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{{Short description|American politician (1908–1957)}}
{{other people}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Joseph McCarthy
| image               = Joseph McCarthy adjusted.jpg
| caption             = McCarthy in 1954
| jr/sr               = United States Senator
| state               = [[Wisconsin]]
| term_start          = January 3, 1947
| term_end            = May 2, 1957
| predecessor         = [[Robert M. La Follette Jr.]]
| successor           = [[William Proxmire]]
| office2             = Chair of the [[United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs|Senate Government Operations Committee]]
| term_start2         = January 3, 1953
| term_end2           = January 3, 1955
| predecessor2        = John L. McClellan
| successor2          = [[John L. McClellan]]
| office3             = Judge of the [[Wisconsin circuit courts|Wisconsin Circuit Court]]<br>for the 10th Circuit
| term_start3         = January 1, 1940
| term_end3           = January 3, 1947
| predecessor3        = Edgar Werner
| successor3          = Michael Eberlein
| birth_name          = Joseph Raymond McCarthy
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1908|11|14}}
| birth_place         = [[Grand Chute, Wisconsin]], U.S.
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1957|5|2|1908|11|14}}
| death_place         = [[Bethesda, Maryland]], U.S.
| resting_place       = [[St. Mary's Parish (Appleton, Wisconsin)|Saint Mary's Cemetery]]
| party               = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] (from 1944)
| otherparty          = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] (1936–1944)
| spouse              = {{marriage|Jean Kerr|1953}}
| children            = 1
| education           = [[Marquette University]] ([[Bachelor of Laws|LLB]])
| signature           = Joe Mccarthy Signature.svg
| allegiance          = United States
| branch              = [[United States Marine Corps]]
| serviceyears        = 1942–1945 (Marine Corps)<br>1946–1957 ([[United States Marine Corps Reserve|Reserve]])
| rank                = [[Lieutenant colonel (United States)|Lieutenant Colonel]]
| battles             = [[World War II]]
| mawards             = [[Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)|Distinguished Flying Cross]]<br>[[Air Medal]] (5)
}}

'''Joseph Raymond McCarthy''' (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[United States Senate|U.S. Senator]] from the state of [[Wisconsin]] from 1947 until his death at age 48 in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period in the United States in which [[Cold War]] tensions fueled fears of widespread [[Communism|communist]] [[Subversion (politics)|subversion]].<ref>
For a history of this period, see, for example:<br />
{{cite book | first = David  | last = Caute  | author-link = David Caute| title= The Great Fear: The Anti-Communist Purge Under Truman and Eisenhower  | place = New York | publisher= [[Simon & Schuster]]  | year= 1978  | isbn= 0-671-22682-7}}; {{cite book | last = Fried | first =  Richard M. | year = 1990 | title = Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective &#124; | place = New York | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 0-19-504361-8}}<br />
{{cite book| last = Schrecker | first = Ellen | author-link = Ellen Schrecker | year = 1998 | title = Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America | place = Boston | publisher = Little, Brown | isbn = 0-316-77470-7 | url = https://archive.org/details/manyarecrimesmcc00schr }}</ref> He alleged that numerous communists and [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] spies and sympathizers had infiltrated the United States federal government, universities, film industry,<ref name="Shaw">{{Cite book|title=Cinematic Cold War: The American Struggle for Hearts and Minds|last1=Youngblood|first1=Denise J.|last2=Shaw|first2=Tony|publisher=University Press of Kansas|year=2014|isbn=978-0700620203|location=United States of America}}</ref><ref name="Feuerherd">{{cite web |last1=Feuerherd |first1=Peter |title=How Hollywood Thrived Through the Red Scare |url=https://daily.jstor.org/how-hollywood-thrived-through-the-red-scare/ |website=JSTOR Daily |access-date=July 29, 2020 |date=December 2, 2017 |archive-date=August 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802195001/https://daily.jstor.org/how-hollywood-thrived-through-the-red-scare/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and elsewhere. Ultimately he was censured by the Senate in 1954 for refusing to cooperate with and abusing members of the committee established to investigate whether or not he should be censured. The term "[[McCarthyism]]", coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy's practices, was soon applied to similar [[anti-communism|anti-communist]] activities. Today the term is used more broadly to mean [[demagogy|demagogic]], reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public [[character assassination|attacks on the character]] or [[patriotism]] of political opponents.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Publishers |first=HarperCollins |title=The American Heritage Dictionary entry: McCarthyism |url=https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=McCarthyism |access-date=December 23, 2023 |website=www.ahdictionary.com |archive-date=December 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231223033459/https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=McCarthyism |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Onion, Rebecca, ''[https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/07/that-have-you-no-sense-of-decency-sir-moment-from-the-1954-army-mccarthy-hearings-isnt-quite-what-we-remember.html We're Never Going to Get Our “Have You No Sense of Decency, Sir?” Moment] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180801064340/https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/07/that-have-you-no-sense-of-decency-sir-moment-from-the-1954-army-mccarthy-hearings-isnt-quite-what-we-remember.html |date=August 1, 2018 }}'', Slate, July 26, 2018</ref>

