The Red Scare of the 1950's: McCarthyism

By studying this event we see that the true problem with McCarthyism is paranoia, that by letting fear rule the country President McCArthy allowed countless innocent people to be punished and put under a microscope. At the time however it was further evidence to the American people that the distrust of the government was untrustworthy, helping to breed the distrust of the government that the majority of America as a whole has right now As New Zealand as a country we need to consider the events of McCarthyism, by taking into consideration the events of the different country. In America they allowed the fear and suspicion to put innocent people away and threw the country into a ragged witch hunt. We as New ZEaland need to take this into account, and not follow in America’s footsteps by vilifying a nation

The impact of McCArthyism on local communities can be seen through the outspoken ideas through the government. Previously communist and socialist ideas were spoken freely, but afterwards the ideas of communism could make a government official lose their job. It also left a lasting impression of New Zealand's relationship with America, since any opposition during the Cold War meant the country was a communist. As a result New Zealand could not challenger of American foreign policy, without incurring disloyalty. Any effective criticism of America’s role was non-existent. On the pretext of protecting America from communism, the government attacked individual rights and extended state power into schools, labor unions, movie production, and many independent institutions. Even after the witch hunt had ended the anti-democratic practices associated with it continued. We can trace the legacy of McCarthyism to the change in belief that the nation's security took precedence over the ordinary law. The villainous view of Communism that came from McCarthyism also lead to another more serious event: the VIetnam War This war reflected the strong non-questionable relationship with AMerica even though it was the most controversial. New Zealand joined SEATO against the spread of Communism. The New ZEaland government feared a failure to help with forces would break the defense act with the US.

It would be useful if we could see the decrease of the communist party after mccarthyism. By comparing the party population to after McCarthyism. The resulting change in political parties would’ve seen a shift in political powers and the influences to the country. Also the volunteers from Vietnam when coming back were largely ostracized.

These volunteers left a lasting impression on the community around whether it was families mourning the loss of their loved ones or people protesting the war effort.

The event is still significant to New Zealand today through the dead of the Vietnam War, dissolution of the communist party, and the continued odd relationship with America.