McCarthyism

=House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)= The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having Communist ties. The HUAC operated in the postwar atmosphere of fear and contempt for the Soviet Union, at which time HUAC's activities commanded broad popular support and consistently attracted major headlines. Through its power to subpoena witness and hold people in contempt of Congress, HUAC often pressured witnesses to surrender names and other information that could lead to the apprehension of Communists and Communist sympathizers. Committee members often branded witnesses as "red" if they refused to comply or hesitated in answering committee questions. The questioning style and examination techniques employed by HUAC served as the model upon which Senator Joseph McCarthy would conduct his investigative hearings in the early 1950s.

[|Wikipedia entry] [|Effect on Hollywood] [|Website on McCarthy & McCarthyism]

=QUESTIONS=

Who was Joe McCarthy? When the United States entered the [|Second Word War] McCarthy resigned as a circuit judge and joined the Marines. After the war McCarthy ran against [|Robert La Follette] to become [|Republican] candidate for the senate. As one of his biographers has pointed out, his campaign posters pictured him in "full fighting gear, with an aviator's cap, and belt upon belt of machine gun ammunition wrapped around his bulky torso." He claimed he had completed thirty-two missions when in fact he had a desk job and only flew in training exercises.

What were his aims?

Who were the victims of Jo McCarthy and the HUAC? Megan and Nat working on this one

What led to his eventual downfall?

What is McCarthyism?