Times change and people come and go, but fear is a constant, and in “The Great Fear” by J. Ronald Oakley, he describes the wave of fear that occurred in the 1950 s. In 1692, the townspeople of Salem were scared into believing that they were among witches, and in 1950’s the “Red” Scare destroyed thousands of peoples lives that were accused of being Communists. Those accused in both witch hunts were put on trial, and while many were killed in Salem, the Red Scare had blacklisted those persecuted.
The leader of this modern day witch-hunt was Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, who was a dishonest and corrupt man. “Although a junior senator, he refused to follow Senate rules and customs, specialized in malicious attacks on his colleagues, and frequently thwarted committee work by trying to inject trivial and extraneous matters into committee discussions,” Oakley says, describing McCarthy’s ethics. McCarthy worked his way up the political ladder not by honestly winning but with deceit. On January 7 th 1950, an acquaintance said that the communist-in-government issue would attract national publicity and enhance his chances of reelection. His first speech against the issue was on February 9 th in Wheeling, West Virginia and McCarthy revealed a sheet of paper with a list of 205 names, who he said, were members of the Communist party.
“He could not remember what figure he had quoted at Wheeling, whether it was 205 or 209 or 57 or whatever… .” Oakley adds, which shows that McCarthy’s list wasn’t authentic and credible. In an attempt to restore confidence in the Truman administration, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee established a subcommittee headed by Democratic Senator Millard E. Tydings of Maryland to investigate McCarthy’s charges.
When the Tydings Committee issued a majority report dismissing all of McCarthy’s allegations and condemning them as “a fraud and a hoax perpetrated on the Senate of the United States and the American people.” Republican members of the American sub-committee condemned the majority report and the Democrats who signed it and McCarthy turned his defeat into a victory through the great publicity he received. Soon after Tydings report was considered pro-Communist. Like the Salem Witch Trials lack of substantial proof, many people were willing to believe McCarthy’s charges without any evidence. Soon world events seemed to be playing into McCarthy’s hands and he could use it all against the Truman administration. McCarthy’s fame grew and he because more careless, and instead of hinting nameless lists, he started naming names. This is similar to this Salem Trials because the girls became more outrageous and random with the accusations as time progressed.
“In these positions he would overreach himself and bring about his own dramatic fall from power… .” Oakley foreshadows, and just like the girls overused their power until they lost it in Salem, McCarthy will drive this witch-hunt to become even more outrageous and by doing that, he will spark his downfall. McCarthy told obvious lies in public and would attack any person or organization who confronted him with his lies. McCarthy was also dishonest in his financial affairs and took large amounts of donations he received to fight communism, and put them into his own personal checking account. The loyalty and security programs and investigations that were conducted to detect communism never justified the cost in dollars, man-hours, or damages to the reputations and careers of these innocent people. States followed the example of the federal government and joined in the anti-Communist crusade, and soon it was virtually impossible to get a fair trial if you were an accused Communist in this atmosphere.
This was similar to the accused witches never getting a fair trial when they were already guilty to everyone judging the trial. Victims of the Great Fear beside government officials were the movie, radio and television industries, journalists, professors, higher education and many other private citizens. Blacklists were circulated of communists or suspected communists, lists that included “The Crucible” author Arthur Miller, and these people on these lists could find little or no work for over a decade. The fear grew and grew until it became clearer to many people that it was crazy; journalist Claude M.
Fuels wrote, “We are dominated by a fear so pervasive that it approaches hysteria.” In “The Crucible” the greatest threat to the townspeople isn’t the witches, the greatest threat is their own participation in this hysteria that if it were prolonged would have hung their whole town. In the fifties the greatest threat wasn’t communism, but the right-wingers and fascists who were forgetting about important world problems, and fighting for this anti-Communist hysteria. “What McCarthy sought was publicity, fame, and reelection to the Senate,” Oakley states as McCarthy’s real motives for the Communist movement. I think McCarthy wanted attention and he was willing to do anything to get it, exactly what the girls of Salem did. Time does fly but some things will always be the same.