Publisher's Synopsis
From February of 1950 to June of 1954, the conscience of the United States was hijacked by a political movement known as "McCarthyism". During that four and a half year period, countless Americans lost their jobs, their careers, their reputations, their friends, and their futures. America of the late 1940's and early 50's was permeated by anxiety over a growing threat to its national security. The brand of aggressive communism practiced by the Soviet Union and Red China, seemed to be winning the Cold War, as these mega-nations gobbled up smaller countries and exercised hegemony over their lands and populations. In this environment of tension, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin gained tremendous popularity and power as he fanned the spark of fear into open flame, by insisting that America was undergoing widespread and systematic subversion by its communist enemies. History has come to regard this period as the "Red Scare," when even ordinary citizens began to imagine communist infiltrators in every corner, and under every bed. There are very few chronicles of the campaign that presidential candidate (and then President) Dwight D. Eisenhower waged against Joe McCarthy and his methods. Eisenhower's battle with McCarthy and McCarthyism was little noticed and little known. This book is the story of that mostly invisible struggle.
