In the midst of the Cold War, the Democratic West and the Communist East held between them the fate of the world. With each side racing to develop new allies—and new weapons, tensions were high. The entire planet seemed destined for either prosperity or destruction, but entire nations hesitated as they tried to deduce which system would lead to which end. Confusion, conflict, and concern were everywhere, and were present as much in the United States of America as anywhere else. But amidst the fearful perspective of the masses, one man saw in this madness an opportunity. Joseph McCarthy saw the fear of Communism in the United States as a bridge to greatness, and he intended to use it. To support his weight, however, the bridge of terror needed to be reassured and solidified in the American populace, so McCarthy took a step that was dangerous not only to himself, but also to the entire nation. He initiated a Second Red Scare, sewing paranoia in his own country in order to depose those he wished to remove and ascend to the top of the American political sphere. McCarthy’s speech on February 9, 1950 demonstrates an admirable use of deliberative rhetoric, in which he uses religious claims, harnesses paranoia, and focuses on the progression of time to generate fear and a sense of urgency in his listeners.
McCarthy was only a senator from Wisconsin, riding the ticket of Cold War paranoia, when he made a speech in 1950 which made “McCarthyism” the term for the fear and suspicion of the Cold War in America. His speech was given in Wheeling, West Virginia, in an era and location marked by deep religious roots and a long history of American nationalism dating back to the Revolutionary War, when West Virginia was part of Virginia, which was one of the original thirteen states. This speech was also given shortly after the Second World War, when understanding of Nuclear Weapons and the race between the USA and USSR to make them was common knowledge and a common concern. This was a time and place where children would drill for a nuclear attack in their schools, and the threat of Communism was preached as absolute truth. McCarthy was able to leverage these circumstances throuought his career, but his speech in 1950 is particularly noteworthy for its reliance upon the religious context of the Cold War, its stress on the threat of communists in the United States, and its use of time in its argument.
McCarthy’s argument against Communism in his speech was tied closely to his argument against atheism, and he equated the faith (or more accurately, the lack of faith) with the political system of communism. For instance, he states, “The great difference between our western Christian world and the atheistic Communist world is not political, gentlemen, it is moral.” The connection between religion and political theory is clear and close in this statement, and it highlights one of McCarthy’s most fundamental arguments to this speech: Communism is wrong, because atheism is wrong. McCarthy repeats this message in many different forms throughout his speech. His is that atheism and communism are a “…religion of immoralism…. Karl Marx, for example, expelled people from his Communist Party for mentioning such things as love, justice, humanity or morality. He called this “soulful ravings” and “sloppy sentimentality.” This explanation of Communism as fundamentally opposed to Christianity is the paradigm upon which McCarthy establishes his argument. The core of his political statement is, “Communism is wrong because Communism is un-Christian. Because Communism is wrong, communists are wrong and we are good people and they are bad people, so therefore we must find and eliminate them.” This foundational argument is only possible because of the religious background of his listeners, and represents an excellent use of existing belief to support an argument. His awareness of his audience allows him to emphasize the harmfulness of communism to build up his deliberative argument and frighten his listeners.
Another deliberative rhetorical tool which McCarthy uses is the paranoia already existing in his audience. Because of the time period and the consequent concerns around either global annihilation or global “subjugation” by the Communist ideology, McCarthy was able to play on fears already present in Americans, and thereby unlock their minds to his message. While fears about Communism abroad were rampant, McCarthy was able to tap into the paranoia of Communists within the United States. He begins by quoting Lincoln: ““When a great democracy is destroyed, it will not be from enemies from without, but rather because of enemies from within.” After this, he gives an accusatory statement about why the United States has not already won the Cold War:
“The reason why we find ourselves in a position of impotency is not because our only powerful potential enemy has sent men to invade our shores . . . but rather because of the traitorous actions of those who have been treated so well by this Nation. It has not been the less fortunate, or members of minority groups who have been traitorous to this Nation, but rather those who have had all the benefits that the wealthiest Nation on earth has had to offer . . . the finest homes, the finest college education and the finest jobs in government we can give.”
This statement is important to McCarthy, because it opens his competitors and enemies to the accusation which he is about to make. The condemning argument finally reaches its central point shortly after this introduction. McCarthy says, “I have here in my hand a list of 205 . . . a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department. . . .” This statement accomplishes two key things. First, it throws every other politician into question. It leads Americans to ask questions like: If there are 205 known Communists, who are they? Where are they? Did I vote for one? These questions sew discontentment and paranoia against McCarthy’s political competitors. The second accomplishment of the statement is to paint McCarthy as a hero. Because he has the list, he is the natural choice for a savior in the public eye. He is the answer to the problem, the leader of the purge. McCarthy would later exploit this image to gain personal power, and use the accusation of Communism to dismantle the careers of rival politicians or people. Because he was able to harness the paranoia already present in the United States, McCarthy was able to advance his own career through judicious use of rhetoric and accusations.
A clear use of deliberative rhetoric appears in McCarthy’s speech as he uses time to enhance his argument. He does this primarily to enhance his appeal to paranoia, and points to the past, present, and future to give his audience a sense of fear. McCarthy references the past in reference to the future when he says:
“Six years ago, . . . there was within the Soviet orbit, 180,000,000 people. Lined up on the antitotalitarian side there were in the world at that time, roughly 1,625,000,000 people. Today, only six years later, there are 800,000,000 people under the absolute domination of Soviet Russia—an increase of over 400 percent. On our side, the figure has shrunk to around 500,000,000. In other words, in less than six years, the odds have changed from 9 to 1 in our favor to 8 to 5 against us.”
He also states, “this is the time for the show-down between the democratic Christian world and the communistic atheistic world. Unless we face this fact, we shall pay the price that must be paid by those who wait too long.” This statement creates a threatening link between the present and the future, similar in tone to McCarthy’s link to the past. By surrounding the present with fear, McCarthy makes his claims about Communists in the government feel urgent, and he harps on this fear for most of his speech. He finally concludes with a more hopeful statement about the future, which offers a single way out of the fear: McCarthy’s way. He ends his speech claiming that there must be, “a moral uprising [that] will end only when the whole sorry mess of twisted, warped [Communist] thinkers are swept from the national scene so that we may have a new birth of honesty and decency in government.” This final statement, focused deliberately on the future, leads McCarthy’s listeners to trust and follow him—and only him.
McCarthy sparked a movement of accusation and paranoia which would destroy an unknown number of American lives, because he was determined to use any means necessary to ascend politically. McCarthy used religious context and correlation, application of existing public fear, and statements and arguments grounded in the progression of time to convince his audience that they should follow him. His fear-based campaigning had serious consequences which extended far beyond his own personal career, and demonstrate the effectivity of his methods and the usefulness of tailoring an argument to an audience, emphasizing fear, and using time well in deliberative rhetoric.