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Oracle of DelphiJanuary 9 - General Electric and McCarthyism
January 8th 2007 20:20
December 9, 1953
Senator Joseph McCarthy
Today marks the announcement from company General Electric, that all communist employees will be discharged from the company. The act is part of the period of US history known as the Second Red Scare, when US society and particularly the government was afraid of a Communist invasion of the US. The period is also widely known as the McCarthy Era, a name derived from one of the movement's biggest spokespersons, US Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Despite the alliance between the USSR and the US during the Second World War, tensions between the two countries emerged toward the end of the war. The tensions centered around the opposing social ideologies which signified the countries - the US symbolised capitalism and democracy, whereas the USSR was a firmly communist society. The USSR's influence on Eastern Europe became a specific issue of tension, best defined when Winston Churchill described the ideological border between East and West Europe as an "iron curtain."
The possibility that communist sympathies could arise within the US worried the government. In an attempt to root out Communist and socialist ideology within the US, the government enforced counter-measures. These ranged from loyalty and security reviews within the government itself, along with senate communities, and blacklists of people and companies suspected of communist ideology.
What began as a government action quickly became a country-wide search for communists. During the fifties it was common practice for people to accuse each of being communists, with no real evidence. The social epidemic was even compared to the Salem witch trials, based upon the idea that once someone was accused of being a Communist, they had no real chance for exoneration from the claim. McCarthyism was widespread throughout the late forties and fifties, but slowly came to a close in the late fifties with changing public sentiments.
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Comment by Jessicca
Learning Something Everyday
It reminds me when most of the chinese community was all round up into "regrouping areas" in Malaya when the communist scare was on and so that the British can not only monitor the movements for possible communist activities, they also started mining the "evacuated" areas for tin, leaving most area unfurtile and desert like.
Till this day, the term "Regrouping Area" is still used in addresses in Malaysia.
Good post, Jimbo. Keep it up!
Jessicca