Explain how Senator Joseph McCarthy defined communist nations within the speech.
McCarthyism and AntiCommunist Campaigns
Required Resources
Read/review the following resources for this activity:
Textbook: Chapter 28, 29, 30
Lesson
Minimum of 1 primary source
Minimum of 4 scholarly sources (in addition to the textbook)
Optional Resources to Explore
Feel free to review the library guide for scholarly sources and videos at the following link:
Link (website): History Library Guide (Links to an external site.)
Introduction
The purposes of each case study assignment include the following:
To hone your abilities to research using scholarly sources
To advance critical thinking and writing skills
To compile a response to the prompts provided
To explore a historical topic and make connections to change over time
Instructions
Pick one (1) of the following topics. Then, address the corresponding questions/prompts for your selected topic. Use at least one (1) documented example of the corresponding primary source in your writing.
Option 1: McCarthyism and Anti-Communist Campaigns
The Cold War brought about an irrational fear of communism and communist activities in the United States. As we are learning this week, one of the most vocal instigators of this paranoia was Senator Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy delivered a speech about the imminent threat of communism on February 9, 1950. Perform a search on the internet and locate and read Joseph McCarthy’s speech given in Wheeling, West Virginia on February 9, 1950. Copy and paste the following keywords into your Google search bar: “Joseph McCarthy, Wheeling, West Virginia.” The speech is also referred to as “Enemies from Within.”
McCarthyism and AntiCommunist Campaigns
Construct the case study by responding to the following prompts:
Explain how Senator Joseph McCarthy defined communist nations within the speech. What specific threats did these nations pose?
Assess if Senator Joseph McCarthy charges were accurate.
Analyze anti-communist sentiments during the Cold War era, were these sentiments valid. If so, how? If not, why not?
Explain if there are other examples of events similar to the Red Scare that have occurred throughout history and modern day.
Examine what happened to people who invoked the Fifth Amendment, refused to appear or were found in violation of the law as defined by the Congressional Committee.
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.