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Background Information
Joseph McCarthy became
McCarthy’s beginnings were rather humble. He was born in 1908 to Timothy and Bridget McCarthy of Grand Chute,
He quit school at the age of 14 to run a chicken farm, and he later managed a local Cash-Way grocery store. At the age of 20, McCarthy returned to school and completed the entire high school curriculum in one academic year. Upon graduating, McCarthy moved to
At age 31, McCarthy was elected circuit court judge for the Tenth District. Many lawyers praised McCarthy for his speedy rulings and for his willingness to travel to courtrooms all throughout the district. Some, however, criticized McCarthy for treating first offenders with leniency and for quickly pushing divorce cases through the system.
McCarthy joined the Marines in 1942, during World War II. He was promoted to the rank of Captain and became an intelligence officer in the South Pacific. In this role, he briefed pilots before flights and questioned them upon their return about enemy activity.
In 1944, while still a Marine, McCarthy ran for the U.S. Senate as a Wisconsin Republican. In order to convince voters of his patriotism, McCarthy told the press that he served as a tail gunner. He lost the primary to incumbent Senator Alexander Wiley and left the Marines in December, 1944, having served 30 months. Many criticized McCarthy’s 1944 campaign since state law prohibited a judge from running for office. Furthermore, he diverted money into his campaign through friends and family.
McCarthy’s 1946 Senate run was successful and in that year, he joined Alexander Wiley in
McCarthy focused all his energies on his anti-communist crusade. In 1952, he was reelected and assumed chairmanship of the Senate’s Government Operations Committee. Through its investigative subcommittee, the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, McCarthy searched for Communists in government.
While many Communists had infiltrated
By 1954, McCarthy’s subcommittee began to focus on weaknesses in military security. In one of its most famous investigations, McCarthy sought the names of officers who had promoted a suspected Communist sympathizer, Irving Peress, to the rank of Major. The promotion was an oversight, but McCarthy believed he had stumbled upon a Communist conspiracy. He verbally abused the Camp’s commander, General Ralph Zwicker, for refusing to help his investigation. Many were shocked that McCarthy would attack the U.S. Army and thought that these accusations showed he had gone too far.
In response, the Army publicized charges against McCarthy and members of his staff. The Army said McCarthy’s Chief Counsel Roy Cohn bullied officers into giving a McCarthy aide special treatment while in boot camp. This aide, Private David Schine, had worked for McCarthy briefly until the Army drafted him in 1953. McCarthy shot back, claiming that the Army had used Schine as a “hostage” to force McCarthy to stop his investigations of the Army.
On April 22, 1954, a Senate subcommittee opened the Army-McCarthy hearings. McCarthy bullied, interrupted, and harassed witnesses and committee members in front of a 20-million person television audience. Finally, he attacked Fred Fisher, an attorney in the law firm of the Army counsel, Joseph Welch. This seemed to be the last straw. Many who had once seen McCarthy as a hard-nosed anti-Communist patriot now saw him as a frightening extremist.
In July of 1954, fellow Republicans initiated an investigation of McCarthy’s conduct through the Watkins Committee. The committee reported back to the Senate in September recommending McCarthy’s censure (a formal statement of disapproval). The Senate debated but returned with a 67 to 22 vote to “condemn” McCarthy for contempt and abuse of Senate committees. McCarthy continued in office, but lost the power to intimidate Senators and influence legislation.
After his censure, McCarthy’s health deteriorated, worsened by alcohol abuse. He died on May 2, 1957, from acute hepatitis in a
At the time of his first election in 1946, McCarthy had many local supporters. However, by 1952, some people of the
By 1954, the term “McCarthyism” was a part of the national vocabulary. It had come to be equated with injustice, ugly smears, lies, and undemocratic methods. McCarthy and his supporters, however, would have defined McCarthyism as the fight for the American way of life. McCarthy never found a single Communist spy, although some recent research shows that he did name a few. He hurt hundreds of Americans who lost their jobs, friends, and community standing due to his accusations. He disrupted two administrations and backed efforts to curtail academic freedoms and censor unpopular ideas. He was also a victim of partisan politics, first cast as the enemy by the Democratic Party, and then by his own party. We still struggle today with balancing issues of national security with promises of personal freedoms.
Political Cartoon "Afraid to come out, Joe?" from Wisconsin CIO News-Magazine, circa 1952.
Newspaper page "An Open Letter to Senator McCarthy," Appleton Post-Crescent, September 6, 1952.
Newspaper page "Dear Joe," Appleton Post-Crescent, September 8, 1952.
Newspaper photograph of McCarthy's flag-draped coffin, Appleton Post Crescent, May 6, 1957.