Joseph Raymond McCarthy, once a senator, is best known for his accusatory remarks on communism. During a time of cold war, opposition to McCarthy was the last thing the public wanted, in fear of being accused themselves. McCarthy led a life of almost fifty years, beginning on November 14, 1908 and ending on May 2, 1957 due to acute hepatitis and numerous additional ailments and liver problems (Reference Staff).
Joseph McCarthy was born in Grand Chute, Wisconsin on November 14, 1908 to Timothy and Bridget McCarthy. In adolescence and early adulthood, McCarthy completed eight grades of schooling and started farm work, only to return to high school in Manawa in 1929. McCarthy completed high school in a year’s time (“Wisconsin Historical Images”). Once McCarthy finished high school, he entered Marquette University to study in law and continued to study law in Wisconsin until 1939 (“McCarthy, Joseph Raymond”). During McCarthy’s college life, he was a boxing coach, president of his law class, and worked a series of part time jobs. His law practices in Wisconsin consisted of opening a practice in Waupaca in 1935 and later joining a firm in Shawano, becoming a partner in 1937. During this time, McCarthy made his first run for public office, unsuccessfully, in 1936, attempting to win office for Shawano District Attorney as a Democrat. A few years after losing his first run for public office, McCarthy ran for a nonpartisan position as judge of the tenth judicial circuit in Wisconsin. At only age 30, McCarthy became the youngest circuit judge to ever be elected in Wisconsin. McCarthy started to go downhill during his time as judge in Wisconsin due to his destroying of court records, which was deemed as abuse of judicial authority by the Wi...
... middle of paper ...
...7 Feb. 2014.
"Joseph McCarthy Dies." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
Reference Staff. "Joseph McCarthy: Biography." Appleton Public Library Abbreviated Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
Malaspina, Ann. The Mccarthy Era : Communists In America. New York: Chelsea House, 2011. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 17 Feb. 2014.
McCarthy, Joseph R. "Sen. Joseph McCarthy on Face the Nation." Interview by Ted Koop, William H. Lawrence, William Hines, Jr., and Jep Cadou. Youtube. CBS News, 13 Mar. 2012. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. ."Mccarthy, Joseph R." Britannica Biographies (2012): 1. Middle Search Plus. Web. 18 Feb. 2014
"Mccarthy, Joseph Raymond." (n.d.): Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.
"Wisconsin Historical Images." Wisconsin Historical Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.
McCarthy laments the “swiftness of the tempo of communist victories and American defeats” (McCarthy, 2) in the progression of war. By contrasting the victories of the communists and defeats of the Americans, McCarthy presents the American audience with knowledge of an aggressor challenging traditional American superiority and thus far succeeding, thereby eliciting feelings of shared scorn for the perceived lower-class belligerents, the communists, and generating unified sympathy and nationalism behind their own countrymen. Further juxtaposition is used by McCarthy to express the nature of the internal communist infiltrators in America. He describes the “ones who have been the worst [traitors]” (2) as being “bright young men who are born with silver spoons in their mouths” (2). McCarthy appeals to the everyman in America, instilling feelings of disdain for the elite bourgeoisie who have seemed to leech their nation of resources and then turned on a whim to become communist traitors to their own great nation. Further juxtaposition of this bourgeoisie element to its unexpected downfall to communism
...y Wheeling speech created nationwide hysteria, and with its impeccable timing just days after the conviction of the State Official Alga Hiss for lying under oath about his association with the communist Soviet as a spy, fueled the fight on communism. (citation) McCarthy war on communism during the “Second Red Scare” did not leave any individual safe from accusations. He attacked government agents, entertainment industry workers, educators, union members, and alienated the left-wing Democrats. McCarthy helped to create the atmosphere of suspicion and panic with his growth in media coverage. McCarthy’s words made for big headlines and the media was quick to cover his stories. This exposure helped facilitate American approval of McCarthy and empowered him to make more accusations on those suspected of subversion. In 1953, McCarthy headed the Government Operations Commit
Throughout McCarthy’s political journey, panic that arose from the witch hunt and fear of communism became very well known. That feeling became known as McCarthyism (Senator Joseph McCarthy 2). Communism wouldn’t be what it is today if it weren’t for Joseph McCarthy.
... middle of paper ... ... When people today hear McCarthy’s name, most automatically think ‘liar, he was crazy, he ruined peoples lives.’ Some people, however, would say that ‘yes, he may have been wrong on most of his points, but he knew what was happening and he had been desperately trying to warn the people about Communism.’
	Joseph R. McCarthy was born in 1908 on a family farm in Wisconsin. He went to a country school and decided he was done with his education at the young age of 14. After that, he explained to his family that he was finished with his studies and wanted to become a farmer like his father.
YouTube. YouTube, 22 Oct. 2008. Web. The Web. The Web. 07 Mar. 2014.
