Abstract
McCarthyism is a short period of the American History profoundly marked by the fight against communism and everything that could be linked to the Soviet government. This movement was named in 1950 after the appearance of Senator Joseph McCarthy on the media scene. During this real period of paranoia anybody could be accused of being a communist, and could become a traitor to the United States and to the nation. However, we cannot reduce American anticommunism to McCarthyism. In fact, these four years of political, cultural and media crisis are the result of a long process which began at the beginning of the 20th century.