Born in [[Grand Chute, Wisconsin]], McCarthy commissioned into the [[United States Marine Corps|Marine Corps]] in 1942, where he served as an [[military intelligence|intelligence]] briefing officer for a [[dive bomber]] squadron. Following the end of [[World War II]], he attained the rank of [[major (United States)|major]]. He volunteered to fly twelve combat missions as a gunner-observer. These missions were generally safe, and after one where he was allowed to shoot as much ammunition as he wanted, mainly at coconut trees, he acquired the nickname "Tail-Gunner Joe". Some of his claims of heroism were later shown to be exaggerated or falsified, leading many of his critics to use "Tail-Gunner Joe" as a term of mockery.<ref name="Garraty, John 1989 p. 24">Garraty, John (1989). 1,001 Things Everyone Should Know About American History. New York: Doubleday. p. 24</ref><ref name="O'Brien, Steven 1991 p. 265">O'Brien, Steven (1991). Santa Barbara, ABC-CLIO, p. 265</ref><ref name="The Comics Journal">{{cite web|url=http://www.tcj.com/ct-cartoonists-5-the-philosopher-of-okefenokee-swamp/|title=Connecticut Cartoonists #5: The Philosopher of Okefenokee Swamp|date=June 22, 2016|publisher=The Comics Journal|access-date=June 23, 2016|archive-date=June 23, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160623164710/http://www.tcj.com/ct-cartoonists-5-the-philosopher-of-okefenokee-swamp/|url-status=live}}</ref>

A [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] until 1944, McCarthy successfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 1946 as a Republican, narrowly defeating incumbent [[Robert M. La Follette Jr.]] in the [[1946 United States Senate election in Wisconsin#Republican primary|Wisconsin Republican primary]], then Democratic challenger [[Howard McMurray]] by a 61% – 37% margin. After three largely undistinguished years in the Senate, McCarthy rose suddenly to national fame in February 1950 when he asserted in a speech that he had a list of "members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring" who were employed in the [[United States Department of State|State Department]].<ref>{{cite web|title = Communists in Government Service, McCarthy Says|publisher = United States Senate History Website|url = https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/investigations/mccarthy-hearings/communists-in-government-service.htm|access-date = July 8, 2023|archive-date = July 8, 2023|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230708120246/https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/investigations/mccarthy-hearings/communists-in-government-service.htm|url-status = live}}</ref> In succeeding years after his 1950 speech, McCarthy made additional accusations of Communist infiltration into the State Department, the administration of President [[Harry S. Truman]], the [[Voice of America]], and the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]]. He also used various charges of communism, communist sympathies, disloyalty, or [[sex crimes]] to attack a number of politicians and other individuals inside and outside of government.<ref>{{Cite book | last = McDaniel | first = Rodger E. | author-link = Rodger McDaniel | title = Dying for Joe McCarthy's Sins: The Suicide of Wyoming Senator Lester Hunt | place = Cody, WY | publisher = WordsWorth Press | year = 2013 | isbn = 978-0983027591 }}</ref> This included a concurrent "[[Lavender Scare]]" against suspected [[homosexuality|homosexuals]], whose illicit sexual activity was presumed to make them vulnerable to [[blackmail]] by communists and others.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Simpson|first1=Alan K. |chapter=Prologue |title=Dying for Joe McCarthy's Sins: The Suicide of Wyoming Senator Lester Hunt |first2=Rodger |last2=McDaniel |publisher=WordsWorth Press |year=2013|page=x |isbn= 978-0983027591}}</ref>

