Pearson Edexcel International GCSE in History · 4HI1 · Free · no account needed

McCarthy's methods, the growth of opposition and his downfall

Why did lying about the State Department cost McCarthy nothing and attacking the Army destroy him?

Option 7 · A divided union: civil rights in the USA, 1945–74 › Key topic 1 · The Red Scare and McCarthyism — one of 2 lessons in this key topic. Paper 1 — depth study: A divided union: civil rights in the USA, 1945–74, key topic 1 (30 marks: 6 · 8 · 16).

This lesson ends with Dwight D. Eisenhower. Learn it, teach it, then defend it against Dwight D. Eisenhower.

What the specification asks for

“Methods used by McCarthy and the growth of opposition. Reasons for his downfall. Overall impact of McCarthyism on the USA.” — examined through consequence and significance. Incandio is aligned to specification 4HI1; it is not published by, endorsed by or affiliated with Pearson.

1 · Understand it

Wheeling, and the method

On 9 February 1950, at a Republican women's club in Wheeling, West Virginia, Senator Joseph McCarthy held up a piece of paper and said he had a list of 205 people known to the Secretary of State to be members of the Communist Party who were still shaping policy. The number changed repeatedly in the following days — 205, 57, 81 — and the list was never produced.

The method had a shape and it is examinable. Make an accusation large enough that investigating it takes months. Move to a new charge before the old one is disproved, so the record is always of unanswered allegations. Use congressional immunity, which meant nothing said on the floor of the Senate could be sued for. Exploit the fact that denial looks like exactly what a guilty person would say. And require witnesses to name others, so that each hearing generated the next.

After the 1952 elections he chaired the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, with Roy Cohn as chief counsel, and moved from the State Department to the Voice of America, overseas libraries — from which books were removed and in some cases burned — and finally the Army.

Why so little opposition, and then so much

Opposition was slow because the cost of it was high and visible. Senator Margaret Chase Smith's Declaration of Conscience in June 1950 attracted six co-signatories and no consequences for McCarthy. Senator Tydings, who chaired a committee that found the Wheeling charges groundless, lost his seat in 1950 to a campaign using a doctored photograph. Eisenhower, who privately despised McCarthy and had a personal reason — McCarthy attacked General Marshall — refused to attack him publicly, saying he would not get into the gutter with that guy.

Three things changed in 1954. Edward R. Murrow's See It Now broadcast on 9 March used McCarthy's own footage to let him convict himself, and ended with the observation that the fault was not in our stars. The Army–McCarthy hearings from April to June were televised for thirty-six days to an audience of around twenty million, and the format was fatal: a bullying manner is invisible in a newspaper report and unmistakable on camera. And on 9 June the Army's counsel Joseph Welch, after McCarthy attacked a young lawyer in Welch's firm, asked whether he had left no sense of decency — and the gallery applauded.

The Senate censured him 67 to 22 in December 1954. He kept his seat, lost his committee, was ignored by the press and died in 1957.

What ended him, and what did not end

He fell when he chose a target with more institutional standing than he had. The State Department could be attacked because it had no domestic constituency; the Army had one, and it had a president who had commanded it. That is the mechanism, and it says something uncomfortable: he was not stopped by being shown to be lying, which had been demonstrated in 1950, but by picking the wrong opponent.

The impact outlasted him by a long way. Careers were destroyed with no legal process and few were repaired. Trade unions purged communists and lost their most experienced organisers. Cultural and academic life became cautious for a decade.

And, for this option specifically, the Scare handed the opponents of civil rights a weapon they used for twenty years. Any demand for racial equality could be answered by calling it communist-inspired: the NAACP was investigated by state committees across the South, Highlander Folk School — where Rosa Parks trained in 1955 — was raided and closed as a communist front, and from 1963 the FBI wiretapped King under a counter-intelligence authorisation. The machinery built in 1947–54 was still running when the movement met it.

2 · Learn it — the notes

The dates that earn marks

9 February 1950
The Wheeling speech: a list of 205 that is never produced. Why this date: The number changed within days, which is the fastest way to demonstrate the method.
June 1950
Margaret Chase Smith's Declaration of Conscience. Why this date: Opposition existed from the start and was ineffective, which is what needs explaining.
9 March 1954
Murrow's See It Now broadcast. Why this date: The first major broadcast attack, using McCarthy's own words as the evidence.
April–June 1954
The Army–McCarthy hearings, televised for thirty-six days. Why this date: Television, not argument, is what did the damage, and the medium is part of the answer.
2 December 1954
The Senate censures him 67 to 22. Why this date: He retained his seat; censure was political death rather than legal consequence.

