Miller followed Death of a Salesman with his most politically significant work, The Crucible, 1953, a tale of the Salem witch trials that contains clear correlation to the McCarthy anti-Communist hearings in the mid-1950s. While Miller primarily wrote The Crucible to enlighten the motivations and circumstances behind the Salem witch trials, and he also wanted to highlight the story of the "Red Scare" of the forties and fifties which had reached its peak under the leadership of Senator Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy, who was a relatively unknown Senator from Wisconsin, gained instant fame when he stated that there were many Communists in the American government. America at that time was in the middle of the Cold War with Russia, and McCarthy's charges