With the highly publicized [[Army–McCarthy hearings]] of 1954, and following the suicide of Wyoming Senator [[Lester C. Hunt]] that same year,<ref>McDaniel, Rodger. ''Dying for Joe McCarthy's Sins''</ref> McCarthy's support and popularity faded. On December 2, 1954, the Senate voted to [[Censure in the United States|censure]] McCarthy by a vote of 67–22, making him one of the few senators ever to be disciplined in this fashion. He continued to rail against communism and socialism until his death at the age of 48 at [[National Naval Medical Center|Bethesda Naval Hospital]] in [[Bethesda, Maryland]], on May 2, 1957, though doctors had not previously reported him to be seriously ill.<ref>{{cite web |author=Ted Lewis |date=May 3, 1957 |title=Joseph McCarthy, the controversial senator, dies at 48 in 1957 |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/joseph-mccarthy-controversial-senator-dies-1957-article-1.2615207 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170224180048/http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/joseph-mccarthy-controversial-senator-dies-1957-article-1.2615207 |archive-date=February 24, 2017 |access-date=August 19, 2017 |newspaper=New York Daily News}} Reprinted May 1, 2016</ref> His death certificate listed the cause of death as "[[Hepatitis]], acute, cause unknown",<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.dcdave.com/article5/deathcertificate.JPG |title=McCarthy's death certificate |access-date=August 19, 2017 |archive-date=December 7, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221207131802/https://www.dcdave.com/article5/deathcertificate.JPG |url-status=live }}</ref>  which some biographers say was caused or exacerbated by [[alcoholism]].<ref name=causeofdeath>
See, for example: {{cite book |last = Oshinsky |first = David M. |title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy |place = New York |publisher = Free Press |year= 2005 |pages = 503–504 |isbn = 0-19-515424-X |orig-year= 1983|title-link = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy }}; {{cite book |last = Reeves |first = Thomas C. |author-link = Thomas C. Reeves |title = The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy: A Biography |url = https://archive.org/details/lifetimesofjoe00reev |url-access = registration |place = New York |publisher = Stein and Day |pages = [https://archive.org/details/lifetimesofjoe00reev/page/669 669–671] |year= 1982 |isbn = 1-56833-101-0}}; {{cite book|last = Herman |first = Arthur |title = Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator |place = New York |publisher = Free Press |year = 2000 |pages = [https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/302 302–303] |isbn = 0-684-83625-4 |url = https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/302 }}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Joseph Raymond McCarthy was born on November 14, 1908, on a farm in [[Grand Chute, Wisconsin]], the fifth of nine children.<ref>{{cite book |last = Rovere |first = Richard H. |title = Senator Joe McCarthy |place = New York |publisher = Harcourt, Brace |year= 1959 |page = 79 |isbn = 0-520-20472-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Joseph McCarthy: Biography|url=http://www.apl.org/community/mccarthy|publisher=Appleton Public Library|year=2003|access-date=November 30, 2017|archive-date=December 1, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201041411/http://www.apl.org/community/mccarthy|url-status=live}}</ref> His mother, Bridget McCarthy (nee Tierney), was from [[County Tipperary]], Ireland. His father, Timothy McCarthy, was born in the United States, the son of an Irish father and a German mother. McCarthy dropped out of junior high school at age 14 to help his parents manage their farm. He entered Little Wolf High School, in [[Manawa, Wisconsin]], when he was 20 and graduated in one year.<ref>{{cite web|title=McCarthy as Student |url=http://www.myhistorymuseum.org/mccarthy/student.htm|access-date=September 7, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130228073138/http://www.myhistorymuseum.org/mccarthy/student.htm|archive-date=February 28, 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

