Cold War McCartyism: Committee on Operations--Investigtions

Figure 1.--Senator Joseph McCarthy of his Senste investigarions became a national celeberty. Here h is vactioning far from the snows of Wisconsin. Other guests at the Key Biscayne Hotel are seeking the Senator's autograph. The photograoh was taken December 31, 1953.

The Republican Senate ledership McCarthy chairman of Government Committee on Operations of the Senate, giving him the opportunity to investigate communist subversion. The Republicans in the 1948 election had pursued the theme of Communist subversion. There was indeed substantial Communist subversion, but the extent was not yet fully undersyood. And the Republican cgarges only intensified when China fell to the Communists (1948) and when the Soviets exploded an atomic bomb (1949). McCarthy seized the opportunity and for 2 years conducted investigations often termed a witch hunt targeting the State Department and other Federal agencies. Federal employees brought before the Committee had few legal protections. McCarthy set out to ruin them unless they named Communist Party members. Favored targets were New Deal Democrats, many of who had left-wing political views. President Truman was portrayed as a bumbling incompetent with dangerous political views. Some of the finest civil servants were accused of being Communists, men like George Marshall and Dean Acheson. Critics of McCarthy had been defeated in the 1950 Congessional elections. as a result, few Senators dared object to his high-handed tactics. McCarthy appointed Roy Cohn as the chief counsel to the Government Committee on Operations of the Senate (1952). Hoover had recommened Cohn on the basis of his role in prosecuting Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. As a result of this, McCarthy became one of the most prominent figure un the Senate and a nation-wide celeberty.

Created: 9:37 PM 2/20/2019
Last updated: 9:37 PM 2/20/2019