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{{Short description|American politician (1908–1957)}}
{{Otherpeople|Joseph McCarthy }}
{{other people}}
]
{{Use American English|date=January 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Joseph McCarthy
| image = Joseph McCarthy adjusted.jpg
| caption = McCarthy in 1954
| jr/sr = United States Senator
| state = ]
| term_start = January 3, 1947
| term_end = May 2, 1957
| predecessor = ]
| successor = ]
| office2 = Chair of the ]
| term_start2 = January 3, 1953
| term_end2 = January 3, 1955
| predecessor2 = ]
| successor2 = ]
| office3 = Judge of the ]<br>for the 10th Circuit
| term_start3 = January 1, 1940
| term_end3 = January 3, 1947
| predecessor3 = Edgar Werner
| successor3 = Michael Eberlein
| birth_name = Joseph Raymond McCarthy
| birth_date = {{birth date|1908|11|14}}
| birth_place = ], U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1957|5|2|1908|11|14}}
| death_place = ], U.S.
| resting_place = ]
| party = {{plainlist|
* ] (before 1944)
* ] (after 1944)
}}
| spouse = {{marriage|Jean Kerr|1953}}
| children = 1 (adopted)
| education = ] (])
| signature = Joe Mccarthy Signature.svg
| allegiance = United States
| branch = ]
| serviceyears = 1942–1945 (Marine Corps)<br>1946–1957 (])
| rank = ]
| battles = ]
| mawards = ]<br>] (5)
}}{{Conservatism US|activists}}


'''Joseph Raymond McCarthy''' (], ] &ndash; ], ]) was an ] originally aligned with the ] and later with the ]. McCarthy served as a ] from the state of ] from ] to ]. During his ten years in the Senate, McCarthy and his staff became notorious for aggressive investigations of people in the U.S. government and others suspected of being Soviet agents on grounds of their political beliefs as ] or Communist sympathizers. '''Joseph Raymond McCarthy''' (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a ] ] from the state of ] from 1947 until his death at age 48 in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period in the United States in which ] tensions fueled fears of widespread ] ].<ref>
For a history of this period, see, for example:<br />
{{cite book | first = David | last = Caute | author-link = David Caute| title= The Great Fear: The Anti-Communist Purge Under Truman and Eisenhower | place = New York | publisher= ] | year= 1978 | isbn= 0-671-22682-7}}; {{cite book | last = Fried | first = Richard M. | year = 1990 | title = Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective &#124; | place = New York | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 0-19-504361-8}}<br />
{{cite book| last = Schrecker | first = Ellen | author-link = Ellen Schrecker | year = 1998 | title = Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America | place = Boston | publisher = Little, Brown | isbn = 0-316-77470-7 | url = https://archive.org/details/manyarecrimesmcc00schr }}</ref> He alleged that numerous communists and ] spies and sympathizers had infiltrated the United States federal government, universities, film industry,<ref name="Shaw">{{Cite book|title=Cinematic Cold War: The American Struggle for Hearts and Minds|last1=Youngblood|first1=Denise J.|last2=Shaw|first2=Tony|publisher=University Press of Kansas|year=2014|isbn=978-0700620203|location=United States of America}}</ref><ref name="Feuerherd">{{cite web |last1=Feuerherd |first1=Peter |title=How Hollywood Thrived Through the Red Scare |url=https://daily.jstor.org/how-hollywood-thrived-through-the-red-scare/ |website=JSTOR Daily |access-date=July 29, 2020 |date=December 2, 2017 |archive-date=August 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802195001/https://daily.jstor.org/how-hollywood-thrived-through-the-red-scare/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and elsewhere. Ultimately he was censured by the Senate in 1954 for refusing to cooperate with and abusing members of the committee established to investigate whether or not he should be censured. The term "]", coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy's practices was soon applied to similar ] activities. Today the term is used more broadly to mean ], reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public ] or ] of political opponents.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Publishers |first=HarperCollins |title=The American Heritage Dictionary entry: McCarthyism |url=https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=McCarthyism |access-date=December 23, 2023 |website=www.ahdictionary.com |archive-date=December 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231223033459/https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=McCarthyism |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Onion, Rebecca, '' {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180801064340/https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/07/that-have-you-no-sense-of-decency-sir-moment-from-the-1954-army-mccarthy-hearings-isnt-quite-what-we-remember.html |date=August 1, 2018 }}'', Slate, July 26, 2018</ref>


Born in ], McCarthy commissioned into the ] in 1942, where he served as an ] briefing officer for a ] squadron. Following the end of ] he attained the rank of ]. He volunteered to fly twelve combat missions as a gunner-observer. These missions were generally safe, and after one where he was allowed to shoot as much ammunition as he wanted, mainly at coconut trees, he acquired the nickname "Tail-Gunner Joe". Some of his claims of heroism were later shown to be exaggerated or falsified, leading many of his critics to use "Tail-Gunner Joe" as a term of mockery.<ref name="Garraty, John 1989 p. 24">Garraty, John (1989). 1,001 Things Everyone Should Know About American History. New York: Doubleday. p. 24</ref><ref name="O'Brien, Steven 1991 p. 265">O'Brien, Steven (1991). Santa Barbara, ABC-CLIO, p. 265</ref><ref name="The Comics Journal">{{cite web|url=http://www.tcj.com/ct-cartoonists-5-the-philosopher-of-okefenokee-swamp/|title=Connecticut Cartoonists #5: The Philosopher of Okefenokee Swamp|date=June 22, 2016|publisher=The Comics Journal|access-date=June 23, 2016|archive-date=June 23, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160623164710/http://www.tcj.com/ct-cartoonists-5-the-philosopher-of-okefenokee-swamp/|url-status=live}}</ref>
As a result, the term '']'' was ] to specifically describe the intense ] movement that existed in America from ] to about ], a time which became popularly known as the ]. During this period, people who were suspected of varying degrees of Communist loyalties became the subject of aggressive inquiries, which became known as "witch hunts" to his opponents. People from the media, government, and the military were accused by McCarthy of being suspected Soviet spies or Communist sympathizers. Although McCarthy's activities did not result in any convictions or criminal prosecutions for espionage, intercepted Soviet communications from the now-declassified ] indicate that some of the individuals he pursued did in fact have hidden Communist associations. The term "McCarthyism" has since become synonymous with any government activity which opponents claim is meant to suppress unfavorable political or social views, often by limiting or suspending ] for the alleged purpose of maintaining ].


A ] until 1944, McCarthy successfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 1946 as a Republican, narrowly defeating incumbent ] in the ], then Democratic challenger ] by a 61% – 37% margin. After three largely undistinguished years in the Senate McCarthy rose suddenly to national fame in February 1950 when he asserted in a speech that he had a list of "members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring" who were employed in the ].<ref>{{cite web|title = Communists in Government Service, McCarthy Says|publisher = United States Senate History Website|url = https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/investigations/mccarthy-hearings/communists-in-government-service.htm|access-date = July 8, 2023|archive-date = July 8, 2023|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230708120246/https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/investigations/mccarthy-hearings/communists-in-government-service.htm|url-status = live}}</ref> In succeeding years after his 1950 speech, McCarthy made additional accusations of Communist infiltration into the State Department, the administration of President ], the ], and the ]. He also used various charges of communism, communist sympathies, disloyalty, or ] to attack a number of politicians and other individuals inside and outside of government.<ref>{{Cite book | last = McDaniel | first = Rodger E. | author-link = Rodger McDaniel | title = Dying for Joe McCarthy's Sins: The Suicide of Wyoming Senator Lester Hunt | place = Cody, WY | publisher = WordsWorth Press | year = 2013 | isbn = 978-0983027591 }}</ref> This included a concurrent "]" against suspected ], whose illicit sexual activity was presumed to make them vulnerable to ] by communists and others.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Simpson|first1=Alan K. |chapter=Prologue |title=Dying for Joe McCarthy's Sins: The Suicide of Wyoming Senator Lester Hunt |first2=Rodger |last2=McDaniel |publisher=WordsWorth Press |year=2013|page=x |isbn= 978-0983027591}}</ref>
==Early life and career==
McCarthy was born on a farm in the town of ]. Although both of his parents had also been born in Wisconsin, his paternal grandmother had been born in ], and his three other grandparents in ]. McCarthy dropped out of junior high school to help his parents manage their farm, and later returned to school and earned his ] in one year. McCarthy worked his way through school studying ] and law, earning a ] at ] in ] from ] to ], and was admitted to the ] in ]. While working in a law firm in ], he launched an unsuccessful campaign to become ] as a ] in ]. In ] he successfully vied for the elected post of 10th District ], becoming the youngest judge in Wisconsin's history.


With the highly publicized ] of 1954, and following the suicide of Wyoming Senator ] that same year,<ref>McDaniel, Rodger. ''Dying for Joe McCarthy's Sins''</ref> McCarthy's support and popularity faded. On December 2, 1954, the Senate voted to ] McCarthy by a vote of 67–22, making him one of the few senators ever to be disciplined in this fashion. He continued to rail against communism and socialism until his death at the age of 48 at ] in ], on May 2, 1957, though doctors had not previously reported him to be seriously ill.<ref>{{cite web |author=Ted Lewis |date=May 3, 1957 |title=Joseph McCarthy, the controversial senator, dies at 48 in 1957 |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/joseph-mccarthy-controversial-senator-dies-1957-article-1.2615207 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170224180048/http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/joseph-mccarthy-controversial-senator-dies-1957-article-1.2615207 |archive-date=February 24, 2017 |access-date=August 19, 2017 |newspaper=New York Daily News}} Reprinted May 1, 2016</ref> His death certificate listed the cause of death as "], acute, cause unknown",<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.dcdave.com/article5/deathcertificate.JPG |title=McCarthy's death certificate |access-date=August 19, 2017 |archive-date=December 7, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221207131802/https://www.dcdave.com/article5/deathcertificate.JPG |url-status=live }}</ref> which some biographers say was caused or exacerbated by ].<ref name=causeofdeath>
]
See, for example: {{cite book |last = Oshinsky |first = David M. |title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy |place = New York |publisher = Free Press |year= 2005 |pages = 503–504 |isbn = 0-19-515424-X |orig-year= 1983|title-link = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy }}; {{cite book |last = Reeves |first = Thomas C. |author-link = Thomas C. Reeves |title = The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy: A Biography |url = https://archive.org/details/lifetimesofjoe00reev |url-access = registration |place = New York |publisher = Stein and Day |pages = |year= 1982 |isbn = 1-56833-101-0}}; {{cite book|last = Herman |first = Arthur |title = Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator |place = New York |publisher = Free Press |year = 2000 |pages = |isbn = 0-684-83625-4 |url = https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/302 }}</ref>


==Early life and education==
In ], shortly after the U.S. entered ], although his judicial office exempted him from compulsory service, McCarthy resigned his judgeship and enlisted as a private in the ]. He later took a ] as a ] and served as an ] briefing officer for a ] in the ] and ]. Wartime log entries list eleven missions under McCarthy's name as an aerial photographer and tail gunner, and he was awarded a ] in ], although opponents who have investigated McCarthy question the Navy's decision to make the award. McCarthy was commended by Admiral ] for flying despite an injury, but others who served with him told investigators working for his opponents that his injuries (a broken foot) resulted from a shipboard hazing incident.
McCarthy was born in 1908 on a farm in ], the fifth of nine children.<ref>{{cite book |last = Rovere |first = Richard H. |title = Senator Joe McCarthy |place = New York |publisher = Harcourt, Brace |year= 1959 |page = 79 |isbn = 0-520-20472-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Joseph McCarthy: Biography|url=http://www.apl.org/community/mccarthy|publisher=Appleton Public Library|year=2003|access-date=November 30, 2017|archive-date=December 1, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201041411/http://www.apl.org/community/mccarthy|url-status=live}}</ref> His mother, Bridget McCarthy (nee Tierney), was from ], Ireland. His father, Timothy McCarthy, was born in the United States, the son of an Irish father and a German mother. McCarthy dropped out of junior high school at age 14 to help his parents manage their farm. He entered Little Wolf High School, in ], when he was 20 and graduated in one year.<ref>{{cite web|title=McCarthy as Student |url=http://www.myhistorymuseum.org/mccarthy/student.htm|access-date=September 7, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130228073138/http://www.myhistorymuseum.org/mccarthy/student.htm|archive-date=February 28, 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref>


He attended ] from 1930 to 1935. McCarthy worked odd jobs while at college, including as a dishwasher, parking-lot attendant, and boxing coach.<ref>{{cite book |last = Oshinsky |first = David M. |title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy |place = New York |publisher = Free Press |year= 2005 |page = 12 |isbn = 0-19-515424-X |orig-year= 1983}}</ref> He first studied electrical engineering for two years, then law, and received a ] degree in 1935 from ] in ].<ref>In ''A Conspiracy So Immense,'' Oshinsky states that McCarthy chose Marquette University rather than the ] partially because Marquette was under Catholic control and partially because he enrolled during the Great Depression, when few working-class or farm-bred students had the money to go out of state for college. See {{cite book |last = Oshinsky |first = David M. |title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy |place = New York |publisher = Free Press |year= 2005 |page = 11 |isbn = 0-19-515424-X |orig-year= 1983}}</ref>
He campaigned for the Republican Senate nomination in Wisconsin while still on active duty in ], but was easily defeated by incumbent ]. After resigning his commission in ] ] and being re-elected unopposed to his ] position, he began a much more systematic campaign for the ] Senate election, again challenging a Republican incumbent, four term Senator and ] icon, ]. In his campaign, McCarthy attacked La Follette for not enlisting during the war; he did not mention that La Follette had been forty-six when Pearl Harbor was bombed, and was in fact too old to join the armed services. McCarthy also claimed that La Follette had made huge profits from his investments while he had been away fighting for his country. The suggestion that La Follette had been guilty of ] (his investments had in fact been in a radio station), was deeply damaging and McCarthy won by 207,935 to 202,557.


== Career ==
McCarthy enjoyed the support of the state party organization, and won the nomination narrowly. He easily defeated his Democratic opponent, ], in the general election by a 2-1 margin, and joined Senator Wiley, whom he had challenged two years earlier, in the Senate. On his first day in the Senate, McCarthy called a ] where he proposed a solution to a coal ] that was taking place at the time. McCarthy called for ] and the striking miners to be ] into the Army. If the men still refused to mine the coal, McCarthy suggested they should be ] for insubordination and shot.
McCarthy was admitted to the ] in 1935. While working at a law firm in ], he launched an unsuccessful campaign for ] as a ] in 1936. During his years as an attorney, McCarthy made money on the side by gambling.<ref>Oshinsky explains this (p. 17) as resulting partially from the financial pressures of the Great Depression. He also notes (p. 28) that even during his judgeship, McCarthy was known to have gambled heavily after hours. {{cite book |last = Oshinsky |first = David M. |title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy |place = New York |publisher = Free Press |year= 2005 |pages = 17, 28 |isbn = 0-19-515424-X |orig-year= 1983}}</ref>


In 1939, McCarthy had better success when he ran for the nonpartisan elected post of 10th District ] judge.<ref> {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511175135/http://www.galenfrysinger.org/judge_on_trial.htm |date=May 11, 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last = The Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library | title = The Wisconsin Blue Book | place = Madison, WI | publisher = State of Wisconsin | year = 1940 | url = http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?type=article&did=WI.WIBlueBk1940.i0003&id=WI.WIBlueBk1940&isize=M | journal = Wisconsin Blue Books | access-date = November 25, 2013 | archive-date = February 28, 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210228070604/https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?type=article&did=WI.WIBlueBk1940.i0003&id=WI.WIBlueBk1940&isize=M | url-status = live }}</ref> McCarthy became the youngest circuit judge in the state's history by defeating incumbent Edgar V. Werner, who had been a judge for 24 years.<ref>{{cite book |last= Commire |first= Anne |date= 1994 |title= Historic World Leaders: North & South America (M–Z) |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ljsOAQAAMAAJ&q=%22joseph+mccarthy%22+edgar+werner+judge |publisher= Gale Research Incorporated |page= 492|isbn= 978-0810384132 }}</ref> In the campaign, McCarthy lied about Werner's age of 66, claiming that he was 73, and so allegedly too old and infirm to handle the duties of his office.<ref>{{cite book |last= Herman |first= Arthur |date= 2000 |title= Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=DIibZoDyADEC&q=%22joseph+mccarthy%22+edgar+werner+judge&pg=PA26 |publisher= The Free Press A Division of Simon and Schuster |page= 26|isbn= 978-0684836256 }}</ref> Writing of Werner in ''Reds: McCarthyism In Twentieth-Century America,'' ] wrote: "Pompous and condescending, he (Werner) was disliked by lawyers. His judgements had often been reversed by the ], and he was so inefficient that he had piled up a huge backlog of cases."<ref>{{cite book|last = Morgan |first = Ted |title = Reds: McCarthyism In Twentieth-Century America |place = New York |publisher = Random House |year = 2003 |page = |isbn = 0-679-44399-1 |url = https://archive.org/details/redsmccarthyismi00morg_0/page/328 }} In turn citing Michael O'Brien, ''McCarthy And McCarthyism in Wisconsin.'' Columbia, Mo. 1980.</ref>
McCarthy married Jean Kerr, a researcher in his office, on September 29, 1953. He and his wife adopted a baby girl in January 1957.


McCarthy's judicial career attracted some controversy because of the speed with which he dispatched many of his cases as he worked to clear the heavily backlogged docket he had inherited from Werner.<ref>{{cite book |last = Oshinsky |first = David M. |title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy |publisher = Oxford University Press |year= 2005 |page = 24 |isbn = 0-19-515424-X |orig-year= 1983}}</ref> Wisconsin had strict divorce laws, but when McCarthy heard divorce cases, he expedited them whenever possible, and he made the needs of children involved in contested divorces a priority.<ref>{{cite book|last = Morgan |first = Ted |title = Reds: McCarthyism In Twentieth-Century America |place = New York |publisher = Random House |year = 2003 |page = |isbn = 0-679-44399-1 |url = https://archive.org/details/redsmccarthyismi00morg_0/page/330 }}</ref> When it came to other cases argued before him, McCarthy compensated for his lack of experience as a jurist by demanding and relying heavily upon precise briefs from the contesting attorneys. The Wisconsin Supreme Court reversed a low percentage of the cases he heard,<ref>{{cite book |last = Oshinsky |first = David M. |title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy |publisher = Oxford University Press |year= 2005 |page = 27 |isbn = 0-19-515424-X |orig-year= 1983}}</ref> but he was also censured in 1941 for having lost evidence in a ] case.<ref>{{cite book |last1= Ryan |first1= James G. |last2= Schlup |first2= Leonard |date= 2006 |title= Historical Dictionary of the 1940s |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=-t3Hx4ASLKUC&q=%22joseph+mccarthy%22+wisconsin+judge+censured+evidence&pg=PA245 |publisher= M.E. Sharpe, Inc. |page= 245|isbn= 978-0765621078 }}</ref>
==Senator==


===Military service===
McCarthy's first three years in the Senate were unremarkable. While he was considered friendly and likeable, he was not taken seriously. McCarthy was criticized for his defense of a group of ]s that had been ] for their role in the ] of American ] in ]. Their death sentences were commuted to ] in part because McCarthy charged that they had been denied ]. Many charged the Senator had been duped or enticed by ]s.
]]]
In 1942, shortly after the U.S. entered ], McCarthy joined the ], despite the fact that his judicial office exempted him from military service.<ref>{{cite book |last=Belknap |first=Michal R. |date=2004 |title=The Vinson Court: Justices, Rulings, and Legacy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oeFRJj8dVAUC&pg=PA214 |location=Santa Barbara, CA |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=214 |isbn=978-1-85109-542-1}}</ref> His college education qualified him for a direct ], and he entered the Marines as a ].<ref>{{cite book |last=O'Connell |first=Aaron B. |date=2012 |title=Underdogs: The Making of the Modern Marine Corps |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qB2QjQSyuKgC&pg=PA109 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Harvard University Press |page=109 |isbn=978-0-674-05827-9 |ref={{sfnRef|''Underdogs: The Making of the Modern Marine Corps''}}}}</ref>


According to Morgan, writing in ''Reds,'' McCarthy's friend and campaign manager, attorney and judge Urban P. Van Susteren, had applied for active duty in the ] in early 1942, and advised McCarthy: "Be a hero—join the Marines."<ref>{{cite book |last= Herman |first= Arthur |date= 2000 |title= Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=DIibZoDyADEC&q=mccarthy+senator+%22van+susteren%22+1946&pg=PA33 |publisher= The Free Press: A Division of Simon and Schuster |page= 33|isbn= 978-0684836256 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Morgan |first= Ted |date= 2004 |title= Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=4ijWhgff9XEC&q=mccarthy+senator+%22van+susteren%22&pg=PA420 |publisher= Random House |page= 420|isbn= 978-0812973020 }}</ref> When McCarthy seemed hesitant, Van Susteren asked, "You got shit in your blood?"<ref>{{cite book|last = Morgan |first = Ted |title = Reds: McCarthyism In Twentieth-Century America |place = New York |publisher = Random House |year = 2003 |page = |isbn = 0-679-44399-1 |url = https://archive.org/details/redsmccarthyismi00morg_0/page/338 }} Morgan again cites Michael O'Brien, writing in ''McCarthy And McCarthyism in Wisconsin''.</ref>
McCarthy made a large number of speeches to many different organizations, covering a wide range of topics. His most notable early campaigns were for housing legislation and against sugar rationing. During the presidency of ], his national profile rose meteorically after his Lincoln Day speech on ], ], to the Republican Women's Club of ].
] and ] from Colonel ], commanding officer of Fifth Marine Reserve District, December 1952]]
He served as an ] briefing officer for a ] squadron ] in the ] and ] for 30 months (August 1942 – February 1945), and held the rank of ] at the time he resigned his commission in April 1945.<ref>{{cite book |last=Giblin |first=James Cross |date=2009 |title=The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=klwQBEeJfsUC&pg=PA34 |location=Boston|publisher=Clarion Books |pages=37–38 |isbn=978-0-618-61058-7 |ref={{sfnRef|''The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy''}}}}</ref> He volunteered to fly twelve combat missions as a gunner-observer. These missions were generally safe, and after one where he was allowed to shoot as much ammunition as he wanted, mainly at coconut trees, he acquired the nickname "Tail-Gunner Joe".<ref>Oshinsky describes the nickname "Tail-Gunner Joe" as the result of McCarthy's wish to break the record for most live ammunition discharged in a single mission.{{cite book |last = Oshinsky |first = David M. |title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy |publisher = Oxford University Press |year= 2005 |page = 32 |isbn = 0-19-515424-X |orig-year= 1983}}</ref> McCarthy remained in the ] after the war, attaining the rank of ].<ref>{{cite book |last=Morgan |first=Ted |date=2003 |title=Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ijWhgff9XEC&pg=PA341 |location=New York |publisher=Random House |page=341 |isbn=978-0-8129-7302-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Mundt |first=Karl, Chairman |date=June 17, 1954 |title=Testimony of Hon. Joseph R. McCarthy, a United States Senator from the State of Wisconsin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6MFEAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA2888 |magazine=Special Senate Investigation on Charges Involving: Secretary of the Army Robert T. Stevens, John G. Adams, H. Struve Hensel and Senator Joe McCarthy, Roy M. Cohn and Francis P. Carr |location=Washington, DC |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |page=2888 |via=]}}</ref>


He later falsely claimed participation in 32 aerial missions so as to qualify for a ] and multiple awards of the ], which the Marine Corps decided to approve in 1952 under his political influence.{{sfn|''The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy''|page=34}}<ref>''''</ref> McCarthy also publicly claimed a letter of commendation from his commanding officer and Admiral ], Chief of Naval Operations.<ref>{{cite book |last=Carrier |first=Jerry |date=2014 |title=Tapestry: The History and Consequences of America's Complex Culture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lvhKBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA232 |location=New York |publisher=Algora Publishing |page=232 |isbn=978-1-62894-048-0}}</ref>{{sfn|''The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy''|page=37}} However, his commander revealed that McCarthy had written this letter himself, probably while preparing award citations and commendation letters for his men, and that he had signed his commander's name, after which Nimitz signed it routinely.<ref>''''</ref>{{sfn|''The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy''|page=37}} A "war wound"—a badly broken leg—that McCarthy attributed to varying adventures involving airplane crashes or anti-aircraft fire, had in fact happened aboard ship during a raucous ].<ref name=Arthur1/><ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/November-December-2003/story_morgan_novdec03.msp |title = Judge Joe: How The Youngest Judge In Wisconsin's History Became The Country's Most Notorious Senator |access-date = August 2, 2006 |last = Morgan |first = Ted |date = November–December 2003 |publisher = Legal Affairs |archive-date = April 29, 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210429124425/https://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/November-December-2003/story_morgan_novdec03.msp |url-status = live }}</ref>{{sfn|''Underdogs: The Making of the Modern Marine Corps''}} Because of McCarthy's various lies about his military heroism, his "Tail-Gunner Joe" nickname was used in mockery by his critics.<ref name="Garraty, John 1989 p. 24"/><ref name="O'Brien, Steven 1991 p. 265"/><ref name="The Comics Journal"/>
McCarthy's words in the speech are a matter of some dispute, as they were not reliably recorded at the time, the media presence being minimal. It is generally agreed, however, that he produced a piece of paper which he claimed contained a list of known Communists working for the ]. McCarthy is quoted to have said "I have here in my hand a list of 57 people that were known to the ] as being members of the ], and who, nevertheless, are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department."{{NamedNote|McCarthy|10}} There is a great deal of dispute on whether McCarthy actually said 57 or 205 people in his speach. The confusion may have arisen because in the Wheeling speech, McCarthy referred to a letter that Secretary of State James Byrnes sent to Congressman ] in 1946. In that letter, Byrnes said that State Department security investigators had declared 284 persons unfit to hold jobs in the department because of Communist connections and other reasons, but that only 79 had been discharged, leaving 205 still on the State Department's payroll. McCarthy told his Wheeling audience that while he did not have the names of the 205 mentioned in the Byrnes letter, he did have the names of 57 who were either members of or loyal to the Communist Party. McCarthy stated that he referred to 57 "known Communists;" the number 205 was referring to the number of people employed by the State Department who, for various security reasons related not merely to loyalty but also issues such as drunkenness and incompetence, should not have been.


McCarthy campaigned for the Republican Senate nomination in Wisconsin while still on active duty in 1944 but was defeated by ], the incumbent. After he left the Marines in April 1945, five months before the end of the Pacific war in September 1945, McCarthy was reelected unopposed to his circuit court position. He then began a much more systematic campaign for the 1946 Republican Senate ] nomination, with support from Thomas Coleman, the Republican Party's political boss in Wisconsin. In this race, he was challenging three-term senator ], founder of the ] and son of the celebrated Wisconsin governor and senator ]
The effect of McCarthy's speech, in a nation already worried by the aggressiveness of the ] in ] and alarmed by the ] of ] then in progress, was electric. McCarthy's accusation was seen as an explanation for the ] to the ] and the Soviets' development of the ] the year before. The exact number stated by McCarthy would later become a matter of some importance when the matter was brought before the ].


==Tydings Committee== ===Senate campaign===
In his campaign, McCarthy attacked La Follette for not enlisting during the war, although La Follette had been 46 when ] was bombed. He also claimed La Follette had made huge profits from his investments while he, McCarthy, had been away fighting for his country. In fact, McCarthy had invested in the stock market himself during the war, netting a profit of $42,000 in 1943 (equal to ${{Inflation|US|42000|1943|fmt=c}} today). Where McCarthy got the money to invest in the first place remains a mystery. La Follette's investments consisted of partial interest in a radio station, which earned him a profit of $47,000 over two years.<ref>
{{cite book
|last = Rovere
|first = Richard H.
|title = Senator Joe McCarthy
|publisher = University of California Press
|year= 1959
|pages = 97, 102
|isbn = 0-520-20472-7}}</ref>


According to Jack Anderson and Ronald W. May,<ref>McCarthy, The Man, the Senator, the Ism (Boston, Beacon Press, 1952) pp.&nbsp;101–105.</ref> McCarthy's campaign funds, much of them from out of state, were ten times more than La Follette's and McCarthy's vote benefited from a Communist Party vendetta against La Follette. The suggestion that La Follette had been guilty of ] was deeply damaging, and McCarthy won the primary nomination 207,935 votes to 202,557. It was during this campaign that McCarthy started publicizing his war-time nickname "Tail-Gunner Joe," using the slogan, "Congress needs a tail-gunner." Journalist ] later stated that McCarthy "was elected to his first term in the Senate with support from the Communist-controlled ], ]", which preferred McCarthy to the anti-communist Robert M. La Follette.<ref>
The ] was a subcommittee of the ] that was set up in February 1950 to conduct "a full and complete study and investigation as to whether persons who are disloyal to the United States are, or have been, employed by the Department of State." The chairman of the subcommittee, Senator ], a ], set the tone for the hearings on the first day when he told McCarthy: "You are in the position of being the man who occasioned this hearing, and so far as I am concerned in this committee you are going to get one of the most complete investigations ever given in the history of this Republic, so far as my abilities will permit."
{{cite web
|url=http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/2913871.html
|title=The Politics of Personal Self-Destruction
|access-date=February 25, 2008
|last=Beichman
|first=Arnold
|author-link=Arnold Beichman
|date=February–March 2006
|publisher=]
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080312214611/http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/2913871.html
|archive-date=March 12, 2008
}}</ref>
In the general election against Democratic opponent ], McCarthy won 61.2% to McMurray's 37.3%, and thus joined Alexander Wiley, whom he had challenged unsuccessfully two years earlier, in the Senate.