He attended [[Marquette University]] from 1930 to 1935. McCarthy worked odd jobs while at college, including as a dishwasher, parking-lot attendant, and boxing coach.<ref>{{cite book |last = Oshinsky |first = David M. |title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy |place = New York |publisher = Free Press |year=  2005 |page = 12 |isbn = 0-19-515424-X |orig-year= 1983}}</ref> He first studied electrical engineering for two years, then law, and received a [[Bachelor of Laws]] degree in 1935 from [[Marquette University Law School]] in [[Milwaukee]].<ref>In ''A Conspiracy So Immense,'' Oshinsky states that McCarthy chose Marquette University rather than the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] partially because Marquette was under Catholic control and partially because he enrolled during the Great Depression, when few working-class or farm-bred students had the money to go out of state for college. See {{cite book |last = Oshinsky |first = David M. |title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy |place = New York |publisher = Free Press |year=  2005 |page = 11 |isbn = 0-19-515424-X |orig-year= 1983}}</ref>

== Career ==
McCarthy was admitted to the [[Bar association|bar]] in 1935. While working at a law firm in [[Shawano, Wisconsin]], he launched an unsuccessful campaign for [[district attorney]] as a [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] in 1936. During his years as an attorney, McCarthy made money on the side by gambling.<ref>Oshinsky explains this (p. 17) as resulting partially from the financial pressures of the Great Depression. He also notes (p. 28) that even during his judgeship, McCarthy was known to have gambled heavily after hours. {{cite book |last = Oshinsky |first = David M. |title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy |place = New York |publisher = Free Press |year=  2005 |pages = 17, 28 |isbn = 0-19-515424-X |orig-year= 1983}}</ref>

In 1939, McCarthy had better success when he ran for the nonpartisan elected post of 10th District [[Wisconsin Circuit Court|circuit]] judge.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20110511175135/http://www.galenfrysinger.org/judge_on_trial.htm Judge on Trial, McCarthy – A Documented Record, The Progressive, April 1954]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last = The Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library | title = The Wisconsin Blue Book | place = Madison, WI | publisher = State of Wisconsin | year = 1940 | url = http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?type=article&did=WI.WIBlueBk1940.i0003&id=WI.WIBlueBk1940&isize=M | journal = Wisconsin Blue Books | access-date = November 25, 2013 | archive-date = February 28, 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210228070604/https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?type=article&did=WI.WIBlueBk1940.i0003&id=WI.WIBlueBk1940&isize=M | url-status = live }}</ref> McCarthy became the youngest circuit judge in the state's history by defeating incumbent Edgar V. Werner, who had been a judge for 24 years.<ref>{{cite book |last= Commire |first= Anne |date= 1994 |title= Historic World Leaders: North & South America (M–Z) |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ljsOAQAAMAAJ&q=%22joseph+mccarthy%22+edgar+werner+judge |publisher= Gale Research Incorporated |page= 492|isbn= 978-0810384132 }}</ref> In the campaign, McCarthy lied about Werner's age of 66, claiming that he was 73, and so allegedly too old and infirm to handle the duties of his office.<ref>{{cite book |last= Herman |first= Arthur |date= 2000 |title= Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=DIibZoDyADEC&q=%22joseph+mccarthy%22+edgar+werner+judge&pg=PA26 |publisher= The Free Press A Division of Simon and Schuster |page= 26|isbn= 978-0684836256 }}</ref> Writing of Werner in ''Reds: McCarthyism In Twentieth-Century America,'' [[Ted Morgan (writer)|Ted Morgan]] wrote: "Pompous and condescending, he (Werner) was disliked by lawyers. His judgements had often been reversed by the [[Wisconsin Supreme Court]], and he was so inefficient that he had piled up a huge backlog of cases."<ref>{{cite book|last = Morgan |first = Ted |title = Reds: McCarthyism In Twentieth-Century America |place = New York |publisher = Random House |year = 2003 |page = [https://archive.org/details/redsmccarthyismi00morg_0/page/328 328] |isbn = 0-679-44399-1 |url = https://archive.org/details/redsmccarthyismi00morg_0/page/328 }} In turn citing Michael O'Brien, ''McCarthy And McCarthyism in Wisconsin.'' Columbia, Mo. 1980.</ref>

