of communism on February 9, 1950. Perform a search on the internet and locate and read Joseph McCarthy’s speech given in Wheeling, West Virginia on February 9, 1950. Copy and paste the following keywords into your Google search bar: “Joseph McCarthy, Wheeling, West Virginia.” The speech is also referred to as “Enemies from Within.”
Construct the case study by responding to the following prompts:
- Explain how Senator Joseph McCarthy defined communist nations within the speech. What specific threats did these nations pose?
- Assess if Senator Joseph McCarthy charges were accurate.
- Analyze anti-communist sentiments during the Cold War era, were these sentiments valid. If so, how? If not, why not?
- Explain if there are other examples of events similar to the Red Scare that have occurred throughout history and modern day.
- Examine what happened to people who invoked the Fifth Amendment, refused to appear or were found in violation of the law as defined by the Congressional Committee.