McCarthyism

How do you think a relatively obscure senator was able to gain so much power, ruining people’s careers just by accusing them of being a communist? 2) Did critics of McCarthy underestimate the communist threat against the U.S.? 3) Does the 1995 release of previously classified documents prove that there were communist spies working in the U.S. redeem McCarthy’s reputation? Why or why not? 4) Critics complained about the tactics that McCarthy used to prosecute his anticommunist campaign. Were his tactics were wrong or justified? What other tactics could he have used? 5) Imagine that you are the publisher of a newspaper in 1953. Write a paragraph in which you either oppose or defend McCarthy’s crusade against communists.