"Stand fast, men --- They're armed with marshmallows."
By Melissa Kulaprathazhe
December 17, 1955
This cartoon was published in the Washington Post, on August 11th 1954 after the Illinois branch of the American Legion accused the Girl Scouts of being communists because of their “one world” message. To an overwhelming majority of Americans, the Red Scare compared significantly to the Salem Witch Trials. This is being symbolized by the book that one of the spies in the cartoon is reading called, "How to detect subversion and witchcraft." The hunt for communists in America began when Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1950, claimed to have a list of 205 known communists. He made charges against people, often with no evidence. Here, McCarthyism is represented by the flag a man in carrying. As a result, American fears of communism in America had exploded due to McCarthy’s deception. The accusation of the Girl Scouts of being Communists was just one example of the absurdity that became known as McCarthyism. McCarthy was a republican senator from Wisconsin and Herblock was a democrat. Therefore, it is likely that he was biased against McCarthy which is why he would show him here as the leader of the ridiculous attempts to “expose communists”. Herblock was basically showing that everyone was mislead into thinking that communist forces had invaded America. Ultimately, McCarthyism would result as the unjustified persecution of countless innocent people.