{{Election box begin no change
McCarthy himself was taken aback by the massive media response to the Wheeling speech, and was accused of continually revising both his charges and his figures. In ], a few days later, he cited a figure of 57, and in the Senate on ] he claimed 81. During a marathon six-hour speech, McCarthy fought Democratic attempts to disclose the actual names of these people. Four times during McCarthy's February 20th speech, Democratic Senator Scott W. Lucas demanded that McCarthy make the 81 names public, but McCarthy refused to do so, responding that "if I were to give all the names involved, it might leave a wrong impression. If we should label one man a communist when he is not a communist, I think it would be too bad." What McCarthy did was to identify the individuals only by case numbers, not by their names.
| title=]}}
{{Election box winning candidate with party link no change
|party = Republican Party (United States)
|candidate = Joseph McCarthy
|votes = 620,430
|percentage = 61.2
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link no change
|party = Democratic Party (United States)
|candidate = ]
|votes = 378,772
|percentage = 37.3
}}
{{Election box total no change
| votes = 999,202
| percentage = 98.5
}}
{{Election box hold with party link no change
|winner = Republican Party (United States)
|loser =
|swing =
}}
{{Election box end}}


==Personal life==
After 31 days of hearings, during which McCarthy attempted to present public evidence on nine persons (Dorothy Kenyon, Haldore Hanson, Philip Jessup, Esther Brunauer, Frederick Schuman, Harlow Shapley, Gustavo Duran, John Stewart Service, and Owen Lattimore), the Tydings Committee officially labeled McCarthy's charges a "fraud" and a "hoax," said that the individuals on his list were neither Communist nor pro-Communist, and concluded that the State Department had run an effective security program.
In 1950, McCarthy assaulted journalist ] in the cloakroom at the ], reportedly kneeing him in the groin. McCarthy, who admitted the assault, claimed he merely "slapped" Pearson.<ref>
{{cite book|last = Herman
|first = Arthur
|title = Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator
|publisher = Free Press
|year = 2000
|page =
|isbn = 0-684-83625-4
|url = https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/233
}}</ref> In 1952, using rumors collected by Pearson as well as other sources, Nevada publisher ] wrote that McCarthy was a frequent patron at the White Horse Inn, a Milwaukee gay bar, and cited his involvement with young men. Greenspun named some of McCarthy's alleged lovers, including Charles E. Davis, an ex-Communist and "confessed homosexual" who claimed that he had been hired by McCarthy to spy on U.S. diplomats in ].<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Memorandum of understanding about McCarthy and a besieged army |magazine=Life |date=March 8, 1954 |pages=28 |publisher=Time Inc}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hersh |first1=Burton |title=Bobby and J. Edgar: The Historic Face-Off Between the Kennedys and J. Edgar Hoover that Transformed America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gA6xmt1I2fYC|date=2007 |publisher=Carroll & Graf|isbn=978-0786731855 }}</ref>


McCarthy's ] file also contains numerous allegations, including a 1952 letter from an Army lieutenant who said, "When I was in ] some time ago, picked me up at the bar in the Wardman and took me home, and while I was half-drunk he committed ] on me." ] conducted a perfunctory investigation of the Senator's alleged ]; Hoover's take was that "homosexuals are very bitter against Senator McCarthy for his attack upon those who are supposed to be in the Government."<ref>{{cite web |title=Joseph McCarthy FBI File, part 3 of 56 (part 2 of 28) |url=https://vault.fbi.gov/Sen.%20Joseph%20%28Joe%29%20McCarthy/Sen.%20Joseph%20%28Joe%29%20McCarthy%20Part%203%20of%2056/view |website=FBI Records: The Vault |access-date=February 14, 2022 |archive-date=February 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220214104133/https://vault.fbi.gov/Sen.%20Joseph%20(Joe)%20McCarthy/Sen.%20Joseph%20(Joe)%20McCarthy%20Part%203%20of%2056/view |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>] also mentions this incident in his book '']''. Tripp describes McCarthy as "predominantly homosexual."</ref>
Three days after the committee dismissed McCarthy's claims, the ] arrested ] on charges of ] for assisting the Soviet Union in obtaining information from the ] to develop an ]. Of the 110 names McCarthy gave to the Tydings subcommittee, 62 were at the time employed by the State Department. The Tydings Committee cleared all the personnel, but within one year the State Department's Loyalty Security Board instigated proceedings against 49 of the 62. By the end of 1954, 81 of those on McCarthy's list had left the government either by dismissal or resignation.


Although some notable McCarthy biographers have rejected these rumors,<ref>The allegation is specifically rejected in
McCarthy attempted to engage in the political destruction of his critics, an aim he achieved when he campaigned against four-term incumbent ] in ], in a victory that severely intimidated his would-be critics. This election was later called one of the dirtiest in American political history. A doctored photograph of Tydings conjoined with a well-known Communist was widely distributed, effectively ending Tydings' career. McCarthy once ]ed a journalist, ], in a Congressional restroom. McCarthy, who admitted the assault, claimed he merely "slapped" Pearson. Pearson said that McCarthy "kicked me in the groin. Twice."
{{cite book
|last = Rovere
|first = Richard H.
|title = Senator Joe McCarthy
|publisher = University of California Press
|year= 1959
|page = 68
|isbn = 0-520-20472-7}}</ref> others have suggested that he may have been blackmailed. During the early 1950s, McCarthy launched a series of attacks on the ], claiming it had been infiltrated by communist agents. ], who suspected McCarthy was using information supplied by Hoover, refused to cooperate. According to the historian ], Dulles also compiled a "scandalous" intimate dossier on the Senator's personal life and used the homosexual stories to take him down.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Talbot |first1=David |title=The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government |date=2015 |publisher=Harper}}</ref>


In any event, McCarthy did not sue Greenspun for ]. (He was told that if the case went ahead he would be compelled to take the witness stand and to refute the charges made in the ] of the young man, which was the basis for Greenspun's story.)
==Anti-Communism==
In 1953, he married Jean Fraser Kerr, a researcher in his office. In January 1957, McCarthy and his wife adopted an infant with the help of ]'s close friend ] ]. They named the baby girl Tierney Elizabeth McCarthy.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Oshinsky |first1=David |title=A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy |date=2019 |publisher=Free Press}}</ref>
]


==United States Senate==
From ] to ], McCarthy continued to press his accusations that the government was failing to deal with Communism within its ranks, which increased his approval rating and gained him a powerful national following. During a speech in Milwaukee in 1952, Senator McCarthy dated the public phase of his fight against communists to May 22, 1949, the night that former Secretary of Defense ] was found dead on the ground outside Bethesda Naval Hospital. "The communists hounded Forrestal to his death," said McCarthy. "They killed him just as definitely as if they had thrown him from that sixteenth-story window in Bethesda Naval Hospital." McCarthy said that "while I am not a sentimental man, I was touched deeply and left numb by the news of Forrestal's murder. But I was affected much more deeply when I heard of the communist celebration when they heard of Forrestal's murder. On that night, I dedicated part of this fight to Jim Forrestal." His finances were investigated by a Senate panel in ]; its report cited questionable behavior in his campaigns and irregularities in his finances, but found no grounds for legal action.
Senator McCarthy's first three years in the Senate were unremarkable.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/joseph-mccarthy-dies |title=This Day in History: Joseph McCarthy Dies |date=2018 |website=History.com |publisher=A&E Television Networks, LLC |location=New York |access-date=August 22, 2018 |archive-date=August 22, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180822145710/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/joseph-mccarthy-dies |url-status=live }}</ref> McCarthy was a popular speaker, invited by many different organizations, covering a wide range of topics. His aides and many in the Washington social circle described him as charming and friendly, and he was a popular guest at cocktail parties. He was far less well liked among fellow senators, however, who found him quick-tempered and prone to impatience and even rage. Outside of a small circle of colleagues, he was soon an isolated figure in the Senate,<ref>
{{cite book|last = Herman
|first = Arthur
|title = Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator
|publisher = Free Press
|year = 1999
|pages =
|isbn = 0-684-83625-4
|url = https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/44
}}
</ref> who was often widely criticized.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Davis |first=Kenneth C. |title=Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-06-008381-6 |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=408 |author-link=Kenneth C. Davis}}</ref>


McCarthy was active in labor-management issues, with a reputation as a moderate Republican. He fought against continuation of wartime price controls, especially on sugar. His advocacy in this area was associated by critics with a $20,000 personal loan McCarthy received from a ] bottling executive, earning the Senator the derisive nickname "The Pepsi-Cola Kid".<ref>
==The Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee==
{{cite book|last = Herman
|first = Arthur
|title = Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator
|publisher = Free Press
|year = 2000
|page =
|isbn = 0-684-83625-4
|url = https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/53
}}</ref>
McCarthy supported the ] over Truman's veto, angering labor unions in Wisconsin but solidifying his business base.<ref>
{{cite book
|last = Reeves
|first = Thomas C.
|title = The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy: A Biography
|publisher = Madison Books
|pages = 116–119
|year= 1982
|isbn = 1-56833-101-0}}</ref>


===Malmedy massacre trial===
McCarthy's charges of "Communist influences" within the government probably aided the Republican Party's fortunes in the 1952 elections; it is probable that the defeat of more than one Democratic candidate for national office in 1952 was due at least in part to accusations against him by McCarthy. The party leadership, recognizing his immense popularity and his value as a stick with which to beat ] Democrats, appointed him chairman of the ]. His unreliability and evasiveness, however, meant he was never completely trusted by the party (and particularly by President ], who once said privately that he didn't "want to get into a pissing contest with that skunk!") One of McCarthy's higher-profile targets was General ]. McCarthy and Senator ] of ] accused Marshall of ]. Eisenhower wrote a speech in which he included a spirited defense of General Marshall, but he was later convinced to remove this passage. Truman turned bitterly against Eisenhower because of this, calling Eisenhower a coward because he owed his career to General Marshall.
{{main|Malmedy massacre}}{{Main|Malmedy massacre trial}}
In an incident for which he would be widely criticized, McCarthy lobbied for the commutation of death sentences given to a group of ] soldiers convicted of war crimes for carrying out the 1944 ] of American prisoners of war. McCarthy was critical of the convictions because the German soldiers' confessions were allegedly obtained through torture during the interrogations. He argued that the U.S. Army was engaged in a coverup of judicial misconduct, but never presented any evidence to support the accusation.<ref>
{{cite book|last = Herman
|first = Arthur
|title = Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator
|publisher = Free Press
|year = 2000
|pages =
|isbn = 0-684-83625-4
|url = https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/54
}}</ref>
Shortly after this, a 1950 poll of the Senate press corps voted McCarthy "the worst U.S. senator" currently in office.<ref>
{{cite book|last = Herman
|first = Arthur
|title = Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator
|publisher = Free Press
|year = 1999
|page =
|isbn = 0-684-83625-4
|url = https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/51
}}
</ref>
McCarthy biographer ] has written that antisemitism may have factored into McCarthy's outspoken views on Malmedy. Although he had substantial Jewish support, notably ] of Schenley Industries, Rabbi Benjamin Schultz of the ], and the columnist ], who convinced him to hire ] and G. David Schine,<ref name="auto">{{cite magazine |title=The Press: The Man in the Middle |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,823411,00.html |access-date=February 2, 2022 |magazine=Time |date=May 24, 1954 |archive-date=February 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220202191548/http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,823411,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref>{{failed verification|Reason=No indication of "substantial Jewish support"|date=May 2023}} McCarthy frequently used anti-Jewish slurs. In this and McCarthy's other characteristics, such as the enthusiastic support he received from antisemitic politicians like Ku Klux Klansman ] and his tendency, according to friends, to refer to his copy of ''],'' stating, "That's the way to do it," McCarthy's critics characterize him as driven by antisemitism. However, historian Larry Tye says that this is not the case. Based on accounts of his opposition to Soviet antisemitism, friendship with and employment of Jews, pro-Israel outlook, and testimony of colleagues to his lack of antisemitism, Tye suggests that those aspects his critics denote as antisemitic are rather byproducts of McCarthy's absolute lack of a filter and his inability to avoid colleagues colored by hatred. Tye says, "He certainly knew how to hate, but he wasn't that kind
of bigot."<ref name="tye_smithsonian">{{cite news |last1=Tye |first1=Larry |title=When Senator Joe McCarthy Defended Nazis |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/senator-mccarthys-nazi-problem-180975174/ |access-date=January 24, 2021 |work=Smithsonian Magazine |date=July–August 2020 |archive-date=January 30, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210130234701/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/senator-mccarthys-nazi-problem-180975174/ |url-status=live }}</ref> This perspective that McCarthy was not an antisemite is supported by other historians.<ref>{{cite book|title=Troubling the Waters: Black-Jewish Relations in the American Century |first=Cheryl |last=Greenberg |page=201 |quote=In fact McCarthy was neither particularly anti-Semitic nor racist...|date=2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Science, Jews, and Secular Culture: Studies in Mid-twentieth-century |quote=Senator McCarthy was not anti-Semitic... But one thing he did not do was to actively perpetuate the old association of Jews with Bolshevism.|pages=10–11|date=December 1998|first=David A. |last=Hollinger |publisher=Princeton University Press |author-link=David A. Hollinger}}</ref>


Tye cites three quotes from European historian Steven Remy, chief Malmedy prosecutor COL Burton Ellis JAG USA, and massacre victim and survivor Virgil P. Lary, Jr:
McCarthy's committee, unlike the ] and the ], focused on government institutions. It first made an investigation into ] at ], then forced the withdrawal of supposedly pro-Communist literature from the State Department's overseas information library. Meanwhile, McCarthy continued to make accusations of Communist influence within the government. This angered Eisenhower, who, while not criticizing the popular Senator publicly, began behind-the-scenes work to remove him from his position of influence.
{{blockquote|Both willfully clueless and supremely self-confident, McCarthy impeded but did not derail a truly fair and balanced investigation of the Malmedy affair, — Steven Remy<ref name="tye_smithsonian" /><br />
It beats the hell out of me why everyone tries so hard to show that the prosecution were insidious, underhanded, unethical, immoral and God knows what monsters, that unfairly convicted a group of whiskerless Sunday school boys. — Burton Ellis<ref name="tye_smithsonian" /><br />
I have seen persons bent on murdering me, persons who murdered my companions, defended by a United States senator. … I charge that this action of Senator McCarthy’s became the basis for the Communist propaganda in western Germany, designed to discredit the American armed forces and American justice. — Virgil P. Lary, Jr.<ref name="tye_smithsonian" />}}It was later found that McCarthy had received "evidence" of the false torture claims from Rudolf Aschenauer, a prominent Neo-Nazi agitator who often served as a defense attorney for Nazi war criminals, such as Einsatzgruppen commander ].<ref>Richard Halworth Rovere: ''Senator Joe McCarthy''. University of California Press, Berkeley 1996, {{ISBN|0-520-20472-7}}, S. 112. (Reprint der Originalausgabe erschienen bei Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, New York 1959.)</ref>


==="Enemies within"===
Several noted persons resigned from the committee fairly early into McCarthy's administration of it. These resignations led to the appointment of one "B. Matthews" as executive director of the board. Matthews was a former member of several "Communist-front" organizations, in which he claimed to have joined more than any other American. However, when he fell out of favor with the radical groups of the ], he became a fervent ]. Matthews was an ordained ] minister and was therefore often referred to as a "Dr. Matthews," although he held no degree. Matthews later resigned due to his portrayal of Communist sympathies among the nation's ] ] in a paper called "]," which outraged several Senators. Through this critical period, however, McCarthy maintained control of the subcommittee and of whom it employed or chose not to. This course of action resulted in several more resignations.
McCarthy experienced a meteoric rise in national profile beginning on February 9, 1950, when he gave a ] speech to the Republican Women's Club of ]. His words in the speech are a matter of some debate, as no audio recording was saved. However, it is generally agreed that he produced a piece of paper that he claimed contained a list of known Communists working for the ]. McCarthy is usually quoted to have said: "The State Department is infested with communists. I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the ] as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department."<ref>{{cite book |last = Griffith |first = Robert |title = The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate |url = https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif |url-access = registration |publisher = University of Massachusetts Press |year= 1970 |page = |isbn = 0-87023-555-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Phillips |first=Steve |editor=Martin Collier, Erica Lewis |title=The Cold War |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=MlNaN_k4YtcC |access-date=December 1, 2008 |series= Heinemann Advanced History |year= 2001|publisher= Heinemann Educational Publishers|location= Oxford|isbn= 0-435-32736-4|page= 65|chapter= 5}}</ref>


There is some dispute with whether or not McCarthy actually gave the number of people on the list as being "205" or "57". In a later telegram to President Truman, and when entering the speech into the '']'', he used the number 57.<ref name="CongRec81">{{cite web
During ] and the first three months of 1954 (McCarthy was immobilized for the remainder of 1954 by two investigations of him), McCarthy's committee held 199 days of hearings and examined 653 witnesses. These individuals first appeared in executive session and were told of the evidence against them. If they were able to offer satisfactory explanations - and most of them were - they were dismissed and nobody ever knew they had been summoned. Those who appeared in public sessions were either people who had invoked their ] rights during private questioning or persons about whom more public questioning was desired. Those witnesses were still afforded their rights to confer with their counsel before answering a question, to confront their accusers or at least have them identified and have questions submitted to them by their counsel, and to further invoke their First and Fifth Amendment rights rather than answer questions about any alleged associations.
|url = http://www.wvculture.org/hiStory/government/mccarthy01.html
|title = Congressional Record, 81st Congress, 2nd Session
|access-date = August 11, 2006
|date = February 20, 1950
|publisher = West Virginia Division of Culture and History
|archive-date = September 25, 2009
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090925175808/http://www.wvculture.org/history/government/mccarthy01.html
|url-status = dead
}}</ref>
The origin of the number 205 can be traced: in later debates on the Senate floor, McCarthy referred to a 1946 letter that then–Secretary of State ] sent to Congressman ]. In that letter, Byrnes said State Department security investigations had resulted in "recommendation against permanent employment" for 284 persons, and that 79 of these had been removed from their jobs; this left 205 still on the State Department's payroll. In fact, by the time of McCarthy's speech only about 65 of the employees mentioned in the Byrnes letter were still with the State Department, and all of these had undergone further security checks.<ref>
{{cite book
|last = Cook
|first = Fred J.
|title = The Nightmare Decade: The Life and Times of Senator Joe McCarthy
|publisher = Random House
|year= 1971
|pages = 155–156
|isbn = 0-394-46270-X}}
</ref>


At the time of McCarthy's speech, communism was a significant concern in the United States. This concern was exacerbated by the actions of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe, the ], the Soviets' ] the year before, and by the contemporary controversy surrounding ] and the confession of Soviet spy ]. With this background and due to the sensational nature of McCarthy's charge against the State Department, the Wheeling speech soon attracted a flood of press interest in McCarthy's claim.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mccarthy-says-communists-are-in-state-department|title=McCarthy says communists are in State Department|website=History|language=en|access-date=January 17, 2020|archive-date=January 28, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200128183417/http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mccarthy-says-communists-are-in-state-department|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8369.html|title=McCarthy targets 'communists' in government Feb. 9, 1950|last=Andrew Glass|website=Politico|date=February 9, 2008|language=en|access-date=January 17, 2020|archive-date=December 4, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204023940/http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8369.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
Of the 653 persons called by the McCarthy Committee during that 15-month period, 83 refused to answer questions about communist or espionage activities on constitutional grounds and their names were made public. Nine additional witnesses invoked the Fifth Amendment in executive session, but their names were not made public. Some of the 83 were working or had worked for the ], the ], the ], the ], the ], the ], the ], and the ]. Others were or had been employed at the ] in New Jersey, the secret radar laboratories of the ] in New Jersey, and General Electric defense plants in Massachusetts and New York. Nineteen of the 83, including such well-known communist propagandists as ], ], and ], were summoned because their writings were being carried in U.S. Information Service libraries around the world.


===Tydings Committee===
One of the witnessess called before McCarthy's committee was an elderly black woman named ], who lost her job working with classified messages at the ] after an ] undercover operative testified that she was a member of the ]. When she appeared before the McCarthy Committee early in 1954, Mrs. Moss, who lived at 72 R Street, SW, Washington, DC, denied she was a communist. Her defenders accused McCarthy of confusing Mrs. Moss with another woman with a similar name at a different address. ] made the woman a heroine on his television program and the press trumpeted this episode as typical of McCarthy's abominations. In September 1958, the ] reported that copies of the Communist Party's own records showed that "one Annie Lee Moss, 72 R Street, S.W., Washington, D.C., was a party member in the mid-1940s." Mrs. Moss got her Pentagon job back in 1954, although in a different department that did not hav access to classfied documents, and was still working for the Army in December 1958.
{{main|Tydings Committee}}
McCarthy himself was taken aback by the massive media response to the Wheeling speech, and he was accused of continually revising both his charges and figures. In ], Utah, a few days later, he cited a figure of 57, and in the Senate on February 20, 1950, he claimed 81.<ref>{{Cite thesis|type=Master's thesis|last=Swanson|first=Richard|date=1977|title=McCarthyism in Utah|url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/5154|publisher=Brigham Young University|access-date=January 17, 2020|archive-date=November 8, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191108125345/https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/5154/|url-status=live}}</ref> During a five-hour speech,<ref>Also reported as up to 8 hours in length.</ref> McCarthy presented a case-by-case analysis of his 81 "loyalty risks" employed at the State Department. It is widely accepted that most of McCarthy's cases were selected from the so-called "Lee list", a report that had been compiled three years earlier for the ]. Led by a former ] agent named Robert E. Lee, the House investigators had reviewed security clearance documents on State Department employees, and had determined that there were "incidents of inefficiencies"<ref>
{{cite book
|last = Reeves
|first = Thomas C.
|title = The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy: A Biography
|publisher = Madison Books
|page = 227
|year= 1982
|isbn = 1-56833-101-0}}</ref>
in the security reviews of 108 employees. McCarthy hid the source of his list, stating that he had penetrated the "iron curtain" of State Department secrecy with the aid of "some good, loyal Americans in the State Department".<ref>
{{cite book
|last = Griffith
|first = Robert
|title = The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate
|url = https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif
|url-access = registration
|publisher = University of Massachusetts Press
|year= 1970
|page =
|isbn = 0-87023-555-9}}</ref> In reciting the information from the Lee list cases, McCarthy consistently exaggerated, representing the hearsay of witnesses as facts and converting phrases such as "inclined towards Communism" to "a Communist".<ref>
{{cite book
|last = Griffith
|first = Robert
|title = The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate
|url = https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif
|url-access = registration
|publisher = University of Massachusetts Press
|year= 1970
|page =
|isbn = 0-87023-555-9}}</ref>


]]]
Despite widespread accustions of abuse and browbeating of witnesses, ], an attorney for ] in the Government Printing Office hearings, was so impressed with McCarthy's fairness toward his client that he declared: "I think the committee session at this day and in this place is most admirable and most American." Peter Gragis, who appeared before the McCarthy Committee on ], 1954, said that he had come to the hearing terrified because the press "had pointed out that you were very abusive, that you were crucifying people.... My experience has been quite the contrary. I have, I think, been very understandingly treated. I have been, I think, highly respected despite the fact that for some 20 years I had been more or less an active communist."
In response to McCarthy's charges, the Senate voted unanimously to investigate, and the ] hearings were called.<ref>David M. Barrett, ''CIA and Congress: The Untold Story from Truman to Kennedy'' (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005), p. 65.</ref> This was a subcommittee of the ] set up in February 1950 to conduct "a full and complete study and investigation as to whether persons who are disloyal to the United States are, or have been, employed by the Department of State".<ref>
''Congressional Record'', 81st Congress, 2nd session, pp. 2062–2068; quoted in:<br />
{{cite book
|last = Reeves
|first = Thomas C.
|title = The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy: A Biography
|publisher = Madison Books
|page = 243
|year= 1982
|isbn = 1-56833-101-0}}</ref>
Many Democrats were incensed at McCarthy's attack on the State Department of a Democratic administration, and had hoped to use the hearings to discredit him. The Democratic chairman of the subcommittee, Senator ], was reported to have said, "Let me have him for three days in public hearings, and he'll never show his face in the Senate again."<ref>
{{cite book|last = Oshinsky |first = David M.|title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy |publisher = Oxford University Press |year= 2005 |page = 119 |isbn = 0-19-515424-X|orig-year= 1983}}</ref>


During the hearings, McCarthy made charges against nine specific people: ], ], Haldore Hanson, ], ], ], ], ], and ]. They all had previously been the subject of charges of varying worth and validity. Owen Lattimore became a particular focus of McCarthy's, who at one point described him as a "top Russian spy".
==McCarthy and Truman==


From its beginning, the Tydings Committee was marked by intense partisan infighting. Its final report, written by the Democratic majority, concluded that the individuals on McCarthy's list were neither Communists nor pro-communist, and said the State Department had an effective security program. The Tydings Report labeled McCarthy's charges a "fraud and a hoax," and described them as using incensing rhetoric—saying that the result of McCarthy's actions was to "confuse and divide the American people ... to a degree far beyond the hopes of the Communists themselves". Republicans were outraged by the Democratic response. They responded to the report's rhetoric in kind, with ] stating that Tydings was guilty of "the most brazen whitewash of treasonable conspiracy in our history".<ref>{{cite book
]
|last = Griffith
|first = Robert
|title = The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate
|url = https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif
|url-access = registration
|publisher = University of Massachusetts Press
|year= 1970
|page =
|isbn = 0-87023-555-9}}</ref>
The full Senate voted three times on whether to accept the report, and each time the voting was precisely divided along party lines.<ref>
{{cite book
|last = Fried
|first = Richard M.
|year = 1990
|title = Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective
|publisher = Oxford University Press
|page = 128
|isbn = 0-19-504361-8
}}</ref>


===Fame and notoriety===
McCarthy sought to characterize President Truman and the Democratic party as soft on or even in league with the Communists. Truman, in turn, once referred to McCarthy as "the best asset the ] has."
]", coined the term "]" in this cartoon in the March 29, 1950, ''].'']]


From 1950 onward, McCarthy continued to exploit the ] and to press his accusations that the government was failing to deal with Communism within its ranks. McCarthy also began investigations into homosexuals working in the foreign policy bureaucracy, who were considered prime candidates for blackmail by the Soviets.<ref name="David M. Barrett 2005 p. 67">David M. Barrett, ''CIA and Congress: The Untold Story from Truman to Kennedy'' (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005), p. 67.</ref> These accusations received wide publicity, increased his approval rating, and gained him a powerful national following.
In 1947{{NamedRef|FBI1|1}}, evidence of considerable Soviet espionage activities within the U.S. government was accumulating. An FBI counterintelligence investigation{{NamedRef|FBI2|2}} impanelled a ] in New York, and meanwhile the Army ] at ] was gathering evidence in the form of Soviet cipher decrypts{{NamedRef|Benson|3}}. The evidence from these two sources was not consolidated within the government until some time later. So when McCarthy later made charges that the Truman administration knowingly protected Soviet agents, this appeared to large sectors{{NamedRef|ONCIX|4}} of the American public{{NamedRef|Smith|5}} to be true.


