The first time I remember hearing the name Joseph McCarthy was in my Oswego High School American History class during junior year (1961-1962). My teacher, Francis Riley, was a big supporter. He predicted that one day a statue would be erected dedicated to McCarthy. It hasn't happened yet and probably won't. Sorry, Mr. Riley.
Joseph McCarthy was born on a farm in Wisconsin in 1908. He graduated from high school in Manawa and received a LL. B. degree from the Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee.
In 1939, McCarthy was elected a state judge in Wisconsin's 10th District. After Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the Marine Corp. as a first lieutenant. McCarthy served as an intelligence briefing officer for a bomber squadron in the South Pacific. He also flew 12 combat missions as a gunner observer.
In 1946, McCarthy was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate from Wisconsin with 61% of the votes. A few years later, he was selected as "the worst U.S. Senator" by the Senate press corp.
On February 9, 1950 (70 years ago today), McCarthy gave a Lincoln Day speech to a Republican women's club in Wheeling, West Virginia. There, he held up a piece of paper and made the following claim:
"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 (Dean Acheson) as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department."
McCarthy followed up this unsubstantiated claim by sending a telegram to President Harry Truman making a similar unsubstantiated claim, except there he used the number 57. The Wheeling speech gave rise to a flood of interest in McCarthy.
From then on, McCarthy continued to exploit the national fear of communism and alleged communist influence in the federal government. His methods, demagoguery, baseless defamation and mudslinging, became known as McCarthyism.
In 1952, while General Dwight David Eisenhower won the presidential election (61% of the popular vote in Wisconsin), McCarthy was re-elected to the Senate with 54% of the vote.
McCarthy's political downfall happened in 1954 when at a televised Senatorial hearing investigating the United States Army, counselor for the Army, Joseph Welch, said the following to McCarthy:
"Let us not assassinate this lad (Fred Fisher) further, Senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"
McCarthy died in 1957 (age 48) from the affects of alcoholism.
"McCarthy died in 1957 (age 48) from the Effects of alcoholism."
ReplyDeleteMcCarthy's "red scare" is brought to my mind when I think the same thing went on in my lifetime about racism: Everybody's a racist. "From then on, McCarthy continued to exploit the national fear of communism and alleged communist influence in the federal government.His methods, demagoguery, baseless defamation and mudslinging, became known as McCarthyism." The same can be said of the past and continuing exploitation of the fear of racism. It can be seen by people on the right; people on the left can't see it, they reply that this is different, because there really IS racism, but really WASN'T communism. Also today, the assault on President Trump as being a secret Russian, making Russia our new "communist threat" (after Obama, that saint of all saints, literally mocked then Republican Mitt Romney for Romney's saying that Russia was our big threat. Lo and behold, Trump is elected, and Russia is now the Left's idea of our "biggest threat.")