3. A stain on the history of the United States, the political repression under McCarthyism saw thousands of innocents lose their jobs and freedoms on the basis of unfounded accusations of their alleged political values
Starting during the Second Red Scare – a period in the aftermath of the Second World War, during which popular fear of communists reached hysterical levels in the United States – the political repression of alleged communists escalated following the successful testing of an atomic bomb by the Soviet Union in 1949. Becoming what would become later known as “McCarthyism”, in February 1950 Senator Joseph McCarthy produced, and a month later published, a list of persons working in the State Department who he believed were secret members of the Communist Party. Resulting in widespread witch-hunts of alleged subversives throughout American society, several major investigations were conducted to weed out supposed undesirables.
Most prominently performed by the House Committee on Un-American Activities, McCarthy himself led the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations between 1953 and 1954. Using his position to target several major organizations, including the public library system, McCarthy denounced authors he considered to promote dangerous thoughts. Forcing the removal of these texts and their public burning, individuals named during these all-encompassing investigations, often without evidence, would commonly be stripped of their jobs and rendered pariahs by association. In 2016 and 2017, prominent members of the Republican Party called for the return of “Un-American Committees” to purge society of those opposed to President Trump’s agenda.