In Congress, there was little doubt that homosexuals did not belong in sensitive government positions.<ref name="David M. Barrett 2005 p. 67"/> Since the late 1940s, the government had been dismissing about five homosexuals a month from civilian posts; by 1954, the number had grown twelve-fold.<ref>William N. Eskridge, "Privacy Jurisprudence and the Apartheid of the Closet, 1946–1961," ''Florida State University Law Review'' 23, no. 4 (Summer 1997); quoted in David M. Barrett, ''CIA and Congress: The Untold Story from Truman to Kennedy'' (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005), p. 70.</ref> As historian ] would write, "Mixed in with the hysterics were some logic, though: homosexuals faced condemnation and discrimination, and most of them—wishing to conceal their orientation—were vulnerable to ]."<ref>David M. Barrett, ''CIA and Congress: The Untold Story from Truman to Kennedy'' (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005), p. 70.</ref> Director of Central Intelligence ] was called to Congress to testify on homosexuals being employed at the ]. He said, "The use of homosexuals as a control mechanism over individuals recruited for espionage is a generally accepted technique which has been used at least on a limited basis for many years." As soon as the DCI said these words, his aide signaled to take the remainder of the DCI's testimony off the record. Political historian David Barrett uncovered Hillenkoetter's notes, which reveal the remainder of the statement: "While this agency will never employ homosexuals on its rolls, it might conceivably be necessary, and in the past has actually been valuable, to use known homosexuals as agents in the field. I am certain that if ] or a member of the ] or a high satellite official were known to be a homosexual, no member of this committee or of the Congress would balk against our use of any technique to penetrate their operations ... after all, intelligence and espionage is, at best, an extremely dirty business."<ref>Hillenkoetter Testimony, 7-14-50, ''CIS Unpublished'' ''U.S. Senate Committee Hearings on Microfiche ''(Washington D.C.: Congressional Information Service); quoted in David M. Barrett, ''CIA and Congress: The Untold Story from Truman to Kennedy'' (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005), p. 79.</ref> The senators reluctantly agreed the CIA had to be flexible.<ref>David M. Barrett, ''CIA and Congress: The Untold Story from Truman to Kennedy'' (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005), p. 80.</ref>
After the defections of ] and ], and the gathering evidence of a "serious attack on American security by the Soviet Union"{{NamedRef|FBI3|6}}, Truman tried to contain the subversion issue within the ] with Executive Order 9835{{NamedRef|9835|7}} of 21 March 1947, and prevent ], by instituting loyalty{{NamedRef|FBI4|8}} and security checks in the government.{{NamedRef|Zinn|9}}


McCarthy's methods also brought on the disapproval and opposition of many. Barely a month after McCarthy's Wheeling speech, the term "McCarthyism" was coined by '']'' cartoonist ]. Block and others used the word as a synonym for ], baseless defamation, and mudslinging. Later, it would be embraced by McCarthy and some of his supporters. "McCarthyism is Americanism with its sleeves rolled," McCarthy said in a 1952 speech, and later that year, he published a book titled ''McCarthyism: The Fight For America''.
==McCarthy and Eisenhower==


McCarthy sought to discredit his critics and political opponents by accusing them of being Communists or communist sympathizers. In the 1950 Maryland Senate election, McCarthy campaigned for ] in his race against four-term incumbent Millard Tydings, with whom McCarthy had been in conflict during the Tydings Committee hearings. In speeches supporting Butler, McCarthy accused Tydings of "protecting Communists" and "shielding traitors". McCarthy's staff was heavily involved in the campaign and collaborated in the production of a campaign tabloid that contained a composite photograph doctored to make it appear that Tydings was in intimate conversation with Communist leader ].<ref>{{cite book
Eisenhower, a candidate for the presidency in the ], disagreed with McCarthy's tactics, but on one occasion was required to make a campaign stop with him in Wisconsin. There, he intended to make a comment denouncing McCarthy's agenda, but under the advice of a ] colleague, cut that part from his speech. He was widely criticized during his campaign for "selling out" to pressure and giving up his personal convictions because of party pressures. After being elected president, he made it clear to those close to him that he did not approve of McCarthy or his proceedings and he worked actively to shut down his operation. At the same time, not directly confronting McCarthy may have prolonged his power by showing that even the President was afraid to criticize him directly.
|last = Oshinsky
|first = David M.
|title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy
|publisher = Oxford University Press
|year= 2005
|page = 175
|isbn = 0-19-515424-X
|orig-year= 1983}}</ref><ref>
{{cite book
|title = The Official United States Congressional Daily Digest Records
|publisher = Government Publishing Office, Thomas Library, Official Repository Library, Local, Bakersfield California, CSUB
|year= 2009
|pages = 8', 79th Congress, 3rd Session, Date August 2, 1946, Congressional Records&nbsp;– House, p. 10749
|orig-year= 1946}}</ref><ref>
{{cite book
|title = The United States Constitution
|publisher = Government Publishing Office, Thomas Library, Official Repository Library, Local, Bakersfield California, CSUB
|year= 2009
|page = 10
|orig-year= 1782}}
</ref> A Senate subcommittee later investigated this election and referred to it as "a despicable, back-street type of campaign", as well as recommending that the use of defamatory literature in a campaign be made grounds for expulsion from the Senate.<ref>
{{cite book
|last = Cook
|first = Fred J.
|title = The Nightmare Decade: The Life and Times of Senator Joe McCarthy
|publisher = Random House
|year= 1971
|pages = 150–151
|isbn = 0-394-46270-X}}</ref> The pamphlet was clearly labeled a composite. McCarthy said it was "wrong" to distribute it; though staffer Jean Kerr thought it was fine. After he lost the election by almost 40,000 votes, Tydings claimed foul play.


In addition to the Tydings–Butler race, McCarthy campaigned for several other Republicans in the ], including ] against Democratic incumbent and Senate Majority Leader ]. Dirksen, and indeed all the candidates McCarthy supported, won their elections, and those he opposed lost. The elections, including many that McCarthy was not involved in, were an overall Republican sweep. Although his impact on the elections was unclear, McCarthy was credited as a key Republican campaigner. He was now regarded as one of the most powerful men in the Senate and was treated with new-found deference by his colleagues.<ref>
==Investigating the Army==
{{cite book
|last = Cook
|first = Fred J.
|title = The Nightmare Decade: The Life and Times of Senator Joe McCarthy
|publisher = Random House
|year= 1971
|page = 316
|isbn = 0-394-46270-X}}</ref> In the 1952 Senate elections McCarthy was returned to his Senate seat with 54.2% of the vote, compared to Democrat Thomas Fairchild's 45.6%. As of 2020, McCarthy is the last Republican to win Wisconsin's Class 1 Senate seat.


{{Election box begin no change
In the fall of 1953, McCarthy's committee began its ill-fated inquiry into the ]. The investigation began when an Army general alerted Senator McCarthy to the story of a New York dentist, ], who was drafted into the Army as a captain in October 1952; who refused a month later to answer questions on a ] form about membership in subversive organizations; who was recommended for ] by the Surgeon General of the Army in April 1953; but who requested and received a promotion to major the following October. Roy Cohn gave the facts on Peress to Army Counsel ] in December 1953, and Adams promised to investigate.
| title=1952 Wisconsin U.S. Senate election}}
{{Election box winning candidate with party link no change
|party = Republican Party (United States)
|candidate = Joseph McCarthy
|votes = 870,444
|percentage = 54.2
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link no change
|party = Democratic Party (United States)
|candidate = ]
|votes = 731,402
|percentage = 45.6
}}
{{Election box total no change
| votes = 1,601,846
| percentage = 99.8
}}
{{Election box hold with party link no change
|winner = Republican Party (United States)
|loser =
|swing =
}}
{{Election box end}}


===McCarthy and the Truman administration===
When no action had been taken on Peress a month later, McCarthy subpoenaed Peress before the committee on ], 1954. Peress took the Fifth Amendment 20 times when asked about his membership in the ], his attendance at a Communist training school, and his efforts to recruit military personnel into the party. Two days later, McCarthy sent a letter to Army Secretary ] by special messenger, reviewing the testimony of Peress and requesting that he be court-martialed and that the Army find out who promoted Peress, knowing that he was a Communist. On that same day, February 1st, Peress asked for an honorable separation from the Army, which he promptly received the next day from Brigadier General ], his commanding officer at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey.
McCarthy and ] clashed often during the years both held office. McCarthy characterized Truman and the Democratic Party as soft on, or even in league with, Communists, and spoke of the Democrats' "twenty years of treason". Truman, in turn, once referred to McCarthy as "the best asset the ] has", calling McCarthy's actions an attempt to "sabotage the foreign policy of the United States" in a cold war and comparing it to shooting American soldiers in the back in a hot war.<ref>
{{cite book|last = Herman
|first = Arthur
|title = Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator
|publisher = Free Press
|year = 2000
|page =
|isbn = 0-684-83625-4
|url = https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/131
}}</ref>
It was the Truman Administration's State Department that McCarthy accused of harboring 205 (or 57 or 81) "known Communists". Truman's ], ], was the target of some of McCarthy's most vitriolic rhetoric. Marshall had been ] during World War II and was also Truman's former ]. Marshall was a highly respected general and statesman, remembered today as the architect of victory and peace, the latter based on the ] for post-war reconstruction of Europe, for which he was awarded the ] in 1953. McCarthy made a lengthy speech on Marshall, later published in 1951 as a book titled ''America's Retreat From Victory: The Story of George Catlett Marshall''. Marshall had been involved in American foreign policy with China, and McCarthy charged that Marshall was directly responsible for the loss of China to Communism. In the speech McCarthy also implied that Marshall was guilty of treason;<ref name="Retreat">
{{cite book
|last = McCarthy
|first = Joseph
|title = Major Speeches and Debates of Senator Joe McCarthy Delivered in the United States Senate, 1950–1951
|publisher = Gordon Press
|year= 1951
|pages = 264, 307, 215
|isbn = 0-87968-308-2}}</ref>
declared that "if Marshall were merely stupid, the laws of probability would dictate that part of his decisions would serve this country's interest";<ref name="Retreat"/> and most famously, accused him of being part of "a conspiracy so immense and an infamy so black as to dwarf any previous venture in the history of man".<ref name="Retreat"/>


In December 1950, McCarthy teamed with right-wing radio star ] to smear Truman's nominee for Assistant Secretary of Defense, ]. Their smear campaign attracted allies in anti-Semites and extremists like ], who falsely claimed Rosenberg, who was Jewish, was a communist.<ref name="Gorham 2023">{{Cite book |last=Gorham |first=Christopher C. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1369148974 |title=The confidante : the untold story of the woman who helped win WWII and shape modern America |date=2023 |isbn=978-0-8065-4200-3 |location=New York |oclc=1369148974}}</ref> Unlike other women targets of McCarthyism, Rosenberg emerged with her career and integrity intact. When the smear campaign fizzled out, journalist ] said "the character assassin has missed."<ref name="Gorham 2023"/>
McCarthy summoned General Zwicker to a closed session of the committee on February 18th. In separate conversations with two McCarthy staff members, on January 22nd and February 13th, Zwicker had said that he was familiar with Peress' communist connections and that he was opposed to giving him an honorable discharge, but that he was ordered to do so by someone at the Pentagon. When he appeared before McCarthy, Zwicker was evasive, hostile, and uncooperative. He changed his story three times when asked if he had known at the time he signed the discharge that Peress had refused to answer questions before the McCarthy Committee. McCarthy became increasingly exasperated and, when Zwicker, in response to a hypothetical question, said that he would not remove from the military a general who originated the order for the honorable discharge of a communist major, knowing that he was a communist, McCarthy lashed out. Among other things, McCarthy compared Zwicker's intelligence to that of a "five-year-old child," and stated that Zwicker was "not fit to wear the uniform of a General." Years later, at a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 21, 1957, Zwicker would state: "I think there are some circumstances … that would certainly tend to give a person the idea that perhaps I was recalcitrant, perhaps I was holding back, and perhaps I wasn't too cooperative.... I am afraid I was perhaps overcautious and perhaps on the defensive, and that this feeling … may have inclined me to be not as forthright, perhaps, in answering the questions put to me as I might have been otherwise." Charles Potter was one of the few Republican Senators to speak out against McCarthy. He later wrote a book called Days Of Shame in which he lambasted his fellow Senator.


During the ], when Truman dismissed General ], McCarthy charged that Truman and his advisors must have planned the dismissal during late-night sessions when "they've had time to get the President cheerful" on bourbon and ]. McCarthy declared, "The son of a bitch should be impeached."<ref>
In its report on the Peress case, the McClellan Committee (McClellan replaced McCarthy as Committee head in 1954) said that "some 48 errors of more than minor importance were committed by the Army in connection with the commissioning, transfer, promotion, and honorable discharge of Irving Peress." As a result, the Army made some sweeping changes in its security program, including a policy statement that said "the taking of the Fifth Amendment by an individual queried about his Communist affiliations is sufficient to warrant the issuance of a general discharge rather than an honorable discharge."
{{cite book
|last = Oshinsky
|first = David M.
|title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy
|publisher = Oxford University Press
|year= 2005
|page = 194
|isbn = 0-19-515424-X
|orig-year= 1983}}</ref>


===Support from Catholics and the Kennedy family===
The declassified Venona papers later proved that Peress was in fact running a Soviet Spy ring within the US Army.


One of the strongest bases of anti-Communist sentiment in the United States was the Catholic community, which constituted over 20% of the national vote. McCarthy identified himself as Catholic, and although the great majority of Catholics were Democrats, as his fame as a leading anti-Communist grew, he became popular in Catholic communities across the country, with strong support from many leading Catholics, diocesan newspapers, and Catholic journals. At the same time, some Catholics opposed McCarthy, notably the anti-Communist author Father ] and the influential journal '']''.<ref>
==The Army-McCarthy Hearings==
{{cite book|last =Crosby
|first =Donald F.
|title =God, Church, and Flag: Senator Joseph R. McCarthy and the Catholic Church, 1950–1957
|publisher =University of North Carolina Press
|year =1978
|pages =
|isbn =0-8078-1312-5
|url =https://archive.org/details/godchurchflagsen0000cros/page/200
}}</ref>


McCarthy established a bond with the powerful ], which had high visibility among Catholics. McCarthy became a close friend of ], himself a fervent anti-Communist, and he was also a frequent guest at the Kennedy compound in ]. He dated two of Kennedy's daughters, ] and ].<ref>
Early in ], the Army accused McCarthy and his chief counsel, ], of pressuring the Army to give favorable treatment to another former aide and friend of Cohn's, ]. McCarthy claimed that the accusation was made in bad faith, in retaliation for his questioning of Zwicker the previous year. A special committee, under the chairmanship of Senator ], was appointed to adjudicate these conflicting charges, and the hearings opened on ], 1954.
{{cite book |last = Morrow |first = Lance |title =The Best Year of Their Lives: Kennedy, Johnson, And Nixon in 1948 |publisher =Perseus Books Group |year= 1978 |page = 4 |isbn = 0-465-04724-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last = Bogle |first = Lori |title =Cold War Espionage and Spying |publisher =] |year= 2001 |page = 129 |isbn = 0-8153-3241-6}}</ref> It has been stated that McCarthy was ] to ]'s first child, ]. This claim has been acknowledged by Robert's wife and Kathleen's mother ],<ref name=mccarthygodfather /> though Kathleen later claimed that she looked at her baptismal certificate and that her actual godfather was ] professor Daniel Walsh.<ref name=mccarthygodfather>{{Cite book|title=Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon |last=Tye|first=Larry|publisher=Random House|year=2016|isbn=978-0812993349|location=New York|page=68|via=Electronic version}}</ref>


Robert Kennedy was unusual among his Harvard friends for defending McCarthy when they discussed politics after graduation.{{r|leamer2001}} He was chosen by McCarthy to be a counsel for his investigatory committee, but resigned after six months due to disagreements with McCarthy and Committee Counsel ]. Joseph Kennedy had a national network of contacts and became a vocal supporter, building McCarthy's popularity among Catholics and making sizable contributions to McCarthy's campaigns.<ref>
] at the ]]]
{{cite book
|last = Oshinsky
|first = David M.
|title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy
|publisher = Oxford University Press
|year= 2005
|page = 240
|isbn = 0-19-515424-X
|orig-year= 1983}}
{{cite book
|last = Reeves
|first = Thomas C.
|title = The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy: A Biography
|publisher = Madison Books
|page = 443
|year= 1982
|isbn = 1-56833-101-0}}</ref> The Kennedy patriarch hoped that one of his sons would be president. Mindful of the ] which ] faced during his ] for that office, Joseph Kennedy supported McCarthy as a national Catholic politician who might pave the way for a younger Kennedy's presidential candidacy.


Unlike many Democrats, ], who served in the Senate with McCarthy from 1953 until the latter's death in 1957, never attacked McCarthy. McCarthy did not campaign for Kennedy's ], Republican incumbent ], due to his friendship with the Kennedys<ref name=amex> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100227180938/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/kennedys/ |date=February 27, 2010 }}. '']''. Boston, Massachusetts: ]. 2009.</ref> and, reportedly, a $50,000 donation from Joseph Kennedy. Lodge lost despite Eisenhower winning the state in the presidential election.{{r|johnson2005}} When a speaker at a February 1952 ] dinner stated that he was glad that McCarthy had not attended ], an angry Kennedy jumped up, denounced the speaker, and left the event.<ref name="leamer2001">{{Cite book |last=Leamer, Laurence |url=https://archive.org/details/kennedymen19011900leam/page/346 |title=The Kennedy Men: 1901–1963 |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2001 |isbn=0-688-16315-7 |page=}}</ref> When ] asked John Kennedy why he avoided criticizing McCarthy, Kennedy responded by saying, "Hell, half my voters in Massachusetts look on McCarthy as a hero".<ref name=johnson2005>
The Senate convened the ] into the matter, which was broadcast live and on television. The televised hearings lasted for 36 days and were viewed by an estimated 20 million people. After hearing 32 witnesses and two million words of testimony, the committee concluded that McCarthy himself had not exercised any improper influence in behalf of David Schine, but that ], McCarthy's chief counsel, had engaged in some "unduly persistent or aggressive efforts" in behalf of Schine. The committee also concluded that Army Secretary Robert Stevens and Army Counsel John Adams "made efforts to terminate or influence the investigation and hearings at Fort Monmouth," and that Adams "made vigorous and diligent efforts" to block subpoenas for members of the Army Loyalty and Screening Board "by means of personal appeal to certain members of the committee."
{{cite book
|last = Johnson
|first = Haynes
|title =The Age of Anxiety: McCarthyism to Terrorism
|url = https://archive.org/details/ageofanxietymcca00john
|url-access = registration
|publisher = Harcourt
|year= 2005
|page =
|isbn = 0-15-101062-5}}</ref>


===McCarthy and Eisenhower===
In a separate statement that concurred with the special committee report, Senator ] demonstrated the weakness of the Army case by noting that the Army did not make its charges public until eight months after the first allegedly improper effort was made in behalf of Schine (July 1953), and then not until after Senator McCarthy had made it known (January 1954) that he would subpoena members of the Army Loyalty and Screening Board. Dirksen also called attention to a telephone conversation between Secretary Stevens and Senator ] on ], 1954, three days before the Army allegations were made public. In that conversation, Stevens said that any charges of improper influence by McCarthy's staff "would prove to be very much exaggerated.... I am the Secretary and I have had some talks with the committee and the chairman, and so on, and by and large as far as the treatment of me is concerned, I have no personal complaint."
], 34th President of the United States]]
During the ], the Eisenhower campaign toured Wisconsin with McCarthy. In a speech delivered in ], Eisenhower declared that while he agreed with McCarthy's goals, he disagreed with his methods. In draft versions of his speech, Eisenhower had also included a strong defense of his mentor, George Marshall, which was a direct rebuke of McCarthy's frequent attacks. However, under the advice of ] colleagues who were afraid that Eisenhower could lose Wisconsin if he alienated McCarthy supporters, he deleted this defense from later versions of his speech.<ref name="autogenerated15">{{cite book|last = Wicker
|first = Tom
|year = 2002
|title = Dwight D. Eisenhower: The American Presidents Series
|publisher = Times Books
|page =
|isbn = 0-8050-6907-0
|url = https://archive.org/details/rutherfordbhayes00tref/page/15
}}</ref><ref>{{cite book
|last = Griffith
|first = Robert
|title = The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate
|url = https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif/page/188
|url-access = registration
|publisher = University of Massachusetts Press
|year = 1970
|pages =
|isbn = 0-87023-555-9
}}</ref> The deletion was discovered by William H. Laurence, a reporter for ''],'' and featured on its front page the next day. Eisenhower was widely criticized for giving up his personal convictions, and the incident became the low point of his campaign.<ref name="autogenerated15" />


With his victory in the 1952 presidential race, Eisenhower became the first Republican president in 20 years. The Republican Party also held a majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate. After being elected president, Eisenhower made it clear to those close to him that he did not approve of McCarthy and he worked actively to diminish his power and influence. Still, he never directly confronted McCarthy or criticized him by name in any speech, thus perhaps prolonging McCarthy's power by giving the impression that even the President was afraid to criticize him directly. Oshinsky disputes this, stating that "Eisenhower was known as a harmonizer, a man who could get diverse factions to work toward a common goal.&nbsp;... Leadership, he explained, meant patience and conciliation, not 'hitting people over the head.'"<ref>{{cite book
In one memorable interchange, McCarthy responded to aggressive questioning from the Army's attorney general ]. On June 9th, the 30th day of the hearings, Welch was engaged in baiting Roy Cohn, challenging him to get 130 communists or subversives out of defense plants "before the sun goes down." The treatment of Cohn angered McCarthy and he said that if Welch were so concerned about persons aiding the Communist Party, he should check on a man in his Boston law office named ], who had once belonged to the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), which Attorney General Brownell had called "the legal mouthpiece of the Communist Party." Welch then delivered the most famous lines from the Army-McCarthy Hearings, accusing McCarthy of "reckless cruelty" and concluding: "Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" These proceedings have been recorded in the ] '']''
|last = Oshinsky
|first = David M.
|title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy
|publisher = Oxford University Press
|year= 2005
|page = 259
|isbn = 0-19-515424-X
|orig-year= 1983}}</ref>


McCarthy won reelection in 1952 with 54% of the popular vote, defeating former Wisconsin State Attorney General ] but, as stated above, badly trailing a Republican ticket which otherwise swept the state of Wisconsin; all the other Republican winners, including Eisenhower himself, received at least 60% of the Wisconsin vote.<ref>{{cite book
==The Watkins Committee==
|last = Oshinsky
|first = David M.
|title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy
|publisher = Oxford University Press
|year= 2005
|page = 244
|isbn = 0-19-515424-X
|orig-year= 1983}}</ref>
Those who expected that party loyalty would cause McCarthy to tone down his accusations of Communists being harbored within the government were soon disappointed. Eisenhower had never been an admirer of McCarthy, and their relationship became more hostile once Eisenhower was in office. In a November 1953 speech that was carried on national television, McCarthy began by praising the Eisenhower Administration for removing "1,456 Truman holdovers who were&nbsp;... gotten rid of because of Communist connections and activities or perversion." He then went on to complain that ] was still "on the payroll after eleven months of the Eisenhower administration," even though Davies had actually been dismissed three weeks earlier, and repeated an unsubstantiated accusation that Davies had tried to "put Communists and espionage agents in key spots in the ]." In the same speech, he criticized Eisenhower for not doing enough to secure the release of missing American pilots shot down over China during the Korean War.<ref>All quotes in this paragraph: {{cite book|last = Fried
|first = Albert
|year = 1997
|title = McCarthyism, The Great American Red Scare: A Documentary History
|publisher = Oxford University Press
|pages =
|isbn = 0-19-509701-7
|url = https://archive.org/details/mccarthyismgreat00frie/page/182
}}</ref> By the end of 1953, McCarthy had altered the "twenty years of treason" catchphrase he had coined for the preceding Democratic administrations and began referring to "twenty-''one'' years of treason" to include Eisenhower's first year in office.<ref>{{cite book|last = Fried
|first = Albert
|title = McCarthyism, The Great American Red Scare: A Documentary History
|publisher = Oxford University Press
|year = 1996
|page =
|isbn = 0-19-509701-7
|url = https://archive.org/details/mccarthyismgreat00frie/page/179
}}</ref>


As McCarthy became increasingly combative towards the Eisenhower Administration, Eisenhower faced repeated calls that he confront McCarthy directly. Eisenhower refused, saying privately "nothing would please him more than to get the publicity that would be generated by a public repudiation by the President."<ref>{{cite book
Several members of the U.S. Senate opposed McCarthy well before 1953. One example is U.S. Senator ], a ] Republican (and the only woman in the Senate at the time) who delivered her "]" on ], ], criticizing both the Executive and ] branches' use of smear tactics without mentioning McCarthy or anyone else by name. Smith also said "The Democratic administration has greatly lost the confidence of the American people by its complacency to the threat of Communism and the leak of vital secrets to ] through key officials of the Democratic administration." Six other Republican Senators, ], ], Charles W. Tobey, ], ] and Robert C. Hendrickson joined her in condemning McCarthy's tactics. ] Senator ] also condemned McCarthy on the floor of the Senate and he introduced the resolution to censure him. McCarthy referred to Smith and her fellow Senators as "Snow White and the 6 dwarves."
|last = Powers
|first = Richard Gid
|title = Not Without Honor: The History of American Anticommunism
|publisher = Yale University Press
|year= 1998
|page = 263
|isbn = 0-300-07470-0}}</ref> On several occasions Eisenhower is reported to have said of McCarthy that he did not want to "get down in the gutter with that guy."<ref>{{cite book|last = Parmet
|first = Herbert S.
|title = Eisenhower and the American Crusades
|publisher = Transaction Publishers
|year = 1998
|pages =
|isbn = 0-7658-0437-9
|url = https://archive.org/details/eisenhowerameric00parm/page/248
}}</ref>


===Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations===
On ], ], Senator ] introduced a resolution accusing McCarthy of conduct "unbecoming a member of the United States Senate." Flanders was no fan of McCarthy, as exampled by a statement to the Senate two months earlier that said McCarthy's "anti-Communism so completely parallels that of Adolf Hitler as to strike fear into the hearts of any defenseless minority."
With the beginning of his second term as senator in January 1953, McCarthy was made chairman of the Senate Committee on Government Operations. According to some reports, Republican leaders were growing wary of McCarthy's methods and gave him this relatively mundane panel rather than the ]—the committee normally involved with investigating Communists—thus putting McCarthy "where he can't do any harm", in the words of Senate Majority Leader ].<ref>{{cite book
|last = Fried
|first = Richard M.
|year = 1990
|title = Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective
|publisher = Oxford University Press
|page = 134
|isbn = 0-19-504361-8
}}</ref> However, the Committee on Government Operations included the ], and the mandate of this subcommittee was sufficiently flexible to allow McCarthy to use it for his own investigations of Communists in the government. McCarthy appointed ] as chief counsel and 27-year-old ] as an assistant counsel to the subcommittee. Later, McCarthy also hired ], heir to a hotel-chain fortune, on the recommendation of George Sokolsky.<ref name="auto"/>


This subcommittee would be the scene of some of McCarthy's most publicized exploits. When the records of the closed executive sessions of the subcommittee under McCarthy's chairmanship were made public in 2003–04,<ref>See "Transcripts, Executive Sessions ..." under Primary sources, below.</ref> Senators ] and ] wrote the following in their preface to the documents:
McCarthy's was initially accused of 46 different counts of allegedly improper conduct and a special committee was set up, under the chairmanship of Senator ], to study and evaluate the charges. Thus began the fifth investigation of Joe McCarthy in five years. After two months of hearings and deliberations, the Watkins Committee recommended that McCarthy be censured on only two of the 46 counts.