McCarthy's judicial career attracted some controversy because of the speed with which he dispatched many of his cases as he worked to clear the heavily backlogged docket he had inherited from Werner.<ref>{{cite book |last = Oshinsky |first = David M. |title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy |publisher = Oxford University Press |year= 2005 |page = 24 |isbn = 0-19-515424-X |orig-year= 1983}}</ref> Wisconsin had strict divorce laws, but when McCarthy heard divorce cases, he expedited them whenever possible, and he made the needs of children involved in contested divorces a priority.<ref>{{cite book|last = Morgan |first = Ted |title = Reds: McCarthyism In Twentieth-Century America |place = New York |publisher = Random House |year = 2003 |page = [https://archive.org/details/redsmccarthyismi00morg_0/page/330 330] |isbn = 0-679-44399-1 |url = https://archive.org/details/redsmccarthyismi00morg_0/page/330 }}</ref> When it came to other cases argued before him, McCarthy compensated for his lack of experience as a jurist by demanding and relying heavily upon precise briefs from the contesting attorneys. The Wisconsin Supreme Court reversed a low percentage of the cases he heard,<ref>{{cite book |last = Oshinsky |first = David M. |title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy |publisher = Oxford University Press |year= 2005 |page = 27 |isbn = 0-19-515424-X |orig-year= 1983}}</ref> but he was also censured in 1941 for having lost evidence in a [[price fixing]] case.<ref>{{cite book |last1= Ryan |first1= James G. |last2= Schlup |first2= Leonard |date= 2006 |title= Historical Dictionary of the 1940s |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=-t3Hx4ASLKUC&q=%22joseph+mccarthy%22+wisconsin+judge+censured+evidence&pg=PA245 |publisher= M.E. Sharpe, Inc. |page= 245|isbn= 978-0765621078 }}</ref>

===Military service===
[[File:JosephMcCarthyMilitary.jpg|right|thumb|Joseph McCarthy in his U.S. [[Marine Corps Uniforms|Marine Corps uniform]]]]
In 1942, shortly after the U.S. entered [[World War II]], McCarthy joined the [[United States Marine Corps]], despite the fact that his judicial office exempted him from military service.<ref>{{cite book |last=Belknap |first=Michal R. |date=2004 |title=The Vinson Court: Justices, Rulings, and Legacy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oeFRJj8dVAUC&pg=PA214 |location=Santa Barbara, CA |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=214 |isbn=978-1-85109-542-1}}</ref> His college education qualified him for a direct [[Officer's commission|commission]], and he entered the Marines as a [[First Lieutenant#United States|first lieutenant]].<ref>{{cite book |last=O'Connell |first=Aaron B. |date=2012 |title=Underdogs: The Making of the Modern Marine Corps |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qB2QjQSyuKgC&pg=PA109 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Harvard University Press |page=109 |isbn=978-0-674-05827-9 |ref={{sfnRef|''Underdogs: The Making of the Modern Marine Corps''}}}}</ref>

