Turning Points
in Wisconsin History
McCarthy's 1953-54 closed-door hearings.
Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, 1953-54
During his two years as chairman, Joseph McCarthy conducted investigations into alleged Communist subversion and espionage in the U.S. government and defense industries. He held hearings on possible Communist infiltration of the Department of State, the Voice of America, the U.S. Information Libraries, the Government Printing Office, and the Army Signal Corps. during 1953-1954,"executive sessions"closed to the public were held prior to the public hearings. The documents linked below, placed online by the U.S. Senate in 2003, contains testimony by such prominent witnesses as Aaron Copeland, novelist Howard Fast, Dashiell Hammett, Langston Hughes, artist Rockwell Kent, and journalist James Reston. Other witnesses were government employees, labor organizers, and army officers. The "Army-McCarthy Hearings" which proved to be McCarthy's undoing are in volume 5, but the televised session credited with undermining McCarthy's credibility occurred before a TV audience on June 9, 1954, and so is not included in the closed-door executive sessions transcribed here.
| Related Topics: |
World Wars and Conflicts McCarthyism, Korea and the Cold War |
| Creator: | U.S. Senate |
| Pub Data: | Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2003 |
| Citation: | Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Commmittee on Government Operations(McCarthy Hearings 1953-54). (Washington : U.S. G.P.O. : 2003)
Online facsimile at:
http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/McCart hy_Transcripts.htm; Visited on: 4/19/2024 |