American political life has never lacked scandal or controversial figures — and Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy (Source A) was perhaps one of the most controversial of these. Between 1950 and 1955 he greatly influenced US politics and society and found himself with the power to ruin people’s careers — or worse. To his supporters, McCarthy was a crusader in the fight against communism in America. To his critics, he was little more than a bully, who exploited Cold War fears and prejudices and manufactured a witch-hunt in order to serve his own political ambition. How is the rise and fall of the man who was the chief architect of the anti-communist hysteria that dominated post-1945 US politics best explained?
communism
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