Joseph McCarthy
“Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.”
― John Steinbeck [1]
― John Steinbeck [1]
There are three kinds of names in
this world: the name that leave behind a good legacy, the name that nobody ever
remembers, and the name that leaves a nasty taste in your mouth. One very
famous name that tends to leave behind a nasty taste in our mouths is Senator
Joseph McCarthy; a man who left behind a legacy of corruption and lies. A man,
who took advantage of a Nation in crisis and used it to his advantage to
advance his political career and take out his fellow competitors. The 1950’s was a reenactment of the famous
Salem Witch Trials of 1692, but instead of fearing witches and witchcraft,
people feared communism from the ongoing Cold War between the United States and
the Soviet Union. This fear resulted in Joseph McCarthy’s Red Scare phase of
United States history, causing fear, panic, death, and corruption. A time when
no one really knew who to trust…
Early Life
Joseph McCarthy was born on November 14, 1908, in
Grand Chute, Wisconsin, to Timothy & Bridget Tierney McCarthy.2 McCarthy was born into a family of nine children in
the devout Roman Catholic family. McCarthy left school at only fourteen years
old and began as a chicken farmer[3] before he began in Manawa managing a
grocery store. Six years later in 1928, McCarthy returned to his high school
education and gained the necessary qualifications and won a place at Marquette
University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. McCarthy was extremely unsuccessful after
he graduated and began working as a lawyer, so to create a decent income he played many nights of poker.[4] Around 1935, McCarthy had “an
unsuccessful bid as a Democratic candidate for district attorney”[5] he then focused his attention on becoming a candidate
of choice for the Republican Party for the position of Judge in the circuit
court. He was successful and achieved
the accomplishment of becoming the state’s youngest circuit court judge at 29
years old. Unbeknownst to the Nation then, but this victory was an early sign
at McCarthy’s later methods at winning; he exaggerated in his campaigns about
his opponent’s age by adding an additional 7 years to his actual age, while
also changing his own birth date to make himself seem a younger man. At this
time, his personality was displayed very well as “clever and ambitious but
lacking moral judgment, or the ability to distinguish between right and wrong”.[5]
Military Career
World War II broke out in 1939
and ended in 1945, but the United States was reluctant to join until the
Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Joseph McCarthy served in the
U.S. Marines as a ground officer in the Pacific and won medals for his
“courageous devotion” while on duty.[5] During McCarthy’s Marine tour of duty, local
friends from Wisconsin put his name on a ballot to be elected for the U.S.
Senate; he did win the election but came in a substantial second place with
more than one hundred thousand votes to his name.
Political Career
[6] Shortly
after his loss, McCarthy returned home in 1945 to Wisconsin after leaving the
Marines and was reelected as circuit court judge. A year later, McCarthy ran
against Robert M. La Follette for the U.S. Senate; to gain more votes, McCarthy
altered his war record, in an attempt to make himself look more heroic. McCarthy attacked La Follette because he did
not enlisting during the war. In fact, La Follette was 46 years old at the time
of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and was too old to have enlisted in the
armed forces. McCarthy also claimed that La Follette had made some rather large
profits for his radio station from McCarthy’s investments while he had been
fighting for his country. McCarthy stated that he himself had completed around thirty-two
missions which was a fabrication of the truth, he actually had a desk job and
had only flown in a few training exercises.[4]
McCarthy’s accusations against La
Follette were deeply damaging; McCarthy won 207,935 votes to 202,557. La
Follette ended up retiring from politic and later committing suicide due to
McCarthy’s false claims. Unfortunately, the accusations against La Follette weren’t
the last time McCarthy made false claims and ruined people’s lives, there is
much more to come.
