The+McCarthy+Era+AS







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**McCarthyism**
McCarthyism is the politically motivated practice of accusing someone of disloyalty or treason without proper evidence. The McCarthy Era took place during the late 1940’s to late 1950’s, during which America was extremely scared of a Communist takeover. The term McCarthyism was originally used to criticize the anti-communist pursuits of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy. After World War II many Americans were accused of being Communists or believing in communism and became the subject of aggressive investigations and questioned in front of the government. This caused many people to lose their jobs, have their careers destroyed, or to even be imprisoned. Many trials that convicted people of being a Communist were later overturned or declared unconstitutional or illegal.

Throughout the McCarthy Era, there was such a large amount of paranoia that civil and constitutional rights were violated when searching for communists. There were loyalty tests for many people to take if there was any suspicion that they might be a communist. If there was any "evidence", unsupported or not, there would be intense investigations. McCarthy would use his power to accuse anyone who he thought was a threat to his operation and arrest them. As many people as he accused, there were very few, if any, with even the slightest amount of evidence that they were communists. McCarthy played such a prominent role in the movement, he became a figure of anti-communism.