MCH-Dr. Tim Crain Presents: The Politics of Fear: Joseph McCarthy and the Red Scare of 1950-54

Session five: Senator McCarthy

McCarthy attempted to gain traction as a junior senator from 1947-50 but had little success. He was ignored and disliked, not only by Democrats in the US Senate, but also by his fellow Republicans. The Cold War created great fear for many Americans. On February 9, 1950, McCarthy burst into national prominence by claiming that he had the names of 205 known communists in the US State Department. Joe McCarthy was lying, as he did not have the name of even one communist. He would nevertheless begin investigations into communist subversion, and he ruined the lives of hundreds of Americans by accusing them of being communists. McCarthyism was born.