American History since 1877
American history is comprised of a variety of events that shaped America into the country that it is today. The Red Scare refers to the hysteria that was largely widespread in the American society that was attributed to the threat that the communists in the U.S posed during the cold war. The cold war was a period of intellect war and silent attacks between the United States and the Soviet Union during the 1940s and early 1950s. The hysterical state was referred to as the red scare about the red Soviet flag as well as the array of events and activities by the soviets and their effects on the American society and the government.
In 1950 during a speech in Virginia, Senator Joe McCarthy made a claim citing that more than 200 known members of staff at the Department of State were known members of the communist party. During Harry Truman’s press conference on the 30th of March 1950, President Truman claimed that McCarthy’s behaviour and statement was a Republican attempt to “sabotage the bipartisan foreign policy” and referred to Joe McCarthy as “the best asset that the Kremlin can have.” (Michaels, 2017)
Based on these contrasting views, I tend to disagree with the view that most historians have had that, “Harry Truman, as much as Joe McCarthy gave force to the postwar “Red Scare.” Unlike Joe McCarthy, President Harry Truman was a Democrat who believed in the superiority of the United States against the Soviets in the peak of the cold war. While McCarthy in the opposition considered the government to be losing in the cold war, Harry Truman had a different stand and considered the government to be in full control of the war. As a result, rather than giving force to the postwar “Red Scare” Harry Truman helped fight the scare.
References
Michaels, J. (2017). McCarthyism: The Realities, Delusions and Politics Behind the 1950s Red Scare. Taylor & Francis.