I don't remember the McCarthy hearings, since I was born in 49, but I recall asking my Mom about it some twenty years later. I think I phrased my question something along the lines of "why was McCarthy allowed to persecute people?" and Mom replied "McCarthy? He was the good guy!" It is indeed a sad fact that my country, founded on the premise that free speech and free communication are sacred, allowed itself to indulge in a witch hunt on this scale. Arthur Miller was one of the few who even had the courage to criticize the persecution by cloaking it in parable, in his play The Crucible.

It is perhaps understandable in the context of the times...communism was not just a philosophy in the minds of many Americans, it was a disease embodied by the USSR and its growing sphere of influence, the newly emerged Maoist China, and was accented by the acquisition of our Superweapon A-bomb through the treason of the Rosenbergs. The fact that Communism was essentially a socio-economic philosophy whose ideals could be realized through democratically elected socialist governments was not understood until the late 50s and 60s saw the bloom of such states all over the world, and even among our closest allies.