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MCCARTHYISM
Joseph McCarthy was elected Senator for Wisconsin and rose to public attention when in a 1950 speech he claimed to have in his hand the names of 205 individuals who were active members of the communist party, many within government itself. From this point on he campaigned against communists and others described as subversive to American interests. In 1953 he became chair of the Senate's permanent committee of investigation and turned the committee's attention to the pursuit of communists and subversives (including homosexuals). Although in control of this committee for a short time many people were named, many reputations damaged and public expression of dissent was silenced for a decade.

Last updated 2002--0-9-


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Athabaca University ICAAP

© Robert Drislane, Ph.D. and Gary Parkinson, Ph.D.
The online version of this dictionary is a product of
Athabasca University and
ICAAP

*This social science dictionary has 1000
entries covering the disciplines of sociology, criminology, political
science and women's study with a commitment to Canadian examples and
events and names