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Imagine that one day,
you're summoned before a government panel.

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Even though you haven't 
committed any crime,

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or been formally charged with one,

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you are repeatedly questioned
about your political views,

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accused of disloyalty,

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and asked to incriminate your friends
and associates.

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If you don't cooperate,
you risk jail or losing your job.

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This is exactly what happened in
the United States in the 1950s

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as part of a campaign to expose
suspected communists.

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Named after its most 
notorious practitioner,

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the phenomenon known as McCarthyism
destroyed thousands of lives and careers.

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For over a decade, American political 
leaders trampled democratic freedoms

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in the name of protecting them.

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During the 1930s and 1940s,

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there had been an active but small
communist party in the United States.

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Its record was mixed.

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While it played crucial roles in wider 
progressive struggles

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for labor and civil rights,

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it also supported the Soviet Union.

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From the start, the American 
Communist Party faced attacks

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from conservatives and business leaders,

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as well as from liberals who criticized
its ties to the oppressive Soviet regime.

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During World War II, when the USA
and USSR were allied against Hitler,

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some American communists actually
spied for the Russians.

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When the Cold War escalated
and this espionage became known,

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domestic communism came to be seen
as a threat to national security.

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But the attempt to eliminate that threat

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soon turned into the longest lasting
and most widespread episode

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of political repression 
in American history.

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Spurred on by a network of bureaucrats,

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politicians,

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journalists,

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and businessmen,

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the campaign wildly exaggerated
the danger of communist subversion.

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The people behind it harassed anyone

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suspected of holding 
left-of-center political views

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or associating with those who did.

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If you hung modern art on your walls,

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had a multiracial social circle,

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or signed petitions against
nuclear weapons,

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you might just have been a communist.

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Starting in the late 1940s,

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FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover

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used the resources of his agency
to hunt down such supposed communists

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and eliminate them from any
position of influence

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within American society.

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And the narrow criteria that Hoover
and his allies used

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to screen federal employees

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spread to the rest of the country.

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Soon, Hollywood studios,

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universities,

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car manufacturers,

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and thousands of other public
and private employers

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were imposing the same political tests
on the men and women who worked for them.

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Meanwhile, Congress conducted 
its own witchhunt

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subpoenaing hundreds of people
to testify before investigative bodies

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like the House Un-American 
Activities Committee.

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If they refused to cooperate,
they could be jailed for contempt,

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or more commonly, fired and blacklisted.

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Ambitious politicians, like Richard Nixon

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and Joseph McCarthy,

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used such hearings as a partisan weapon

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accusing democrats 
of being soft on communism

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and deliberately losing China
to the Communist Bloc.

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McCarthy, a Republican senator 
from Wisconsin

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became notorious by flaunting
ever-changing lists of alleged communists

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within the State Department.

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Egged on by other politicians,

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he continued to make 
outrageous accusations

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while distorting or fabricating evidence.

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Many citizens reviled McCarthy
while others praised him.

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And when the Korean War broke out,
McCarthy seemed vindicated.

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Once he became chair

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of the Senate's permanent subcommittee
on investigations in 1953,

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McCarthy recklessness increased.

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It was his investigation of the army that 
finally turned public opinion against him

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and diminished his power.

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McCarthy's colleagues 
in the Senate censured him

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and he died less than three years later,
probably from alcoholism.

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McCarthyism ended as well.

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It had ruined hundreds, 
if not thousands, of lives

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and drastically narrowed the American
political spectrum.

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Its damage to democratic institutions
would be long lasting.

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In all likelihood, there were both
Democrats and Republicans

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who knew that the anti-communist
purges were deeply unjust

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but feared that directly opposing them
would hurt their careers.

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Even the Supreme Court failed
to stop the witchhunt,

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condoning serious violations
of constitutional rights

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in the name of national security.

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Was domestic communism an actual
threat to the American government?

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Perhaps, though a small one.

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But the reaction to it was so extreme
that it caused far more damage

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than the threat itself.

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And if new demagogues appeared
in uncertain times

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to attack unpopular minorities
in the name of patriotism,

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could it all happen again?