<blockquote>Senator McCarthy's zeal to uncover subversion and espionage led to disturbing excesses. His browbeating tactics destroyed careers of people who were not involved in the infiltration of our government. His freewheeling style caused both the Senate and the Subcommittee to revise the rules governing future investigations, and prompted the courts to act to protect the Constitutional rights of witnesses at Congressional hearings.&nbsp;... These hearings are a part of our national past that we can neither afford to forget nor permit to re-occur.<ref>{{cite web
When a special session of the Senate convened on ], 1954, these were the two charges to be debated and voted on: 1) That Senator McCarthy had "failed to cooperate" in 1952 with the Senate Subcommitee on Privileges and Elections that was looking into certain aspects of his private and political life in connection with a resolution for his expulsion from the Senate; and 2) That in conducting a senatorial inquiry, Senator McCarthy had "intemperately abused" General ].
|first1 = Susan
|last1 = Collins
|first2 = Carl
|last2 = Levin
|author-link1 = Susan Collins
|author-link2 = Carl Levin
|title = Preface
|work = Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
|publisher = U.S. Government Printing Office
|year = 2003
|url = https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/Volume1.pdf
|access-date = December 19, 2006
|archive-date = December 28, 2006
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061228010804/http://senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/Volume1.pdf
|url-status = live
}}</ref></blockquote>


The subcommittee first investigated allegations of Communist influence in the ], at that time administered by the State Department's ]. Many VOA personnel were questioned in front of television cameras and a packed press gallery, with McCarthy lacing his questions with hostile innuendo and false accusations.<ref name="VOA">{{cite book
Many senators were uneasy about the Zwicker count, particularly since the ] had shown contempt for committee chairman McCarthy by disregarding his letter of February 1, 1954 and honorably discharging Irving Peress the next day. For this reason, these senators felt that McCarthy's conduct toward Zwicker on February 18th was at least partially justified. So the Zwicker count was dropped at the last minute and was replaced with this substitute charge: 2) That Senator McCarthy, by characterizing the Watkins Committee as the "unwitting handmaiden" of the Communist Party and by describing the special Senate session as a "lynch party" and a "lynch bee," had "acted contrary to senatorial ethics and tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute, to obstruct the constitutional processes of the Senate, and to impair its dignity."
|last = Heil
|first = Alan L.
|year = 2003
|title = Voice of America: A History
|publisher = Columbia University Press
|page = 53
|isbn = 0-231-12674-3
}}</ref> A few VOA employees alleged Communist influence on the content of broadcasts, but none of the charges were substantiated. Morale at VOA was badly damaged, and one of its engineers committed suicide during McCarthy's investigation. Ed Kretzman, a policy advisor for the service, would later comment that it was VOA's "darkest hour when Senator McCarthy and his chief hatchet man, Roy Cohn, almost succeeded in muffling it."<ref name="VOA" />


The subcommittee then turned to the overseas library program of the International Information Agency. Cohn toured Europe examining the card catalogs of the State Department libraries looking for works by authors he deemed inappropriate. McCarthy then recited the list of supposedly pro-communist authors before his subcommittee and the press. The State Department bowed to McCarthy and ordered its overseas librarians to remove from their shelves "material by any controversial persons, Communists, fellow travelers, etc." Some libraries went as far as ] the newly-forbidden books.<ref>{{cite book
On ], 1954, the Senate voted to "condemn" Senator Joseph McCarthy on both counts by a vote of 67 to 22, with the Democrats unanimously in favor of condemnation and the Republicans split evenly. However, regarding the first count, failure to cooperate with the Subcommittee on Privileges and Elections, the subcommittee never subpoenaed McCarthy, but only "invited" him to testify. One senator and two staff members resigned from the subcommittee because of its dishonesty towards McCarthy, and the subcommittee, in its final report, dated January 2, 1953, said that the matters under consideration "have become moot by reason of the 1952 election." No senator had ever been punished for something that had happened in a previous Congress or for declining an "invitation" to testify.
|last = Griffith
|first = Robert
|title = The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate
|url = https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif
|url-access = registration
|publisher = University of Massachusetts Press
|year= 1970
|page =
|isbn = 0-87023-555-9}}</ref> Shortly after this, in one of his public criticisms of McCarthy, President Eisenhower urged Americans: "Don't join the book burners.&nbsp;... Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book."<ref>{{cite web
|url = http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/stories/Ike-Milton-McCarthy.htm
|title = Ike, Milton, and the McCarthy Battle
|access-date = August 9, 2006
|publisher = Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission
|url-status = dead
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060615173752/http://eisenhowermemorial.org/stories/Ike-Milton-McCarthy.htm
|archive-date = June 15, 2006
|df = mdy-all
}}</ref>


Soon after receiving the chair to the Subcommittee on Investigations, McCarthy appointed ] as staff director of the subcommittee. One of the nation's foremost anti-communists, Matthews had formerly been staff director for the ]. The appointment became controversial when it was learned that Matthews had recently written an article titled "Reds and Our Churches",<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?lr=&q=%22Reds%20and%20Our%20Churches%22%20Matthews&btnG=Search%20Books|title='Reds and Our Churches' Matthews |via=Google Search}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?lr=&q=%22Reds%20in%20Our%20Churches%22%20Matthews&btnG=Search%20Books|title='Reds in Our Churches' Matthews |via=Google Search}}</ref> which opened with the sentence, "The largest single group supporting the Communist apparatus in the United States is composed of Protestant Clergymen." A group of senators denounced this "shocking and unwarranted attack against the American clergy" and demanded that McCarthy dismiss Matthews. McCarthy initially refused to do this. As the controversy mounted, however, and the majority of his own subcommittee joined the call for Matthews's ouster, McCarthy finally yielded and accepted his resignation. For some McCarthy opponents, this was a signal defeat of the senator, showing he was not as invincible as he had formerly seemed.<ref>{{cite book
As for the second count, criticism of the Watkins Committee and the special Senate session, McCarthy was condemned for opinions he had expressed outside the Senate. As David Lawrence pointed out in an editorial in the June 7, 1957 issue of U.S. News & World Report, other senators had accused McCarthy of lying under oath, accepting influence money, engaging in election fraud, making libelous and false statements, practicing blackmail, doing the work of the communists for them, and engaging in a questionable "personal relationship" with Roy Cohn and David Schine, but they were not censured for acting "contrary to senatorial ethics" or for impairing the "dignity" of the Senate.
|last = Griffith
|first = Robert
|title = The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate
|url = https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif
|url-access = registration
|publisher =University of Massachusetts Press
|year= 1970
|page =
|isbn = 0-87023-555-9}}</ref>


===Investigating the Army===
==The Fall of McCarthy==
In autumn 1953, McCarthy's committee began its ill-fated inquiry into the ]. This began with McCarthy opening an investigation into the ] laboratory at ]. McCarthy, newly married to Jean Kerr, cut short his honeymoon to open the investigation. He garnered some headlines with stories of a dangerous spy ring among the army researchers, but after weeks of hearings, nothing came of his investigations.<ref>{{cite book|last = Stone|title = Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism|isbn = 0-393-05880-8|url = https://archive.org/details/periloustimesfre00ston|publisher = W.W. Norton & Co.|year = 2004}}</ref> Unable to expose any signs of subversion, McCarthy focused instead on the case of ], a New York dentist who had been drafted into the army in 1952 and promoted to major in November 1953. Shortly thereafter it came to the attention of the military bureaucracy that Peress, who was a member of the left-wing ], had declined to answer questions about his political affiliations on a loyalty-review form. Peress's superiors were therefore ordered to discharge him from the army within 90 days. McCarthy subpoenaed Peress to appear before his subcommittee on January 30, 1954. Peress refused to answer McCarthy's questions, citing his rights under the ]. McCarthy responded by sending a message to ] ], demanding that Peress be court-martialed. On that same day, Peress asked for his pending discharge from the army to be effected immediately, and the next day ] ], his commanding officer at ] in ], gave him an honorable separation from the army. At McCarthy's encouragement, "Who promoted Peress?" became a rallying cry among many anti-communists and McCarthy supporters. In fact, and as McCarthy knew, Peress had been promoted automatically through the provisions of the ] Law, for which McCarthy had voted.<ref>{{cite news |last=Barnes |first=Bart |date=November 18, 2014 |title=Irving Peress, dentist who was subject of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's hearings, dies at 97 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/irving-peress-dentist-who-was-subject-of-sen-joseph-mccarthys-hearings-dies-at-97/2014/11/18/196bd42a-6f3b-11e4-ad12-3734c461eab6_story.html |newspaper=Washington Post |location=Washington, DC |access-date=September 2, 2017 |archive-date=March 12, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312031823/https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/irving-peress-dentist-who-was-subject-of-sen-joseph-mccarthys-hearings-dies-at-97/2014/11/18/196bd42a-6f3b-11e4-ad12-3734c461eab6_story.html |url-status=live }}</ref>


===Army–McCarthy hearings===
One of the most prominent attacks on McCarthy's methods, dramatized in the ] film '']'', was an episode of the TV documentary series '']'', hosted by respected journalist ], which was broadcast on ], ]. The show consisted mostly of carefully edited clips of McCarthy speaking, so any negative reaction would be mostly from McCarthy's own words. In the clips, McCarthy accuses the Democratic party of "twenty years of treason" (]-], in his estimation, the Administrations of ] and ]), and berates witnesses, including an Army general.
{{Main|Army–McCarthy hearings}}
Early in 1954, the U.S. Army accused McCarthy and his chief counsel, ], of improperly pressuring the army to give favorable treatment to ], a former aide to McCarthy and a friend of Cohn's, who was then serving in the army as a private.<ref>Schwarz, Frederick D. " {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201031423/http://www.americanheritage.com/content/1954-50-years-ago-0 |date=December 1, 2017 }}". '']'', November/December 2004. Retrieved November 30, 2017.</ref> McCarthy claimed that the accusation was made in bad faith, in retaliation for his questioning of Zwicker the previous year. The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, usually chaired by McCarthy himself, was given the task of adjudicating these conflicting charges. Republican senator ] was appointed to chair the committee, and the ] convened on April 22, 1954.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/censure_cases/133Joseph_McCarthy.htm |title=U.S. Senate: The Censure Case of Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin (1954) |access-date=July 27, 2020 |archive-date=January 7, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100107030754/https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/censure_cases/133Joseph_McCarthy.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>


] (right) at the ].]]
The Murrow report sparked a nationwide popular opinion backlash against McCarthy, in large part due to the fact that he was now seen, for the first time by many Americans, to be a flesh-and-blood, moving, speaking figure whose statements were immediately and publicly challenged, rather than a name in a newspaper story and sometimes an accompanying photograph. To counter the negative ], McCarthy appeared on ''See It Now'' about three weeks after the original episode and made a number of personal attacks and charges against Murrow. However, his method of delivery had been designed for a live audience, not a nationwide broadcast one; the result of this appearance was a further decline in his popularity. President Eisenhower, now free of McCarthy's political intimidation and the always potential threat of American ] electoral displeasure, referred to "McCarthy''was''m" to a reporter.
The army consulted with an attorney familiar with McCarthy to determine the best approach to attacking him. Based on his recommendation, it decided not to pursue McCarthy on the question of communists in government: "The attorney feels it is almost impossible to counter McCarthy effectively on the issue of kicking Communists out of Government, because he generally has some basis, no matter how slight, for his claim of Communist connection."<ref name=Arthur1>
{{cite book|last = Herman
|first = Arthur
|title = Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator
|publisher = Free Press
|year = 1999
|page =
|isbn = 0-684-83625-4
|url = https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/264
}}
</ref>


The hearings lasted for 36 days and were broadcast on ] by ] and ], with an estimated 20 million viewers. After hearing 32 witnesses and two million words of testimony, the committee concluded that McCarthy himself had not exercised any improper influence on Schine's behalf, but that Cohn had engaged in "unduly persistent or aggressive efforts". The committee also concluded that Army Secretary Robert Stevens and Army Counsel John Adams "made efforts to terminate or influence the investigation and hearings at Fort Monmouth", and that Adams "made vigorous and diligent efforts" to block subpoenas for members of the Army Loyalty and Screening Board "by means of personal appeal to certain members of the committee".<ref>Karl E. Mundt et al., ''Report no. 2507, pursuant to Senate Resolution 189'' (Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, August 30, 1954), 80. Online at books.google.com/books?id=Nh64jR1OzjUC&pg=RA245-PA80</ref>
==McCarthy's Final Years==


Of far greater importance to McCarthy than the committee's inconclusive final report was the adverse effect that the extensive exposure had on his popularity. Many in the audience saw him as bullying, reckless, and dishonest, and the daily newspaper summaries of the hearings were also frequently unfavorable.<ref>
After his censure, McCarthy continued to work in his senatorial duties for another two and a half years. Some contend that he was a changed man during this time, but "to insist, as some have, that McCarthy was a shattered man after the censure is sheer nonsense," said Brent Bozell, one of his aides at the time. "His intellect was as sharp as ever. When he addressed himself to a problem, he was perfectly capable of dealing with it."
{{cite book
|last = Morgan
|first = Ted
|title = Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America
|publisher = Random House
|year= 2004
|page = 489
|isbn = 0-8129-7302-X}}</ref><ref>
{{cite book
|last = Streitmatter
|first = Rodger
|title = Mightier Than the Sword: How the News Media Have Shaped American History
|publisher = Westview Press
|year = 1998
|page =
|isbn = 0-8133-3211-7
|url = https://archive.org/details/mightierthanswor00rodg/page/167
}}</ref>
Late in the hearings, Senator ] made an angry and prophetic remark to McCarthy. Upon being told by McCarthy that "You're not fooling anyone", Symington replied: "Senator, the American people have had a look at you now for six weeks; you're not fooling anyone, either."<ref>
{{cite book
|last = Powers
|first = Richard Gid
|title = Not Without Honor: The History of American Anticommunism
|publisher = Yale University Press
|year= 1998
|page = 271
|isbn = 0-300-07470-0}}
</ref>
In ] of January 1954, 50% of those polled had a favorable opinion of McCarthy. In June, that number had fallen to 34%. In the same polls, those with a unfavorable opinion of McCarthy increased from 29% to 45%.<ref name="autogenerated138">
{{cite book
|last = Fried
|first = Richard M.
|year = 1990
|title = Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective
|publisher = Oxford University Press
|page = 138
|isbn = 0-19-504361-8}}</ref>


An increasing number of Republicans and conservatives were coming to see McCarthy as a liability to the party and to anti-communism. Representative ] noted, "There is a growing impatience with the Republican Party. McCarthyism has become a synonym for witch-hunting, ] methods, and the denial of&nbsp;... civil liberties."<ref>
A member of the minority party in the Senate again, McCarthy continued to rail against the dangers of ]. He warned against attendance at summit conferences with the Reds, saying that "you cannot offer friendship to tyrants and murderers … without advancing the cause of tyranny and murder." He declared that "coexistence with communists is neither possible nor honorable nor desirable. Our longterm objective must be the eradication of communism from the face of the earth."
{{cite book
|last = Griffith
|first = Robert
|title = The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate
|url = https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif
|url-access = registration
|publisher = University of Massachusetts Press
|year= 1970
|page =
|isbn = 0-87023-555-9}}</ref> ], a reporter with a long-standing reputation as a staunch anti-communist, wrote a five-part series of articles criticizing McCarthy in the ''].'' He stated that McCarthy "has become a major liability to the cause of anti-communism", and accused him of "wild twisting of facts and near-facts repels authorities in the field".<ref>
{{cite book
|last = Cook
|first = Fred J.
|title = The Nightmare Decade: The Life and Times of Senator Joe McCarthy
|publisher = Random House
|year= 1971
|page = 536
|isbn = 0-394-46270-X}}</ref><ref>
{{cite magazine
|title = About McCarthy
|magazine = ]
|date= July 19, 1954
|url = http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,857509,00.html
|archive-url = https://archive.today/20130204083053/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,857509,00.html
|url-status = dead
|archive-date = February 4, 2013
|access-date =December 18, 2006}}</ref>


] (left) being questioned by Senator McCarthy, June 9, 1954.]]
Senator McCarthy was one of the few that warned against the dangers of the ] advancing guided-missile program. He urged the Eisenhower Administration to let "the free Asiatic peoples" fight to free their countrymen from communist slavery in Red China, North Korea, and North Vietnam. "In justice to them, and in justice to the millions of American boys who will otherwise be called upon to sacrifice their lives in a total war against communism," said McCarthy, "we must permit our fighting allies, with our material and technical assistance, to carry the fight to the enemy." A decade later more than half a million American servicemen were fighting in ].
The most famous incident in the hearings was an exchange between McCarthy and the army's chief legal representative, ]. On June 9, 1954,<ref>{{cite web |title=June 9, 1954: "Have You No Sense of Decency?" |url=https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/investigations/mccarthy-hearings/have-you-no-sense-of-decency.htm |publisher=United States Senate |access-date=May 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513145200/https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/investigations/mccarthy-hearings/have-you-no-sense-of-decency.htm |archive-date=May 13, 2021}}</ref> the 30th day of the hearings, Welch challenged Roy Cohn to provide ] ] with McCarthy's list of 130 Communists or subversives in defense plants "before the sun goes down". McCarthy stepped in and said that if Welch was so concerned about persons aiding the Communist Party, he should check on a man in his Boston law office named ], who had once belonged to the ], a progressive lawyers' association.<ref>
{{cite book
|last = Oshinsky
|first = David M.
|title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy
|publisher = Oxford University Press
|year= 2005
|page = 459
|isbn = 0-19-515424-X
|orig-year= 1983}}</ref>
In an impassioned defense of Fisher, Welch responded, "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness&nbsp;..." When McCarthy resumed his attack, Welch interrupted him: "Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, Sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" When McCarthy once again persisted, Welch cut him off and demanded the chairman "call the next witness". At that point, the gallery erupted in applause and a recess was called.<ref>
{{cite book
|last = Oshinsky
|first = David M.
|title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy
|publisher = Oxford University Press
|year= 2005
|page = 464
|isbn = 0-19-515424-X
|orig-year= 1983}}</ref>
{{anchor|Murrow|See It Now}}


===Edward R. Murrow, ''See It Now''===
Some believe McCarthy, a regular social drinker, became a full-scale alcoholic after his censure. While certainly battling bouts of ], there is not enough evidence that he died a broken man. ] was counsel to the ] during 1956 and 1957 and met McCarthy repeatedly on social occasions. "He had at one time been a heavy drinker," said Rusher of the senator, "but in his last years was cautiously moderate; he died of a severe attack of hepatitis. He kept right on with a senator's usual chores up almost until the end."


], pioneer in broadcast journalism.]]
He finally died of acute ] in ] on ], ], at the age of 48, and was given a state funeral attended by 70 Senators. ] performed a Solemn Pontifical ] before over a hundred priests and 2,000 others. Thousands of people viewed the body in Washington, and McCarthy was the first senator in 17 years to have funeral services in the Senate chamber. He was buried in St. Mary's Parish Cemetery, ]. More than 30,000 Wisconsinites filed through St. Mary's Church to pay their last respects to him. Three senators - ], ], and ] - had flown from Washington to Appleton on the plane carrying McCarthy's casket. "They had gone this far with Joe McCarthy," said William Rusher. "They would go the rest of the way." He was survived by his wife, Jean, and their ] daughter, Tierney.
Even before McCarthy's clash with Welch in the hearings, one of the most prominent attacks on McCarthy's methods was an episode of the television documentary series '']'', hosted by journalist ], which was broadcast on March 9, 1954. Titled "A Report on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy", the episode consisted largely of clips of McCarthy speaking. In these clips, McCarthy accuses the Democratic party of "twenty years of treason", describes the ] as "listed as 'a front for, and doing the work of', the Communist Party",<ref>{{cite web
|title = Transcript – See it Now: A Report on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy
|publisher = CBS-TV
|date = March 9, 1954
|url = http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/murrowmccarthy.html
|access-date = February 15, 2015
|archive-date = November 10, 2015
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151110194223/http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/murrowmccarthy.html
|url-status = live
}}</ref> and berates and harangues various witnesses, including General Zwicker.<ref>{{cite book |last=Burns |first=Eric |date=2010|title=Invasion of the Mind Snatchers: Television's Conquest of America in the Fifties |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=quEq4ICW96UC&pg=PA175 |location=Philadelphia|publisher=Temple University Press |page=175 |isbn=978-1-4399-0288-2}}</ref>


In his conclusion, Murrow said of McCarthy:
==VENONA files==


{{Blockquote|No one familiar with the history of this country can deny that congressional committees are useful. It is necessary to investigate before legislating, but the line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine one, and the junior Senator from Wisconsin has stepped over it repeatedly. His primary achievement has been in confusing the public mind, as between the internal and the external threats of Communism. We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men—not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.
In ], when the ] transcripts were declassified, further detailed information was revealed about Soviet espionage in the U.S. VENONA specifically references at least ] in the U.S.&mdash;including citizens, immigrants, and permanent residents&mdash;whom the ] identified engaged in clandestine activities with Soviet intelligence agencies. It is generally believed that McCarthy had no access to VENONA intelligence, but VENONA supports the view that some of the individuals accused by McCarthy were indeed Soviet agents. These are several prominent examples:


This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.
* ], a ] employee, and her husband ], who worked in the ];
* ], a special assistant to President ];
* ], Director of Division of Monetary Research, U.S. Treasury; Technical Secretary at the ] Conference; ]
* ], delegate to the ] and Bretton Woods Conference;
* ], Chief Planning Technician, Procurement Division, U.S. Treasury and head of the Silvermaster network of spies;
* ], U.S. Treasury Representative to the ];
* Four staff members of the ], a Senate ] on labor rights chaired by Senator ], whom McCarthy defeated for election in 1946;
* ], Chief of the Economic Institution Staff, ]; Counsel to the ]; argued cases before the ].
* ] journalist; ]


The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn't create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it—and rather successfully. ] was right: ]<ref>{{cite web
However, McCarthy himself was consistently unable to provide any evidence for his allegations. On one particular occasion, he declared in a floor speech that he would happily turn over evidence of subversive activities by government employees, whereupon Senator ] approached him and held out his hand. McCarthy, having no evidence, ignored Lehman, as did the rest of the Senate, testifying to other Senators' fear of McCarthy's political attacks.
|title = Transcript – See it Now: A Report on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy
|publisher = CBS-TV
|date = March 9, 1954
|url = http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/murrowmccarthy.html
|access-date = March 9, 2008
|archive-date = November 10, 2015
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151110194223/http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/murrowmccarthy.html
|url-status = live
}}</ref>
}}


The following week, ''See It Now'' ran another episode critical of McCarthy, this one focusing on the case of ], an African-American army clerk who was the target of one of McCarthy's investigations. The Murrow shows, together with the televised Army–McCarthy hearings of the same year, were the major causes of a nationwide popular opinion backlash against McCarthy,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/03/04/archives/murrow-vs-mccarthy-see-it-now.html |title=Murrow vs. McCarthy |newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 4, 1979 |author=Joseph Wershba |access-date=August 19, 2017 |quote=CBS said it was the greatest spontaneous response in the history of broadcasting: 12,348 telephone calls and telegrams in the first few hours ... 11,567 of these supported Murrow. |archive-date=August 25, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190825183907/https://www.nytimes.com/1979/03/04/archives/murrow-vs-mccarthy-see-it-now.html |url-status=live }}</ref> in part because for the first time his statements were being publicly challenged by noteworthy figures. To counter the negative publicity, McCarthy appeared on ''See It Now'' on April 6, 1954, and made a number of charges against the popular Murrow, including the accusation that he colluded with ], the "Russian espionage and propaganda organization".<ref>{{cite web |title = Transcript – Senator Joseph R. McCarthy: Reply to Edward R. Murrow, See It Now |publisher = CBS-TV |date = April 6, 1954 |url = http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/murrowmccarthy2.html |access-date = February 15, 2009 |archive-date = March 7, 2009 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090307063143/http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/murrowmccarthy2.html |url-status = live }}</ref> This response did not go over well with viewers, and the result was a further decline in McCarthy's popularity.{{Citation needed|date=January 2013}}
Many of the people McCarthy accused of Communist party membership were not later identified in VENONA intellegence as being Soviet espionage agents.


==="Joe Must Go" recall attempt===
==HUAC==
On March 18, 1954, ''Sauk-Prairie Star'' editor Leroy Gore of ], Wisconsin urged the ] of McCarthy in a front-page editorial that ran alongside a sample petition that readers could fill out and mail to the newspaper. A Republican and former McCarthy supporter, Gore cited the senator with subverting President Eisenhower's authority, disrespecting Wisconsin's own Gen. ] and ignoring the plight of Wisconsin dairy farmers faced with price-slashing surpluses.<ref name="thelen">David P. Thelen and Esther S. Thelen. " {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180301164512/http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/wmh/id/45658 |date=March 1, 2018 }}". ''Wisconsin Magazine of History'', vol. 45, no. 3 (Spring 1966):185–209.</ref>
McCarthy is often incorrectly described as part of the ] (technically, HCUA, but generally known as HUAC), best known for the investigation of ] which helped bring ] into prominence. HUAC was established in May of ] as the "Dies Committee" before McCarthy was elected to the Federal office, and, being a House committee, had no connection with McCarthy, who served in the Senate.


Despite critics' claims that a recall attempt was foolhardy, the "Joe Must Go" movement caught fire and was backed by a diverse coalition including other Republican leaders, Democrats, businessmen, farmers and students. ] stipulates the number of signatures needed to force a recall election must exceed one-quarter the number of voters in the most recent gubernatorial election, requiring the anti-McCarthy movement to gather some 404,000 signatures in sixty days. With little support from ] or the ], the roughly organized recall effort attracted national attention, particularly during the concurrent Army-McCarthy hearings.{{citation needed|date=February 2018}}
==Additional reading==
===Scholarly Secondary Sources===
* Bayley, Edwin R. ''Joe McCarthy and the Press'' (University of Wisconsin Press, 1981)
*
* Daynes, Gary ''Making Villains, Making Heroes: Joseph R. McCarthy, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Politics of American Memory'' (Garland Pub., 1997)
* Freeland, Richard M. ''The Truman Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthyism: Foreign Policy, Domestic Politics, and Internal Security, 1946-1948'' (1972)
* Fried, Richard M. ''Men against McCarthy'' (Columbia University Press, 1976)
*
*
* Herman, Arthur. ''Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator'' (Free Press, 1999) pro-McCarthy
* Latham, Earl. ''Communist Controversy in Washington: From the New Deal to McCarthy'' (1969)
* O'Brien, Michael. ''McCarthy and McCarthyism in Wisconsin'' (1981)
* Oshinsky, David. ''Senator Joseph McCarthy and the American Labor Movement'' (University of Missouri Press, 1976)
* Oshinsky, David. ''Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy'' (1985)
* Rosteck, Thomas ''See It Now Confronts McCarthyism: Television Documentary and the Politics of Representation'' (University of Alabama Press, 1994)
* Reeves, Thomas C. ''The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy: A Biography'' (1982)
* Rovere, Richard Halworth ''Senator Joe McCarthy'' (Harcourt Brace, 1959)


Following the deadline of June 5, the final number of signatures was never determined because the petitions were sent out of state to avoid a subpoena from ] district attorney Harlan Kelley, an ardent McCarthy supporter who was investigating the leaders of the recall campaign on the grounds that they had violated Wisconsin's Corrupt Practices Act. Chicago newspapermen later tallied 335,000 names while another 50,000 were said to be hidden in Minneapolis, with other lists buried on Sauk County farms.<ref name="thelen"/>
===Other Secondary Sources===
* ] ''The American Inquisition, 1945-1960: A Profile of the "McCarthy Era"'' (Thunder's Mouth Press, 1989)
* Coulter, Ann ''Treason: Liberal Treachery From the Cold War to the War on Terrorism"'' (Crown Forum, 2003)
* Ranville, Michael ''To Strike at a King: The Turning Point in the McCarthy Witch Hunts'' (Momentum Books, 1997)


===Primary Sources=== ===Public opinion===
{|class="sortable wikitable"
* Fried, Albert ''McCarthyism, The Great American Red Scare: A Documentary History'' (1996)
|+ McCarthy's Support in Gallup Polls<ref>{{cite journal|first=Nelson W.|last= Polsby|author-link=Nelson W. Polsby |title=Towards an Explanation of McCarthyism|journal=Political Studies|volume= 8|issue= 3|date=October 1962|page= 252|doi=10.1111/j.1467-9248.1960.tb01144.x |s2cid= 147198989 |issn = 0032-3217}}</ref>
* McCarthy, Joseph ''America's Retreat from Victory'' (Western Islands Publishing, 1952)
! Date !! Favorable !! No Opinion !! Unfavorable !! Net Favorable
* McCarthy, Joseph ''McCarthyism, the Fight for America'' (Devin-Adair Co., 1952)
|-
*Rabinowitz, Victor ''Unrepentant Leftist: A Lawyer's Memoir'' (University of Illinois Press, 1996)
|'''1952 August'''
* Watkins, Arthur Vivian. ''Enough rope; the inside story of the censure of Senator Joe McCarthy by his colleagues, the controversial hearings that signaled the end of a turbulent career and a fearsome era in American public life'' (Prentice Hall, 1969)
|15 ||63 ||22 ||−7
|-
|'''1953 April'''
|19 ||59 ||22 ||−3
|-
|'''1953 June'''
|35 ||35 ||30 ||+5
|-
|'''1953 August'''
|34 ||24 ||42 ||−8
|-
|'''1954 January'''
|50 ||21 ||29 ||+21
|-
|'''1954 March'''
|46 ||18 ||36 ||+10
|-
|'''1954 April'''
|38 ||16 ||46 ||−8
|-
|'''1954 May'''
|35 ||16 ||49 ||−14
|-
|'''1954 June'''
|34 ||21 ||45 ||−11
|-
|'''1954 August'''
|36 ||13 ||51 ||−15
|-
|'''1954 November'''
|35 ||19 ||46 ||−11
|}


===Censure and the Watkins Committee===
== References ==
], who introduced the resolution calling for McCarthy to be ]]]
* - used in article
Several members of the U.S. Senate had opposed McCarthy well before 1953. Senator ], a ] Republican, was the first. She delivered her "]" speech on June 1, 1950, calling for an end to the use of smear tactics, without mentioning McCarthy or anyone else by name. Only six other Republican senators—], ], ], ], ], and ]—agreed to join her in condemning McCarthy's tactics. McCarthy referred to Smith and her fellow senators as "Snow White and the six dwarfs".<ref>
* - used in article
{{cite book|last = Wallace
* ; "We have been able to compile a list of 57 Communists in the State Department. This list is available to you."
|first = Patricia Ward
*
|title = Politics of Conscience: A Biography of Margaret Chase Smith
*
|publisher = Praeger Trade
*
|year = 1995
*
|page =
|isbn = 0-275-95130-8
|url = https://archive.org/details/politicsofconsci00wall/page/109
}}</ref>


