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.

Fall of McCarthy

In the fall of 1953, McCarthy's committee began its ill-fated inquiry into the United States Army. It attempted to uncover a spy ring in the Army Signal Corps, but failed. The committee came to focus its attention on an Army dentist, Irving Peress, who took the Fifth Amendment twenty times under sustained questioning. Peress was accused of recruiting military personnel into the Communist Party. It is known for certain that Peress refused to answer questions on Defense Department forms concerning membership in "subversive organizations", and that the Army Surgeon General had recommended his dismissal early in 1953. McCarthy expressed serious concerns that Peress had not been discharged after that recommendation, but instead had been promoted to the rank of Major.

Related Topics:
1953 - United States Army - Irving Peress - Fifth Amendment - Surgeon General

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In examining this latter question, McCarthy brought hostile media attention upon himself concerning his treatment of General Ralph W. Zwicker. Among other things, McCarthy compared Zwicker's intelligence to that of a "five-year-old child", and stated that Zwicker was "not fit to wear the uniform of a General." Charles Potter was one of the few Republican Senators to speak out against McCarthy. He later wrote a book called Days Of Shame in which he lambasted his fellow Senator. He said that McCarthy was nothing but a bully. He was enraged by his treatment of General Zwicker. He pointed out that Zwicker was a decorated hero. Early in 1954, the Army accused McCarthy and Cohn of pressuring the Army to give favorable treatment to another former aide and friend of Cohn's, G. David Schine. McCarthy claimed that the accusation was made in bad faith, in retaliation for his questioning of Zwicker the previous year.

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The Senate convened the Army-McCarthy Hearings into the matter, which was broadcast live and on television. In one memorable interchange, McCarthy revealed that the Army's attorney general, Joseph Welch, had hired a lawyer who had previously worked for a Communist-linked group. (This revelation was explicitly in retaliation for Welch's combative questioning.) This led to Welch's famous rebuke: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" These proceedings have been recorded in the documentary film Point of Order! The Senate voted 67 to 22 on December 2, 1954, to condemn Joseph McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute", the first time a senator was censured for actions in a past session of Congress.

Related Topics:
Army-McCarthy Hearings - Joseph Welch - Documentary film - Point of Order! - December 2 - 1954

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Although it is certainly true that the ultimate downfall of McCarthy was his investigations into the Army, it is worth noting that several members of the U.S. Senate opposed McCarthy well before 1953. One example is U.S. Senator Margaret Chase Smith, a Maine Republican (and the only woman in the Senate at the time) who delivered her "Declaration of Conscience" on June 1, 1950, criticized both the Executive and Legislative branches' use of smear tactics without mentioning McCarthy or anyone else by name. However, in her "Declaration of Conscience", Smith said, "The Democratic administration has greatly lost the confidence of the American people by its complacency to the threat of communism and the leak of vital secrets to Russia through key officials of the Democratic administration." http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/SmithDeclaration.pdf Six other Republican senators, Wayne Morse, Irving M. Ives, Charles W. Tobey, Edward John Thye, George Aiken and Robert C. Hendrickson joined her in condemning McCarthy's tactics. Vermont Senator Ralph E. Flanders also condemned McCarthy on the floor of the Senate and he introduced the resolution to censure him. McCarthy referred to Smith and her fellow Senators as "Snow White and the 6 dwarves".

Related Topics:
Margaret Chase Smith - Maine - Declaration of Conscience - June 1 - 1950 - Wayne Morse - Irving M. Ives - Edward John Thye - George Aiken - Vermont - Ralph E. Flanders

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One of the most prominent attacks on McCarthy's methods came in an episode of the TV documentary series See It Now, by respected journalist Edward R. Murrow, which was broadcast on March 9, 1954. The show consisted mostly of clips of McCarthy speaking, so any negative reaction would be mostly from McCarthy hanging himself, as it were. In the clips McCarthy does such things as accusing the Democratic party of "twenty years of treason" (1933-1953, in his estimation), and berating witnesses including an Army general.

Related Topics:
See It Now - Edward R. Murrow - March 9 - 1954 - 1933

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The Murrow report sparked a nationwide popular opinion backlash against McCarthy, which the Senator tried to counter by appearing on the show himself. McCarthy appeared on See It Now about three weeks after the original episode, where he made a number of personal attacks and charges against Murrow. However, his method of delivery had been designed for a live audience, not a nationwide broadcast one; the result of this appearance was a further decline in his popularity. President Eisenhower, now free of McCarthy's political intimidation and the always potential threat of American Catholic electoral displeasure, referred to "McCarthywasm" to a reporter.

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McCarthy had always been a heavy drinker, one of the things that had helped him develop amicable relationships with many members of the press. His being censured by the Senate caused anger and depression in McCarthy which turned his heavy drinking into full-scale alcoholism. This aggravated his existing weak health and caused serious diseases. He finally died of acute hepatitis in Bethesda Naval Hospital on May 2, 1957, at the age of 48, and was given a state funeral attended by 70 senators, and St. Matthew's Cathedral performed a Solemn Pontifical Requiem before over a hundred priests and 2000 others. He was buried in St. Mary's Parish Cemetery, Appleton, Wisconsin. He was survived by his wife, Jean, and their adopted daughter, Tierney McCarthy.

Related Topics:
Alcoholism - Hepatitis - Bethesda Naval Hospital - May 2 - 1957 - Requiem - Appleton, Wisconsin

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In addition to being a heavy drinker, Senator McCarthy may have been addicted to morphine. In his 1961 memoir "The Murderers", Harry Anslinger, U.S. Commission of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, admitted to regularly supplying morphine to "one of the most influential members of the Congress of the United States." Although Anslinger's depiction is melodramatic at best, the story strongly suggests that the senator was Joseph McCarthy. This theory was supported by Anslinger's biographer John C. McWilliams in "The Protectors."

Related Topics:
Morphine - Harry Anslinger - Federal Bureau of Narcotics

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