How did McCarthyism come to place?

McCarthyism came to place during the 1940's, due to growing concerns about the threat of communism growing in both Eastern Europe and China. As a young senator, McCarthy made the public statement that more than two hundred "card-carrying" communists had infiltrated the United States government. Though, his statements were proved false, few in the press at the time stood up against McCarthy thus leading to the growth of paranoia in the US.

The term McCarthyism came to represent the paranoid hunt for the so called infiltrators. This was notoriously difficult on writers and entertainers, many of whom were labeled communist sympathizers and were unable to continue working.