McCarthy demonstrated more of the
behavior he had developed in the Senate election and was later to become famous
for during his first days in the Senate. On McCarthy’s first day in the Senate,
he called for a press conference to propose a solution to the current coal-strike that was taking place, [7] (“the United Mine Workers of America called on 400,000 bituminous coal miners to strike for safer conditions, health benefits and pay”).[8] His idea was to have the president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW),
John L. Lewis and the striking miners get drafted in the Army. Should they
continue to refuse to mine coal and continue their strike, McCarthy suggested
that they be court-martialed for insubordination and shot.4 According to The Milwaukee Journal, people were
unimpressed with McCarthy’s proposal and offered alternative solutions such as
“make volunteer enlistments attractive through good pay and other advances”.[5]
[9] McCarthy
realized he needed to do some damage control quickly. Desperate for ways to ensure his political
success, he developed a plan in concert with his good friend Edmund Walsh who
was also a Roman Catholic and virulently anti-communist: [8]Walsh suggested starting a crusade against communist
rebels. Walsh’s advice went straight to Joe McCarthy’s head and he quickly
agreed to the idea and began his plot to take advantage of a nation’s fear of communism. On February 9, 1950, McCarthy gave a famous
speech at the West Virginia Republican Women’s Club, in which he pulled out a
piece of paper and said “I have here in my hand a list of 205 (a number he
later reduced to 57[10])
- a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being
members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and
shaping policy in the State Department”.[10] The McCarthyism era and the Red Scare had begun.
The Red Scare
“In
1949, such people received two unpleasant surprises. The first was when
communist rulers won control of China. The second was when the Soviet Union
exploded an atomic bomb. Only the Americans had possessed atomic bombs until
then”.[7]
World War II left more of an impact
on the American people than they cared to even think about. Of course America
was still trying to recover from not only the loss of lives on the
battlefields, but the loss of lives from the dreadful attack on Pearl Harbor,
but now they had a new fear: Communism. The war left Americans very fearful
that Communism was going to take over their country. Reports had confirmed that
some Communist countries had spies in the U.S., trying to gain knowledge of how
to construct an Atomic Bomb (which previously only Americans had possession of).[11] With McCarthy’s speech and alleged list of
250 names of Communists in the State Department, people went crazy with the
thought of Communists within the United States and pushed for the investigation
of the concealed Communist activists.[12] McCarthy stated that “they
(Americans) were being overrun with communists, and that they must rid
themselves of all the communists before America could be great again”.[7] When McCarthy made these speeches and statements
about Communists in America, the McCarthyism era began (McCarthyism is known
for being “the paranoid hunt for infiltrators”).
The Red Scare was nothing more
than a reenactment of the famous Salem Witch Trials that took place more than
two and a half centuries earlier. But this time, witchcraft wasn’t the enemy;
it was Communism. “Communists were often referred to as “Reds” for their
allegiance to the red Soviet flag”.[12] Similar to the Salem Witch Trials, association with
someone who was suspected of any type of affiliation with Communism mad you
equally guilty and had the potential to ruin any career that you had. Many
actors could not participate in movie rolls anymore because they had been
blacklisted by the mark of Communism. In order to continue writing for the big
screen, many authors had to use fake names, even though most of them never were
able to work again, and others were forced to leave the country.[7] Some even went so far as to have their passports
revoked and then did time in jail for refusing to give up the names of other
Communists.[13]
Many different people were accused of being Communists, ranging from
McCarthy’s political rivals to actors and screenwriters such as Leonard
Bernstein, Charlie Chaplin, Langston Hughes, Arthur Miller, Edward G. Robinson,
Orson Welles[14] to ten year old Shirley Temple. The
HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) was created so they could prove
many actors and writers were communists.[7] The HUAC was in charge of calling citizens to
testify in “high-profile hearings before congress”.[12] The HUAC provided a very uncomfortable and
intimidating atmosphere that produced questionable revelations about the
Communist penetrating American institutions and revolutionary activities by
well-known citizens. Their controversial methods added to the fear and distrust
that had already been present during the anticommunist era of the 50’s. The
HUAC was responsible for the blacklists of actors that were accused of
Communism and also for putting people in jail if they refused to give up names
of ‘fellow’ Communists.[15]
No one was safe from being accused of
Communism, unless they were under McCarthy’s good graces and were under the
same belief system he was. From 1940-1965, there was a large range of groups
and individual people suspected of being Communists, the Department of Ethnic
Studies at the University of Colorado[16]
noted that the people and organizations suspected of being Communists included:
·
Presidents
Roosevelt and Truman
·
New
Deal Liberals
·
Democrats
·
Critics
of McCarthy
·
American
Civil Liberties Union and Civil Libertarians
·
Rock
and Roll musicians
·
Gay
activists and gays and lesbians
·
Martin
Luther King and the civil rights movement
·
Union
leaders
·
Nancy
Reagan
·
University
Professors and public school teachers
·
Atomic
Scientists
·
Abstract
Artists and Painters
·
Feminists
and leaders of the women’s movement
·
Alfred
Kinsey and 1950s sex researchers
·
Girl
Scouts
·
Dr.