FOR ALMOST fifty years, the words "McCarthy" and "McCarthyism" have stood for a shameful period in American political history. During this period, thousands of people lost their jobs and hundreds were sent to prison. The U.S. government executed Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, two Communist Party (CP) members, as Russian spies. All of these people were victims of McCarthyism, the witch-hunt during the 1940s and 1950s against Communists and other leftists, trade unionists and civil rights activists, intellectuals and artists. Named for the witch-hunt's most zealous prosecutor, Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.), McCarthyism was the most widespread and longest lasting wave of political repression in American history. In order to eliminate the alleged threat of domestic Communism, a broad coalition of politicians, bureaucrats, and other anticommunist activists hounded an entire generation of radicals and their associates, destroying lives, careers, and all the institutions that offered a left-wing alternative to mainstream politics and culture. That anticommunist crusade...used all the power of the state to turn dissent into disloyalty and, in the process, drastically narrowed the spectrum of acceptable political debate.[1]
McCarthy was elected senate after becoming a lawyer in his sate of Wisconsin. During the first few years of his term nothing major really happened until 1950. In a speech to the Women’s club of wheeling in West Virginia he stated that he had a list in his hand of about 205 known members of the communist party working for the United States department. President Harry Truman had signed an executive order that said that all communists or fascists could not obtain a United States government job. The FBI played a big role in the investigation of this list McCarthy contained. McCarthy’s friend j. Edgar Hoover, which was a violent ant-communist in the federal government, could not wait to expose the people McCarthy accused of being communists. McCarthy’s list created a nationwide scar among the people of the United States. Everything McCarthy said was a lie and he had no evidence to show that the people he accused were really communist but, because of the start of the Korean War and the arrest of two American soldiers accused of spying on the Soviet Union American citizen...
being a Communist, with the only source being a report on how his father reads a Serbian newspaper. (Clooney) Without genuine evidence from a credible source, an argument is as good as a blatant claim. McCarthy’s “evidence” is in fact unsubstantiated in itself. Therefore, his accusations contain no basis, and lack the foundation needed to provide solid and subs...
As an individual in the middle of Twentieth century Joseph McCarthy had a rather intense effect on society. He started the movement that bears his name. McCarthyism was the movement that caused many changes in the lives of the people of the 1950's. McCarthy headed the charge against communism in the United States after the second World War. Through his actions many people were accused of being communists and hastilly judged to be so because of the general feeling toward communism. What causes such an incredible uprising. What caused so many people to rally behind, in many cases, unfounded accusations that would ruin other peoples lives unjustly? What caused not just a movement but the movement known as McCarthyism? It is historically proven that a simple action can have many complex causes, while a movement can have immeasurable causes underlying its begining and the momentum that keeps it alive. Leaving the little, but not insignificant causes alone, the major causes of McCarthyism were the attitude of the United States toward communism, the sense of superiority within the United States, and McCarthy's own position.
History.com. A&E Television Network, 1996. Web. The Web. The Web.
The McCarthy Era was a period of history that began in the late 1949s and ended in the mid late 1950s. This was also called the Second Red Scare in the United States. The McCarthy Era had many innocent victims and many of them were imprisoned. Several authors, actors, civil rights activists, and physicists were among the many victims that were blacklisted. Due to McCarthy’s witch-hunt many victims’ reputations were destroyed and their families ...
The McCarthy Era, a name given to the time period were Senator McCarthy set off an era of paranoia and accusations, was a time period full of fears that the threat of communism was not from the presence of the Soviet Union, but from communists living within the United States. Many individuals during this time period were deported, despite being legal citizens, and socially shunned for suspicion of being affiliated with communists. Alger Hiss was a notable figure, during this time period that was accused of being a Soviet spy and was later convicted of perjury. This fear of communists was not fed by McCarthy alone, John Foster Dulles presented ideas of the dangers of Communism, as stated, “If world communism captures any American State, however small, a new and perilous front is established which will increase the danger to the entire free world and require even greater sacrifices from the American people.” (Doc. B). President Eisenhower, however, attempted to settle these fears, by claiming that there is too much hysteria surrounding communism (Doc. A). President Eisenhower attempted to reassure the American people that the U.S. is perfectly capable of protecting its self against
But not all of the limitations put on the freedom of the press can be placed on McCarthy. In 1947, the Hutchins Commission’s final report stated that the freedom of the press was in danger. The report found that changes in the economic structure of the press, new forms of censorship and the growth of a mass democracy were hurting the First Amendment’s promised rights. After World War II ended, newspaper diversity was continuously declining, with more and more smaller newspapers having to shut down after newspapers couldn’t keep up with the booming population and
YouTube, n.d. - a.k.a. YouTube, n.d. Web. The Web. The Web. 16 May 2014.