Senator Joe McCarthy Claims List of 81 Communists in Government
Senator Joe McCarthy gave a six-hour speech on the floor of the Senate on this day, claiming to have a list of 81 Communists employed by the federal government.
The number was down from the 205 he claimed to have in his famous speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, which launched his career as an anti-Communist crusader on February 9, 1950. Under pressure to reveal the names on his list, he finally offered the name of Dorothy Kenyon on March 8, 1950. Kenyon was an active lawyer, feminist, civil libertarian and ACLU member, whose career gave no suggestion of Communist beliefs or affiliations.
In his four years of prominence in American politics he never produced an actual list of alleged Communists in the federal government.
McCarthy’s reckless attacks on people and institutions for what he saw as their Communist membership or influence gave the English language the word “McCarthyism.” The Washington Post cartoonist Herblock (for Herbert Block) is credited with coining the term “McCarthyism” in a cartoon published on March 29, 1950. McCarthy’s downfall began with Edward R. Murrow’s now-famous program on the Senator, broadcast on March 9, 1954. The program is regarded as one of the most famous in the history of television.
The U.S. Senate finally censured McCarthy for his conduct on December 2, 1954, and his influence quickly declined. “McCarthyism,” as a political phenomenon, however, outlived him by many decades.
Read the latest biography of McCarthy: Larry Tye, Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy (2020)
Learn more: Thomas C. Reeves, The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy: A Biography (1982)
Watch the famous documentary on McCarthy, Point of Order: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EhOdSSI8n4
See the movie based on Murrow’s famous program on McCarthy: Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)
Learn more about McCarthyism: http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/joseph-mccarthy