Editing McCarthyism (section)

==Origins==
{{See also|US Strike wave of 1945–1946}}
President [[Harry S. Truman|Harry S. Truman's]] [[Executive Order 9835]] of March 21, 1947, required that all federal civil-service employees be screened for "loyalty". The order said that one basis for determining disloyalty would be a finding of "membership in, affiliation with or sympathetic association" with any organization determined by the attorney general to be "totalitarian, fascist, communist or subversive" or advocating or approving the forceful denial of constitutional rights to other persons or seeking "to alter the form of Government of the United States by unconstitutional means".<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Robert J |first=Goldstein |year=2006 |title=Prelude to McCarthyism: The Making of a Blacklist |magazine=Prologue Magazine |location=Washington, DC |publisher=National Archives and Records Administration |url=https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2006/fall/agloso.html |access-date=January 16, 2017 |archive-date=January 18, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118033528/https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2006/fall/agloso.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

What became known as the McCarthy era began before McCarthy's rise to national fame. Following the breakdown of the wartime East-West alliance with the [[Soviet Union]], and with many remembering the [[First Red Scare]], President [[Harry S. Truman]] signed an [[executive order]] in 1947 to screen federal employees for possible association with organizations deemed "[[Totalitarianism|totalitarian]], [[Fascism|fascist]], [[Communism|communist]], or [[Subversion|subversive]]", or advocating "to alter the form of Government of the United States by unconstitutional means." The following year, the [[1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état|Czechoslovak coup]] by the [[Communist Party of Czechoslovakia]] heightened concern in the West about Communist parties seizing power and the possibility of subversion. In 1949, a high-level [[United States Department of State|State Department]] official was convicted of [[perjury]] in a case of espionage, and the Soviet Union tested a [[RDS-1|nuclear bomb]]. The [[Korean War]] started the next year, significantly raising tensions and fears of impending communist upheavals in the United States. In a speech in February 1950, McCarthy claimed to have a list of members of the [[Communist Party USA]] working in the State Department, which attracted substantial press attention, and the term ''McCarthyism'' was published for the first time in late March of that year in ''[[The Christian Science Monitor]]'', along with a [[political cartoon]] by [[Herblock]] in ''[[The Washington Post]]''. The term has since taken on a broader meaning, describing the excesses of similar efforts to crack down on alleged "subversive" elements. In the early 21st century, the term is used more generally to describe reckless and unsubstantiated accusations of [[treason]] and far-left extremism, along with [[demagogic]] personal attacks on the character and patriotism of political adversaries.

The primary targets for persecution were government employees, prominent figures in the entertainment industry, academics, left-wing politicians, and labor union activists. Suspicions were often given credence despite inconclusive and questionable evidence, and the level of threat posed by a person's real or supposed leftist associations and beliefs was often exaggerated. Many people suffered loss of employment and the destruction of their careers and livelihoods as a result of the crackdowns on suspected communists, and some were outright imprisoned. Most of these reprisals were initiated by trial verdicts that were later overturned,<ref>For example, ''[[Yates v. United States]]'' (1957) and ''[[Watkins v. United States]]'' (1957): {{harvnb|Fried|1997|pp=205, 207}}</ref> laws that were later struck down as unconstitutional,<ref>For example, California's "Levering Oath" law, declared unconstitutional in 1967: {{harvnb|Fried|1997|p=124}}</ref> dismissals for reasons later declared illegal<ref>For example, ''Slochower v. Board of Education'' (1956): {{harvnb|Fried|1997|p=203}}</ref> or [[Lawsuit|actionable]],<ref>For example, ''Faulk vs. AWARE Inc., et al.'' (1962): {{harvnb|Fried|1997|p=197}}</ref> and extra-judiciary procedures, such as informal blacklists by employers and public institutions, that would come into general disrepute, though by then many lives had been ruined. The most notable examples of McCarthyism include the investigations of alleged communists that were conducted by Senator McCarthy, and the hearings conducted by the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] (HUAC).

The historical period that came to be known as the McCarthy era began well before Joseph McCarthy's own involvement in it. Many factors contributed to McCarthyism, some of them with roots in the [[First Red Scare]] (1917–20), inspired by communism's emergence as a recognized political force and widespread social disruption in the United States related to unionizing and [[Anarchism|anarchist]] activities. Owing in part to its success in organizing labor unions and its early opposition to [[fascism]], and offering an alternative to the ills of capitalism during the [[Great Depression]], the [[Communist Party of the United States]] increased its membership through the 1930s, reaching a peak of about 75,000 members in 1940–41.{{sfn|Weir|2007|pp=148–149}} While the United States was engaged in [[World War II]] and allied with the [[Soviet Union]], the issue of [[anti-communism]] was largely muted. With the end of World War II, the [[Cold War]] began almost immediately, as the Soviet Union installed communist [[puppet régime]]s in areas it had occupied across Central and Eastern Europe. In a March 1947 address to Congress, Truman enunciated a new foreign policy doctrine that committed the United States to opposing Soviet geopolitical expansion. This doctrine came to be known as the [[Truman Doctrine]], and it guided United States support for anti-communist forces in [[Greek Civil War|Greece]] and later in [[Chinese Civil War|China]] and elsewhere.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Merrill |first1=Dennis |title=The Truman Doctrine: Containing Communism and Modernity |journal=Presidential Studies Quarterly |date=2006 |volume=36 |issue=1|pages=27–37 |doi=10.1111/j.1741-5705.2006.00284.x }}</ref>

Although the [[Igor Gouzenko]] and [[Elizabeth Bentley]] affairs had raised the issue of Soviet espionage in 1945, events in 1949 and 1950 sharply increased the sense of threat in the United States related to communism. The Soviet Union [[Soviet atomic bomb project|tested an atomic bomb]] in 1949, earlier than many analysts had expected, raising the stakes in the Cold War. That same year, [[Mao Zedong]]'s communist army gained control of mainland China despite heavy American financial support of the opposing [[Kuomintang]]. In 1950, the [[Korean War]] began, pitting U.S., U.N., and South Korean forces against communists from North Korea and China.

During the following year, evidence of increased sophistication in Soviet Cold War espionage activities was found in the West. In January 1950, [[Alger Hiss]], a high-level State Department official, was convicted of [[perjury]]. Hiss was in effect found guilty of espionage; the statute of limitations had run out for that crime, but he was convicted of having perjured himself when he denied that charge in earlier testimony before the HUAC. In Britain, [[Klaus Fuchs]] confessed to committing espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union while working on the [[Manhattan Project]] at [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]] during the War. [[Julius and Ethel Rosenberg]] were arrested in 1950 in the United States on charges of stealing atomic-bomb secrets for the Soviets, and were executed in 1953.

Other forces encouraged the rise of McCarthyism. The more conservative politicians in the United States had historically referred to progressive reforms, such as [[Child labor laws in the United States|child labor laws]] and [[women's suffrage]], as "communist" or "Red plots", trying to raise fears against such changes.{{sfn|Fried|1990|p=41}} They used similar terms during the 1930s and the [[Great Depression]] when opposing the [[New Deal]] policies of President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]. Many conservatives equated the New Deal with [[socialism]] or Communism, and thought the policies were evidence of too much influence by allegedly communist policy makers in the Roosevelt administration.{{sfn|Brinkley|1995|p=141}}{{sfn|Fried|1990|pp=6, 15, 78–80}} In general, the vaguely defined danger of "Communist influence" was a more common theme in the rhetoric of anti-communist politicians than was espionage or any other specific activity. An example of this was [[Leland Olds]], an economist who was [[Chairman of the Federal Power Commission]] but [[Leland Olds hearing|failed renomination]] due to earlier suspected Communist sympathies.