McCarthy hearings
Red Scare tribunals
The McCarthy hearings were Congressional investigations in the early 1950s led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, who claimed Communist infiltrators had penetrated the U.S. government.
The televised Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954 exposed his bullying tactics and led to his censure.
The term now evokes politically motivated witch hunts and reckless accusations: The committee's tactics felt like a return to the McCarthy hearings.
- communismCollective ownership system
- Red ScareAnti-communist hysteria period
- red baitingAccusing others of leftist sympathies
- blacklistRecord of prohibited entities
- witch huntPersecuting supposed wrongdoers
Senate · HUAC · anticommunism · testimony · Fifth Amendment · subversive · Hollywood · interrogation · paranoia · Cold War · fellow traveler · espionage · accusation · loyalty · loyalty oath · treason · televised · Army
- 1950s AmericaEisenhower, McCarthyism, suburbs, Korean War, consumerism
- hearingsoversight committee, select committee, sworn testimony, testimony, witness testimony
- Cold War lawsHUAC, blacklisting, blacklists, loyalty oaths, security clearances
- Tribunalsinternational tribunal, military tribunal, war crimes tribunal, criminal tribunal, war tribunal
McCarthy hearingsfair trial
Impartial judicial proceeding
due process · presumption of innocence · Warren Court · judicial review · constitutional protections
McCarthy hearingsACLU
Advocacy group for constitutional protections
Bill of Rights · free speech · pluralism · open society · marketplace of ideas
McCarthy hearings9/11 Commission
Federal investigative body post-attacks
scientific inquiry · investigative journalism · fact-checking · independent counsel · peer review
McCarthy, hearing, hear, hearings, hearer, hearers, overhear, overheard