Joseph McCarthy and McCarthyism

Anticommunist hysteria surged in the 1950s, the waters roiled by Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy, his right-wing counselors, and his conservative abettors in Congress (members of HUAC and others). The term “McCarthyism” was coined in 1950 to describe the senator’s smear tactics. By 1954, when he was censured by the U.S. Senate, McCarthy had alleged, with incalculable harm, that many communists, Soviet spies, and “fellow travelers” had penetrated the U.S. government (especially the State Department), universities, and the film industry. Essie Robeson firmly stood her ground against McCarthy when she was compelled to testify to his Senate Investigating Committee, even drawing a compliment from the rogue senator.