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MCCARTHYISM: Article 4
Bibliography (aka Works Cited) Information:
http://www.authentichistory.com/1946-1960/4-cwhomefront/1mccarthyism/
Paragraph 1:
McCarthy and the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations
In 1953 Senator McCarthy was made chairman of the Senate
Committee on Government Operations, which included the
Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The mandate
of this subcommittee was flexible enough to allow McCarthy to
use it for his own investigations of communists in the
government. McCarthy first examined allegations of communist
influence in the Voice of America, the government institution
responsible for broadcasting an American point-of-view over the
radio and television stations overseas. He then turned to the
overseas library program of the State Department. Card catalogs
of these libraries were searched for works by authors McCarthy
deemed inappropriate. McCarthy then recited the list of
supposedly pro-communist authors before his subcommittee and
the press. Yielding to the pressure, the State Department ordered
its overseas librarians to remove from their shelves "material by
any controversial persons, communists, etc." Some libraries
actually burned the newly forbidden books.
Paragraph 2:
Edward R. Murrow and the See It Now Broadcasts
One of the most prominent attacks on McCarthy's methods was an
episode of the television documentary series See It Now, hosted by
journalist Edward R. Murrow, which was broadcast on March 9,
1954. Titled "A Report on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy", the
episode consisted largely of clips of McCarthy speaking. In these
clips, McCarthy accuses the Democratic party of "twenty years of
treason", describes the American Civil Liberties Union as "listed as
'a front for, and doing the work of', the Communist Party", and
berates and harangues various witnesses, including General
Zwicker.
In his conclusion, Murrow said of McCarthy:
His primary achievement has been in confusing the public mind,
as between the internal and the external threats of Communism.
We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember
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always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends
upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear,
one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of
unreason...We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the
defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world,
but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.
The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused
alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given
considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that?
Not really his. He didn't create this situation of fear; he merely
exploited it—and rather successfully.
Paragraph 3:
At the end of the March 9 broadcast, Murrow offered McCarthy
a chance to rebut the story. McCarthy called Murrow a liar and
accepted the offer, but said he needed time to prepare. In the
meantime, See It Now ran another episode critical of McCarthy
on March 16, this one focusing on the case of Annie Lee Moss,
an African-American army clerk who was falsely accused by
McCarthy of having communist connections. McCarthy’s reply
was broadcast on See It Now on April 6. Instead of addressing
Murrow’s reporting, he made a number of charges against the
reporter, including that he had helped with Soviet espionage and
propaganda efforts. As usual, he had no evidence. Murrow
refuted the charges, but McCarthy’s accusations did not go over
well with See It Now viewers.
Paragraph 4:
TheArmy-McCarthyHearings
In the spring of 1954, McCarthy's committee began an
investigation into the United States Army. Earlier, McCarthy had
made headlines with stories of a dangerous spy ring among Army
researchers, but ultimately nothing came of this investigation.
McCarthy next turned his attention to the case of a U.S. Army
dentist who had been promoted to the rank of major despite having
refused to answer questions on an Army loyalty review form.
McCarthy's handling of this investigation, including a series of
insults directed at a brigadier general, led to the Army-McCarthy
Hearings, with the Army and McCarthy trading charges and
counter-charges for 36 days before a nationwide television
audience. The official outcome of the hearings was inconclusive,
but they had a hugely negative effect on McCarthy’s popularity. In
one case, McCarthy was caught having heavily edited a
photograph entered into evidence, and in another case, he was
caught having fabricated a letter and presenting it as evidence from
the FBI. Many in the audience saw him as a bully, reckless and
dishonest. Television had exposed McCarthy in a way that
newspapers never could.
Paragraph 5:
During these hearings other popular culture began to push back
against McCarthyism. On May 30, 1954, the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation aired Reuben Ship's "The
Investigator," a satire of HUAC and McCarthy's Senate
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The left gave it
positive reviews, but the right excoriated the production as antiAmerican propaganda. Just days later, Four Star Records
released Cactus Pryor's "Point of Order, with the Senator and the
Private," which mocks the committee for its focus on triviality,
and the absurdity of McCarthy's suspicious nature (he objects to
quoting Shakespeare until he's cleared as not being a
Communist).
Late in the hearings, Senator Stuart Symington made an angry and
prophetic remark to McCarthy: "The American people have had a
look at you for six weeks," he said. "You are not fooling
anyone."In Gallup polls of January 1954, 50% of those polled had
a positive opinion of McCarthy. In June, that number had fallen to
34%. In the same polls, those with a negative opinion of McCarthy
increased from 29% to 45%.
Paragraph 6:
The most famous incident in the hearings was an exchange
between McCarthy and the army's chief legal representative,
Joseph Nye Welch. On June 9, the 30th day of the hearings,
Welch challenged Roy Cohn to provide U.S. Attorney General
Herbert Brownell, Jr. with McCarthy's list of 130 Communists or
subversives in defense plants "before the sun goes down".
McCarthy stepped in and said that if Welch was so concerned
about persons aiding the Communist Party, he should check on a
man in his Boston law office named Fred Fisher, who had once
belonged to the National Lawyers Guild, which Brownell had
called "the legal mouthpiece of the Communist Party". In an
impassioned defense of Fisher, Welch responded, "Until this
moment, Senator, I think I never gauged your cruelty or your
recklessness." When McCarthy resumed his attack,
Paragraph 7:
Welch interrupted him: "Let us not assassinate this lad further,
Senator. You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir,
at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" When McCarthy
once again persisted, Welch cut him off and demanded the
chairman "call the next witness". At that point, the gallery erupted
in applause and a recess was called. In less than a year, McCarthy
was censured by the Senate and his position as a prominent force
in anti-communism was essentially ended. Despite the years of
controversy over McCarthy, President Eisenhower never did take a
public stand against him. Some historians argue that, had he done
so, the Senator’s influence might have ended much sooner.
Paragraph 8:
Months later, in the midterm elections, Democrats swept into
control of the House and Senate. McCarthy had become a liability
to his party. In less than a year, McCarthy was censured
(reprimanded) by the Senate and his position as a prominent force
of anti-communism ended. McCarthy finished his term, but he
was now universally shunned by his own party. And when the
headlines ended, so did the attention paid to him by the media,
which McCarthy had relished above all else. He declined rapidly,
both physically and emotionally. He sometimes appeared in the
Senate incoherently drunk. He died on May 2, 1957, at the age of
48, from liver illness brought on by his heavy drinking.
Paragraph 9:
AfterMcCarthy
Although McCarthy himself was gone, the death of McCarthyism
took much longer. General hysteria about communism continued
in many forms by various super patriots. In the summer of 1954, a
branch of the American Legion in Illinois denounced the Girl
Scouts, calling the "one world" ideas printed in their publications
"un-American." When playwright Arthur Miller applied for a
renewal of his passport in 1956, HUAC took the opportunity to call
him in to testify. Years earlier, in 1952, Miller had written The
Crucible, in which he compared the Salem Witch Trials to
McCarthyism. Miller gave a detailed account of his political
activities, but refused to name names (the chairman of the
committee had assured him that he would not be asked to do
so. He lied). As a result, a judge found Miller guilty of contempt
of Congress in May 1957. Miller was sentenced to a $500 fine or
thirty days in prison, blacklisted, and disallowed a US passport.