During the 50's America faced a tough time. It was time when the country was faced with rooting out communism. "In West Virginia in February 1950, McCarthy stated that he had a list of 205 communists working for the State Department... the demagogic pursuit of communists riding roughshod over civil liberties came to be known as McCarthyism." Senator McCarthy begins this witch hunt for Communist because he believed the country was under attack from its citizens. However he did so with great biased:
"It has not been the less fortunate or members of the minority groups who have been selling this Nation out, but rather those who have had all the benefits that the wealthiest nation on earth has had to offer --- the finest homes, the finest college education and the finest jobs in government we can give."
McCarthy seems convinced that the communists/spies are not motivated by promise of wealth. In his mind because they already have wealth, they act out of opportunity or boredom. Perhaps it is this reason that he is so vehemently accusing people in the state department with little evidence. To accuse them and have them found guilty would prevent the country from being sent down the wrong road.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
There are many political and culture conflicts of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Many were demanding equal rights and changes in American life other than African Americans. The 1960s was known as the decade of radicalism. Student radicals emerged while fighting for equal rights in segregated restaurants. The Greensborough sit-in launched in the 1960’s proved that students have become the social edge of change. The Sharon Statement was a striking document that summarized beliefs that had circulated among conservatives during the past decade—the free market underpinned “personal freedom, “ political freedom rested on a free market economy, government must be strictly limited, and “international communism,” the gravest threat to liberty, must be destroyed (Foner 270). Organizations such as the Young Americans for Freedom aimed initially to take control of the Republican Party from leaders who had made their peace with the New Deal and seemed willing to coexist with communism (Foner 968).
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