Were there any legitimate concerns behind the “red-hunting” anticommunism of the late 1940s and early 1950s? how were mccarthy and others able to turn the search for spies and subversives into an assault on freethinkers, adulterers, homosexuals, and others deemed “different” in some way?

As of now, there was distrustfulness of Soviet spies. There was some justifiable reason purpose for it since it is trusted Soviet spies stole mysteries to help USSR build up the nuclear bomb speedier than expected. He rushed to discover communists in the administration and gloated about what number of he found.

No we should just pass