Communism showed up in different ways than “Sovietism.”
One insidious way was (wait, I know you’ll want to bash me for this but hear me out) McCarthyism itself. McCarthyism managed to ape some communistic methods of putting pressure on people to conform, but in the name of fighting communism. Thinking people knew something was sour, but were hounded out of sounding the alert. It eventually passed, but the notion of pressuring people in ways that are not characteristic of free countries remained. It might have been one of the cleverer false flags of communism.
Communism reaches far deeper than economy and culture. It’s a spiritual evil.
There’s McCarthy himself, and on the other hand there’s “McCarthyism.”
From what I’ve seen, the latter is a concept used only by the communists and by those vulnerable to communist propaganda.
McCarthy was simply fighting against the evil of communism, through cultural means not yet infested with that evil. McCarthy was an enemy of communism.
Communism didn’t invent conformism. Conformism can exist separate from evil. Communism cannot.