Historians and other experts often cite the 1950s as one of the best periods in U.S. history with its post-World War II economic boom. According to History.com, the gross national product more than doubled, growing from $200 billion to more than $500 billion, kicking off “the Golden Age of American Capitalism.” But some aspects of the 1950s were horrific.
Along with unprecedented wealth, the 1950s featured the Red Scare (1947-54). Senator Joe McCarthy (Republican, Wisconsin) accused hundreds of prominent people of being communists without any proof. McCarthyism, as the movement became known, ruined the reputations and destroyed the careers of hundreds of innocent people. History shows that nothing good came out of McCarthyism.
During this “Golden Age of American Capitalism” McCarthy ruled supreme with lies, corruption, and false imprisonment. His February 1950 accusation that 205 communists had infiltrated the U.S. State Department catapulted him to national prominence.
In 1951 Dr. Ernst Chain, a naturalized Briton who had been awarded a Nobel Prize six years earlier for helping to develop penicillin, was barred from entering the United States because he had recently traveled to a communist country. The biochemist had traveled to Czechoslovakia for the United Nations World Health Organization to help start a penicillin plant.
In this era of fear, falsehoods, and fanaticism, the Immigration Service learned that a Finnish-born citizen, William Heikklin, had in his youth belonged to the Communist Party. Immigration Service tracked Heikklin down in San Francisco, arrested him on his way home from work, and bundled him onto an airplane bound for Europe, with nothing but a dollar in change and the clothes he was wearing. Not until his plane touched down the following day did officials inform his frantic wife that her husband had been deported. They refused to tell her where he had been sent.
Today, none of this sounds vaguely familiar, right?
Here’s the good part. McCarthyism, after years, crashed in defeat. How? We the people, along with some media and national leaders, stood up in defiance.
One lone freshman Senator dared take on McCarthy. Senator Margaret Chase Smith, a Maine Republican, delivered her “Declaration of Conscience” speech on June 1, 1950. It was a 15-minute clear, fresh running stream of courage amid the stagnant sea of the Senate and House’s stony silence.
Calmly, Smith accused her colleagues of allowing fear to replace truth. She condemned the weaponizing of accusations without evidence. She defended the right of Americans to speak, work, and disagree without being labeled enemies of the state. Smith endorsed every American’s right to criticize, to protest, to think independently, and to hold unpopular beliefs. She asked her fellow Republicans not to ride to political victory on the “Four Horsemen of Calumny–Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.” Six other Republican senators joined Smith in condemning McCarthy’s tactics.
McCarthy punished Smith. He referred to Smith and her six Republican supporters as “Snow White and the six dwarfs.” He stripped her of committee influence. Smith’s allies backed away. Donors complained. She received hate mail and threats.
Around the same time, renowned journalist Edward R. Murrow attacked McCarthy’s methods on his popular “See It Now” broadcast. Murrow said of McCarthy: “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men.”
In 1954 Senator McCarthy clashed with the U.S. Army (Army-McCarthy Hearings). The Senator raised more false and unfounded accusations of communism this time in the ranks of the Army. The hearings lasted for 36 days and drew a live television audience of 20 million. The American public gained a negative impression of McCarthy–many seeing him as bullying, reckless, and dishonest. Daily newspaper summaries were also unfavorable.
Eventually, more national leaders stood up to McCarthy including many more members of his Republican party and conservatives. They began to view him as a Republican liability and national liability. Representative George H. Bender (Ohio, Republican) said McCarthyism had become a synonym for witch-hunting and the denial of civil liberties.
Finally on December 2, 1954, by a vote of 67-22, the Senate censured McCarthy for unbecoming conduct. His political power waned. The New York Times said that after this condemnation McCarthy was seldom in his Senate seat and his advice, seldom offered, was little heeded.
The fear, injustice, and corruption of McCarthyism died because the public, the media, and national leaders spoke out. If you’re upset today, speak out with truth, clarity, and good intention. Encourage others to do the same. Vote. Support a candidate. Attend a rally or public meeting. Join a political group. Contact your senator or representative. Write a letter to the editor. Donate. Spread your thoughts to others who will listen with an open mind.
Chris John Amorosino lives in Unionville.