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AP U.S. History 1.5 Period 8: 1945-1980 218 Views


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AP U.S. History 1.5 Period 8: 1945-1980. Supporters of Joseph McCarthy would most likely prioritize which of the following?

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Transcript

00:00

[ musical flourish ]

00:03

And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the House Un-American Activities Committee.

00:08

Yeah, that thing. The group responsible for planning

00:11

Congress's taste-the-world party.

00:13

[ singing ] We are the world. [ normal voice ] Yeah, sort of.

00:16

All right, give this excerpt a look-see.

00:18

[ mumbles ] Ooh. Not good.

00:22

[ mumbling continues ] [ disgusted scoff ]

00:25

And the question: Supporters of Joseph McCarthy would

00:28

most likely prioritize which of the following?

00:31

And here are your potential answers.

00:33

[ donkey braying ] McCarthy, that guy. [ disgusted scoff ]

00:37

All right. What was this McCarthy fella all about?

00:40

Well, you've probably heard of McCarthyism.

00:42

That refers to Senator Joe McCarthy's hunt for communists within the U.S. government.

00:47

Now there were definitely some communist sympathizers working in Washington,

00:51

but McCarthy saw the evil red force in

00:54

every corner, nook, and cranny of D.C.

00:56

And in those days, communists were, like, beyond evil.

01:00

So let's see which answer describes something

01:02

those McCarthy-ites would have loved to see happen.

01:05

Would supporters of Joseph McCarthy have prioritized A -

01:09

normalization of relations with China?

01:12

Oh, boy, not in the least.

01:13

China was a major communist power at the time,

01:16

so McCarthy saw nothing normal about the dragon to the east.

01:19

So it ain't A.

01:20

Could McCarthy supporters have gotten behind B -

01:23

transference of ownership of the Panama Canal to Panama?

01:26

Huh? Well, for McCarthy, one of the largest threats

01:29

to the U.S. security was the rise of

01:31

leftist - like communist-ish -

01:33

movements in Latin America.

01:35

So handing over the Panama Canal

01:37

would have amounted to at least narrow treason.

01:39

That knocks out B, as well.

01:41

Would McCarthy's liege of followers have been interested in C -

01:45

greater foreign aid for non-communist nations?

01:50

Hmm. Well, actually, McCarthy-ites would have wanted

01:53

to contain the communist threat with greater foreign aid,

01:56

but their primary concern was subversive activity

01:59

inside of the United States.

02:01

Sort of a better the devil you know kind of thing.

02:03

Which means that supporters of Joseph McCarthy would most likely have prioritized

02:07

D - fewer civil liberties for radical groups in the U.S.

02:12

In order to purge the government of supposed communist sympathizers,

02:15

McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee,

02:18

or HUAC, investigated hundreds of citizens and radical groups,

02:22

denying them many civil liberties in the process.

02:24

So the answer is D.

02:26

Many of the people McCarthy brought to trial were actually innocent,

02:29

but that didn't stop him from handing out punishment left and right.

02:32

Looks like justice really was blind.

02:36

[ oww ]

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