Salem Press

American Villains
Joseph McCarthy

U.S. senator from Wisconsin (1947-1957)

Born: November 14, 1908; Grand Chute, near Appleton, Wisconsin
Died: May 2, 1957; Bethesda, Maryland
Also Known As: Joseph Raymond McCarthy (full name); Joe McCarthy;
Tail Gunner Joe

Cause of Notoriety: McCarthy's investigation of officials and celebrities for alleged Communist activities symbolized Cold War anticommunist hysteria and set a precedent for political activity emphasizing personal destruction of one's opponents.

Active: 1950-1954
Locale: Washington, D.C.

Early Life
At an early age, Joseph McCarthy (mihk-KAHR-thee) exhibited intelligence, ambition, and a penchant for risk-taking. Born the fifth of nine children on his family's farm near Green Bay, Wisconsin, McCarthy quit high school to become a farmer and grocer, returned at age twenty to earn his diploma in a year, and went on to receive undergraduate and law degrees from Marquette University while working to cover his expenses. His early career as an attorney was largely unsuccessful, prompting him to supplement his earnings through gambling and politics. He also earned a reputation for heavy drinking, which would follow him for the remainder of his life.

Political Career
In 1939, McCarthy was elected to his first political office, a circuit court judgeship, after switching from the Democratic to the Republican Party and receiving a reprimand from the Wisconsin Supreme Court for making false claims about his opponent during the campaign. He later served in the Marine Corps during World War II as an aerial photographer and tail gunner, earning a decoration for flying with an injury that some of his fellow soldiers claimed was not received in combat. Following the war, McCarthy ran a successful campaign for the United States Senate by emphasizing his combat service.

During his first term in the Senate, McCarthy developed a reputation as an affable but mediocre legislator with tendencies toward drunkenness and questionable financial dealings. Seeking to divert attention from his personal conduct, McCarthy seized upon growing anticommunist sentiments inspired by growing tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. He volunteered to join his fellow Republican legislators on the campaign trail in early 1950 and was assigned a series of obscure speaking engagements, beginning with an address before a women's club in Wheeling, West Virginia, on February 9. A recording of his speech by a local radio station was lost, but witnesses claim that McCarthy held aloft a piece of paper that he claimed contained the names of 205 Communist operatives within the State Department. McCarthy altered these figures in subsequent speeches, raising and lowering the number of alleged operatives to suit his audience.

McCarthy's claims were unverifiable, yet many Americans, fearing the rise of the Soviet Union and international communism, accepted them without question. His notoriety and influence continued to increase as his crusade intensified; several Democratic senators who questioned his claims were defeated in the 1950 election, and McCarthy's allegations that Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson was "soft" on communism led to the election of Dwight D. Eisenhower to the presidency in 1952.

McCarthy also won reelection that year and was made chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Government Operations, a position that he used to broaden his investigation into alleged Communist activity in the U.S. government. He proceeded to target the Republican leadership that he had helped elect, calling numerous government employees to testify before his committee and subjecting them to hostile, intrusive questioning that was often based upon fabricated, erroneous, or nonexistent evidence. Those who refused to cooperate saw their reputations, careers, and lives destroyed as McCarthy leaked derogatory information about them to employers and the media.

He questioned the patriotism of even his mildest critics, creating an atmosphere of personal destruction and intimidation that rendered him virtually untouchable. Accused of assaulting journalist Drew Pearson in a congressional restroom, McCarthy defiantly admitted to the assault; the act went unpunished. Many Americans viewed McCarthy as a hero, and McCarthyism, as the crusade against communism came to be called, as a defense of the "American way" against an evil foe. To a growing minority, however, McCarthy and his tactics were the manifestation of an anti-American disregard for due process, civil liberties, and personal dignity.

Decline
McCarthy's fortunes were soon reversed as he increasingly attacked his fellow Republicans, insinuating that even Eisenhower was soft on communism. When McCarthy's investigation of the U.S. Army in 1954 led to televised hearings, during which McCarthy was revealed to have sought favors for a former staff member, the American public witnessed firsthand the inner workings of McCarthyism, and many were alarmed at the heavy-handed tactics of McCarthy and his chief counsel, Roy Marcus Cohn. Castigated in a verbal exchange with Army counsel Joseph Welch, McCarthy appeared, defeated and exposed as a fraud, before a national television audience. The Senate voted to censure him in December, 1954, and he spent the remainder of his Senate career in obscurity. He died at Bethesda Naval Hospital in 1957 of liver failure precipitated by years of heavy drinking.

Impact
Just as his crusade against communism had brought his party to power in the early 1950's, the political demise of Joseph McCarthy contributed to Republican losses in Congress in the 1954 elections. Yet the legacy of McCarthyism continued to influence American politics and government long after the death of McCarthy. His investigations purged numerous experts on communism and communist countries from the United States government, affecting American foreign policy for decades and prompting some historians to establish links between McCarthyism and the defeat of U.S. forces in the Vietnam War. His synthesis of old-fashioned demagoguery and the fledgling medium of broadcast television created a new style of politics that emphasized skilled manipulation of information, assaults upon the patriotism and character of opponents, and appeals to emotion.

Declassified evidence indicates that a small number of the government employees whom McCarthy investigated were indeed Communist operatives. The number, however, was sufficiently small to raise questions about the propriety and competence of his investigations.

Further Reading
Fried, Albert, ed. McCarthyism, the Great American Red Scare: A Documentary History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Collection of documents pertaining to McCarthyism from the late 1940's through the mid-1960's.

Ranville, Michael. To Strike at a King: The Turning Point in the McCarthy Witch Hunts. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Momentum Books, 1997. Story of journalist Edward R. Murrow's defense of an Air Force officer targeted by McCarthy.

Reeves, Thomas C. The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy: A Biography. Lanham, Md.: Madison Books, 1997. A lengthy, detailed, and scholarly biography of McCarthy.

Michael H. Burchett

See Also: Whittaker Chambers.