United Press/Library of CongressSenator Joseph R. McCarthy spent years trying to identify Communists in the United States.Historic Headlines
Learn about key events in history and their connections to today.
On Dec. 2, 1954, the United States Senate voted, 67-22, to condemn Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, a Republican from Wisconsin, on two counts for conduct that “tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.”
The New York Times explained that he was condemned for “contempt of a Senate Elections subcommittee that investigated his
conduct and financial affairs, for abuse of its members, and for his insults to the Senate itself during the censure proceeding.”
The Senate’s resolution used the word “condemn” rather than the traditional “censure,” which sparked a debate over whether Mr. McCarthy had actually
been censured — one senator went so far as to read from Webster’s Dictionary. The Times reported that, when asked if he thought he had been censured, Mr. McCarthy replied, “Well, it wasn’t
exactly a vote of confidence.”
The condemnation was one of the final chapters in Mr. McCarthy’s political career. He rose to prominence in 1950, when he declared that he had a list of names of Communists in the State Department. He spent the following years fervently trying to root out Communists in the government through Senate hearings. His tactic of making unproven accusations against political opponents, by questioning their allegiance to the United States and saying their Communist ideology or sympathy, became known as “McCarthyism.”
Mr. McCarthy became one of the most powerful and feared men in Washington, but in 1954 he was forced to defend himself against charges that he had sought special privileges from the Army, which he had accused of harboring communists, on behalf of a former aide. Before Senate hearings on the matter, the CBS News journalist Edward R. Murrow hosted a program that presented Mr. McCarthy in a negative light, contributing to a public turn against the senator.
During the televised hearings, Mr. McCarthy struggled to defend himself, frequently made ad hominem attacks against his fellow senators and came across to the television audience as bullying and ill-mannered. The hearings are most remembered for an exchange between Mr. McCarthy and an Army lawyer, Joseph Welch, who said: “Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”
Mr. McCarthy’s credibility and popularity diminished greatly as a result of the hearings. His condemnation represented a final stake in his political career. He continued serving as a senator for three years after the condemnation, but he had little power in the Senate. He died in 1957 of liver failure.
Connect to Today:
Arthur Miller’s 1953 play “The Crucible” used the 17th century witch hunts in Massachusetts as an allegory for Senator McCarthy’s investigations and interrogations at the time. The term “McCarthyism” is still used to describe the practice of making political or social accusations without evidence.
Consider some modern references to McCarthy and witch hunts, like the debate over the Birther movement and the criticism of the media’s haste to link Representative Gabrielle Giffords’s shooter to the political right.
Do you think these examples echo the McCarthy era? Why or why not? Can you think of other examples of “McCarthyism” in recent years?
Learn more about what happened in history on Dec. 2»
Learn more about Historic Headlines and our collaboration with findingDulcinea »
Comments are no longer being accepted.