The figures, and how far to trust them

  • 205, then 57, then 81 — The changing number of names McCarthy claimed to hold. (The variation is the evidence; no list was ever produced.)
  • 36 days, about 20 million viewers — The Army–McCarthy hearings. (Audience figures are estimates from contemporary ratings.)
  • 67 to 22 — The Senate censure vote of December 1954.
  • 0 — People convicted of espionage as a result of McCarthy's investigations.

The people to place

  • Joseph McCarthy — Senator for Wisconsin; chaired the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations from 1953.
  • Joseph Welch — Army counsel whose question about decency became the hearings' turning point.
  • Edward R. Murrow — Broadcaster whose March 1954 programme used McCarthy's own footage against him.
  • Dwight Eisenhower — Declined to attack McCarthy publicly and worked against him privately.
  • Margaret Chase Smith — Republican senator whose 1950 Declaration of Conscience was the first substantial protest.

What students say — and what is actually the case

Not this: McCarthy was exposed as a liar and that ended him.

This: The Tydings committee found the Wheeling charges groundless in 1950 and he grew stronger. He fell in 1954 after attacking the Army on television. Being disproved and being destroyed were four years and one institution apart.

Not this: McCarthyism ended in 1954.

This: The blacklist ran into the 1960s, state-level investigations of the NAACP continued through the decade, and the FBI's surveillance of civil rights leaders intensified after 1963. The senator fell; the machinery did not.

Two things students merge

Blurred: McCarthy and McCarthyism.

The distinction: The man is a senator active from 1950 to 1954. The phenomenon includes the Loyalty Program of 1947, HUAC, the blacklist and state committees, and it outlived him by a decade. Answers that end the story with the censure have covered a quarter of it.

Blurred: Censure and removal.

The distinction: The Senate condemned his conduct; he remained a senator until his death in 1957. Censure removed his influence and not his office.

What a Grade 9 answer holds here

A Grade 9 answer explains the downfall by institutional standing rather than by truth. He had been shown to be lying in 1950 and prospered; he attacked the Army in 1954 and was finished — so what protected the country was not evidence but the discovery of an opponent with a larger constituency, which is a much less reassuring conclusion and the one the record supports.

3 · How it is examined

This strand is genuinely set through: Paper 1 (a) (6 marks — “What impression does the author give about …? You must use Extract A to explain your answer.”); Paper 1 (b) (8 marks — “Explain two effects of … on ….”); Paper 1 (c)(i) or (c)(ii) (16 marks — “'[A statement about the period.]' You may use the following in your answer: • [prompt] • [prompt]. You must also use information of your own. How far do you agree? Explain your answer.”).

What earns marks: The link forward to the civil rights movement. Naming Highlander, the NAACP investigations or the King wiretaps shows why this key topic is in this option, and examiners reward candidates who can explain a specification's structure.

4 · Prove it — the questions

Answered inside Incandio, where a marker checks what a correct answer must contain and tells you which half was missing. The marking stays in the app; the questions are here.

  1. Explain two methods used by McCarthy. [8 marks · Paper 1 (b)]
  2. Explain two reasons for McCarthy's downfall. [8 marks · Paper 1 (b)]
  3. Explain two effects of McCarthyism on the USA. [8 marks · Paper 1 (b)]
  4. 'Television was the main reason for McCarthy's downfall.' How far do you agree? Explain your answer. [16 marks · Paper 1 (c)(i) or (c)(ii)]
  5. 'McCarthyism did lasting damage to the United States.' How far do you agree? Explain your answer. [16 marks · Paper 1 (c)(i) or (c)(ii)]

Decide it

This lesson feeds 2 Decide History judgements — a position you commit to, an objection you answer, a criterion you name: Why did McCarthy fall when he did? · Did Watergate show the American system working, or failing?.

Think you understand it?

Reading is the start. On Incandio a topic counts as mastered only once you have taught it and defended it — the two things a revision guide cannot ask of you.

Incandio this topic → Prove it. Teach it. Defend it. What does “Incandio it” mean?

  1. Prove it — five questions on mcCarthy's methods, the growth of opposition and his downfall, marked on the spot, that tell you what was missing rather than just what was wrong.
  2. Teach it — Explain mcCarthy's methods, the growth of opposition and his downfall — what happened, why, and what it made possible — to Ember, an AI pupil who asks the awkward question. Understanding is credited; wording is not required.
  3. Defend it — Argue mcCarthy's methods, the growth of opposition and his downfall against Dwight D. Eisenhower — three rounds, marked against descriptors you can read before you begin.
  4. Then the exam — 14 authored exam-style questions on this option, marked on Incandio with the mistake you actually made named.

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