According to Morgan, writing in ''Reds,'' McCarthy's friend and campaign manager, attorney and judge Urban P. Van Susteren, had applied for active duty in the [[United States Army Air Forces|U.S. Army Air Forces]] in early 1942, and advised McCarthy: "Be a hero—join the Marines."<ref>{{cite book |last= Herman |first=Arthur |date=2000 |title=Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=DIibZoDyADEC&q=mccarthy+senator+%22van+susteren%22+1946&pg=PA33 |location=New York |publisher=The Free Press |page=33|isbn=978-0684836256 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Morgan |first=Ted |date=2004 |title= Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=4ijWhgff9XEC&q=mccarthy+senator+%22van+susteren%22&pg=PA420 |publisher=Random House |page=420|isbn= 978-0812973020 }}</ref> When McCarthy seemed hesitant, Van Susteren asked, "You got shit in your blood?"<ref>{{cite book|last = Morgan |first = Ted |title = Reds: McCarthyism In Twentieth-Century America |place = New York |publisher = Random House |year = 2003 |page = [https://archive.org/details/redsmccarthyismi00morg_0/page/338 338] |isbn = 0-679-44399-1 |url = https://archive.org/details/redsmccarthyismi00morg_0/page/338 }} Morgan again cites Michael O'Brien, writing in ''McCarthy And McCarthyism in Wisconsin''.</ref>
[[File:John R. Lanigan and Joseph R. McCarthy.jpg|thumb|McCarthy receiving his [[Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)|DFC]] and [[Air Medal]] from Colonel [[John R. Lanigan]], commanding officer of Fifth Marine Reserve District, December 1952]]
He served as an [[military intelligence|intelligence]] briefing officer for a [[dive bomber]] squadron [[VMSB-235]] in the [[Solomon Islands]] and [[Autonomous Region of Bougainville|Bougainville]] for 30 months (August 1942 – February 1945), and held the rank of [[Captain (United States O-3)|captain]] at the time he resigned his commission in April 1945.<ref>{{cite book |last=Giblin |first=James Cross |date=2009 |title=The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=klwQBEeJfsUC&pg=PA34 |location=Boston|publisher=Clarion Books |pages=37–38 |isbn=978-0-618-61058-7 |ref={{sfnRef|''The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy''}}}}</ref> He volunteered to fly twelve combat missions as a gunner-observer. These missions were generally safe, and after one where he was allowed to shoot as much ammunition as he wanted, mainly at coconut trees, he acquired the nickname "Tail-Gunner Joe".<ref>Oshinsky describes the nickname "Tail-Gunner Joe" as the result of McCarthy's wish to break the record for most live ammunition discharged in a single mission.{{cite book |last = Oshinsky |first = David M. |title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy |publisher = Oxford University Press |year=  2005 |page = 32 |isbn = 0-19-515424-X |orig-year= 1983}}</ref> McCarthy remained in the [[United States Marine Corps Reserve|Marine Corps Reserve]] after the war, attaining the rank of [[Lieutenant colonel (United States)|lieutenant colonel]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Morgan |first=Ted |date=2003 |title=Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ijWhgff9XEC&pg=PA341 |location=New York |publisher=Random House |page=341 |isbn=978-0-8129-7302-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Mundt |first= Chairman Karl|date=June 17, 1954 |title=Testimony of Hon. Joseph R. McCarthy, a United States Senator from the State of Wisconsin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6MFEAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA2888 |magazine=Special Senate Investigation on Charges Involving: Secretary of the Army Robert T. Stevens, John G. Adams, H. Struve Hensel and Senator Joe McCarthy, Roy M. Cohn and Francis P. Carr |location=Washington, DC |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |page=2888 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

He later falsely claimed participation in 32 aerial missions so as to qualify for a [[Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)|Distinguished Flying Cross]] and multiple awards of the [[Air Medal]], which the Marine Corps decided to approve in 1952 under his political influence.{{sfn|''The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy''|page=34}}<ref>''[https://books.google.com/books?id=4ijWhgff9XEC&pg=PA341 Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America]''</ref> McCarthy also publicly claimed a letter of commendation from his commanding officer and Admiral [[Chester W. Nimitz]], Chief of Naval Operations.<ref>{{cite book |last=Carrier |first=Jerry |date=2014 |title=Tapestry: The History and Consequences of America's Complex Culture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lvhKBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA232 |location=New York |publisher=Algora Publishing |page=232 |isbn=978-1-62894-048-0}}</ref>{{sfn|''The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy''|page=37}} However, his commander revealed that McCarthy had written this letter himself, probably while preparing award citations and commendation letters for his men, and that he had signed his commander's name, after which Nimitz signed it routinely.<ref>''[https://books.google.com/books?id=lvhKBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA232 Tapestry: The History and Consequences of America's Complex Culture]''</ref>{{sfn|''The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy''|page=37}} A "war wound"—a badly broken leg—that McCarthy attributed to varying adventures involving airplane crashes or anti-aircraft fire, had in fact happened aboard ship during a raucous [[Line-crossing ceremony|celebration for sailors crossing the equator for the first time]].<ref name=Arthur1/><ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/November-December-2003/story_morgan_novdec03.msp |title = Judge Joe: How The Youngest Judge In Wisconsin's History Became The Country's Most Notorious Senator |access-date = August 2, 2006 |last = Morgan |first = Ted |date = November–December 2003 |publisher = Legal Affairs |archive-date = April 29, 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210429124425/https://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/November-December-2003/story_morgan_novdec03.msp |url-status = live }}</ref>{{sfn|''Underdogs: The Making of the Modern Marine Corps''}} Because of McCarthy's various lies about his military heroism, his "Tail-Gunner Joe" nickname was used in mockery by his critics.<ref name="Garraty, John 1989 p. 24"/><ref name="O'Brien, Steven 1991 p. 265"/><ref name="The Comics Journal"/>

