Joseph McCarthy

Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14 1908 – May 2 1957) was an American politician originally aligned with the United States Democratic Party and later with the United States Republican Party. McCarthy served as a U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 to 1957. 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 who were suspected of being Communists or Communist sympathizers.

Anti-Communist crusade

From 1950 to 1953 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. His finances were investigated by a Senate panel in 1952; its report cited questionable behavior in his campaigns and irregularities in his finances, but found no grounds for legal action. He married Jean Kerr, a researcher in his office, on September 29, 1953.

Related Topics:
1953 - 1952 - September 29

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After the Republican electoral triumph of 1952 - a triumph his exposure of "Communist influences" within the government aided; 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 liberal Democrats, appointed him chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. His unreliability and evasiveness, however, meant he was never completely trusted by the party (and particularly by President Dwight Eisenhower, who once stated privately that he didn't "want to get into a pissing contest with that skunk!") One of the higher profile targets of McCarthy was General George C. Marshall. McCarthy and a friend of his, Senator William Jenner of Indiana, saw this man to be a liar and a traitor. Eisenhower wrote a speech in which he included a spirited defense of General Marshall, but he was later convinced to remove this passage. Harry Truman turned bitterly against Eisenhower because of this. He said Eisenhower was a coward because he owed his career to General Marshall. Truman considered Marshall to be one of the greatest Americans of all time.

Related Topics:
Liberal - Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations - Dwight Eisenhower - Skunk - George C. Marshall

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McCarthy's committee, unlike the House Un-American Activities Committee and the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, focused on government institutions. It first made an investigation into bureaucracy at Voice of America, 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, notwithstanding the fact that it was now a Republican government. This angered Eisenhower. He was not willing to oppose McCarthy publicly due to his continuing approval of the American people, but he now considered McCarthy a dangerous loose cannon and began behind-the-scenes work to remove him from his position of influence.

Related Topics:
House Un-American Activities Committee - Senate Internal Security Subcommittee - Bureaucracy - Voice of America - Library

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Several noted persons resigned from the committee fairly early into McCarthy's administration of it, including Robert F. Kennedy, who literally came to blows with McCarthy's chief counsel Roy Cohn. These resignations led to the appointment of one "B. Matthews" as executive director. 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 1930s, he became a fervent anti-Communist. Matthews was an ordained Methodist 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 Protestant clergy in a paper called "Reds in Our Churches", 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.

Related Topics:
Robert F. Kennedy - Roy Cohn - Anti-Communist - Methodist - Protestant - Clergy

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