The Sinews of War: McCarthyism Crosses the Atlantic

At the height of the US Red Scare, Joseph McCarthy directed his attacks towards the UK. Tapping into deep-seated Anglophobia in the American collective psyche, McCarthy infused it with his own brand of anti-communism. He declared a personal war on the UK seeking to disrupt Anglo-American relations. McCarthy’s “paranoid style” and anti-British sentiment manifested from a longer tradition of Midwestern resentment. Although the British government regarded his efforts as a significant threat to the “special relationship”, it refused to directly denounce or engage with the Wisconsin Senator. This paper examines this little-known episode of the McCarthy era.