Hate and hysteria Author Murray Levin (1977) wrote, AMcCarthyism, in a
 capitalist society, produces extremism, intolerance, instability, and large scale
 repression (p.216). He also says that AThe promoters of mass politics raise
 the question of justice and attempt to play upon generalized resentments
 steaming from deeper layers of personality. The politics of mass society does
 not focus on group demands.@ The purpose of these politics is the defense
 of the ultimate truth. This "Red scare" started in the twenties and in one form
 or another lasted till well after World War 2 was over. McCarthyism was not the
 work of psychotics and paranoids. This political hysteria was a mixture of
 American conservatism, pluralism, anti-radicalism, racism, and nativism. . In
 addition, this passionate form of nationalism was perceived by most Americans
 as a perfectly sensible and American way to defend the American way of life
 against danger. Louis Hartz (1956) said Athe Red scare was a product of the
 American people manipulating themselves as well as the American people
 responding to manipulation.@ According to the popular opinion, Robert
 Murray warned that communist were to come and overthrow our form of
 government and business enterprises. He said that communism would do five
 things. " First, destroy property rights. Second, take away all personal initiative
 in industrial activities. Third, abolish civil government and the political state.
 Fourth, destroy the church and religious institutions. Finally, abandon family
 relations. Many who actively promoted the hysteria genuinely believed in
 conspiracy, consider themselves as patriots, and utilized the hysteria for
 private political and economic gain that they usually hid. "Joe McCarthy was
 one of the top investigators of communism along with Edgar Hoover, who was
 at that time a director of the FBI."(the hunt began) McCarthy got all his
 suspects from Hoover; many times they made false accusations to help their
 cause. They were the at the root of hysteria during the 40's and 50's.
 McCarthyism has been defined as political murder; many innocent people
 were hung, stabbed, and imprisoned for false accusations where evidence
 was insufficient. By accusing people of being "Red" McCarthy and Hoover
 ignored several amendments that given freedoms of United States citizens.
 First, he broke the first amendment that says people have the right to religion,
 speech, assembly and politics. For example, in Waterbury, Connecticut a
 salesman was sentenced to six months in jail for having remarked to a
 customer that Lenin was "brainiest" or "one of the brainiest" political leaders in
 the world. In 1919 a citizen of Indiana, in a fit of rage, shot and killed an alien
 who yelled "to hell with the United States"; the jury deliberated for two minutes
 before acquitting the killer.(Newman) McCarthy also ignored the fifth
 amendment that speaks against self incrimination and talks of how due
 process. In addition McCarthy saw past the eighth and ninth amendment.
 Amendment eight says that people could not be given excessive bail or fines
 and were not to be submitted to cruel and unusual punishments. Amendment
 nine talks of the rights retained by the people. This amendment specifically
 says "The enumeration in the constitution, of certain rights, shall not be
 construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. In fact, many
 people produced anti-Soviet propaganda, one was called "A Guide to
 anti-Communist action" and another example was called "Is This Tomorrow".
 Twenty eight states passed laws banning the display of red flags. In addition,
 Hollywood responded to this hysteria by creating many films portraying
 Russians as bad guys. The U.S. Steel Corporation, and it's president, Judge
 Gary, attempted to break a strike by creating the impression that it had little to
 do with the demands for wages and hours but was instead a communist
 conspiracy and part of a larger plan to hurt American industry and help the
 Bolshevik revolution. U.S. Steel was also one of the many corporations that
 used large numbers of private detectives as labor spies. This succeeded and
 played a major role in escalating national anti-radical hysteria. This labor spy
 would infiltrate unions, urge laborers not to join unions, and promote
 anti-strike activities. These Astrike busters@ are detecting unions one day,
 and Bolshevism the next. At one time U.S. steel used the ARed Book@ and
 "other" proofs to brand a strike red and say that these Bolsheviks were ready
 to resort to violence and terror. Local newspapers were controlled by U.S.
 Steel, and many distinguished papers such as "The New York Times" this went
 hand in hand with the materials to expose the "Reds". Hoover dispatched
 radical documents to the press as "proof of the Red conspiracy " this is what
 really initiated the first large scale attempt by the United States government to
 maintain a centralized file of radicals in the headquarters of the department.
 This file became a major source of information. Most of the violence was
 provoked by the public authorities. The Red scare gave elites a vantage point;
 this was a technique for managing tension and maintaining power. For elites,
 political hysteria was profitable. This hysteria was used largely by business
 leaders to curb labor's new aggressiveness. "For elites political hysteria and
 democratic repression can be a technique for managing tension and
 sustaining power."(Newman) In government, General MacArthur tried to
 commit political against president Truman. MacArthur tried to discredit the
 president along with his staff; he said that conspiracy was in the air and that
 the government was trying to appease red china. After a while his steam died
 down and he went away. The main problem was that people rallied around him
 because he was a prominent war hero; this single man caused national
 uproar. There are many parallels in history where suspicion of evil caused
 uproar. Many have heard stories of the Salem witch trial that took place in
 Massachusetts. A single birthmark could get you burned at the stake. In
 another case, Japanese Americans faced their greatest struggle after
 December seventh, 1941, when a Japanese strike force destroyed much of
 the U.S. naval fleet at Hawaii's Pearl Harbor. Rage toward Japan was directed
 at the Japanese living in the United States, and some feared that Japanese
 Americans would commit acts of espionage. Within a year president Franklin
 Roosevelt singed Executive order 9066, an unpredicted action intended to
 protect the national security of the United States. This act designated areas of
 the west coast as military zones from which anyone considered likely to be
 disloyal would be relocated inland to remote military reservations. Ninety
 percent of those with Japanese ancestry, nearly 110,000 people in all, found
 themselves in security camps. While concern about national security always
 grows in times of war, this policy has been widely criticized. First, it targeted an
 entire category of people, not one of whom was known to have committed a
 disloyal act. Second, roughly two-thirds of those imprisoned were U.S. citizens
 by birth. Third, although the United States was also at war with Germany and
 Italy, no such action was taken against people of German or Italian decent.
 Relocation meant selling homes, furnishings, and businesses on short notice
 for pennies on the dollar. As a result, almost the entire Japanese-American
 population was economically devastated. In military prison camps, surrounded
 by barbed wire and armed guards, families suffered greatly as they were
 crowded into single rooms, often in buildings that had previously housed
 livestock. In 1944 it was finally over. The United states government didn't
 make a formal apology till 1988 when congress awarded $20,000 to
 compensate each victim of this policy. The United States became a
 superpower as we emerged victorious from world war 2 with the atom bomb we
 crushed Japan in 1945 but the Soviet union countered by exploding a bomb of
 their own in 1949, unleashing the "Cold War" in which leaders of each
 superpower became convinced that their counter parts were committed to
 military superiority. From the 'Red scare we should have learned that
 suspicion spreads like wildfire. This suspicion started the arms race. In
 addition, we will be paying the cost of the "Cold War" for many years to come ;
 the money we spent has left us with an outrageous deficit. The "Cold War"
 ended with the breaking of the Berlin wall and the reunification of Germany.
 references …AND THE HUNT BEGAN [ONLINE] AVALIBLE E-MAIL:
 SCSD.K12.NY.US/ALEX/COLDWAR/HUNT.HTM Newman, E.S. (1964) The
 Hate Reader New York: Oceana Publications. Levin, M.B. (1971) Political
 Hysteria in America New York, London: Basic Books, inc., publishers Hartz L.
 (1956) The liberal Tradition in America New York: Harcourt Brace press
 Murray R.E. (1964) Red Scare: A Study of National Hysteria New York: