When McCarthyism and anti-communist fever were at their height, they acquired a moral tone: "Americans" were good Christians who had families, stayed out of trouble, and only said positive things about the United States. Anyone else--including Jews, artists, teachers, and homosexuals--could be suspected of disloyalty.

As a result of McCarthy's investigations, hundreds of people went to prison, and thousands lost their jobs. Several actors, writers, and directors in Hollywood were blacklisted, which means they were forbidden from working with anyone in the industry.

Former president Truman had this to say about Eisenhower's permissive attitude toward McCarthyism:

"It is now evident that the present Administration has fully embraced, for political advantage, McCarthyism. I am not referring to the Senator from Wisconsin. He is only important in that his name has taken on the dictionary meaning of the word. It is the corruption of truth, the abandonment of the due process law. It is the use of the big lie and the unfounded accusation against any citizen in the name of Americanism or security. It is the rise to power of the demagogue who lives on untruth; it is the spreading of fear and the destruction of faith in every level of society."

Through a series of decisions in the late 1950s, the Supreme Court ruled that McCarthyism and its practices were unconstitutional.

While the Soviet Union certainly had spies in the United States and some American communists were definitely working against the country, the opinion of McCarthyism today is overwhelmingly negative. As Truman's words to Eisenhower revealed, McCarthy and his followers were also being un-American because they were ignoring American rights in the name of security.

Do you have a good grasp of when this lesson's events took place? Test your knowledge by dragging the following events into the correct order.