The answer would be A: many people were afraid to oppose McCarthy. Beginning in 1950 after giving a speech in which he purported to hold a list of Communist Party members employed by the State Department, McCarthy fueled a widespread fear of Communist infiltration in the US. People feared to oppose McCarthy because they feared he would subsequently accuse them of being a part of the Communist Party, thus he was able to continuously fling accusations about for four years. In 1954, the Senate finally censured Senator McCarthy after his claims were proven baseless.