On March 9, 1954, ] Republican senator ] gave a humor-laced speech on the Senate floor, questioning McCarthy's tactics in fighting communism, likening McCarthyism to "house-cleaning" with "much clatter and hullabaloo". He recommended that McCarthy turn his attention to the worldwide encroachment of Communism outside North America.<ref>
== Notes ==
{{cite book
*{{NamedNote|FBI1|1}} NSA Archives, National Cyptological Museum, ; "~September 1: Col. Carter Clarke briefs the FBI's liaison officer Robert J. Lamphere on the break into Soviet diplomatic traffic. September: Carter W. Clarke of G-2 advises S. Wesley Reynolds, FBI, of successes at Arlington Hall on KGB espionage messages."
|last = Flanders
*{{NamedNote|FBI2|2}} Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy, ; "In November 1945 Elizabeth Bentley informed the FBI of her activities as a Soviet courier, which in turn led to renewed interest in Chambers. In late August or early September 1947, the FBI was informed that the Army Security Agency had begun to break into Soviet espionage messages".
|first =Ralph
*{{NamedNote|Benson|3}} National Security Agency, Venona Archives, Robert L. Benson, Introductory History of VENONA and Guide to the Translations,; " An Arlington Hall report on 22 July 1947 showed that the Soviet message traffic contained dozens, probably hundreds, of covernames, many of KGB agents, including ANTENNA and LIBERAL (later identified as Julius Rosenberg). One message mentioned that LIBERAL's wife was named "Ethel." General Carter W. Clarke, the assistant G-2, called the FBI liaison officer to G-2 and told him that the Army had begun to break into Soviet intelligence service traffic, and that the traffic indicated a massive Soviet espionage effort in the U.S."
|title =Senator from Vermont
*{{NamedNote|ONCIX|4}} Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, , "Polls taken at the time revealed that a majority of Americans believed that Communism at home and abroad was a serious threat to US security".
|publisher =Little, Brown
*{{NamedNote|Smith|5}} Margareet Chase Smith, , 1 June 1950, U.S. Congress, Senate, Congressional Record, 81st Congress, 2nd sess., pp. 7894-95. "The Democratic administration has greatly lost the confidence of the American people by its complacency to the threat of communism here at home and the leak of vital secrets to Russia through key officials of the Democtaric administration. There are enough proved cases to make this point without diluting our criticism with unproved charges"; "..there have been enough proved cases, such as the ''Amerasia'' case, the Hiss case, the Coplon case, the Gold case, to cause nationwide distrust and strong suspicion that there may be something to the unproved, sensational accusations".
|year= 1961
*{{NamedNote|FBI3|6}} Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy, ; "proof that there had been a serious attack on American security by the Soviet Union, with considerable assistance from what was, indeed, an 'enemy within.' The fact that we knew this was now known to, or sufficiently surmised by, the Soviet authorities. Only the American public was denied this information."
|location =Boston
*{{NamedNote|9835|7}} National Archives and Records Administration, Harry S. Truman, Executive Order 9835, Prescribing Procedures for the Administration of an Employees Loyalty Program in the Executive Branch of the Government
}}
*{{NamedNote|FBI4|8}} Commission on Secrecy Report,
</ref><ref>
*{{NamedNote|Zinn|9}} ], , Chap. 16, New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1980; "Though Truman would later complain of the 'great wave of hysteria' sweeping the nation, his commitment to victory over communism, to completely safeguarding the United States from external and internal threats, was in large measure responsible for creating that very hysteria. "
{{cite web
*{{NamedNote|McCarthy|10}} ; "We have been able to compile a list of 57 Communists in the State Department. This list is available to you."
|title = Text of Flanders's speech
|date = March 9, 1959
|url = http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Flanders3-9-1954Speech.jpg
|url-status = live
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071127182919/http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a0/Flanders3-9-1954Speech.jpg
|archive-date = November 27, 2007
|df = mdy-all
}}</ref>
In a June 1 speech, Flanders compared McCarthy to ], accusing him of spreading "division and confusion" and saying, "Were the Junior Senator from Wisconsin in the pay of the Communists he could not have done a better job for them."<ref>
{{cite book
|last = Woods
|first = Randall Bennett
|title = Fulbright: A Biography
|publisher = Cambridge University Press
|year= 1995
|page = 187
|isbn = 0-521-48262-3}}</ref>
On June 11, Flanders introduced a resolution to have McCarthy removed as chair of his committees. Although there were many in the Senate who believed that some sort of disciplinary action against McCarthy was warranted, there was no clear majority supporting this resolution. Some of the resistance was due to concern about usurping the Senate's rules regarding committee chairs and seniority. Flanders next introduced a resolution to ] McCarthy. The resolution was initially written without any reference to particular actions or misdeeds on McCarthy's part. As Flanders put it, "It was not his breaches of etiquette, or of rules or sometimes even of laws which is so disturbing," but rather his overall pattern of behavior. Ultimately a "bill of particulars" listing 46 charges was added to the censure resolution. A special committee, chaired by Senator ], was appointed to study and evaluate the resolution. This committee opened hearings on August 31.<ref>
{{cite book
|last = Griffith
|first = Robert
|title = The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate
|url = https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif/page/277
|url-access = registration
|publisher = University of Massachusetts Press
|year = 1970
|pages =
|isbn = 0-87023-555-9
}}</ref>
]]]
After two months of hearings and deliberations, the Watkins Committee recommended that McCarthy be censured on two of the 46 counts: his contempt of the Subcommittee on Rules and Administration, which had called him to testify in 1951 and 1952, and his abuse of General Zwicker in 1954. The Zwicker count was dropped by the full Senate on the grounds that McCarthy's conduct was arguably "induced" by Zwicker's own behavior. In place of this count, a new one was drafted regarding McCarthy's statements about the Watkins Committee itself.<ref>
{{cite book
|last = Rovere
|first = Richard H.
|title = Senator Joe McCarthy
|publisher = University of California Press
|year= 1959
|pages = 229–230
|isbn = 0-520-20472-7}}</ref>


The two counts on which the Senate ultimately voted were:
== External links ==
* That McCarthy had "failed to co-operate with the Sub-committee on Rules and Administration", and "repeatedly abused the members who were trying to carry out assigned duties&nbsp;..."
{{wikiquote}}
* That McCarthy had charged "three members of the Select Committee with 'deliberate deception' and 'fraud'&nbsp;... that the special Senate session&nbsp;... was a 'lynch party{{'"}}, and had characterized the committee "as the 'unwitting handmaiden', 'involuntary agent' and 'attorneys in fact' of the Communist Party", and had "acted contrary to senatorial ethics and tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute, to obstruct the constitutional processes of the Senate, and to impair its dignity".<ref>{{cite web
|url =http://www.historicaldocuments.com/JosephMcCarthyCensure.htm
|title =Senate Resolution 301: Censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy
|access-date =March 9, 2008
|publisher =HistoricalDocuments.com
|archive-date =February 11, 2021
|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20210211032807/http://www.historicaldocuments.com/JosephMcCarthyCensure.htm
|url-status =dead
}}</ref>


On December 2, 1954, the Senate voted to "condemn" McCarthy on both counts by a vote of 67 to 22.<ref>{{cite web
|last = United States Senate
|first = Historical Office
|title = The Censure Case of Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin (1954)
|url = https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/censure_cases/133Joseph_McCarthy.htm
|access-date = January 4, 2010
|archive-date = January 7, 2010
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100107030754/https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/censure_cases/133Joseph_McCarthy.htm
|url-status = live
}}</ref> The Democrats present unanimously favored condemnation and the Republicans were split evenly. The only senator not on record was ], who was hospitalized for back surgery; Kennedy never indicated how he would have voted.<ref>] (2005), pp. 33, 490; Michael O'Brien, ''John F. Kennedy: A Biography'' (2005), pp. 250–254, 274–279, 396–400; Reeves (1982), pp. 442–443; ], ''The Kennedys: America's Emerald Kings'' (2003), pp. 270–280; Crosby, ''God, Church, and Flag,'' 138–160.</ref> Immediately after the vote, Senator ], a McCarthy supporter, argued that the resolution was "not a censure resolution" because the word "condemn" rather than "censure" was used in the final draft. The word "censure" was then removed from the title of the resolution, though it is generally regarded and referred to as a censure of McCarthy, both by historians<ref>
{{cite book
|last = Griffith
|first = Robert
|title = The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate
|url = https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif
|url-access = registration
|publisher = University of Massachusetts Press
|year= 1970
|page =
|isbn = 0-87023-555-9}}</ref>
and in Senate documents.<ref>{{cite web
|title = Senate Report 104-137 – Resolution For Disciplinary Action
|publisher = Library of Congress
|year = 1995
|url = http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/?&dbname=cp104&sid=cp104susc7&refer=&r_n=sr137.104&item=&sel=TOC_91694&
|access-date = October 19, 2006
}}{{Dead link|date=August 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> McCarthy himself said, "I wouldn't exactly call it a vote of confidence." He added, "I don't feel I've been lynched."<ref>
{{cite book
|last = Rovere
|first = Richard H.
|title = Senator Joe McCarthy
|publisher = University of California Press
|year= 1959
|page = 231
|isbn = 0-520-20472-7}}</ref>
] Senator ], one of McCarthy's friends and fellow Republicans likened McCarthy's conduct, however, to that of "the kid who came to the party and peed in the lemonade."<ref>{{cite book |last=Thomas |first=Evan |date=1991 |title=The Man to See |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=clHAVMYiZQwC&pg=PA77 |location=New York|publisher=Simon & Schuster |pages=76–77 |isbn=978-0-671-68934-6}}</ref>


==Final years==
* "helping to shape our foreign policy"
] criticized but supplied McCarthy's morphine addiction.]]
*
After his condemnation and censure, McCarthy continued to perform his senatorial duties for another two and a half years. His career as a major public figure, however, had been ruined. His colleagues in the Senate avoided him; his speeches on the Senate floor were delivered to a near-empty chamber or received with intentional and conspicuous displays of inattention.<ref>
*
{{cite book
*
|last = Griffith
* ]
|first = Robert
* (PDF pgs. 74-75; also pg. 20) referencing "206" Soviet espionage agents
|title = The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate
* Information on McCarthy's investigations of the Signal Corps, including transcripts of the hearings and more recent interviews.
|url = https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif
|url-access = registration
|publisher = ]
|location=Amherst, Massachusetts
|year= 1970
|page =
|isbn = 0-87023-555-9}}</ref>
The press that had once recorded his every public statement now ignored him, and outside speaking engagements dwindled almost to nothing. Eisenhower, finally freed of McCarthy's political intimidation, quipped to his Cabinet that McCarthyism was now "McCarthywasm".<ref>
{{cite book
|last = Fried
|first = Richard M.
|year = 1990
|title = Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective
|publisher = ]
|location=Oxford
|page = 141
|isbn = 0-19-504361-8
}}</ref>


Still, McCarthy continued to rail against Communism and Socialism. He warned against attendance at summit conferences with "the Reds", saying that "you cannot offer friendship to tyrants and murderers&nbsp;... without advancing the cause of tyranny and murder."<ref>
'''Defenses of McCarthy'''
{{cite book
|last = Graebner
|first = Norman A.
|year = 1956
|title = The New Isolationism: A Study in Politics and Foreign Policy since 1950
|publisher = Ronald Press
|location=New York
|page = 227
}}</ref>
He declared that "co-existence with Communists is neither possible nor honorable nor desirable. Our long-term objective must be the eradication of Communism from the face of the earth." In one of his final acts in the Senate, McCarthy opposed President Eisenhower's nomination to the ] of ], after reading a speech Brennan had given shortly beforehand in which he characterized McCarthy's anti-Communist investigations as "witch hunts". McCarthy's opposition failed to gain any traction, however, and he was the only senator to vote against Brennan's confirmation.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Justice for All: William J. Brennan Jr., and the Decisions That Transformed America|isbn=978-0-671-76787-7|first=Kim Isaac|last=Eisler|year=1993|publisher=Simon & Schuster|location=New York|page=|url=https://archive.org/details/justiceforallwil00eisl/page/119}}</ref>


McCarthy's biographers agree that he was a changed man, for the worse, after the censure; declining both physically and emotionally, he became a "pale ghost of his former self", in the words of Fred J. Cook.<ref>
*
{{cite book
* By ''Human Events Online'', a conservative weekly:
|last = Cook
**
|first = Fred J.
**
|title = The Nightmare Decade: The Life and Times of Senator Joe McCarthy
* By ''The New American'', John Birch Society:
|publisher = ]
**
|location = New York
**
|year= 1971
* By ''Opinion Editorials'', a conservative website:
|page = 537
**
|isbn = 0-394-46270-X}}</ref>
It was reported that McCarthy suffered from ] and was frequently hospitalized for alcohol abuse.
Numerous eyewitnesses, including Senate aide ] and journalist ], reported finding him drunk in the Senate.
Journalist ] (1959) wrote:


<blockquote>He had always been a heavy drinker, and there were times in those seasons of discontent when he drank more than ever. But he was not always drunk. He went on the wagon (for him this meant beer instead of whiskey) for days and weeks at a time. The difficulty toward the end was that he couldn't hold the stuff. He went to pieces on his second or third drink, and he did not snap back quickly.<ref>
'''Critics of McCarthy'''
{{cite book
|last = Rovere
|first = Richard H.
|title = Senator Joe McCarthy
|publisher = ]
|location = Berkeley, California
|year= 1959
|pages = 244–245
|isbn = 0-520-20472-7}}</ref></blockquote>


McCarthy had also become addicted to ]. ], head of the ], became aware of McCarthy's addiction in the 1950s, and demanded he stop using the drug. McCarthy refused.<ref name="Hari2015">{{cite book |last=Hari |first=Johann |author-link=Johann Hari |date=January 15, 2015 |title=Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs |location=London |publisher=]|pages=289–290 |isbn=978-1-4088-5782-3 |oclc=881418255|title-link=Chasing the Scream }}</ref> In Anslinger's memoir, ''The Murderers'', McCarthy is anonymously quoted as saying:
* ''Critical book links''
**
**
* ''Student Paper on McCarthy''
**


<blockquote>I wouldn't try to do anything about it, Commissioner ... It will be the worse for you ... and if it winds up in a public scandal and that should hurt this country, I wouldn't care&nbsp; The choice is yours.<ref name="Hari2015" /></blockquote>
<!--Succession box-->

{{start box}}
Anslinger decided to give McCarthy access to morphine in secret from a pharmacy in Washington, DC. The morphine was paid for by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, right up to McCarthy's death. Anslinger never publicly named McCarthy, and he threatened with prison a journalist who had uncovered the story.<ref name="Hari2015" /> However, McCarthy's identity was known to Anslinger's agents, and journalist ] confirmed his identity with ], co-author of ''The Murderers,'' in 1978.<ref name="Hari2015" /><ref name="Cheshire1978">{{cite magazine |last=Cheshire |first=Maxine |author-link=Maxine Cheshire |date=December 1978 |title=Drugs and Washington, D.C. |url=http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/e1970/drugswashdc.htm |access-date=December 17, 2017 |magazine=] |volume=95 |oclc=33261187 |archive-date=April 30, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170430204040/http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/e1970/drugswashdc.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
{{succession box |

before=]|
==Death==
title=]|
] in the background]]
years=1947&ndash;1957|
McCarthy died in the ] on May 2, 1957, at the age of 48. His death certificate listed the cause of death as "], acute, cause unknown"; previously doctors had not reported him to be in critical condition. It was hinted in the press that he died of ] (cirrhosis of the liver), an estimation that is now accepted by modern biographers.<ref name=causeofdeath/> ] argues that he effectively died by suicide.<ref>The Real American: Joe McCarthy (2012) (documentary)</ref> He was given a state funeral that was attended by 70 senators, and a ] ] was celebrated before more than 100 priests and 2,000 others at Washington's ]. Thousands of people viewed his body in Washington. He was buried in ] Cemetery, ], where more than 17,000 people filed through St. Mary's Church in order to pay him their last respects.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.apl.org/history/mccarthy/photos3.html |title= Joseph McCarthy Photographs: The Funeral |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120205005715/http://www.apl.org/history/mccarthy/photos3.html |archive-date= February 5, 2012 |access-date= July 18, 2014 }}</ref> Three senators—], ], and ]—had flown from Washington to Appleton on the plane that carried McCarthy's casket. ] attended the funeral in Wisconsin. McCarthy was survived by his wife, Jean, and their daughter, Tierney.
after=]

In the summer of 1957, a special election was held in order to fill McCarthy's seat. In the ], voters in both parties turned away from McCarthy's legacy. The Republican primary was won by Governor ], who called for a clean break from McCarthy's approach; he defeated former Representative ], who charged that President Eisenhower was soft on Communism.<ref>{{cite web |last=Nichols |first=John |title=In 1957, a McCarthy-free morning in America |work=] |date=July 31, 2007 |url=http://www.madison.com/tct/archives/index.php?archAction=arch_read&a_from=search&a_file=%2Ftct%2F2007%2F07%2F31%2F0707310204.php&var_search=Search&keyword_field=In%201957,%20a%20McCarthy-free%20morning%20in%20&pub_code_field=tct&from_date_field=&to_date_field=&var_start_pos=0&var_articles_per_page=10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090405143136/http://www.madison.com/tct/archives/index.php?archAction=arch_read&a_from=search&a_file=%2Ftct%2F2007%2F07%2F31%2F0707310204.php&var_search=Search&keyword_field=In%201957,%20a%20McCarthy-free%20morning%20in%20&pub_code_field=tct&from_date_field=&to_date_field=&var_start_pos=0&var_articles_per_page=10 |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 5, 2009 }}</ref>

Kohler was defeated in the special general election by Democrat ].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,862682,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100902153700/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,862682,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 2, 2010 |title=Wisconsin: Running Scared |newspaper=] |date=August 26, 1957 |access-date=May 30, 2017}}</ref> After assuming his seat, Proxmire did not pay the customary tribute to his predecessor and stated instead that McCarthy was a "disgrace to Wisconsin, to the Senate, and to America."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://yomi.mobi/egate/Joseph_McCarthy/753/a |title=Joseph_McCarthy - Himatsubushi Misplaced Pages |access-date=January 26, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131006111051/http://yomi.mobi/egate/Joseph_McCarthy/753/a |archive-date=October 6, 2013}}</ref> As of 2024, McCarthy is the last Republican to have held, or won election to, Wisconsin's Class 1 Senate seat.

==Legacy==
], former ] ], summed up his perspective in his 2007 book ''America: The Last Best Hope'':

{{blockquote|The cause of anti-communism, which united millions of Americans and which gained the support of Democrats, Republicans and independents, was undermined by Sen. Joe McCarthy&nbsp;... McCarthy addressed a real problem: disloyal elements within the U.S. government. But his approach to this real problem was to cause untold grief to the country he claimed to love&nbsp;... Worst of all, McCarthy besmirched the honorable cause of anti-communism. He discredited legitimate efforts to counter Soviet subversion of American institutions.<ref>{{cite web|last=Thomma|first=Steven|title=Not satisfied with U.S. history, some conservatives rewrite it|publisher=]|date=April 1, 2010|url=http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/04/01/91478/some-right-wingers-ignore-facts.html?storylink=MI_emailed|access-date=April 1, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100402053657/http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/04/01/91478/some-right-wingers-ignore-facts.html?storylink=MI_emailed|archive-date=April 2, 2010|df=mdy-all}}</ref>}}

===House Un-American Activities Committee===
McCarthy's hearings are often incorrectly conflated with the hearings of the ] (HUAC). HUAC is best known for its investigations of ] and the ], which led to the ] of hundreds of actors, writers, and directors. HUAC was a House committee, and as such it had no formal connection to McCarthy, who served in the Senate, although the existence of the House Un-American Activities Committee thrived in part as a result of McCarthy's activities. HUAC was active for 37 years (1938–1975).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/house-un-american-activities-committee.html |title=House Un-American Activities Committee |publisher=infoplease.com |access-date=January 17, 2017 |archive-date=January 18, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118053003/http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/house-un-american-activities-committee.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===In popular culture===
From the start of his notoriety, McCarthy served as a favorite subject for political cartoonists. He was traditionally depicted in a negative light, normally pertaining to McCarthyism and his accusations. ]'s cartoon that coined the term ''McCarthyism'' appeared less than two months after the senator's now famous February 1950 speech in ].

In 1951, ] published "The Fireman", an allegory on suppression of ideas. This served as the basis for '']'' published in 1953.<ref>{{cite web|author=A Bruin Birthday Tribute To Ray Bradbury Tweet|url=http://www.spotlight.ucla.edu/ray-bradbury/|title=First Spark: Ray Bradbury Turns 90; The Universe and UCLA Academy Celebrate|publisher=Spotlight.ucla.edu|date=August 22, 2010|access-date=September 30, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005161805/http://www.spotlight.ucla.edu/ray-bradbury/|archive-date=October 5, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first1=Issac |last1=Asimov |first2=Ray |last2=Bradbury |first3=John W. |last3=Campbell |others=Narrated by Norman Rose |title=Ticket to the Moon (tribute to SciFi) |date=December 4, 1956 |work=Biography in Sound |publisher=NBC Radio News |url=https://oldradioprograms.us/My%20Old%20Radio%20Shows/B/Biographies%20In%20Sound/Biographies%20In%20Sound%20(NBC)-1956-12-04-Ticket%20To%20The%20Moon%20-%20Tribute%20To%20Scifi.mp3 |format=mp3 |access-date=February 2, 2017 |at=27:10–27:30 |quote=I wrote this book at a time when I was worried about the way things were going in this country four years ago. Too many people were afraid of their shadows; there was a threat of book burning. Many of the books were being taken off the shelves at that time. |archive-date=February 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209110704/https://oldradioprograms.us/My%20Old%20Radio%20Shows/B/Biographies%20In%20Sound/Biographies%20In%20Sound%20(NBC)-1956-12-04-Ticket%20To%20The%20Moon%20-%20Tribute%20To%20Scifi.mp3 |url-status=live }}</ref> Bradbury said that he wrote ''Fahrenheit 451'' because of his concerns at the time (during the ]) about the threat of book burning in the United States.<ref name=LAweekly>{{cite web|title=Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 Misinterpreted|last=Johnston|first=Amy E. Boyle|date=May 30, 2007|work=LA Weekly website|url=http://www.laweekly.com/2007-05-31/news/ray-bradbury-fahrenheit-451-misinterpreted/full|access-date=August 3, 2013|archive-date=September 2, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130902154602/http://www.laweekly.com/2007-05-31/news/ray-bradbury-fahrenheit-451-misinterpreted/full/|url-status=dead}}</ref> ] was one of the first comedians to make jokes about McCarthy. During his 1952 Christmas show, Hope made a joke about ] writing to let Joe McCarthy know he was going to wear his red suit despite the Red Scare. Hope continued to offer McCarthy jokes as they were well received by most people, although he did receive some hate mail.

In 1953, the popular daily comic strip '']'' introduced the character ], a pugnacious and conniving ] with an unmistakable physical resemblance to McCarthy. After a worried ] newspaper editor protested to the syndicate that provided the strip, creator ] began depicting the Malarkey character with a bag over his head, concealing his features. The explanation was that Malarkey was hiding from a ] hen, a clear reference to the controversy over the Malarkey character.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.netstate.com/states/symb/possums/ga_pogo.htm |title=Georgia State 'Possum |date=September 18, 2014 |website=Netstate.com |access-date=December 22, 2014 |archive-date=April 3, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403164640/http://www.netstate.com/states/symb/possums/ga_pogo.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1953, playwright ] published '']'', suggesting the ] were analogous to McCarthyism.<ref name=blakesleym>Blakesley (1992, xv).</ref>

As his fame grew, McCarthy increasingly became the target of ridicule and parody. He was impersonated by nightclub and radio ] and was satirized in '']'' magazine, on '']'', and elsewhere. Several comedy songs lampooning the senator were released in 1954, including "Point of Order" by ] and ], "Senator McCarthy Blues" by ], and unionist folk singer ]'s "Joe McCarthy's Band", sung to the tune of "]". Also in 1954, the radio comedy team ] parodied McCarthy with the character "Commissioner Carstairs" in their soap opera spoof "Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife". That same year, the ] radio network broadcast a satire, '']'', whose title character was a clear imitation of McCarthy. A recording of the show became popular in the United States, and was reportedly played by President Eisenhower at cabinet meetings.<ref>{{cite book| first = Thomas| last = Doherty| title= Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture| url = https://archive.org/details/coldwarcoolmediu00dohe| url-access = registration| publisher= Columbia University Press| page = | year= 2005| isbn= 978-0-231-12953-4}}</ref> The 1953 short story ''Mr. Costello, Hero'' by ] was described by journalist ] as "the all-time great story about Senator Joseph McCarthy, who he was and how he did what he did."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theodoresturgeontrust.com/williams.html|title=Theodore Sturgeon, Storyteller|last=Williams|first=Paul|date=1976|access-date=February 28, 2016|archive-date=March 13, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313073810/http://www.theodoresturgeontrust.com/williams.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

====Post-censure reaction====
''Mr. Costello, Hero'' was adapted in 1958 by ] into a radio teleplay and broadcast on July 3, 1956.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Mr Costello Hero {{!}} X Minus One |url=https://archive.org/download/OTRR_X_Minus_One_Singles/XMinusOne56-07-03058MrCostelloHero.mp3|language=en|access-date=May 25, 2020}}</ref> While the radio adaptation retains much of the story, it completely remakes the narrator and in fact gives him a line spoken in the original by Mr. Costello himself, thus changing the tone of the story considerably. In a 1977 interview Sturgeon commented that it was his concerns about the ongoing McCarthy Hearings that prompted him to write the story.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Saucer of Loneliness|editor=Paul Williams|publisher=North Atlantic Books|location=Berkeley|date=2000|volume=VII: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon|pages=384–385|isbn=1-55643-424-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=amWBa48lb6AC&q=%22a+saucer+of+loneliness%22|access-date=February 28, 2016}}</ref>

A more serious fictional portrayal of McCarthy played a central role in the 1959 novel '']'' by ].<ref>{{cite book |last1= Welsh|first1=James Michael |last2= Lev |first2=Peter |date=2007 |title=The Literature/film Reader: Issues of Adaptation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1alUlyaDUbcC&q=%22the+manchurian+candidate%22+novel+mccarthy+iselin&pg=PA205 |location=Plymouth, UK|publisher=Scarecrow Press |page=205 |isbn=978-0-8108-5949-4}}</ref> The character of Senator John Iselin, a ] anti-communist, is closely modeled on McCarthy, even to the varying numbers of Communists he asserts are employed by the federal government.<ref>{{cite book |last1= Sachleben |first1=Mark |last2= Yenerall |first2=Kevan M. |date=2008 |title=Seeing the Bigger Picture: Understanding Politics Through Film & Television |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qR5ov7nKF_sC&q=%22the+manchurian+candidate%22+mccarthy+iselin+varying+numbers+communists&pg=PA64 |location=New York |publisher=Peter Lang Publishing |page=64 |isbn=978-0-8204-7144-0}}</ref> He remains a major character in the ].<ref>{{cite book |last= DiMare |first=Philip C. |date=2011 |title=Movies in American History: An Encyclopedia, Volume 1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=miascUWIa0UC&q=%22the+manchurian+candidate%22+mccarthy+iselin+james+gregory&pg=PA325 |location=Santa Barbara |publisher=ABC-CLIO, Inc. |page=325 |isbn=978-1-59884-296-8}}</ref>

The 1962 novel '']'' by ] features an overzealous demagogue, Senator Fred Van Ackerman, based on McCarthy. Although the fictional senator is an ultra liberal who proposes surrender to the Soviet Union, his portrayal strongly resembles the popular perception of McCarthy's character and methods.

