Highlights Archives
The Censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy
December 2 marks the 51st anniversary of the day that the United States Senate voted to censure Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. Declaring his behavior "contrary to senatorial traditions," the 1954 Senate resolution officially condemned McCarthy's reign of anti-communist terror.
Elected to the Senate in 1946, Joseph McCarthy created a sensation in 1950 when he announced that he knew of 205 communists currently working in the State Department and influencing foreign policy. Capitalizing on Americans' fear of encroaching communism after WWII, McCarthy launched a public campaign aimed at eliminating the supposed communist infiltration of government and foreign policy. While he offered little proof, the claims vaulted him to national prominence.
Over the next four years, McCarthy became an anti-communist crusader as chairman of the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, interrogating more than 500 people. Fearful of being named communist sympathizers themselves, many leaders of labor unions and professional organizations joined in the Red Scare hysteria of the early 1950s. Some intellectuals and activists did refuse to answer questions or appear before McCarthy and other congressional committees despite the threat to their personal well being. Several famous Hollywood producers and scriptwriters were among the best-known citizens "black-listed" by their employers for refusing to co-operate with the committees. McCarthy's accusation in 1953 that the military was harboring communists ultimately led to his downfall. TV commentator Edward R. Murrow successfully exposed his tactics and publicly denounced his actions as a threat to America's core democratic values. A new film by George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck, chronicles this real-life confrontation.
Led by Republican Senators Ralph Flanders of Vermont, Arthur Watkins of Utah, and Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, the Senate moved to discipline McCarthy in the summer of 1954. On December 2, 1954, the Senate approved a censure resolution that removed McCarthy from his chairmanships and discredited his unsubstantiated accusations.
:: Posted December 1, 2005
|
