Czech Republic
Senator Joseph McCarthy’s political career
was in danger when he walked into
the Colony Restaurant in Washington, DC for
dinner with three of his friends.
The date was January 7, 1950. A month
earlier, he had been voted worst U.S.
Senator in a poll of Senate
correspondents. In his earlier years as Senator, he
had been known for taking
loans and funds from businesses totaling $30,000. This
included the
Pepsi-Cola company, which earned him the nickname "Pepsi-Cola
Joe"1, and
the Lustron Corporation, which dealt in prefabricated houses. About
this time
McCarthy was also deemed responsible for the resignation of
Senate
subcommittee chairman Raymond E. Baldwin, who left politics citing
McCarthy’s
abuse towards him during the Malmedy WWII hearings the "last
straw" 2. Not
only was his political career in danger, but McCarthy was also
suffering from
financial troubles. He had squandered all the money from his
political funds
into soybean investments and horse racing, which left him
nearly broke3. With
these things in mind, McCarthy and his three associates-
William Roberts, a
Washington lawyer; Charles Kraus, a political science
professor at Georgetown;
and Father Edmund Walsh, a dean also at George
University set out to discover
that fateful night what could possibly
rejuvenate the political career of Joseph
McCarthy before the upcoming
election of ‘52. The trio of Roberts, Kraus, and
Walsh recommended that
McCarthy should try taking up a cause, and to do so
seriously and
passionately. But what should it be? Ideas and issues were tossed
about the
group concerning old age pension to the St. Lawrence Seaway.
McCarthy
dismissed them all. But then Walsh suggested communism, and
McCarthy’s ears
realized that they had just struck gold. "That’s it!"
exclaimed an excited
McCarthy. "The government is full of Communists. We
can hammer away at them.
4" And with that statement, Senator Joseph
McCarthy’s witchhunt against
communism had begun. 33 days later in Wheeling,
West Virginia, Senator Joseph
McCarthy stood on a podium before the Ohio
Valley Women’s Republican Club.
"I have in my hand," he began, "a list of
205 card-carrying Communists who
are now employed in the State Department and
whose identities are well known to
the State Department as being members of
the Communist party. 5" On that night
his life, as well as the lives of many
other Americans, would forever change.
McCarthy would begin a brief but
astounding crusade against the so-called
Communist infiltration of the
U.S. government. During a span of about 4 years,
McCarthy accused
hundreds of government and former government workers of being
Communist
with little or no concrete evidence. Even so, McCarthy was able to win
many
convictions and ‘victories’ without much protest and opposition. Why
did
McCarthy go relatively unscathed throughout his witchhunt until he
was
finally censured by the Senate in 1954? According to a nationwide poll
taken
during the era of McCarthyism, 50% of those polled said they approved
of his
methods, with 21% undecided6. What allowed him to do this for so long
with the
approval rather than the condemnation of the people? The key to the
success and
tolerance of McCarthy was due to a combination of several things.
First, there
was the recent espionage cases of Hiss and the Rosenbergs.
McCarthy also greatly
benefited from the pro-McCarthy media, which took up
and glamorized his cause.
There was also the fact that communism was in
many cases a viable scapegoat for
a frightened and restless people.
McCarthyism was also Americanism; it
represented the duty of the patriotic
American. McCarthyism became an offensive
tool against the threat of the
spread of communism. At the time of McCarthy’s
infamous Wheeling speech, the
nation had just learned that the threat of
Communists in high level
positions in Washington was in fact real. Alger Hiss, a
former State
Department official and at the time President of the Carnegie
Endowment
for International Peace, had been convicted of perjury just one month
prior
to McCarthy’s speech7. Whittaker Chambers, a former Communist himself,
had
charged Hiss with supplying classified information to the Soviet Union.
The
guilty verdict in this case rose many eyebrows and gave many people cause
for
alarm. A couple of months later, McCarthy’s cause was helped along even
more
by the arrests of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg8. Julius Rosenberg, an
army
electrical engineer, and his wife, Ethel, were both arrested in the
spring of
1950. The two had given sketch blueprints of the atomic bomb to
the Soviet Union
back in 1945, which had accelerated Soviet development of
the atomic bomb. The
Soviets managed to detonate an atomic bomb by
September of 19499, which created
a new atmosphere of tension in America.
These two specific cases of espionage
and treason were the main catalysts in
the people’s fear of Communist
infiltration within the government. The Alger
Hiss case easily set the stage for
Joe McCarthy’s crusade against
communism. The Rosenberg case worked even
better for McCarthy in gaining the
favor and concern of the people. Extra
concern grew out of the fact that not
only had the Rosenbergs gained access to
high security documents, but that
they were also American-born citizens, not
immigrants. The fear that possibly
more spies ‘disguised’ as American
citizens existed was what McCarthy
successfully preyed on. The people also
welcomed communism as a scapegoat to
all the post WWII peace problems around the
world. The Iron Curtain, Berlin
Blockade, trouble in Eastern Europe, formation
of NATO, Soviet possession of
the atomic bomb, the crisis in Korea, and other
things were able to be
successfully blamed on Communism. Communism and its
followers were quickly
rallied against in America, much to the benefit of people
such as Joe
McCarthy. McCarthy was also able to take full advantage of the press
and
media. He became a favorite of the press, being given nicknames such as"the
tough new kid on the block10" and being compared to Huey Long.
