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.

McCarthy and Truman

McCarthy and McCarthyism was in part a matter of electoral politics. McCarthy sought to characterize President Truman and the Democratic party as soft on or even in league with the Communists. McCarthy's allegations fell flat with Truman who, unaware of Venona project decrypts which corroborated Elizabeth Bentley's debriefing, considered McCarthy "the best asset the Kremlin has" for his divisive effect.

Related Topics:
Truman - Venona project - Elizabeth Bentley - Kremlin

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In 1947{{NamedRef|FBI1|1}}, it was apparent that no individual in the U.S. Government realized that evidence of massive Soviet espionage within the government was developing on twin tracks. There was an FBI counterintelligence investigation{{NamedRef|FBI2|2}} which empanelled a grand jury in New York, and the Army Signal Intelligence Service at Arlington Hall reading Soviet cipher decrypts{{NamedRef|Benson|3}}. It was a case of one hand not knowing what the other was doing. So when McCarthy later made charges that the Truman administration knowingly protected Soviet agents, on the surface, this appeared to large sectors{{NamedRef|ONCIX|4}} of the American public{{NamedRef|Smith|5}} as true."

Related Topics:
Signal Intelligence Service - Arlington Hall

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