SHELF 9780435183127 HISTORY PAPER 3 THE COLD WAR AND THE AMERICAS (1945-1981) STUDENT 60p

Joseph McCarthy was a Senator for Wisconsin and became Chairr-nan of the
Pcrmanent Investigations Subcommittee of a Senate Committce cln Government
Opcrations in 1953 at thc start of his second term as Senator. \4cCarthy came to
prominence in 1950 u,hcn there was growing concern that the Unitcd States rvas not
in as strong a position as it had been in 1945.
It no longer had a mor.ropoly of nuclear arms as the Soviet Union l.rad tcsted its own
atonric bomb in 1949.
The Cold War was no longer confined to Europc as the civil war in China had ended
with the victory of the colnmunist People's Liberation Army and was now under the
leadership of Mao Zedong.
In lr"rne 1950, communist-lcd North Korean forces l'rad invaded South Korea and the
US had entered a'hot rvar'to contain communisrl.
The repercussions of the Alger Hiss casc certainly helped to pave the way {br
McCarthy's tirade against communism but just as important was the 'loss of China'.
Truman had sr-rpported Chiang kai-shck (Jiang Jieshi), the leader to the natior.ralist
Guomindang forces fighting the communist PLA (People's t-iberation Army) but thc
florv of aid ended in 1948, leading, according to \,'lcCarthy, to the commLrnist vict()ry
in 1949.
Olr 9 February 7950, McCarthy gave a spe ech in Wheelirrg, Wcst Virginia claimir-re
that there were 205 spies ir.r the pay of tl'rc So',,ict Union rvorking inside the US Statc
l)epartment.
Trvo days later, he sent a teleeram to the Whitc House in which he repeated his
assertion that'the state depaflmentharbors a nest of communists and communist sympdthizers'
ancl tl'rat, furthermorc, hc hacl 'the names of 57 communisrs u'ho are in the stlte depatlmeri dt
prescn|.