McCarthy was portrayed by ] in the 1977 Emmy-winning television movie '']'', a dramatization of McCarthy's life.<ref>{{cite news |first=Stephen |last=Miller |title=Peter Boyle, 71, Character Actor Played Psychotics and Monsters |work=New York Sun |date=December 14, 2006 |url=http://www.nysun.com/obituaries/peter-boyle-71-character-actor-played-psychotics/45138/ |access-date=December 22, 2014 |archive-date=January 28, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150128212536/http://www.nysun.com/obituaries/peter-boyle-71-character-actor-played-psychotics/45138/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> He was portrayed by ] in the 1992 HBO film '']''.<ref>{{cite news |title='Citizen' Woods: James Woods Rips Roy Cohn, the Press and His Own Image |work=Los Angeles Times |date=August 16, 1992 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-08-16-tv-6474-story.html |access-date=February 18, 2020 |archive-date=January 8, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190108204947/http://articles.latimes.com/1992-08-16/news/tv-6474_1_citizen-cohn |url-status=live }}</ref> Archival footage of McCarthy himself was used in the 2005 film '']'' about Edward R. Murrow and the ''See It Now'' episode that challenged McCarthy.<ref>{{cite news |first=Mick |last=LaSalle |title=Newsman Challenges a Powerful Politician |work=San Francisco Chronicle |date=October 7, 2005 |url=http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Newsman-challenges-a-powerful-politician-2565905.php |access-date=December 22, 2014 |archive-date=January 28, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150128222704/http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Newsman-challenges-a-powerful-politician-2565905.php |url-status=live }}</ref> <!--Please don't add mention of the unsubstantiated (though widely reported) rumor that test audiences felt that the "performer" who "played" McCarthy was overacting in the absence of a well-documented and/or first-hand account of where and when such a reaction actually occurred.--> In the German-French docu-drama ''The Real American – Joe McCarthy'' (2012), directed by ], McCarthy is portrayed by the British actor and comedian ].<ref>Dorothy Rabinowitz. "A Name That Lives in Infamy", ''Wall Street Journal'', 23. November 2012</ref> In ]' 2020 film, '']'', McCarthy is portrayed by actor ].
<!--Please don't add a note about Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible" here. It's relevant to McCarthyism rather than Joseph McCarthy, and it is already mentioned in the McCarthyism article. -->

]'s song "Exhuming McCarthy", from their 1987 album '']'', deals largely with McCarthy and contains sound clips from the ].

'Joe' McCarthy is also mentioned in ]'s 1989 song "]".

McCarthyism is one of the subjects of ]'s novel '']''.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-lacuna-by-barbara-kingsolver-1819457.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220617/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-lacuna-by-barbara-kingsolver-1819457.html |archive-date=June 17, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=The Lacuna, By Barbara Kingsolver|date=November 13, 2009|newspaper=The Independent|access-date=February 13, 2017|language=en-GB}}</ref>

McCarthy is a secondary character in the Showtime television drama ]<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/11/06/fellow-travelers-tv-review-showtime|title="Fellow Travelers" Shows Another Side of Gay History|first=Inkoo|last=Kang|magazine=The New Yorker |date=October 27, 2023|via=www.newyorker.com|access-date=November 5, 2023|archive-date=November 4, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231104193626/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/11/06/fellow-travelers-tv-review-showtime|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Reconsideration ===
McCarthy remains a controversial figure. ], popular historian and senior fellow of the ], says that new evidence—in the form of ]-decrypted Soviet messages, Soviet espionage data now opened to the West, and newly released transcripts of closed hearings before McCarthy's subcommittee—has partially vindicated McCarthy by showing that some of his identifications of Communists were correct and the scale of Soviet espionage activities in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s was larger than many scholars had suspected.<ref>{{cite book|last = Herman
|first = Arthur
|title = Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator
|publisher = Free Press
|year = 2000
|pages =
|isbn = 0-684-83625-4
|url = https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/5
}}</ref>
In ], journalist ] similarly argued that evidence from the Venona documents shows significant penetration by Soviet agents.<ref name="Evans 2009 p. ">{{cite book | last=Evans | first=M. Stanton | authorlink=M. Stanton Evans|title=Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies | publisher=Three Rivers Press | location=New York| year=2009 | isbn=978-1-4000-8106-6 }}</ref>

Historian ], who studied the Venona decryptions extensively, challenged Herman's efforts to rehabilitate McCarthy, arguing that McCarthy's attempts to "make anti-communism a partisan weapon" actually "threatened anti-Communist consensus", thereby ultimately harming anti-Communist efforts more than helping them.<ref>{{cite web
|last = Haynes
|first = John Earl
|title = Exchange with Arthur Herman and Venona book talk
|date = February 2000
|url = http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page58.html
|access-date = July 11, 2007
|archive-date = February 24, 2021
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210224175005/http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page58.html
|url-status = live
}}</ref> Haynes concluded that, of the 159 people who were identified on lists used or referenced by McCarthy, evidence only substantially proved that nine of them had aided Soviet espionage efforts—while several hundred Soviet spies were actually known based on Venona and other evidence, most were never named by McCarthy. Haynes' own view was that a number of those accused on McCarthy's lists above, perhaps a majority, likely posed some form of possible security risk, but a significant minority of others likely did not, and several were indisputably no risk at all.<ref name="johnearlhaynes62">{{cite web|url=http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page62.html|title=Senator Joseph McCarthy's Lists and Venona|last=Haynes|first=John Earl|year=2006|access-date=August 31, 2006|archive-date=May 2, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180502132728/http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page62.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>
{{cite book
|first1 = John Earl
|last1=Haynes
|first2=Harvey
|last2=Klehr
|year = 2000
|title = Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America
|publisher = ]
|location=New Haven, Connecticut
|isbn = 0-300-08462-5
}}</ref>

==See also==
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]

==References==
===Citations===
{{reflist}}

===Primary sources===
* {{cite book
|last = Adams
|first =John G.
|title =Without Precedent: The Story of the Death of McCarthyism
|url = https://archive.org/details/withoutprecedent0000adam
|url-access = registration
|publisher =W.W. Norton & Company
|year= 1983
|isbn = 0-393-30230-X}}
* {{cite web
|url = http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/60.htm
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071120130436/http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/60.htm
|archive-date = November 20, 2007
|title = Censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy (1954)
|access-date =June 2, 2009
|publisher = The United States Department of State
}} }}
* {{cite book|last = Fried
{{end box}}
|first = Albert
|title = McCarthyism, The Great American Red Scare: A Documentary History
|publisher = Oxford University Press
|year = 1996
|isbn = 0-19-509701-7
|url = https://archive.org/details/mccarthyismgreat00frie
}}
* {{cite web
|url = http://www.trumanlibrary.org/index.php
|title = Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum
|access-date = August 11, 2006
|archive-date = April 16, 2019
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190416165335/https://trumanlibrary.org/index.php
|url-status = live
}}
* {{cite book
|last = McCarthy
|first = Joseph
|title = Major Speeches and Debates of Senator Joe McCarthy Delivered in the United States Senate, 1950–1951
|publisher = Gordon Press
|year = 1951
|isbn = 0-87968-308-2
|url = https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=9034820
|access-date = September 2, 2017
|archive-date = June 9, 2012
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120609150033/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=9034820
|url-status = dead
}}
* {{cite book
|last = McCarthy
|first = Joseph
|title = America's Retreat from Victory, the Story of George Catlett Marshall
|publisher = Devin-Adair
|year= 1951
|isbn = 0-8159-5004-7}}
* {{cite book
|last = McCarthy
|first = Joseph
|title = ''Fight for America''
|url = http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001745985
|publisher = Devin-Adair
|year = 1952
|isbn = 0-405-09960-6
|access-date = August 30, 2009
|archive-date = February 25, 2021
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210225140246/https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001745985
|url-status = live
}}
* {{Cite AV media
|people = Edward R. Murrow & Fred W. Friendly (Producers)
|title = Edward R. Murrow: The McCarthy Years
|medium = DVD (from 'See it Now' TV News show)
|publisher = CBS News/Docudrama
|date= 1991}}
* {{cite web
|url = http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate/senate12cp107.html
|title = Senate Committee Transcripts, 107th Congress
|access-date = August 11, 2006
|publisher = Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060716151950/http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate/senate12cp107.html
|archive-date = July 16, 2006
|url-status = dead
|df = mdy-all
}}
* {{cite web
|title = Transcripts, Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
|publisher = U.S. Government Printing Office
|year = 2003
|url = https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/McCarthy_Transcripts.htm
|access-date = December 19, 2006
|archive-date = December 27, 2006
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061227223358/http://senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/McCarthy_Transcripts.htm
|url-status = live
}}
* {{cite book
|last = Watkins
|first = Arthur Vivian
|title = Enough Rope: The inside story of the censure of Senator Joe McCarthy
|publisher = Prentice-Hall
|year= 1969
|isbn = 0-13-283101-5}}

===Secondary sources===
* Anderson, Jack and May, Ronald W (1952). ''McCarthy: the man, the Senator, the "ism",'' Beacon Press.
* {{cite book
|last = Bayley
|first = Edwin R.
|title = Joe McCarthy and the Press
|publisher = University of Wisconsin Press
|year= 1981
|isbn = 0-299-08624-0}}
* {{cite book|last = Belfrage
|first = Cedric
|author-link = Cedric Belfrage
|title = The American Inquisition, 1945–1960: A Profile of the "McCarthy Era"
|publisher = Thunder's Mouth Press
|year = 1989
|isbn = 0-938410-87-3
|url = https://archive.org/details/americaninquisit00cedr
}}
* {{cite book
|last = Buckley
|first = William F.
|author-link = William F. Buckley Jr.
|year = 1954
|title = McCarthy and His Enemies: The Record and Its Meaning
|publisher = Regnery Publishing
|isbn = 0-89526-472-2}}
* Caballero, Raymond. ''McCarthyism vs. Clinton Jencks.'' Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019.
* Crosby, Donald F. "The Jesuits and Joe McCarthy". ''Church History'' 1977 46(3): 374–388. {{ISSN|0009-6407}}
* {{cite book
|last = Daynes
|first = Gary
|title = Making Villains, Making Heroes: Joseph R. McCarthy, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Politics of American Memory
|publisher = Taylor & Francis
|year= 1997
|isbn = 0-8153-2992-X}}
* {{cite book
|last = Evans
|first = M. Stanton
|author-link = M. Stanton Evans
|title = Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies
|publisher = Three Rivers Press
|year= 2007
|isbn = 978-1-4000-8106-6}}
* {{cite book
|last = Freeland
|first = Richard M.
|title = The Truman Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthyism: Foreign Policy, Domestic Politics, and Internal Security, 1946–1948
|publisher = New York University Press
|year= 1985
|isbn = 0-8147-2576-7}}
* Fried, Richard M. ''A Genius for Confusion Joseph R. McCarthy and the Politics of Deceit'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022), the most recent major scholarly biography.
* {{cite book
|last = Fried
|first = Richard M.
|title = Men Against McCarthy
|publisher = Columbia University Press
|year= 1977
|isbn = 0-231-08360-2}}
* Gauger, Michael. "Flickering Images: Live Television Coverage and Viewership of the Army-McCarthy Hearings". ''Historian'' 2005 67(4): 678–693. {{ISSN|0018-2370}} Fulltext: in Swetswise, Ingenta and Ebsco. Audience ratings show that few people watched the hearings.
* {{cite book
|last = Latham
|first = Earl
|title = Communist Controversy in Washington: From the New Deal to McCarthy
|publisher = Macmillan Publishing Company
|year= 1969
|isbn = 0-689-70121-7}}
* {{cite book | title=American Demagogues: Twentieth Century| chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/americandemagogu0000luth| chapter-url-access=registration| publisher=Beacon Press | author=Luthin, Reinhard H. | author-link=Reinhard H. Luthin | year=1954 | chapter=Ch. 11: Joseph R. McCarthy: Wisconsin's Briefcase Demagogue |pages=272–301|oclc=1098334|asin=B0007DN37C|lccn=54-8228}}
* {{cite journal |last=Morgan |first=Ted |title=Judge Joe: How the youngest judge in Wisconsin's history became the country's most notorious senator |journal=Legal Affairs |date=November–December 2003 |url=http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/November-December-2003/story_morgan_novdec03.msp |access-date=January 13, 2006 |archive-date=April 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210429124425/https://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/November-December-2003/story_morgan_novdec03.msp |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite book |last=O'Brien |first=Michael |title=McCarthy and McCarthyism in Wisconsin |publisher=Olympic Marketing Corp |year=1980 |isbn=0-8262-0319-1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/mccarthymccarthy00obri }}
* Oshinsky, David M. ''A conspiracy so immense : the world of Joe McCarthy''(1985), a major scholarly biography.
* {{cite book
|last = Ranville
|first = Michael
|title = To Strike at a King: The Turning Point in the McCarthy Witch-Hunt
|publisher = Momentum Books Limited
|year= 1996
|isbn = 1-879094-53-3}}
* Reeves, Thomas C. ''The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy: A Biography'' (1997), a major scholarly biography.
* {{cite journal
| last = Reeves
| first = Thomas C.
| title = The Search for Joe McCarthy
| journal = Wisconsin Magazine of History
| volume = 60
| issue = 3
| date =Spring 1997
| pages = 185–196
| url = http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/wmh/id/34091
| access-date = December 4, 2016
| archive-date = December 20, 2016
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161220075209/http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/wmh/id/34091
| url-status = live
}}
* {{cite book
|last = Rosteck
|first = Thomas
|title = See It Now Confronts McCarthyism: Television Documentary and the Politics of Representation
|url = https://archive.org/details/seeitnowconfront0000rost
|url-access = registration
|publisher = University of Alabama Press
|year= 1994
|isbn = 0-8173-5191-4}}
* {{cite book
|last = Strout
|first = Lawrence N.
|title = Covering McCarthyism: How the Christian Science Monitor Handled Joseph R. McCarthy, 1950–1954
|publisher = Greenwood Press
|year= 1999
|isbn = 0-313-31091-2}}
* {{cite book |last1=Tye |first1=Larry |author-link=Larry Tye |title=Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy |date=2020 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |location=New York |isbn=978-1328959720}}
* {{cite book|last = Wicker
|first = Tom
|author-link = Tom Wicker
|year = 2006
|title = Shooting Star: The Brief Arc of Joe McCarthy
|publisher = Harcourt
|isbn = 0-15-101082-X
|url = https://archive.org/details/shootingstarbrie00wick
}}

==External links==
{{Commons|Joseph McCarthy}}
{{wikiquote}}
* {{Biographical Directory of Congress|M000315}}
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301060014/http://www.radiohorrorhosts.com/prellmcarthy.mp3 |date=March 1, 2021 }}
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414211058/http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/welch-mccarthy.html |date=April 14, 2021 }}
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170905090435/http://www.marquette.edu/library/archives/Mss/JRM/JRM-main.shtml |date=September 5, 2017 }} ] Library
* {{Internet Archive film clip|id=gov.archives.arc.95766|description="Longines Chronoscope with Sen. Joseph McCarthy (June 25, 1952)"}}
* {{Internet Archive film clip|id=gov.archives.arc.95785|description="Longines Chronoscope with Sen. Joseph McCarthy (September 29, 1952)"}}
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210145028/https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/research/online-documents/mccarthyism-red-scare |date=February 10, 2023 }}
* by ]
*{{Librivox author |id=18111}}

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Latest revision as of 01:03, 14 January 2025

American politician (1908–1957) For other people named Joseph McCarthy, see Joseph McCarthy (disambiguation).

Joseph McCarthy
McCarthy in 1954
United States Senator
from Wisconsin
In office
January 3, 1947 – May 2, 1957
Preceded byRobert M. La Follette Jr.
Succeeded byWilliam Proxmire
Chair of the Senate Government Operations Committee
In office
January 3, 1953 – January 3, 1955
Preceded byJohn L. McClellan
Succeeded byJohn L. McClellan
Judge of the Wisconsin Circuit Court
for the 10th Circuit
In office
January 1, 1940 – January 3, 1947
Preceded byEdgar Werner
Succeeded byMichael Eberlein
Personal details
BornJoseph Raymond McCarthy
(1908-11-14)November 14, 1908
Grand Chute, Wisconsin, U.S.
DiedMay 2, 1957(1957-05-02) (aged 48)
Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.
Resting placeSaint Mary's Cemetery
Political party
Spouse Jean Kerr ​(m. 1953)​
Children1 (adopted)
EducationMarquette University (LLB)
Signature
Military service
AllegianceUnited States
Branch/serviceUnited States Marine Corps
Years of service1942–1945 (Marine Corps)
1946–1957 (Reserve)
RankLieutenant Colonel
Battles/warsWorld War II
AwardsDistinguished Flying Cross
Air Medal (5)
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Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death at age 48 in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period in the United States in which Cold War tensions fueled fears of widespread communist subversion. He alleged that numerous communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers had infiltrated the United States federal government, universities, film industry, and elsewhere. Ultimately he was censured by the Senate in 1954 for refusing to cooperate with and abusing members of the committee established to investigate whether or not he should be censured. The term "McCarthyism", coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy's practices was soon applied to similar anti-communist activities. Today the term is used more broadly to mean demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents.

Born in Grand Chute, Wisconsin, McCarthy commissioned into the Marine Corps in 1942, where he served as an intelligence briefing officer for a dive bomber squadron. Following the end of World War II he attained the rank of major. He volunteered to fly twelve combat missions as a gunner-observer. These missions were generally safe, and after one where he was allowed to shoot as much ammunition as he wanted, mainly at coconut trees, he acquired the nickname "Tail-Gunner Joe". Some of his claims of heroism were later shown to be exaggerated or falsified, leading many of his critics to use "Tail-Gunner Joe" as a term of mockery.

A Democrat until 1944, McCarthy successfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 1946 as a Republican, narrowly defeating incumbent Robert M. La Follette Jr. in the Wisconsin Republican primary, then Democratic challenger Howard McMurray by a 61% – 37% margin. After three largely undistinguished years in the Senate McCarthy rose suddenly to national fame in February 1950 when he asserted in a speech that he had a list of "members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring" who were employed in the State Department. In succeeding years after his 1950 speech, McCarthy made additional accusations of Communist infiltration into the State Department, the administration of President Harry S. Truman, the Voice of America, and the U.S. Army. He also used various charges of communism, communist sympathies, disloyalty, or sex crimes to attack a number of politicians and other individuals inside and outside of government. This included a concurrent "Lavender Scare" against suspected homosexuals, whose illicit sexual activity was presumed to make them vulnerable to blackmail by communists and others.

With the highly publicized Army–McCarthy hearings of 1954, and following the suicide of Wyoming Senator Lester C. Hunt that same year, McCarthy's support and popularity faded. On December 2, 1954, the Senate voted to censure McCarthy by a vote of 67–22, making him one of the few senators ever to be disciplined in this fashion. He continued to rail against communism and socialism until his death at the age of 48 at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, on May 2, 1957, though doctors had not previously reported him to be seriously ill. His death certificate listed the cause of death as "Hepatitis, acute, cause unknown", which some biographers say was caused or exacerbated by alcoholism.

Early life and education

McCarthy was born in 1908 on a farm in Grand Chute, Wisconsin, the fifth of nine children. His mother, Bridget McCarthy (nee Tierney), was from County Tipperary, Ireland. His father, Timothy McCarthy, was born in the United States, the son of an Irish father and a German mother. McCarthy dropped out of junior high school at age 14 to help his parents manage their farm. He entered Little Wolf High School, in Manawa, Wisconsin, when he was 20 and graduated in one year.

He attended Marquette University from 1930 to 1935. McCarthy worked odd jobs while at college, including as a dishwasher, parking-lot attendant, and boxing coach. He first studied electrical engineering for two years, then law, and received a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1935 from Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee.

Career

McCarthy was admitted to the bar in 1935. While working at a law firm in Shawano, Wisconsin, he launched an unsuccessful campaign for district attorney as a Democrat in 1936. During his years as an attorney, McCarthy made money on the side by gambling.

In 1939, McCarthy had better success when he ran for the nonpartisan elected post of 10th District circuit judge. McCarthy became the youngest circuit judge in the state's history by defeating incumbent Edgar V. Werner, who had been a judge for 24 years. In the campaign, McCarthy lied about Werner's age of 66, claiming that he was 73, and so allegedly too old and infirm to handle the duties of his office. Writing of Werner in Reds: McCarthyism In Twentieth-Century America, Ted Morgan wrote: "Pompous and condescending, he (Werner) was disliked by lawyers. His judgements had often been reversed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and he was so inefficient that he had piled up a huge backlog of cases."

McCarthy's judicial career attracted some controversy because of the speed with which he dispatched many of his cases as he worked to clear the heavily backlogged docket he had inherited from Werner. Wisconsin had strict divorce laws, but when McCarthy heard divorce cases, he expedited them whenever possible, and he made the needs of children involved in contested divorces a priority. When it came to other cases argued before him, McCarthy compensated for his lack of experience as a jurist by demanding and relying heavily upon precise briefs from the contesting attorneys. The Wisconsin Supreme Court reversed a low percentage of the cases he heard, but he was also censured in 1941 for having lost evidence in a price fixing case.

Military service

Joseph McCarthy in his U.S. Marine Corps uniform

In 1942, shortly after the U.S. entered World War II, McCarthy joined the United States Marine Corps, despite the fact that his judicial office exempted him from military service. His college education qualified him for a direct commission, and he entered the Marines as a first lieutenant.

According to Morgan, writing in Reds, McCarthy's friend and campaign manager, attorney and judge Urban P. Van Susteren, had applied for active duty in the U.S. Army Air Forces in early 1942, and advised McCarthy: "Be a hero—join the Marines." When McCarthy seemed hesitant, Van Susteren asked, "You got shit in your blood?"

McCarthy receiving his DFC and Air Medal from Colonel John R. Lanigan, commanding officer of Fifth Marine Reserve District, December 1952

He served as an intelligence briefing officer for a dive bomber squadron VMSB-235 in the Solomon Islands and Bougainville for 30 months (August 1942 – February 1945), and held the rank of captain at the time he resigned his commission in April 1945. He volunteered to fly twelve combat missions as a gunner-observer. These missions were generally safe, and after one where he was allowed to shoot as much ammunition as he wanted, mainly at coconut trees, he acquired the nickname "Tail-Gunner Joe". McCarthy remained in the Marine Corps Reserve after the war, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel.

He later falsely claimed participation in 32 aerial missions so as to qualify for a Distinguished Flying Cross and multiple awards of the Air Medal, which the Marine Corps decided to approve in 1952 under his political influence. McCarthy also publicly claimed a letter of commendation from his commanding officer and Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Chief of Naval Operations. However, his commander revealed that McCarthy had written this letter himself, probably while preparing award citations and commendation letters for his men, and that he had signed his commander's name, after which Nimitz signed it routinely. A "war wound"—a badly broken leg—that McCarthy attributed to varying adventures involving airplane crashes or anti-aircraft fire, had in fact happened aboard ship during a raucous celebration for sailors crossing the equator for the first time. Because of McCarthy's various lies about his military heroism, his "Tail-Gunner Joe" nickname was used in mockery by his critics.

McCarthy campaigned for the Republican Senate nomination in Wisconsin while still on active duty in 1944 but was defeated by Alexander Wiley, the incumbent. After he left the Marines in April 1945, five months before the end of the Pacific war in September 1945, McCarthy was reelected unopposed to his circuit court position. He then began a much more systematic campaign for the 1946 Republican Senate primary nomination, with support from Thomas Coleman, the Republican Party's political boss in Wisconsin. In this race, he was challenging three-term senator Robert M. La Follette Jr., founder of the Wisconsin Progressive Party and son of the celebrated Wisconsin governor and senator Robert M. La Follette Sr.

Senate campaign

In his campaign, McCarthy attacked La Follette for not enlisting during the war, although La Follette had been 46 when Pearl Harbor was bombed. He also claimed La Follette had made huge profits from his investments while he, McCarthy, had been away fighting for his country. In fact, McCarthy had invested in the stock market himself during the war, netting a profit of $42,000 in 1943 (equal to $739,523 today). Where McCarthy got the money to invest in the first place remains a mystery. La Follette's investments consisted of partial interest in a radio station, which earned him a profit of $47,000 over two years.

According to Jack Anderson and Ronald W. May, McCarthy's campaign funds, much of them from out of state, were ten times more than La Follette's and McCarthy's vote benefited from a Communist Party vendetta against La Follette. The suggestion that La Follette had been guilty of war profiteering was deeply damaging, and McCarthy won the primary nomination 207,935 votes to 202,557. It was during this campaign that McCarthy started publicizing his war-time nickname "Tail-Gunner Joe," using the slogan, "Congress needs a tail-gunner." Journalist Arnold Beichman later stated that McCarthy "was elected to his first term in the Senate with support from the Communist-controlled United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, CIO", which preferred McCarthy to the anti-communist Robert M. La Follette. In the general election against Democratic opponent Howard J. McMurray, McCarthy won 61.2% to McMurray's 37.3%, and thus joined Alexander Wiley, whom he had challenged unsuccessfully two years earlier, in the Senate.

1946 Wisconsin U.S. Senate election
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Joseph McCarthy 620,430 61.2
Democratic Howard McMurray 378,772 37.3
Total votes 999,202 98.5
Republican hold

Personal life

In 1950, McCarthy assaulted journalist Drew Pearson in the cloakroom at the Sulgrave Club, reportedly kneeing him in the groin. McCarthy, who admitted the assault, claimed he merely "slapped" Pearson. In 1952, using rumors collected by Pearson as well as other sources, Nevada publisher Hank Greenspun wrote that McCarthy was a frequent patron at the White Horse Inn, a Milwaukee gay bar, and cited his involvement with young men. Greenspun named some of McCarthy's alleged lovers, including Charles E. Davis, an ex-Communist and "confessed homosexual" who claimed that he had been hired by McCarthy to spy on U.S. diplomats in Switzerland.

McCarthy's FBI file also contains numerous allegations, including a 1952 letter from an Army lieutenant who said, "When I was in Washington some time ago, picked me up at the bar in the Wardman and took me home, and while I was half-drunk he committed sodomy on me." J. Edgar Hoover conducted a perfunctory investigation of the Senator's alleged sexual assault; Hoover's take was that "homosexuals are very bitter against Senator McCarthy for his attack upon those who are supposed to be in the Government."

Although some notable McCarthy biographers have rejected these rumors, others have suggested that he may have been blackmailed. During the early 1950s, McCarthy launched a series of attacks on the CIA, claiming it had been infiltrated by communist agents. Allen Dulles, who suspected McCarthy was using information supplied by Hoover, refused to cooperate. According to the historian David Talbot, Dulles also compiled a "scandalous" intimate dossier on the Senator's personal life and used the homosexual stories to take him down.

In any event, McCarthy did not sue Greenspun for libel. (He was told that if the case went ahead he would be compelled to take the witness stand and to refute the charges made in the affidavit of the young man, which was the basis for Greenspun's story.) In 1953, he married Jean Fraser Kerr, a researcher in his office. In January 1957, McCarthy and his wife adopted an infant with the help of Roy Cohn's close friend Cardinal Francis Spellman. They named the baby girl Tierney Elizabeth McCarthy.

United States Senate

Senator McCarthy's first three years in the Senate were unremarkable. McCarthy was a popular speaker, invited by many different organizations, covering a wide range of topics. His aides and many in the Washington social circle described him as charming and friendly, and he was a popular guest at cocktail parties. He was far less well liked among fellow senators, however, who found him quick-tempered and prone to impatience and even rage. Outside of a small circle of colleagues, he was soon an isolated figure in the Senate, who was often widely criticized.

McCarthy was active in labor-management issues, with a reputation as a moderate Republican. He fought against continuation of wartime price controls, especially on sugar. His advocacy in this area was associated by critics with a $20,000 personal loan McCarthy received from a Pepsi bottling executive, earning the Senator the derisive nickname "The Pepsi-Cola Kid". McCarthy supported the Taft–Hartley Act over Truman's veto, angering labor unions in Wisconsin but solidifying his business base.

Malmedy massacre trial

Main article: Malmedy massacreMain article: Malmedy massacre trial

In an incident for which he would be widely criticized, McCarthy lobbied for the commutation of death sentences given to a group of Waffen-SS soldiers convicted of war crimes for carrying out the 1944 Malmedy massacre of American prisoners of war. McCarthy was critical of the convictions because the German soldiers' confessions were allegedly obtained through torture during the interrogations. He argued that the U.S. Army was engaged in a coverup of judicial misconduct, but never presented any evidence to support the accusation. Shortly after this, a 1950 poll of the Senate press corps voted McCarthy "the worst U.S. senator" currently in office. McCarthy biographer Larry Tye has written that antisemitism may have factored into McCarthy's outspoken views on Malmedy. Although he had substantial Jewish support, notably Lewis Rosenstiel of Schenley Industries, Rabbi Benjamin Schultz of the American Jewish League Against Communism, and the columnist George Sokolsky, who convinced him to hire Roy Cohn and G. David Schine, McCarthy frequently used anti-Jewish slurs. In this and McCarthy's other characteristics, such as the enthusiastic support he received from antisemitic politicians like Ku Klux Klansman Wesley Swift and his tendency, according to friends, to refer to his copy of Mein Kampf, stating, "That's the way to do it," McCarthy's critics characterize him as driven by antisemitism. However, historian Larry Tye says that this is not the case. Based on accounts of his opposition to Soviet antisemitism, friendship with and employment of Jews, pro-Israel outlook, and testimony of colleagues to his lack of antisemitism, Tye suggests that those aspects his critics denote as antisemitic are rather byproducts of McCarthy's absolute lack of a filter and his inability to avoid colleagues colored by hatred. Tye says, "He certainly knew how to hate, but he wasn't that kind of bigot." This perspective that McCarthy was not an antisemite is supported by other historians.