McCarthy campaigned for the Republican Senate nomination in Wisconsin while still on active duty in 1944 but was defeated by [[Alexander Wiley]], the incumbent. After he left the Marines in April 1945, five months before the end of the Pacific war in September 1945, McCarthy was reelected unopposed to his circuit court position. He then began a much more systematic campaign for the 1946 Republican Senate [[Partisan primary|primary]] nomination, with support from Thomas Coleman, the Republican Party's political boss in Wisconsin. In this race, he was challenging three-term senator [[Robert M. La Follette Jr.]], founder of the [[Wisconsin Progressive Party]] and son of the celebrated Wisconsin governor and senator [[Robert M. La Follette|Robert M. La Follette Sr.]]

===Senate campaign===
In his campaign, McCarthy attacked La Follette for not enlisting during the war, although La Follette had been 46 when [[Pearl Harbor]] was bombed. He also claimed La Follette had made huge profits from his investments while he, McCarthy, had been away fighting for his country. In fact, McCarthy had invested in the stock market himself during the war, netting a profit of $42,000 in 1943 (equal to ${{Inflation|US|42000|1943|fmt=c}} today). Where McCarthy got the money to invest in the first place remains a mystery. La Follette's investments consisted of partial interest in a radio station, which earned him a profit of $47,000 over two years.<ref>
{{cite book
  |last = Rovere
  |first = Richard H.
  |title = Senator Joe McCarthy
  |publisher = University of California Press
  |year=  1959
  |pages = 97, 102
  |isbn = 0-520-20472-7}}</ref>

According to Jack Anderson and Ronald W. May,<ref>McCarthy, The Man, the Senator, the Ism (Boston, Beacon Press, 1952) pp.&nbsp;101–105.</ref> McCarthy's campaign funds, much of them from out of state, were ten times more than La Follette's and McCarthy's vote benefited from a Communist Party vendetta against La Follette. The suggestion that La Follette had been guilty of [[war profiteering]] was deeply damaging, and McCarthy won the primary nomination 207,935 votes to 202,557. It was during this campaign that McCarthy started publicizing his war-time nickname "Tail-Gunner Joe," using the slogan, "Congress needs a tail-gunner." Journalist [[Arnold Beichman]] later stated that McCarthy "was elected to his first term in the Senate with support from the Communist-controlled [[United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America|United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers]], [[Congress of Industrial Organizations|CIO]]", which preferred McCarthy to the anti-communist Robert M. La Follette.<ref>
{{cite web
 |url=http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/2913871.html
 |title=The Politics of Personal Self-Destruction
 |access-date=February 25, 2008
|last=Beichman
 |first=Arnold
 |author-link=Arnold Beichman
 |date=February–March 2006
 |publisher=[[Policy Review]]
 |url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080312214611/http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/2913871.html
 |archive-date=March 12, 2008
}}</ref>

In the general election against Democratic opponent [[Howard J. McMurray]], McCarthy won 61.2% to McMurray's 37.3%, and thus joined Alexander Wiley, whom he had challenged unsuccessfully two years earlier, in the Senate.

