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Hate and hysteria Author Murray Levin (1977) wrote, A McCarthyism, in a capitalist society, produces extremism, intolerance, instability, and large scale repression (p. 216). He also says that AThe promoters of mass politics raise the question of justice and attempt to play upon generalized resentments steaming from deeper layers of personality. The politics of mass society does not focus on group demands. @ The purpose of these politics is the defense of the ultimate truth. This Red scare started in the twenties and in one form or another lasted till well after World War 2 was over. McCarthyism was not the work of psychotics and paranoids. This political hysteria was a mixture of American conservatism, pluralism, anti-radicalism, racism, and nativism...
In addition, this passionate form of nationalism was perceived by most Americans as a perfectly sensible and American way to defend the American way of life against danger. Louis Hartz (1956) said Athe Red scare was a product of the American people manipulating themselves as well as the American people responding to manipulation. @ According to the popular opinion, Robert Murray warned that communist were to come and overthrow our form of government and business enterprises. He said that communism would do five things. First, destroy property rights. Second, take away all personal initiative in industrial activities. Third, abolish civil government and the political state.
Fourth, destroy the church and religious institutions. Finally, abandon family relations. Many who actively promoted the hysteria genuinely believed in conspiracy, consider themselves as patriots, and utilized the hysteria for private political and economic gain that they usually hid. Joe McCarthy was one of the top investigators of communism along with Edgar Hoover, who was at that time a director of the FBI. (the hunt began) McCarthy got all his suspects from Hoover; many times they made false accusations to help their cause.
They were the at the root of hysteria during the 40 s and 50 s. McCarthyism has been defined as political murder; many innocent people were hung, stabbed, and imprisoned for false accusations where evidence was insufficient. By accusing people of being Red McCarthy and Hoover ignored several amendments that given freedoms of United States citizens. First, he broke the first amendment that says people have the right to religion, speech, assembly and politics. For example, in Waterbury, Connecticut a salesman was sentenced to six months in jail for having remarked to a customer that Lenin was brainiest or one of the brainiest political leaders in the world.
In 1919 a citizen of Indiana, in a fit of rage, shot and killed an alien who yelled to hell with the United States; the jury deliberated for two minutes before acquitting the killer. (Newman) McCarthy also ignored the fifth amendment that speaks against self incrimination and talks of how due process. In addition McCarthy saw past the eighth and ninth amendment. Amendment eight says that people could not be given excessive bail or fines and were not to be submitted to cruel and unusual punishments. Amendment nine talks of the rights retained by the people. This amendment specifically says The enumeration in the constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
In fact, many people produced anti-Soviet propaganda, one was called A Guide to anti-Communist action and another example was called Is This Tomorrow. Twenty eight states passed laws banning the display of red flags. In addition, Hollywood responded to this hysteria by creating many films portraying Russians as bad guys. The U. S. Steel Corporation, and its president, Judge Gary, attempted to break a strike by creating the impression that it had little to do with the demands for wages and hours but was instead a communist conspiracy and part of a larger plan to hurt American industry and help the Bolshevik revolution.
U. S. Steel was also one of the many corporations that used large numbers of private detectives as labor spies. This succeeded and played a major role in escalating national anti-radical hysteria. This labor spy would infiltrate unions, urge laborers not to join unions, and promote anti-strike activities. These Astride busters@ are detecting unions one day, and Bolshevism the next.
At one time U. S. steel used the And Book@ and other proofs to brand a strike red and say that these Bolsheviks were ready to resort to violence and terror. Local newspapers were controlled by U. S. Steel, and many distinguished papers such as The New York Times this went hand in hand with the materials to expose the Reds.
Hoover dispatched radical documents to the press as proof of the Red conspiracy this is what really initiated the first large scale attempt by the United States government to maintain a centralized file of radicals in the headquarters of the department. This file became a major source of information. Most of the violence was provoked by the public authorities. The Red scare gave elites a vantage point; this was a technique for managing tension and maintaining power.
For elites, political hysteria was profitable. This hysteria was used largely by business leaders to curb labors new aggressiveness. For elites political hysteria and democratic repression can be a technique for managing tension and sustaining power. (Newman) In government, General MacArthur tried to commit political against president Truman. MacArthur tried to discredit the president along with his staff; he said that conspiracy was in the air and that the government was trying to appease red china.
After a while his steam died down and he went away. The main problem was that people rallied around him because he was a prominent war hero; this single man caused national uproar. There are many parallels in history where suspicion of evil caused uproar. Many have heard stories of the Salem witch trial that took place in Massachusetts.
A single birthmark could get you burned at the stake. In another case, Japanese Americans faced their greatest struggle after December seventh, 1941, when a Japanese strike force destroyed much of the U. S. naval fleet at Hawaii's Pearl Harbor. Rage toward Japan was directed at the Japanese living in the United States, and some feared that Japanese Americans would commit acts of espionage.
Within a year president Franklin Roosevelt singed Executive order 9066, an unpredicted action intended to protect the national security of the United States. This act designated areas of the west coast as military zones from which anyone considered likely to be disloyal would be relocated inland to remote military reservations. Ninety percent of those with Japanese ancestry, nearly 110, 000 people in all, found themselves in security camps. While concern about national security always grows in times of war, this policy has been widely criticized.
First, it targeted an entire category of people, not one of whom was known to have committed a disloyal act. Second, roughly two-thirds of those imprisoned were U. S. citizens by birth.
Third, although the United States was also at war with Germany and Italy, no such action was taken against people of German or Italian decent. Relocation meant selling homes, furnishings, and businesses on short notice for pennies on the dollar. As a result, almost the entire Japanese-American population was economically devastated. In military prison camps, surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards, families suffered greatly as they were crowded into single rooms, often in buildings that had previously housed livestock. In 1944 it was finally over.
The United states government didnt make a formal apology till 1988 when congress awarded $ 20, 000 to compensate each victim of this policy. The United States became a superpower as we emerged victorious from world war 2 with the atom bomb we crushed Japan in 1945 but the Soviet union countered by exploding a bomb of their own in 1949, unleashing the Cold War in which leaders of each superpower became convinced that their counter parts were committed to military superiority. From the Red scare we should have learned that suspicion spreads like wildfire. This suspicion started the arms race. In addition, we will be paying the cost of the Cold War for many years to come; the money we spent has left us with an outrageous deficit. The Cold War ended with the breaking of the Berlin wall and the reunification of Germany references?
AND THE HUNT BEGAN [ONLINE] AVALIBLE E-MAIL: SCSD. K 12. NY. US/ALEX/COLDWAR/HUNT. HTM Newman, E.
S. (1964) The Hate Reader New York: Oceana Publications. Levin, M. B. (1971) Political Hysteria in America New York, London: Basic Books, inc. , publishers Hartz L. (1956) The liberal Tradition in America New York: Harcourt Brace press Murray R. E. (1964) Red Scare: A Study of National Hysteria New York: Mcgraw Hill pub.
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Research essay sample on U S Steel United States Government