Tye cites three quotes from European historian Steven Remy, chief Malmedy prosecutor COL Burton Ellis JAG USA, and massacre victim and survivor Virgil P. Lary, Jr:

Both willfully clueless and supremely self-confident, McCarthy impeded but did not derail a truly fair and balanced investigation of the Malmedy affair, — Steven Remy

It beats the hell out of me why everyone tries so hard to show that the prosecution were insidious, underhanded, unethical, immoral and God knows what monsters, that unfairly convicted a group of whiskerless Sunday school boys. — Burton Ellis

I have seen persons bent on murdering me, persons who murdered my companions, defended by a United States senator. … I charge that this action of Senator McCarthy’s became the basis for the Communist propaganda in western Germany, designed to discredit the American armed forces and American justice. — Virgil P. Lary, Jr.

It was later found that McCarthy had received "evidence" of the false torture claims from Rudolf Aschenauer, a prominent Neo-Nazi agitator who often served as a defense attorney for Nazi war criminals, such as Einsatzgruppen commander Otto Ohlendorf.

"Enemies within"

McCarthy experienced a meteoric rise in national profile beginning on February 9, 1950, when he gave a Lincoln Day speech to the Republican Women's Club of Wheeling, West Virginia. His words in the speech are a matter of some debate, as no audio recording was saved. However, it is generally agreed that he produced a piece of paper that he claimed contained a list of known Communists working for the State Department. McCarthy is usually quoted to have said: "The State Department is infested with communists. I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department."

There is some dispute with whether or not McCarthy actually gave the number of people on the list as being "205" or "57". In a later telegram to President Truman, and when entering the speech into the Congressional Record, he used the number 57. The origin of the number 205 can be traced: in later debates on the Senate floor, McCarthy referred to a 1946 letter that then–Secretary of State James Byrnes sent to Congressman Adolph J. Sabath. In that letter, Byrnes said State Department security investigations had resulted in "recommendation against permanent employment" for 284 persons, and that 79 of these had been removed from their jobs; this left 205 still on the State Department's payroll. In fact, by the time of McCarthy's speech only about 65 of the employees mentioned in the Byrnes letter were still with the State Department, and all of these had undergone further security checks.

At the time of McCarthy's speech, communism was a significant concern in the United States. This concern was exacerbated by the actions of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe, the victory of the communists in the Chinese Civil War, the Soviets' development of a nuclear weapon the year before, and by the contemporary controversy surrounding Alger Hiss and the confession of Soviet spy Klaus Fuchs. With this background and due to the sensational nature of McCarthy's charge against the State Department, the Wheeling speech soon attracted a flood of press interest in McCarthy's claim.

Tydings Committee

Main article: Tydings Committee

McCarthy himself was taken aback by the massive media response to the Wheeling speech, and he was accused of continually revising both his charges and figures. In Salt Lake City, Utah, a few days later, he cited a figure of 57, and in the Senate on February 20, 1950, he claimed 81. During a five-hour speech, McCarthy presented a case-by-case analysis of his 81 "loyalty risks" employed at the State Department. It is widely accepted that most of McCarthy's cases were selected from the so-called "Lee list", a report that had been compiled three years earlier for the House Appropriations Committee. Led by a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent named Robert E. Lee, the House investigators had reviewed security clearance documents on State Department employees, and had determined that there were "incidents of inefficiencies" in the security reviews of 108 employees. McCarthy hid the source of his list, stating that he had penetrated the "iron curtain" of State Department secrecy with the aid of "some good, loyal Americans in the State Department". In reciting the information from the Lee list cases, McCarthy consistently exaggerated, representing the hearsay of witnesses as facts and converting phrases such as "inclined towards Communism" to "a Communist".

Senator Millard Tydings

In response to McCarthy's charges, the Senate voted unanimously to investigate, and the Tydings Committee hearings were called. This was a subcommittee of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations set up in February 1950 to conduct "a full and complete study and investigation as to whether persons who are disloyal to the United States are, or have been, employed by the Department of State". Many Democrats were incensed at McCarthy's attack on the State Department of a Democratic administration, and had hoped to use the hearings to discredit him. The Democratic chairman of the subcommittee, Senator Millard Tydings, was reported to have said, "Let me have him for three days in public hearings, and he'll never show his face in the Senate again."

During the hearings, McCarthy made charges against nine specific people: Dorothy Kenyon, Esther Brunauer, Haldore Hanson, Gustavo Durán, Owen Lattimore, Harlow Shapley, Frederick Schuman, John S. Service, and Philip Jessup. They all had previously been the subject of charges of varying worth and validity. Owen Lattimore became a particular focus of McCarthy's, who at one point described him as a "top Russian spy".

From its beginning, the Tydings Committee was marked by intense partisan infighting. Its final report, written by the Democratic majority, concluded that the individuals on McCarthy's list were neither Communists nor pro-communist, and said the State Department had an effective security program. The Tydings Report labeled McCarthy's charges a "fraud and a hoax," and described them as using incensing rhetoric—saying that the result of McCarthy's actions was to "confuse and divide the American people ... to a degree far beyond the hopes of the Communists themselves". Republicans were outraged by the Democratic response. They responded to the report's rhetoric in kind, with William E. Jenner stating that Tydings was guilty of "the most brazen whitewash of treasonable conspiracy in our history". The full Senate voted three times on whether to accept the report, and each time the voting was precisely divided along party lines.

Fame and notoriety

Herbert Block, who signed his work "Herblock", coined the term "McCarthyism" in this cartoon in the March 29, 1950, Washington Post.

From 1950 onward, McCarthy continued to exploit the fear of Communism and to press his accusations that the government was failing to deal with Communism within its ranks. McCarthy also began investigations into homosexuals working in the foreign policy bureaucracy, who were considered prime candidates for blackmail by the Soviets. These accusations received wide publicity, increased his approval rating, and gained him a powerful national following.

In Congress, there was little doubt that homosexuals did not belong in sensitive government positions. Since the late 1940s, the government had been dismissing about five homosexuals a month from civilian posts; by 1954, the number had grown twelve-fold. As historian David M. Barrett would write, "Mixed in with the hysterics were some logic, though: homosexuals faced condemnation and discrimination, and most of them—wishing to conceal their orientation—were vulnerable to blackmail." Director of Central Intelligence Roscoe Hillenkoetter was called to Congress to testify on homosexuals being employed at the CIA. He said, "The use of homosexuals as a control mechanism over individuals recruited for espionage is a generally accepted technique which has been used at least on a limited basis for many years." As soon as the DCI said these words, his aide signaled to take the remainder of the DCI's testimony off the record. Political historian David Barrett uncovered Hillenkoetter's notes, which reveal the remainder of the statement: "While this agency will never employ homosexuals on its rolls, it might conceivably be necessary, and in the past has actually been valuable, to use known homosexuals as agents in the field. I am certain that if Joseph Stalin or a member of the Politburo or a high satellite official were known to be a homosexual, no member of this committee or of the Congress would balk against our use of any technique to penetrate their operations ... after all, intelligence and espionage is, at best, an extremely dirty business." The senators reluctantly agreed the CIA had to be flexible.

McCarthy's methods also brought on the disapproval and opposition of many. Barely a month after McCarthy's Wheeling speech, the term "McCarthyism" was coined by Washington Post cartoonist Herbert Block. Block and others used the word as a synonym for demagoguery, baseless defamation, and mudslinging. Later, it would be embraced by McCarthy and some of his supporters. "McCarthyism is Americanism with its sleeves rolled," McCarthy said in a 1952 speech, and later that year, he published a book titled McCarthyism: The Fight For America.

McCarthy sought to discredit his critics and political opponents by accusing them of being Communists or communist sympathizers. In the 1950 Maryland Senate election, McCarthy campaigned for John Marshall Butler in his race against four-term incumbent Millard Tydings, with whom McCarthy had been in conflict during the Tydings Committee hearings. In speeches supporting Butler, McCarthy accused Tydings of "protecting Communists" and "shielding traitors". McCarthy's staff was heavily involved in the campaign and collaborated in the production of a campaign tabloid that contained a composite photograph doctored to make it appear that Tydings was in intimate conversation with Communist leader Earl Russell Browder. A Senate subcommittee later investigated this election and referred to it as "a despicable, back-street type of campaign", as well as recommending that the use of defamatory literature in a campaign be made grounds for expulsion from the Senate. The pamphlet was clearly labeled a composite. McCarthy said it was "wrong" to distribute it; though staffer Jean Kerr thought it was fine. After he lost the election by almost 40,000 votes, Tydings claimed foul play.

In addition to the Tydings–Butler race, McCarthy campaigned for several other Republicans in the 1950 elections, including Everett Dirksen against Democratic incumbent and Senate Majority Leader Scott W. Lucas. Dirksen, and indeed all the candidates McCarthy supported, won their elections, and those he opposed lost. The elections, including many that McCarthy was not involved in, were an overall Republican sweep. Although his impact on the elections was unclear, McCarthy was credited as a key Republican campaigner. He was now regarded as one of the most powerful men in the Senate and was treated with new-found deference by his colleagues. In the 1952 Senate elections McCarthy was returned to his Senate seat with 54.2% of the vote, compared to Democrat Thomas Fairchild's 45.6%. As of 2020, McCarthy is the last Republican to win Wisconsin's Class 1 Senate seat.

1952 Wisconsin U.S. Senate election
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Joseph McCarthy 870,444 54.2
Democratic Thomas E. Fairchild 731,402 45.6
Total votes 1,601,846 99.8
Republican hold

McCarthy and the Truman administration

McCarthy and President Truman clashed often during the years both held office. McCarthy characterized Truman and the Democratic Party as soft on, or even in league with, Communists, and spoke of the Democrats' "twenty years of treason". Truman, in turn, once referred to McCarthy as "the best asset the Kremlin has", calling McCarthy's actions an attempt to "sabotage the foreign policy of the United States" in a cold war and comparing it to shooting American soldiers in the back in a hot war. It was the Truman Administration's State Department that McCarthy accused of harboring 205 (or 57 or 81) "known Communists". Truman's Secretary of Defense, George Marshall, was the target of some of McCarthy's most vitriolic rhetoric. Marshall had been Army Chief of Staff during World War II and was also Truman's former Secretary of State. Marshall was a highly respected general and statesman, remembered today as the architect of victory and peace, the latter based on the Marshall Plan for post-war reconstruction of Europe, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953. McCarthy made a lengthy speech on Marshall, later published in 1951 as a book titled America's Retreat From Victory: The Story of George Catlett Marshall. Marshall had been involved in American foreign policy with China, and McCarthy charged that Marshall was directly responsible for the loss of China to Communism. In the speech McCarthy also implied that Marshall was guilty of treason; declared that "if Marshall were merely stupid, the laws of probability would dictate that part of his decisions would serve this country's interest"; and most famously, accused him of being part of "a conspiracy so immense and an infamy so black as to dwarf any previous venture in the history of man".

In December 1950, McCarthy teamed with right-wing radio star Fulton Lewis Jr. to smear Truman's nominee for Assistant Secretary of Defense, Anna M. Rosenberg. Their smear campaign attracted allies in anti-Semites and extremists like Gerald L. K. Smith, who falsely claimed Rosenberg, who was Jewish, was a communist. Unlike other women targets of McCarthyism, Rosenberg emerged with her career and integrity intact. When the smear campaign fizzled out, journalist Edward R. Murrow said "the character assassin has missed."

During the Korean War, when Truman dismissed General Douglas MacArthur, McCarthy charged that Truman and his advisors must have planned the dismissal during late-night sessions when "they've had time to get the President cheerful" on bourbon and Bénédictine. McCarthy declared, "The son of a bitch should be impeached."

Support from Catholics and the Kennedy family

One of the strongest bases of anti-Communist sentiment in the United States was the Catholic community, which constituted over 20% of the national vote. McCarthy identified himself as Catholic, and although the great majority of Catholics were Democrats, as his fame as a leading anti-Communist grew, he became popular in Catholic communities across the country, with strong support from many leading Catholics, diocesan newspapers, and Catholic journals. At the same time, some Catholics opposed McCarthy, notably the anti-Communist author Father John Francis Cronin and the influential journal Commonweal.

McCarthy established a bond with the powerful Kennedy family, which had high visibility among Catholics. McCarthy became a close friend of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., himself a fervent anti-Communist, and he was also a frequent guest at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. He dated two of Kennedy's daughters, Patricia and Eunice. It has been stated that McCarthy was godfather to Robert F. Kennedy's first child, Kathleen Kennedy. This claim has been acknowledged by Robert's wife and Kathleen's mother Ethel, though Kathleen later claimed that she looked at her baptismal certificate and that her actual godfather was Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart professor Daniel Walsh.

Robert Kennedy was unusual among his Harvard friends for defending McCarthy when they discussed politics after graduation. He was chosen by McCarthy to be a counsel for his investigatory committee, but resigned after six months due to disagreements with McCarthy and Committee Counsel Roy Cohn. Joseph Kennedy had a national network of contacts and became a vocal supporter, building McCarthy's popularity among Catholics and making sizable contributions to McCarthy's campaigns. The Kennedy patriarch hoped that one of his sons would be president. Mindful of the anti-Catholic prejudice which Al Smith faced during his 1928 campaign for that office, Joseph Kennedy supported McCarthy as a national Catholic politician who might pave the way for a younger Kennedy's presidential candidacy.

Unlike many Democrats, John F. Kennedy, who served in the Senate with McCarthy from 1953 until the latter's death in 1957, never attacked McCarthy. McCarthy did not campaign for Kennedy's 1952 opponent, Republican incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., due to his friendship with the Kennedys and, reportedly, a $50,000 donation from Joseph Kennedy. Lodge lost despite Eisenhower winning the state in the presidential election. When a speaker at a February 1952 final club dinner stated that he was glad that McCarthy had not attended Harvard College, an angry Kennedy jumped up, denounced the speaker, and left the event. When Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. asked John Kennedy why he avoided criticizing McCarthy, Kennedy responded by saying, "Hell, half my voters in Massachusetts look on McCarthy as a hero".

McCarthy and Eisenhower

Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States

During the 1952 presidential election, the Eisenhower campaign toured Wisconsin with McCarthy. In a speech delivered in Green Bay, Eisenhower declared that while he agreed with McCarthy's goals, he disagreed with his methods. In draft versions of his speech, Eisenhower had also included a strong defense of his mentor, George Marshall, which was a direct rebuke of McCarthy's frequent attacks. However, under the advice of conservative colleagues who were afraid that Eisenhower could lose Wisconsin if he alienated McCarthy supporters, he deleted this defense from later versions of his speech. The deletion was discovered by William H. Laurence, a reporter for The New York Times, and featured on its front page the next day. Eisenhower was widely criticized for giving up his personal convictions, and the incident became the low point of his campaign.

With his victory in the 1952 presidential race, Eisenhower became the first Republican president in 20 years. The Republican Party also held a majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate. After being elected president, Eisenhower made it clear to those close to him that he did not approve of McCarthy and he worked actively to diminish his power and influence. Still, he never directly confronted McCarthy or criticized him by name in any speech, thus perhaps prolonging McCarthy's power by giving the impression that even the President was afraid to criticize him directly. Oshinsky disputes this, stating that "Eisenhower was known as a harmonizer, a man who could get diverse factions to work toward a common goal. ... Leadership, he explained, meant patience and conciliation, not 'hitting people over the head.'"

McCarthy won reelection in 1952 with 54% of the popular vote, defeating former Wisconsin State Attorney General Thomas E. Fairchild but, as stated above, badly trailing a Republican ticket which otherwise swept the state of Wisconsin; all the other Republican winners, including Eisenhower himself, received at least 60% of the Wisconsin vote. Those who expected that party loyalty would cause McCarthy to tone down his accusations of Communists being harbored within the government were soon disappointed. Eisenhower had never been an admirer of McCarthy, and their relationship became more hostile once Eisenhower was in office. In a November 1953 speech that was carried on national television, McCarthy began by praising the Eisenhower Administration for removing "1,456 Truman holdovers who were ... gotten rid of because of Communist connections and activities or perversion." He then went on to complain that John Paton Davies Jr. was still "on the payroll after eleven months of the Eisenhower administration," even though Davies had actually been dismissed three weeks earlier, and repeated an unsubstantiated accusation that Davies had tried to "put Communists and espionage agents in key spots in the Central Intelligence Agency." In the same speech, he criticized Eisenhower for not doing enough to secure the release of missing American pilots shot down over China during the Korean War. By the end of 1953, McCarthy had altered the "twenty years of treason" catchphrase he had coined for the preceding Democratic administrations and began referring to "twenty-one years of treason" to include Eisenhower's first year in office.

As McCarthy became increasingly combative towards the Eisenhower Administration, Eisenhower faced repeated calls that he confront McCarthy directly. Eisenhower refused, saying privately "nothing would please him more than to get the publicity that would be generated by a public repudiation by the President." On several occasions Eisenhower is reported to have said of McCarthy that he did not want to "get down in the gutter with that guy."

Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations

With the beginning of his second term as senator in January 1953, McCarthy was made chairman of the Senate Committee on Government Operations. According to some reports, Republican leaders were growing wary of McCarthy's methods and gave him this relatively mundane panel rather than the Internal Security Subcommittee—the committee normally involved with investigating Communists—thus putting McCarthy "where he can't do any harm", in the words of Senate Majority Leader Robert A. Taft. However, the Committee on Government Operations included the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and the mandate of this subcommittee was sufficiently flexible to allow McCarthy to use it for his own investigations of Communists in the government. McCarthy appointed Roy Cohn as chief counsel and 27-year-old Robert F. Kennedy as an assistant counsel to the subcommittee. Later, McCarthy also hired Gerard David Schine, heir to a hotel-chain fortune, on the recommendation of George Sokolsky.

This subcommittee would be the scene of some of McCarthy's most publicized exploits. When the records of the closed executive sessions of the subcommittee under McCarthy's chairmanship were made public in 2003–04, Senators Susan Collins and Carl Levin wrote the following in their preface to the documents:

Senator McCarthy's zeal to uncover subversion and espionage led to disturbing excesses. His browbeating tactics destroyed careers of people who were not involved in the infiltration of our government. His freewheeling style caused both the Senate and the Subcommittee to revise the rules governing future investigations, and prompted the courts to act to protect the Constitutional rights of witnesses at Congressional hearings. ... These hearings are a part of our national past that we can neither afford to forget nor permit to re-occur.

The subcommittee first investigated allegations of Communist influence in the Voice of America, at that time administered by the State Department's United States Information Agency. Many VOA personnel were questioned in front of television cameras and a packed press gallery, with McCarthy lacing his questions with hostile innuendo and false accusations. A few VOA employees alleged Communist influence on the content of broadcasts, but none of the charges were substantiated. Morale at VOA was badly damaged, and one of its engineers committed suicide during McCarthy's investigation. Ed Kretzman, a policy advisor for the service, would later comment that it was VOA's "darkest hour when Senator McCarthy and his chief hatchet man, Roy Cohn, almost succeeded in muffling it."

The subcommittee then turned to the overseas library program of the International Information Agency. Cohn toured Europe examining the card catalogs of the State Department libraries looking for works by authors he deemed inappropriate. McCarthy then recited the list of supposedly pro-communist authors before his subcommittee and the press. The State Department bowed to McCarthy and ordered its overseas librarians to remove from their shelves "material by any controversial persons, Communists, fellow travelers, etc." Some libraries went as far as burning the newly-forbidden books. Shortly after this, in one of his public criticisms of McCarthy, President Eisenhower urged Americans: "Don't join the book burners. ... Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book."

Soon after receiving the chair to the Subcommittee on Investigations, McCarthy appointed J. B. Matthews as staff director of the subcommittee. One of the nation's foremost anti-communists, Matthews had formerly been staff director for the House Un-American Activities Committee. The appointment became controversial when it was learned that Matthews had recently written an article titled "Reds and Our Churches", which opened with the sentence, "The largest single group supporting the Communist apparatus in the United States is composed of Protestant Clergymen." A group of senators denounced this "shocking and unwarranted attack against the American clergy" and demanded that McCarthy dismiss Matthews. McCarthy initially refused to do this. As the controversy mounted, however, and the majority of his own subcommittee joined the call for Matthews's ouster, McCarthy finally yielded and accepted his resignation. For some McCarthy opponents, this was a signal defeat of the senator, showing he was not as invincible as he had formerly seemed.

Investigating the Army

In autumn 1953, McCarthy's committee began its ill-fated inquiry into the United States Army. This began with McCarthy opening an investigation into the Army Signal Corps laboratory at Fort Monmouth. McCarthy, newly married to Jean Kerr, cut short his honeymoon to open the investigation. He garnered some headlines with stories of a dangerous spy ring among the army researchers, but after weeks of hearings, nothing came of his investigations. Unable to expose any signs of subversion, McCarthy focused instead on the case of Irving Peress, a New York dentist who had been drafted into the army in 1952 and promoted to major in November 1953. Shortly thereafter it came to the attention of the military bureaucracy that Peress, who was a member of the left-wing American Labor Party, had declined to answer questions about his political affiliations on a loyalty-review form. Peress's superiors were therefore ordered to discharge him from the army within 90 days. McCarthy subpoenaed Peress to appear before his subcommittee on January 30, 1954. Peress refused to answer McCarthy's questions, citing his rights under the Fifth Amendment. McCarthy responded by sending a message to Secretary of the Army Robert T. Stevens, demanding that Peress be court-martialed. On that same day, Peress asked for his pending discharge from the army to be effected immediately, and the next day Brigadier General Ralph W. Zwicker, his commanding officer at Camp Kilmer in New Jersey, gave him an honorable separation from the army. At McCarthy's encouragement, "Who promoted Peress?" became a rallying cry among many anti-communists and McCarthy supporters. In fact, and as McCarthy knew, Peress had been promoted automatically through the provisions of the Doctor Draft Law, for which McCarthy had voted.

Army–McCarthy hearings

Main article: Army–McCarthy hearings

Early in 1954, the U.S. Army accused McCarthy and his chief counsel, Roy Cohn, of improperly pressuring the army to give favorable treatment to G. David Schine, a former aide to McCarthy and a friend of Cohn's, who was then serving in the army as a private. McCarthy claimed that the accusation was made in bad faith, in retaliation for his questioning of Zwicker the previous year. The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, usually chaired by McCarthy himself, was given the task of adjudicating these conflicting charges. Republican senator Karl Mundt was appointed to chair the committee, and the Army–McCarthy hearings convened on April 22, 1954.

McCarthy chats with Roy Cohn (right) at the Army-McCarthy hearings.

The army consulted with an attorney familiar with McCarthy to determine the best approach to attacking him. Based on his recommendation, it decided not to pursue McCarthy on the question of communists in government: "The attorney feels it is almost impossible to counter McCarthy effectively on the issue of kicking Communists out of Government, because he generally has some basis, no matter how slight, for his claim of Communist connection."

The hearings lasted for 36 days and were broadcast on live television by ABC and DuMont, with an estimated 20 million viewers. After hearing 32 witnesses and two million words of testimony, the committee concluded that McCarthy himself had not exercised any improper influence on Schine's behalf, but that Cohn had engaged in "unduly persistent or aggressive efforts". The committee also concluded that Army Secretary Robert Stevens and Army Counsel John Adams "made efforts to terminate or influence the investigation and hearings at Fort Monmouth", and that Adams "made vigorous and diligent efforts" to block subpoenas for members of the Army Loyalty and Screening Board "by means of personal appeal to certain members of the committee".

Of far greater importance to McCarthy than the committee's inconclusive final report was the adverse effect that the extensive exposure had on his popularity. Many in the audience saw him as bullying, reckless, and dishonest, and the daily newspaper summaries of the hearings were also frequently unfavorable. Late in the hearings, Senator Stuart Symington made an angry and prophetic remark to McCarthy. Upon being told by McCarthy that "You're not fooling anyone", Symington replied: "Senator, the American people have had a look at you now for six weeks; you're not fooling anyone, either." In Gallup polls of January 1954, 50% of those polled had a favorable opinion of McCarthy. In June, that number had fallen to 34%. In the same polls, those with a unfavorable opinion of McCarthy increased from 29% to 45%.

An increasing number of Republicans and conservatives were coming to see McCarthy as a liability to the party and to anti-communism. Representative George H. Bender noted, "There is a growing impatience with the Republican Party. McCarthyism has become a synonym for witch-hunting, Star Chamber methods, and the denial of ... civil liberties." Frederick Woltman, a reporter with a long-standing reputation as a staunch anti-communist, wrote a five-part series of articles criticizing McCarthy in the New York World-Telegram. He stated that McCarthy "has become a major liability to the cause of anti-communism", and accused him of "wild twisting of facts and near-facts repels authorities in the field".

Joseph N. Welch (left) being questioned by Senator McCarthy, June 9, 1954.

The most famous incident in the hearings was an exchange between McCarthy and the army's chief legal representative, Joseph Nye Welch. On June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the hearings, Welch challenged Roy Cohn to provide U.S. Attorney General Herbert Brownell Jr. with McCarthy's list of 130 Communists or subversives in defense plants "before the sun goes down". McCarthy stepped in and said that if Welch was so concerned about persons aiding the Communist Party, he should check on a man in his Boston law office named Fred Fisher, who had once belonged to the National Lawyers Guild, a progressive lawyers' association. In an impassioned defense of Fisher, Welch responded, "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness ..." When McCarthy resumed his attack, Welch interrupted him: "Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, Sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" When McCarthy once again persisted, Welch cut him off and demanded the chairman "call the next witness". At that point, the gallery erupted in applause and a recess was called.

Edward R. Murrow, See It Now

Edward R. Murrow, pioneer in broadcast journalism.

Even before McCarthy's clash with Welch in the hearings, one of the most prominent attacks on McCarthy's methods was an episode of the television documentary series See It Now, hosted by journalist Edward R. Murrow, which was broadcast on March 9, 1954. Titled "A Report on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy", the episode consisted largely of clips of McCarthy speaking. In these clips, McCarthy accuses the Democratic party of "twenty years of treason", describes the American Civil Liberties Union as "listed as 'a front for, and doing the work of', the Communist Party", and berates and harangues various witnesses, including General Zwicker.

In his conclusion, Murrow said of McCarthy:

No one familiar with the history of this country can deny that congressional committees are useful. It is necessary to investigate before legislating, but the line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine one, and the junior Senator from Wisconsin has stepped over it repeatedly. His primary achievement has been in confusing the public mind, as between the internal and the external threats of Communism. We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men—not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.

This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.

The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn't create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it—and rather successfully. Cassius was right: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."

The following week, See It Now ran another episode critical of McCarthy, this one focusing on the case of Annie Lee Moss, an African-American army clerk who was the target of one of McCarthy's investigations. The Murrow shows, together with the televised Army–McCarthy hearings of the same year, were the major causes of a nationwide popular opinion backlash against McCarthy, in part because for the first time his statements were being publicly challenged by noteworthy figures. To counter the negative publicity, McCarthy appeared on See It Now on April 6, 1954, and made a number of charges against the popular Murrow, including the accusation that he colluded with VOKS, the "Russian espionage and propaganda organization". This response did not go over well with viewers, and the result was a further decline in McCarthy's popularity.

"Joe Must Go" recall attempt

On March 18, 1954, Sauk-Prairie Star editor Leroy Gore of Sauk City, Wisconsin urged the recall of McCarthy in a front-page editorial that ran alongside a sample petition that readers could fill out and mail to the newspaper. A Republican and former McCarthy supporter, Gore cited the senator with subverting President Eisenhower's authority, disrespecting Wisconsin's own Gen. Ralph Wise Zwicker and ignoring the plight of Wisconsin dairy farmers faced with price-slashing surpluses.

Despite critics' claims that a recall attempt was foolhardy, the "Joe Must Go" movement caught fire and was backed by a diverse coalition including other Republican leaders, Democrats, businessmen, farmers and students. Wisconsin's constitution stipulates the number of signatures needed to force a recall election must exceed one-quarter the number of voters in the most recent gubernatorial election, requiring the anti-McCarthy movement to gather some 404,000 signatures in sixty days. With little support from organized labor or the state Democratic Party, the roughly organized recall effort attracted national attention, particularly during the concurrent Army-McCarthy hearings.

Following the deadline of June 5, the final number of signatures was never determined because the petitions were sent out of state to avoid a subpoena from Sauk County district attorney Harlan Kelley, an ardent McCarthy supporter who was investigating the leaders of the recall campaign on the grounds that they had violated Wisconsin's Corrupt Practices Act. Chicago newspapermen later tallied 335,000 names while another 50,000 were said to be hidden in Minneapolis, with other lists buried on Sauk County farms.