McCarthy
became the man of the headlines. Front page headlines would often
begin with
something like "MCCARTHY CHARGES" or "NEW MCCARTHY INVESTIGATIONS
BEGIN"
or "MCCARTHY OUTLIN4ES NEW REDHUNTING PLAN11". Rarely would a
newspaper
refute or dispute a McCarthy charge or accusation. If it did, it
would never be
on the front page, however. In the early 1950s, a person often
resorted to the
newspaper as the first source of news and information. What
they learned and
thought was greatly affected by the writer of the news
articles. A great deal of
people trusted the word of the paper a little too
much when it came to the
subject of McCarthy. McCarthy had manipulated the
press into painting a portrait
too worthy of himself. To many people,
McCarthy was a hero. He was the good guy
in the struggle between the good,
democratic American and the evil Communists.
McCarthyism therefore began
to be take up its cause in the name of Americanism.
Americanism became an
attractive lure to the restless people of the early 1950s,
who were seeking
stability and what they thought was a way to peace. Many people
began to
personally take up McCarthy’s cause, whether from high ranking
State
Department officials to the poor rural farmer. Perhaps inspired by
the reckless
ambition of McCarthy, many people believed that it was the duty
of the American
to help and promote McCarthy’s cause. McCarthy received
donations from all
over the nation, from amounts of $1 to $10,000; all from
average American
citizens12. In the face of the Cold War and the spread of
communism, McCarthyism
also became part of America’s containment policy. The
fear of the spread of
communism was not limited to just uneducated citizens;
it went all the way up to
the highest positions of government. By holding
this fear, McCarthyism held the
full support of the Republican party and many
members of the State Department.
In the minds of the people, the threat
of communism someday controlling the
lives of Americans loomed too large to
ignore. Those members of the government
in support of McCarthyism also found
it to be a matter of national security. It
had already been proven that
Communists and Communist spies had already
infiltrated the federal
government. The smuggling out of the atomic bomb
blueprints had already
demonstrated the severe consequences which could occur if
a security breach
occurs again. Even if some of the good went down with the bad,
they felt it
was unfortunate but necessary in the long run. Among the most
brilliant of
the victims of the McCarthy witchhunt was Dr. Robert J.
Oppenheimer13,
also known as the father of the atomic bomb. The peak of
McCarthyism was
achieved in 1953, which included the famous burning of the
‘Communist
books14’ in State Department libraries overseas as ordered by the
State
Department. McCarthy had previously enjoyed a relatively unmolested
time
during his years leading the ‘witchhunt’. But that suddenly changed when
the
Army decided to challenge McCarthy once and for all. Before a set of
nationally
televised hearings, McCarthy’s true character was revealed to the
public.
After witnessing more than enough of his bullying and
condescending behavior, he
quickly lost his followers. The final nail in the
coffin came in the form of a
Senate censure, which effectively ended his
political career. McCarthy would
officially die of peripheral neuritis just
three years later, but rumors exist
that he actually died of liver cirrhosis
due to his heavy drinking15. While
McCarthy lived a short and pathetic
life after he was censured in 1954, he is
still perhaps the most famous and
most intriguing Senator in U.S. history. Never
before and since has one U.S.
Senator commanded so much power and control at one
time. McCarthy was able to
do this because his entrance into the national
spotlight was timed perfectly.
It was during a time of fear and restlessness,
when a fear of communism had
penetrated the lives of restless and impatient
Americans. It was during a
time of wars- the Cold War and the Korean War, which
brought the threat of
Communist infiltration closer than ever before. It was
during a time of a
national media growing in size, power, and technology, with
widespread use of
the television right around the corner. It was during a time
where America
recognized it was the largest power in the world, but with the
power came a
great deal of responsibility. It became of time of McCarthyism-a
time of
fear, a time of injustice, and a time of captivation. All this
proceeded
without argument and began and ended with just one man from the
town of
Appleton, Wisconsin- Senator Joseph
McCarthy.
Bibliography
1. Adams, John G., Without Precedent (1983)
Toronto, Canada: George J. Mcleod
Limited, p. 18 2. Adams, p. 20 3.
Adams, p.21 4. Rovere, Richard H. Senator Joe
McCarthy (1959) Cleveland,
Ohio: World Publishing Company, pp. 122-123 5.
McCarthy, Joseph R.
McCarthyism, the Fight for America (1952) New York: Arno
Press 6. Rovere,
p.23 7. Matusow, Allen J. Joseph R. McCarthy (1970) Englewoods
Cliffs,
New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., p.6 8. Matusow, p.9 9. Blum, John M.
The
National Experience (1993) Fort Worth, Texas: Harcourt Brace Jovanich,
p.
800 10. Adams, p. 27 11. Adams, p. 27 12. Adams, p. 28 13. Blum, p.
823 14.
Blum, p. 823 15. Rovere, p. 241-250