There is an ugly strain in American history that lies buried most of the
time but from time to time circumstances, opportunity, fear. prejudice and
ambition will bring it to the surface and the country has to go through division
and discord till it wears itself out. It is a time when demagogues, bullies
and liars find room to breathe, to expel their hatred, to con people out
of their common sense and common decency. We become lost in these times and
listen to the anger and discontent within ourselves and look for targets
to blame it on. Most often these center around race, immigrants but in the
1940s and 50's it was a fear of Communism that drove people to suspect their
neighbors and others of treason. This already had a history with hearings
in Congress in the House of UnAmerican Committee that went after intellects,
writers, actors, teachers and tried to ruin their lives.
But it picked up speed towards the end of the 40's when outside events were
a jolt to the American consciousness and pride. China went Communist, the
USSR tested a nuclear device, the Iron Curtain went up and the Korean War
was about to start. The Who Lost China blame game began in Washington. Into
this fearful environment stepped the junior Senator from Wisconsin, Joseph
McCarthy. That McCarthy became McCarthyism seems odd looking back. He grew
up on a farm, ran as a Democrat for judge and won, was well liked by everyone
as a friendly back slapper, joined the Marines in WW2 when he could
have gotten out as a judge. He performed well in the war and came back and
ran for Senate as a Republican and to everyone's surprise beat La Follette,
who was from a legendary family in the state.
In the Senate though he did not prosper - came in and broke the rules, paid
no heed to his seniors and got poor committee assignments. No one was paying
attention to him and he worried that he might lose his next election. He
had had nothing to say about the Communist threat. So on Lincoln Day he was
sent to Wheeling West Virginia to give what everyone expected to be the usual
Republican speech full of platitudes. Instead he gets up and declares that
he has a list of 205 Communists in the State Department. An AP reporter was
there and his story was picked up by numerous papers and the craziness began.
Hearings and accusations went on for years. All made of fantasy. The list
was never revealed because there was no list, he went after everyone he could
to get publicity. He subpoenaed reporters who criticized him. Professors.
He ruined careers with accusations backed up with nothing. He was a star
of the Republican Party and had millions believing him. Most of the Republican
Senate knew he was making this stuff up but feared to say so.
But the charade could not continue forever. He began to drink heavily (he
ages dramatically from 1946 to 1954), took on Roy Cohn as his righthand man,
made a lot of enemies - but one in particular that quietly came after him.
Eisenhower despised the man and thought that once he was President, McCarthy
would pull back going after the government. He didn't. Instead he went after
the Army. Big mistake. Edward Murrow the famous newsman exposed him on TV.
He was forced to defend himself in a 6 week hearing in which he was shown
to the American people as a bully, a whiner, a liar, fact less - reminds
me of someone - and finally the lawyer for the Army slid a dagger into his
heart with the simple sentence "At long last, have you no sense of decency?".
McCarthy slowly faded away - out of the press - out of the public eye - and
in 1958 he died of alcoholism. The term McCarthyism is still with us though
to be applied to demagogues who trade fact for fiction, pit us against each
other, have no honor and only spill bile. Yes, we are all too familiar with
that.
This is a documentary that was on The American Experience TV series. Nearly
2 hours in length. Of some things we still need reminders.