Public opinion

McCarthy's Support in Gallup Polls
Date Favorable No Opinion Unfavorable Net Favorable
1952 August 15 63 22 −7
1953 April 19 59 22 −3
1953 June 35 35 30 +5
1953 August 34 24 42 −8
1954 January 50 21 29 +21
1954 March 46 18 36 +10
1954 April 38 16 46 −8
1954 May 35 16 49 −14
1954 June 34 21 45 −11
1954 August 36 13 51 −15
1954 November 35 19 46 −11

Censure and the Watkins Committee

Senator Ralph Flanders, who introduced the resolution calling for McCarthy to be censured

Several members of the U.S. Senate had opposed McCarthy well before 1953. Senator Margaret Chase Smith, a Maine Republican, was the first. She delivered her "Declaration of Conscience" speech on June 1, 1950, calling for an end to the use of smear tactics, without mentioning McCarthy or anyone else by name. Only six other Republican senators—Wayne Morse, Irving Ives, Charles W. Tobey, Edward John Thye, George Aiken, and Robert C. Hendrickson—agreed to join her in condemning McCarthy's tactics. McCarthy referred to Smith and her fellow senators as "Snow White and the six dwarfs".

On March 9, 1954, Vermont Republican senator Ralph E. Flanders gave a humor-laced speech on the Senate floor, questioning McCarthy's tactics in fighting communism, likening McCarthyism to "house-cleaning" with "much clatter and hullabaloo". He recommended that McCarthy turn his attention to the worldwide encroachment of Communism outside North America. In a June 1 speech, Flanders compared McCarthy to Adolf Hitler, accusing him of spreading "division and confusion" and saying, "Were the Junior Senator from Wisconsin in the pay of the Communists he could not have done a better job for them." On June 11, Flanders introduced a resolution to have McCarthy removed as chair of his committees. Although there were many in the Senate who believed that some sort of disciplinary action against McCarthy was warranted, there was no clear majority supporting this resolution. Some of the resistance was due to concern about usurping the Senate's rules regarding committee chairs and seniority. Flanders next introduced a resolution to censure McCarthy. The resolution was initially written without any reference to particular actions or misdeeds on McCarthy's part. As Flanders put it, "It was not his breaches of etiquette, or of rules or sometimes even of laws which is so disturbing," but rather his overall pattern of behavior. Ultimately a "bill of particulars" listing 46 charges was added to the censure resolution. A special committee, chaired by Senator Arthur Vivian Watkins, was appointed to study and evaluate the resolution. This committee opened hearings on August 31.

Senator Arthur V. Watkins

After two months of hearings and deliberations, the Watkins Committee recommended that McCarthy be censured on two of the 46 counts: his contempt of the Subcommittee on Rules and Administration, which had called him to testify in 1951 and 1952, and his abuse of General Zwicker in 1954. The Zwicker count was dropped by the full Senate on the grounds that McCarthy's conduct was arguably "induced" by Zwicker's own behavior. In place of this count, a new one was drafted regarding McCarthy's statements about the Watkins Committee itself.

The two counts on which the Senate ultimately voted were:

  • That McCarthy had "failed to co-operate with the Sub-committee on Rules and Administration", and "repeatedly abused the members who were trying to carry out assigned duties ..."
  • That McCarthy had charged "three members of the Select Committee with 'deliberate deception' and 'fraud' ... that the special Senate session ... was a 'lynch party'", and had characterized the committee "as the 'unwitting handmaiden', 'involuntary agent' and 'attorneys in fact' of the Communist Party", and had "acted contrary to senatorial ethics and tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute, to obstruct the constitutional processes of the Senate, and to impair its dignity".

On December 2, 1954, the Senate voted to "condemn" McCarthy on both counts by a vote of 67 to 22. The Democrats present unanimously favored condemnation and the Republicans were split evenly. The only senator not on record was John F. Kennedy, who was hospitalized for back surgery; Kennedy never indicated how he would have voted. Immediately after the vote, Senator H. Styles Bridges, a McCarthy supporter, argued that the resolution was "not a censure resolution" because the word "condemn" rather than "censure" was used in the final draft. The word "censure" was then removed from the title of the resolution, though it is generally regarded and referred to as a censure of McCarthy, both by historians and in Senate documents. McCarthy himself said, "I wouldn't exactly call it a vote of confidence." He added, "I don't feel I've been lynched." Indiana Senator William E. Jenner, one of McCarthy's friends and fellow Republicans likened McCarthy's conduct, however, to that of "the kid who came to the party and peed in the lemonade."

Final years

Harry J. Anslinger criticized but supplied McCarthy's morphine addiction.

After his condemnation and censure, McCarthy continued to perform his senatorial duties for another two and a half years. His career as a major public figure, however, had been ruined. His colleagues in the Senate avoided him; his speeches on the Senate floor were delivered to a near-empty chamber or received with intentional and conspicuous displays of inattention. The press that had once recorded his every public statement now ignored him, and outside speaking engagements dwindled almost to nothing. Eisenhower, finally freed of McCarthy's political intimidation, quipped to his Cabinet that McCarthyism was now "McCarthywasm".

Still, McCarthy continued to rail against Communism and Socialism. He warned against attendance at summit conferences with "the Reds", saying that "you cannot offer friendship to tyrants and murderers ... without advancing the cause of tyranny and murder." He declared that "co-existence with Communists is neither possible nor honorable nor desirable. Our long-term objective must be the eradication of Communism from the face of the earth." In one of his final acts in the Senate, McCarthy opposed President Eisenhower's nomination to the Supreme Court of William J. Brennan, after reading a speech Brennan had given shortly beforehand in which he characterized McCarthy's anti-Communist investigations as "witch hunts". McCarthy's opposition failed to gain any traction, however, and he was the only senator to vote against Brennan's confirmation.

McCarthy's biographers agree that he was a changed man, for the worse, after the censure; declining both physically and emotionally, he became a "pale ghost of his former self", in the words of Fred J. Cook. It was reported that McCarthy suffered from cirrhosis of the liver and was frequently hospitalized for alcohol abuse. Numerous eyewitnesses, including Senate aide George Reedy and journalist Tom Wicker, reported finding him drunk in the Senate. Journalist Richard Rovere (1959) wrote:

He had always been a heavy drinker, and there were times in those seasons of discontent when he drank more than ever. But he was not always drunk. He went on the wagon (for him this meant beer instead of whiskey) for days and weeks at a time. The difficulty toward the end was that he couldn't hold the stuff. He went to pieces on his second or third drink, and he did not snap back quickly.

McCarthy had also become addicted to morphine. Harry J. Anslinger, head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, became aware of McCarthy's addiction in the 1950s, and demanded he stop using the drug. McCarthy refused. In Anslinger's memoir, The Murderers, McCarthy is anonymously quoted as saying:

I wouldn't try to do anything about it, Commissioner ... It will be the worse for you ... and if it winds up in a public scandal and that should hurt this country, I wouldn't care  The choice is yours.

Anslinger decided to give McCarthy access to morphine in secret from a pharmacy in Washington, DC. The morphine was paid for by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, right up to McCarthy's death. Anslinger never publicly named McCarthy, and he threatened with prison a journalist who had uncovered the story. However, McCarthy's identity was known to Anslinger's agents, and journalist Maxine Cheshire confirmed his identity with Will Oursler, co-author of The Murderers, in 1978.

Death

Tombstone of Joseph McCarthy with the Fox River in the background

McCarthy died in the Bethesda Naval Hospital on May 2, 1957, at the age of 48. His death certificate listed the cause of death as "Hepatitis, acute, cause unknown"; previously doctors had not reported him to be in critical condition. It was hinted in the press that he died of alcoholism (cirrhosis of the liver), an estimation that is now accepted by modern biographers. Thomas C. Reeves argues that he effectively died by suicide. He was given a state funeral that was attended by 70 senators, and a Solemn Pontifical Requiem Mass was celebrated before more than 100 priests and 2,000 others at Washington's St. Matthew's Cathedral. Thousands of people viewed his body in Washington. He was buried in St. Mary's Parish Cemetery, Appleton, Wisconsin, where more than 17,000 people filed through St. Mary's Church in order to pay him their last respects. Three senators—George W. Malone, William E. Jenner, and Herman Welker—had flown from Washington to Appleton on the plane that carried McCarthy's casket. Robert F. Kennedy attended the funeral in Wisconsin. McCarthy was survived by his wife, Jean, and their daughter, Tierney.

In the summer of 1957, a special election was held in order to fill McCarthy's seat. In the primaries, voters in both parties turned away from McCarthy's legacy. The Republican primary was won by Governor Walter J. Kohler Jr., who called for a clean break from McCarthy's approach; he defeated former Representative Glenn Robert Davis, who charged that President Eisenhower was soft on Communism.

Kohler was defeated in the special general election by Democrat William Proxmire. After assuming his seat, Proxmire did not pay the customary tribute to his predecessor and stated instead that McCarthy was a "disgrace to Wisconsin, to the Senate, and to America." As of 2024, McCarthy is the last Republican to have held, or won election to, Wisconsin's Class 1 Senate seat.

Legacy

William Bennett, former Reagan Administration Secretary of Education, summed up his perspective in his 2007 book America: The Last Best Hope:

The cause of anti-communism, which united millions of Americans and which gained the support of Democrats, Republicans and independents, was undermined by Sen. Joe McCarthy ... McCarthy addressed a real problem: disloyal elements within the U.S. government. But his approach to this real problem was to cause untold grief to the country he claimed to love ... Worst of all, McCarthy besmirched the honorable cause of anti-communism. He discredited legitimate efforts to counter Soviet subversion of American institutions.

House Un-American Activities Committee

McCarthy's hearings are often incorrectly conflated with the hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). HUAC is best known for its investigations of Alger Hiss and the Hollywood film industry, which led to the blacklisting of hundreds of actors, writers, and directors. HUAC was a House committee, and as such it had no formal connection to McCarthy, who served in the Senate, although the existence of the House Un-American Activities Committee thrived in part as a result of McCarthy's activities. HUAC was active for 37 years (1938–1975).

In popular culture

From the start of his notoriety, McCarthy served as a favorite subject for political cartoonists. He was traditionally depicted in a negative light, normally pertaining to McCarthyism and his accusations. Herblock's cartoon that coined the term McCarthyism appeared less than two months after the senator's now famous February 1950 speech in Wheeling, West Virginia.

In 1951, Ray Bradbury published "The Fireman", an allegory on suppression of ideas. This served as the basis for Fahrenheit 451 published in 1953. Bradbury said that he wrote Fahrenheit 451 because of his concerns at the time (during the McCarthy era) about the threat of book burning in the United States. Bob Hope was one of the first comedians to make jokes about McCarthy. During his 1952 Christmas show, Hope made a joke about Santa Claus writing to let Joe McCarthy know he was going to wear his red suit despite the Red Scare. Hope continued to offer McCarthy jokes as they were well received by most people, although he did receive some hate mail.

In 1953, the popular daily comic strip Pogo introduced the character Simple J. Malarkey, a pugnacious and conniving wildcat with an unmistakable physical resemblance to McCarthy. After a worried Rhode Island newspaper editor protested to the syndicate that provided the strip, creator Walt Kelly began depicting the Malarkey character with a bag over his head, concealing his features. The explanation was that Malarkey was hiding from a Rhode Island Red hen, a clear reference to the controversy over the Malarkey character. In 1953, playwright Arthur Miller published The Crucible, suggesting the Salem witch trials were analogous to McCarthyism.

As his fame grew, McCarthy increasingly became the target of ridicule and parody. He was impersonated by nightclub and radio impressionists and was satirized in Mad magazine, on The Red Skelton Show, and elsewhere. Several comedy songs lampooning the senator were released in 1954, including "Point of Order" by Stan Freberg and Daws Butler, "Senator McCarthy Blues" by Hal Block, and unionist folk singer Joe Glazer's "Joe McCarthy's Band", sung to the tune of "McNamara's Band". Also in 1954, the radio comedy team Bob and Ray parodied McCarthy with the character "Commissioner Carstairs" in their soap opera spoof "Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife". That same year, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio network broadcast a satire, The Investigator, whose title character was a clear imitation of McCarthy. A recording of the show became popular in the United States, and was reportedly played by President Eisenhower at cabinet meetings. The 1953 short story Mr. Costello, Hero by Theodore Sturgeon was described by journalist Paul Williams as "the all-time great story about Senator Joseph McCarthy, who he was and how he did what he did."

Post-censure reaction

Mr. Costello, Hero was adapted in 1958 by X Minus One into a radio teleplay and broadcast on July 3, 1956. While the radio adaptation retains much of the story, it completely remakes the narrator and in fact gives him a line spoken in the original by Mr. Costello himself, thus changing the tone of the story considerably. In a 1977 interview Sturgeon commented that it was his concerns about the ongoing McCarthy Hearings that prompted him to write the story.

A more serious fictional portrayal of McCarthy played a central role in the 1959 novel The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon. The character of Senator John Iselin, a demagogic anti-communist, is closely modeled on McCarthy, even to the varying numbers of Communists he asserts are employed by the federal government. He remains a major character in the 1962 film version.

The 1962 novel Advise and Consent by Allen Drury features an overzealous demagogue, Senator Fred Van Ackerman, based on McCarthy. Although the fictional senator is an ultra liberal who proposes surrender to the Soviet Union, his portrayal strongly resembles the popular perception of McCarthy's character and methods.

McCarthy was portrayed by Peter Boyle in the 1977 Emmy-winning television movie Tail Gunner Joe, a dramatization of McCarthy's life. He was portrayed by Joe Don Baker in the 1992 HBO film Citizen Cohn. Archival footage of McCarthy himself was used in the 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck about Edward R. Murrow and the See It Now episode that challenged McCarthy. In the German-French docu-drama The Real American – Joe McCarthy (2012), directed by Lutz Hachmeister, McCarthy is portrayed by the British actor and comedian John Sessions. In Lee Daniels' 2020 film, The United States vs. Billie Holiday, McCarthy is portrayed by actor Randy Davison.

R.E.M.'s song "Exhuming McCarthy", from their 1987 album Document, deals largely with McCarthy and contains sound clips from the Army-McCarthy Hearings.

'Joe' McCarthy is also mentioned in Billy Joel's 1989 song "We Didn't Start the Fire".

McCarthyism is one of the subjects of Barbara Kingsolver's novel The Lacuna.

McCarthy is a secondary character in the Showtime television drama "Fellow Travelers."

Reconsideration

McCarthy remains a controversial figure. Arthur Herman, popular historian and senior fellow of the Hudson Institute, says that new evidence—in the form of Venona-decrypted Soviet messages, Soviet espionage data now opened to the West, and newly released transcripts of closed hearings before McCarthy's subcommittee—has partially vindicated McCarthy by showing that some of his identifications of Communists were correct and the scale of Soviet espionage activities in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s was larger than many scholars had suspected. In Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies, journalist M. Stanton Evans similarly argued that evidence from the Venona documents shows significant penetration by Soviet agents.

Historian John Earl Haynes, who studied the Venona decryptions extensively, challenged Herman's efforts to rehabilitate McCarthy, arguing that McCarthy's attempts to "make anti-communism a partisan weapon" actually "threatened anti-Communist consensus", thereby ultimately harming anti-Communist efforts more than helping them. Haynes concluded that, of the 159 people who were identified on lists used or referenced by McCarthy, evidence only substantially proved that nine of them had aided Soviet espionage efforts—while several hundred Soviet spies were actually known based on Venona and other evidence, most were never named by McCarthy. Haynes' own view was that a number of those accused on McCarthy's lists above, perhaps a majority, likely posed some form of possible security risk, but a significant minority of others likely did not, and several were indisputably no risk at all.

See also

References

Citations

  1. For a history of this period, see, for example:
    Caute, David (1978). The Great Fear: The Anti-Communist Purge Under Truman and Eisenhower. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-22682-7.; Fried, Richard M. (1990). Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective |. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504361-8.
    Schrecker, Ellen (1998). Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-77470-7.
  2. Youngblood, Denise J.; Shaw, Tony (2014). Cinematic Cold War: The American Struggle for Hearts and Minds. United States of America: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0700620203.
  3. Feuerherd, Peter (December 2, 2017). "How Hollywood Thrived Through the Red Scare". JSTOR Daily. Archived from the original on August 2, 2020. Retrieved July 29, 2020.
  4. Publishers, HarperCollins. "The American Heritage Dictionary entry: McCarthyism". www.ahdictionary.com. Archived from the original on December 23, 2023. Retrieved December 23, 2023.
  5. Onion, Rebecca, We're Never Going to Get Our “Have You No Sense of Decency, Sir?” Moment Archived August 1, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, Slate, July 26, 2018
  6. ^ Garraty, John (1989). 1,001 Things Everyone Should Know About American History. New York: Doubleday. p. 24
  7. ^ O'Brien, Steven (1991). Santa Barbara, ABC-CLIO, p. 265
  8. ^ "Connecticut Cartoonists #5: The Philosopher of Okefenokee Swamp". The Comics Journal. June 22, 2016. Archived from the original on June 23, 2016. Retrieved June 23, 2016.
  9. "Communists in Government Service, McCarthy Says". United States Senate History Website. Archived from the original on July 8, 2023. Retrieved July 8, 2023.
  10. McDaniel, Rodger E. (2013). Dying for Joe McCarthy's Sins: The Suicide of Wyoming Senator Lester Hunt. Cody, WY: WordsWorth Press. ISBN 978-0983027591.
  11. Simpson, Alan K.; McDaniel, Rodger (2013). "Prologue". Dying for Joe McCarthy's Sins: The Suicide of Wyoming Senator Lester Hunt. WordsWorth Press. p. x. ISBN 978-0983027591.
  12. McDaniel, Rodger. Dying for Joe McCarthy's Sins
  13. Ted Lewis (May 3, 1957). "Joseph McCarthy, the controversial senator, dies at 48 in 1957". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on February 24, 2017. Retrieved August 19, 2017. Reprinted May 1, 2016
  14. "McCarthy's death certificate". Archived from the original on December 7, 2022. Retrieved August 19, 2017.
  15. ^ See, for example: Oshinsky, David M. (2005) . A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy. New York: Free Press. pp. 503–504. ISBN 0-19-515424-X.; Reeves, Thomas C. (1982). The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy: A Biography. New York: Stein and Day. pp. 669–671. ISBN 1-56833-101-0.; Herman, Arthur (2000). Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator. New York: Free Press. pp. 302–303. ISBN 0-684-83625-4.
  16. Rovere, Richard H. (1959). Senator Joe McCarthy. New York: Harcourt, Brace. p. 79. ISBN 0-520-20472-7.
  17. "Joseph McCarthy: Biography". Appleton Public Library. 2003. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved November 30, 2017.
  18. "McCarthy as Student". Archived from the original on February 28, 2013. Retrieved September 7, 2015.
  19. Oshinsky, David M. (2005) . A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy. New York: Free Press. p. 12. ISBN 0-19-515424-X.
  20. In A Conspiracy So Immense, Oshinsky states that McCarthy chose Marquette University rather than the University of Wisconsin–Madison partially because Marquette was under Catholic control and partially because he enrolled during the Great Depression, when few working-class or farm-bred students had the money to go out of state for college. See Oshinsky, David M. (2005) . A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy. New York: Free Press. p. 11. ISBN 0-19-515424-X.
  21. Oshinsky explains this (p. 17) as resulting partially from the financial pressures of the Great Depression. He also notes (p. 28) that even during his judgeship, McCarthy was known to have gambled heavily after hours. Oshinsky, David M. (2005) . A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy. New York: Free Press. pp. 17, 28. ISBN 0-19-515424-X.
  22. Judge on Trial, McCarthy – A Documented Record, The Progressive, April 1954 Archived May 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  23. The Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library (1940). "The Wisconsin Blue Book". Wisconsin Blue Books. Madison, WI: State of Wisconsin. Archived from the original on February 28, 2021. Retrieved November 25, 2013.
  24. Commire, Anne (1994). Historic World Leaders: North & South America (M–Z). Gale Research Incorporated. p. 492. ISBN 978-0810384132.
  25. Herman, Arthur (2000). Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator. The Free Press A Division of Simon and Schuster. p. 26. ISBN 978-0684836256.
  26. Morgan, Ted (2003). Reds: McCarthyism In Twentieth-Century America. New York: Random House. p. 328. ISBN 0-679-44399-1. In turn citing Michael O'Brien, McCarthy And McCarthyism in Wisconsin. Columbia, Mo. 1980.
  27. Oshinsky, David M. (2005) . A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy. Oxford University Press. p. 24. ISBN 0-19-515424-X.
  28. Morgan, Ted (2003). Reds: McCarthyism In Twentieth-Century America. New York: Random House. p. 330. ISBN 0-679-44399-1.
  29. Oshinsky, David M. (2005) . A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy. Oxford University Press. p. 27. ISBN 0-19-515424-X.
  30. Ryan, James G.; Schlup, Leonard (2006). Historical Dictionary of the 1940s. M.E. Sharpe, Inc. p. 245. ISBN 978-0765621078.
  31. Belknap, Michal R. (2004). The Vinson Court: Justices, Rulings, and Legacy. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. p. 214. ISBN 978-1-85109-542-1.
  32. O'Connell, Aaron B. (2012). Underdogs: The Making of the Modern Marine Corps. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. p. 109. ISBN 978-0-674-05827-9.
  33. Herman, Arthur (2000). Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator. The Free Press: A Division of Simon and Schuster. p. 33. ISBN 978-0684836256.
  34. Morgan, Ted (2004). Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America. Random House. p. 420. ISBN 978-0812973020.
  35. Morgan, Ted (2003). Reds: McCarthyism In Twentieth-Century America. New York: Random House. p. 338. ISBN 0-679-44399-1. Morgan again cites Michael O'Brien, writing in McCarthy And McCarthyism in Wisconsin.
  36. Giblin, James Cross (2009). The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy. Boston: Clarion Books. pp. 37–38. ISBN 978-0-618-61058-7.
  37. Oshinsky describes the nickname "Tail-Gunner Joe" as the result of McCarthy's wish to break the record for most live ammunition discharged in a single mission.Oshinsky, David M. (2005) . A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy. Oxford University Press. p. 32. ISBN 0-19-515424-X.
  38. Morgan, Ted (2003). Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America. New York: Random House. p. 341. ISBN 978-0-8129-7302-0.
  39. Mundt, Karl, Chairman (June 17, 1954). "Testimony of Hon. Joseph R. McCarthy, a United States Senator from the State of Wisconsin". Special Senate Investigation on Charges Involving: Secretary of the Army Robert T. Stevens, John G. Adams, H. Struve Hensel and Senator Joe McCarthy, Roy M. Cohn and Francis P. Carr. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 2888 – via Google Books.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  40. The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy, p. 34.
  41. Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America
  42. Carrier, Jerry (2014). Tapestry: The History and Consequences of America's Complex Culture. New York: Algora Publishing. p. 232. ISBN 978-1-62894-048-0.
  43. ^ The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy, p. 37.
  44. Tapestry: The History and Consequences of America's Complex Culture
  45. ^ Herman, Arthur (1999). Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator. Free Press. p. 264. ISBN 0-684-83625-4.
  46. Morgan, Ted (November–December 2003). "Judge Joe: How The Youngest Judge In Wisconsin's History Became The Country's Most Notorious Senator". Legal Affairs. Archived from the original on April 29, 2021. Retrieved August 2, 2006.
  47. Underdogs: The Making of the Modern Marine Corps.
  48. Rovere, Richard H. (1959). Senator Joe McCarthy. University of California Press. pp. 97, 102. ISBN 0-520-20472-7.
  49. McCarthy, The Man, the Senator, the Ism (Boston, Beacon Press, 1952) pp. 101–105.
  50. Beichman, Arnold (February–March 2006). "The Politics of Personal Self-Destruction". Policy Review. Archived from the original on March 12, 2008. Retrieved February 25, 2008.
  51. Herman, Arthur (2000). Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator. Free Press. p. 233. ISBN 0-684-83625-4.
  52. "Memorandum of understanding about McCarthy and a besieged army". Life. Time Inc. March 8, 1954. p. 28.
  53. Hersh, Burton (2007). Bobby and J. Edgar: The Historic Face-Off Between the Kennedys and J. Edgar Hoover that Transformed America. Carroll & Graf. ISBN 978-0786731855.
  54. "Joseph McCarthy FBI File, part 3 of 56 (part 2 of 28)". FBI Records: The Vault. Archived from the original on February 14, 2022. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
  55. C.A. Tripp also mentions this incident in his book The Homosexual Matrix. Tripp describes McCarthy as "predominantly homosexual."
  56. The allegation is specifically rejected in Rovere, Richard H. (1959). Senator Joe McCarthy. University of California Press. p. 68. ISBN 0-520-20472-7.
  57. Talbot, David (2015). The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government. Harper.
  58. Oshinsky, David (2019). A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy. Free Press.
  59. "This Day in History: Joseph McCarthy Dies". History.com. New York: A&E Television Networks, LLC. 2018. Archived from the original on August 22, 2018. Retrieved August 22, 2018.
  60. Herman, Arthur (1999). Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator. Free Press. pp. 44, 51, 55. ISBN 0-684-83625-4.
  61. Davis, Kenneth C. (2003). Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned (1st ed.). New York: HarperCollins. p. 408. ISBN 978-0-06-008381-6.
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  63. Reeves, Thomas C. (1982). The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy: A Biography. Madison Books. pp. 116–119. ISBN 1-56833-101-0.
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  65. Herman, Arthur (1999). Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator. Free Press. p. 51. ISBN 0-684-83625-4.
  66. ^ "The Press: The Man in the Middle". Time. May 24, 1954. Archived from the original on February 2, 2022. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  67. ^ Tye, Larry (July–August 2020). "When Senator Joe McCarthy Defended Nazis". Smithsonian Magazine. Archived from the original on January 30, 2021. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
  68. Greenberg, Cheryl (2006). Troubling the Waters: Black-Jewish Relations in the American Century. p. 201. In fact McCarthy was neither particularly anti-Semitic nor racist...
  69. Hollinger, David A. (December 1998). Science, Jews, and Secular Culture: Studies in Mid-twentieth-century. Princeton University Press. pp. 10–11. Senator McCarthy was not anti-Semitic... But one thing he did not do was to actively perpetuate the old association of Jews with Bolshevism.
  70. Richard Halworth Rovere: Senator Joe McCarthy. University of California Press, Berkeley 1996, ISBN 0-520-20472-7, S. 112. (Reprint der Originalausgabe erschienen bei Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, New York 1959.)
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  72. Phillips, Steve (2001). "5". In Martin Collier, Erica Lewis (ed.). The Cold War. Heinemann Advanced History. Oxford: Heinemann Educational Publishers. p. 65. ISBN 0-435-32736-4. Retrieved December 1, 2008.
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  78. Also reported as up to 8 hours in length.
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  83. Congressional Record, 81st Congress, 2nd session, pp. 2062–2068; quoted in:
    Reeves, Thomas C. (1982). The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy: A Biography. Madison Books. p. 243. ISBN 1-56833-101-0.
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  88. William N. Eskridge, "Privacy Jurisprudence and the Apartheid of the Closet, 1946–1961," Florida State University Law Review 23, no. 4 (Summer 1997); quoted in David M. Barrett, CIA and Congress: The Untold Story from Truman to Kennedy (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005), p. 70.
  89. David M. Barrett, CIA and Congress: The Untold Story from Truman to Kennedy (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005), p. 70.
  90. Hillenkoetter Testimony, 7-14-50, CIS Unpublished U.S. Senate Committee Hearings on Microfiche (Washington D.C.: Congressional Information Service); quoted in David M. Barrett, CIA and Congress: The Untold Story from Truman to Kennedy (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005), p. 79.
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  94. The United States Constitution. Government Publishing Office, Thomas Library, Official Repository Library, Local, Bakersfield California, CSUB. 2009 . p. 10.
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Primary sources

Secondary sources

  • Anderson, Jack and May, Ronald W (1952). McCarthy: the man, the Senator, the "ism", Beacon Press.
  • Bayley, Edwin R. (1981). Joe McCarthy and the Press. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-08624-0.
  • Belfrage, Cedric (1989). The American Inquisition, 1945–1960: A Profile of the "McCarthy Era". Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN 0-938410-87-3.
  • Buckley, William F. (1954). McCarthy and His Enemies: The Record and Its Meaning. Regnery Publishing. ISBN 0-89526-472-2.
  • Caballero, Raymond. McCarthyism vs. Clinton Jencks. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019.
  • Crosby, Donald F. "The Jesuits and Joe McCarthy". Church History 1977 46(3): 374–388. ISSN 0009-6407 Fulltext: in Jstor
  • Daynes, Gary (1997). Making Villains, Making Heroes: Joseph R. McCarthy, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Politics of American Memory. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-8153-2992-X.
  • Evans, M. Stanton (2007). Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies. Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-1-4000-8106-6.
  • Freeland, Richard M. (1985). The Truman Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthyism: Foreign Policy, Domestic Politics, and Internal Security, 1946–1948. New York University Press. ISBN 0-8147-2576-7.
  • Fried, Richard M. A Genius for Confusion Joseph R. McCarthy and the Politics of Deceit (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022), the most recent major scholarly biography.
  • Fried, Richard M. (1977). Men Against McCarthy. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-08360-2. online

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