A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 11

President Truman surprisingly won reelection in 1948 and then we entered the fearful and paranoid 1950's.

We found ourselves in another war in Korea, although it technically was a United Nations effort to stop Communists from overrunning South Korea.  General MacArthur, hero of the Second World War, was fired by President Truman for what amounted to insubordination and made his famous statement, "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away."

Another World War II hero, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, was nominated by the Republican Party to run for president.  Richard M. Nixon was his running mate.  Nixon, caught up in the first major scandal of his career, made his famous "Checkers" speech and told us about Pat Nixon's cloth coat.

Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson and moved into the White House.

Anti-communism was a prime talking point for Republicans.  Richard Nixon vaulted his career in his pursuit of Alger Hiss, who was accused of being a Communist.  Hiss was convicted on a perjury charge and sentenced to prison.

One of the most infamous politicians in U. S. history, Joseph McCarthy, put the Communist threat or perceived threat on the national agenda.  McCarthy, a Republican Senator from Wisconsin, made wild charges implying that Communists had infiltrated the highest levels of the U. S. government.  McCarthy and others were responsible for blacklists of Americans who had been convicted of nothing, but were suspected of being Communists.  They frequently lost their livelihoods and their reputations thanks to the Communist witch hunt launched by McCarthy.

More to come