"It is now apparent that the present Administration has fully embraced, for political advantage, McCarthyism. I am not referring to the Senator from Wisconsin. He is only important in that his name has taken on the dictionary meaning of the word. It is the corruption of truth, the abandonment of the due process law. It is the use of the big lie and the unfound accusation against any citizen in the name of Americanism or security. It is the rise of power of the demagogue who lives on untruth; it is the spreading of fear and the destruction of faith in every level of society."(Truman, Harry S.) Senator Joseph McCarthy used the Red Scare to gain political power by accusing the State Department of being "infested" with communists and communism. .
The American Communist Party was formed in 1919 when the Socialist Party expelled 20,000 workers who supported the Soviet Government. Thus began the Red Scare period. Woodrow Wilson worried about the communists and his Attorney General, Mitchell Palmer, arrested 10,000 suspected communists, now called the "Palmer Raids", however, there was no evidence of the proposed revolution. During World War II, the United States and Soviet Union were wartime allies, and the Communist Party's membership rose to 75,000. However after the war, the Alien Registration Act was used to arrest twelve of the Party's leaders. It was illegal "to advocate, abet, or teach the desirability of overthrowing the government." The Prosecution also used testimonies of former members as evidence(Simkin, Commu). Americans should realize, Browder believes, that "the only solid representatives of Stalin among the American Communists were a little band of old "old timers," occupying strategic posts in the party apparatus. For them communism was a religion, Stalin was Mohammed and Moscow was Mecca."("Kansas City Times") .
Joseph McCarthy was born in Grand Chute, Wisconsin, and educated at Marquette University.