Why was the anti-Communist backlash following WWII so much more intense than it was in European countries like France, even though Western Europe's proximity to Soviet power put it in much more actual danger from Communism?

Part of it is the role the communists played during WW2. In most western European countries the communists were the first and most active resistance groups. To vilify resistance heroes like McCarthy did with American communist would not have been accepted. Also, because of a different democratic system used in Western Europe, the communist parties were active parties in day to day politics and therefore more visible for the regular European as normal people instead of boogeymen.