Spock
·
American
Indians, Workers, & Writers
·
Teenagers
and Juvenile Delinquents
·
College
students and social activists
·
Supporters
of putting Fluoride in the drinking water
You begin to see the diversity of
people that were accused of Communism, and that is exactly who got accused;
diverse people. People who had new ideas and questioned the normality of the
current existence of life were all accused of being Reds. 3,000 federal employees had been selected to
be investigated for Communist acts, although some had been Communists, others
had been fascists, alcoholics, and sexual deviants. Now if Joseph McCarthy
himself had been investigated, his own sexual preference and drinking problems
would have landed his name on the famous list of Communists.4
People began to disbelieve McCarthy’s
accusations in the 1950s as they watched him interrogate fellow Americans on TV.[13] “It was apparent to anyone watching that McCarthy
consistently harassed the witnesses who came before his subcommittee. Over and
over, he interrupted them when they tried to answer his questions and employed
innuendo and half-truths to convince those present-and the often-gullible
media- that the witnesses were guilty as charged.”[2] Not only did people start to realize that
McCarthy’s accusations were false, but they were unsure about how to confront
Senator McCarthy about all his wrongdoings. After Edward R. Murrow (a reporter
for CBS), Joe Wershba (a reporter who worked with Murrow), and Fred Friendly
(associate of Murrow),[17] watched
the replays of broadcasts featuring McCarthy, “Murrow looked around and said,
“The terror [of how McCarthy would react and what he might do} is right here in
this room.” Later, after they had talked about the reasons for their fear,
Murrow tried to reassure them by saying “no one man, can terrorize a whole
nation unless we are all his accomplices””.[2] They all started to see how he was a “bully and a
liar”14 until he completely lost his power. The Red Scare
and McCarthyism era had come to an end after it’s ten year reign from
1940-1950’s; people had finally started to see that they were being fed a web
of lives by Joe McCarthy and they had finally had their fair share of the
Communist Witch hunts, but not before it had done some serious damage to the
reputation of the United States and the justice system.[18]
A
Lasting Impact on the United States
[19] Joseph
McCarthy died on May 2, 1957, but it isn’t clear exactly from what, some say it
was hepatitis[2] other sources say it was caused by cirrhosis of the
liver which is caused from heavy drinking.[8] The threat of Communism was still in the world, but
finally the panic that Communism had snuck into the lives of America was laid
to rest.[10] Although
even after the Communist accusations had lost their popularity, screenplay
writers began basing movies on the McCarthyism era such as: Arthur Miller’s (an
accused) The Crucible, which was
about the 1692 Salem Witch Trials, John Frankenheimer’s The Manchurian Candidate, Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront, and even Stan Lee’s X-Men (2000).[20]
“The social costs of what came to be called
McCarthyism have yet to be computed. By conferring its prestige on the red
hunt, the state did more than bring misery to the lives of hundreds of
thousands of Communists, former Communists, fellow travelers, and unlucky
liberals. It weakened American culture and it weakened itself”.[21]
The search for Communism and the panic that it brought forth is a dark spot on
the history of the United States; lives were ruined, suicide was committed, and
some fled the country entirely.[7] “The national anthem calls this the land of the
free. People here are allowed to hold any beliefs that they want. Joseph
McCarthy forgot that. All of America forgot that during the Senate hearings,
and we are still paying for it today”.[7]
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[2]
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[6]
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[8]
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[17]
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