Blame for the USA's failure to match the USSR led some Americans to look for enemy agents at home. Americans thought the only explainable reason for their failure was that there was a spy within the government, that the enemy within was undermining USA. McCarthyism was to represent this fear. The Communist Party in the USA was never very large. At its height membership was no more than 100,000. But still, it was very possible that …showed first 75 words of 415 total…

…showed last 75 words of 415 total…liar, the republicans must have been seen as the same sort of people as McCarthy. I think McCarthyism brought American people to realization, that your enemy might be very near you, but I don't think this made people lose trust to their government. McCarthy was proven to have been bluffing all the time, that made the republicans lose all the trust and power they had, and it all went to Truman and the domestic politics.