McCarthy - A Great Big Jerk

Blame for the USA's failure to match the USSR led some Americans to look for enemy agents at home. Americans thought the only explainable reason for their failure was that there was a spy within the government, that the enemy within was undermining USA. McCarthyism was to represent this fear. The Communist Party in the USA was never very large. At its height membership was no more than 100,000. But still, it was very possible that one of these members was spying the US government.…