Quote:
Originally Posted by Cinisajoy
Sounds like McCarthy. He went after everyone.
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Not true in any way.
McCarthy pursued only communists within government circles , and data received after the dissolution of the Soviet Union revealed that every person he went after was indeed working with the soviets. He really didn't address anyone strictly living and working in civilian life.
At the time of his political collapse he could not reveal his sources without causing the deaths of American spies working inside the Soviet union.
The House Committee on un-American Activities went after imagined communists in all walks of life, but that happened in the other branch of the legislature, and it also happened before McCarthy's political debut.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Venona-Sec...ct_top?ie=UTF8
There is no perfect book on the subject, but this one should get you started.
Now that I have defended him from accusations posthumously proven incorrect, he was still an abrasive and conceited jerk whose fall was driven to a large extent by his high handed manner of dealing with other people. When push came to shove there wasn't anyone who might have been able to aid him that he had not treated ill.