hi this is Rahul Williams I'm a historian and here's what you need to know in order to sound smart about Joseph McCarthy during the 1940s and 1950s many Americans worried about the prospects of communism rearing its head within the United States Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy from Wisconsin who was one of the key political figures to capitalize on these fears in 1950 he gave a salacious speech in Wheeling West Virginia in which he claimed to have evidence of 250 communists active in the United States Department of State despite the lack of evidence corroborating McCarthy's claims he nevertheless continued to captivate the American public for the next five years during this period McCarthy hurled allegations that well-known authors activists and government officials were actually traitors and communist sympathizers this was known as red-baiting and often consisted of McCarthy hurling allegations of suspected communist involvement and forcing people to respond and to defend their innocence even though they had not been proven guilty it's not until McCarthy turned his attention to the United States Army in 1954 that his reign of terror came to an end and he was censured by the United States Senate the American people were treated to the full terror of McCarthyism after the army hearings were televised in an infamous exchange during those televised hearings in which McCarthy attacked a young army officer the Army's chief counsel thundered at the senator have you no sense of decency sir which encapsulated the turn against McCarthy in this period by the time the televised army hearings ended McCarthy lost much of his popular support he died in 1957 just a short time later at the age of 40 young people in large numbers came out and joined what became known as the Red Guards these largely terroristic organizations were used to publicly humiliate assault and in some cases even murder political enemies of Mao and the Communist Party [Music]