McCarthyism

McCarthyism was a period of intense anti-communist suspicion in the United States. It began after the Cold War's start in the late 1940s and lasted until the mid-to-late 1950s. The term gets its name from U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, a Republican from Wisconsin. The period of McCarthyism is also referred to as the Second Red Scare (the First Red Scare happened after the Bolsheviks took power in Russia during the October Revolution of 1917 and lasted from the late 1910s to the late 1920s).

McCarthyism was caused by increased fears of communist influence on American institutions, espionage by Soviet agents such as the Rosenbergs, heightened tension from the Soviet control over Central and Eastern Europe, and the communist successes during the Chinese Revolution (1949) and the Korean War (1950-1953). The play The Crucible by Arthur Miller is about the Salem Witch Trials but also hints at McCarthy.