Overall impact of McCarthyism on the USA

Overall impact of McCarthyism on the USA. 

• McCarthyism had many detrimental effects on people.

1. Many hard-working citizens lost their jobs because they were labeled as communists. While many fired college professors returned to their jobs in universities, public school teachers could not. Those who retained their jobs realised that their career had been destroyed.
2. McCarthyism also had an effect on the psychological aspect of life. Innocent people had to go through the trauma of being prosecuted by their own country. Relationships were destroyed because no one could know who to trust or who would turn you in.
3. The children of the accused were victims as well. Their peers at school were often told by their parents to stay away from them.
4. McCarthyism stifled progress and individual expression. The witch-hunting of the 1950s forced many leftists to go underground. It discouraged people from proposing reforms because doing so would mean persecution by the government.