{{Election box begin no change
| title=[[1946 United States Senate election in Wisconsin|1946 Wisconsin U.S. Senate election]]}}
{{Election box winning candidate with party link no change
  |party      = Republican Party (United States)
  |candidate  = Joseph McCarthy
  |votes      = 620,430
  |percentage = 61.2
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link no change
  |party      = Democratic Party (United States)
  |candidate  = [[Howard J. McMurray|Howard McMurray]]
  |votes      = 378,772
  |percentage = 37.3
}}
{{Election box total no change
  | votes = 999,202
  | percentage = 98.5
}}
{{Election box hold with party link no change
 |winner = Republican Party (United States)
 |loser =
 |swing =
}}
{{Election box end}}

==Personal life==
In 1950, McCarthy assaulted journalist [[Drew Pearson (journalist)|Drew Pearson]] in the cloakroom at the [[Sulgrave Club]], reportedly kneeing him in the groin. McCarthy, who admitted the assault, claimed he merely "slapped" Pearson.<ref>
{{cite book|last = Herman
  |first = Arthur
  |title = Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator
  |publisher = Free Press
  |year = 2000
  |page = [https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/233 233]
  |isbn = 0-684-83625-4
  |url = https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/233
  }}</ref> In 1952, using rumors collected by Pearson as well as other sources, Nevada publisher [[Hank Greenspun]] wrote that McCarthy was a frequent patron at the White Horse Inn, a Milwaukee gay bar, and cited his involvement with young men.  Greenspun named some of McCarthy's alleged lovers, including Charles E. Davis, an ex-Communist and "confessed homosexual" who claimed that he had been hired by McCarthy to spy on U.S. diplomats in [[Switzerland]].<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Memorandum of understanding about McCarthy and a besieged army |magazine=Life |date=March 8, 1954 |pages=28 |publisher=Time Inc}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hersh |first1=Burton |title=Bobby and J. Edgar: The Historic Face-Off Between the Kennedys and J. Edgar Hoover that Transformed America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gA6xmt1I2fYC|date=2007 |publisher=Carroll & Graf|isbn=978-0786731855 }}</ref>

McCarthy's [[FBI]] file also contains numerous allegations, including a 1952 letter from an Army lieutenant who said, "When I was in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] some time ago, [McCarthy] picked me up at the bar in the Wardman [Hotel] and took me home, and while I was half-drunk he committed [[sodomy]] on me." [[J. Edgar Hoover]] conducted a perfunctory investigation of the Senator's alleged [[sexual assault]]; Hoover's take was that "homosexuals are very bitter against Senator McCarthy for his attack upon those who are supposed to be in the Government."<ref>{{cite web |title=Joseph McCarthy FBI File, part 3 of 56 (part 2 of 28) |url=https://vault.fbi.gov/Sen.%20Joseph%20%28Joe%29%20McCarthy/Sen.%20Joseph%20%28Joe%29%20McCarthy%20Part%203%20of%2056/view |website=FBI Records: The Vault |access-date=February 14, 2022 |archive-date=February 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220214104133/https://vault.fbi.gov/Sen.%20Joseph%20(Joe)%20McCarthy/Sen.%20Joseph%20(Joe)%20McCarthy%20Part%203%20of%2056/view |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[[C.A. Tripp]] also mentions this incident in his book ''[[The Homosexual Matrix]]''. Tripp describes McCarthy as "predominantly homosexual."</ref>

Although some notable McCarthy biographers have rejected these rumors,<ref>The allegation is specifically rejected in
{{cite book
|last = Rovere
|first = Richard H.
|title = Senator Joe McCarthy
|publisher = University of California Press
|year= 1959
|page = 68
|isbn = 0-520-20472-7}}</ref> others have suggested that he may have been blackmailed. Allegations against McCarthy not only involved accusations of homosexuality, but also inappropriate behavior towards young women, particularly after drinking. In his autobiography, [[Walter Trohan]] one of his close supporters at the time, stated that "he just couldn't keep his hands off young girls", and that the communists could have "plant[ed] a minor on him and raised the cry of statutory rape".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Trohan |first=Walter |title=Political Animals: Memoirs of a Sentimental Cynic |publisher=Double Day |year=1975 |edition=1st |pages=250}}</ref> [[Curt Gentry]], in his biography of Hoover, cited rumors among FBI employees that the director had a secret file containing affidavits of such conduct, including towards children younger than ten.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gentry |first=Curt |title=J Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets |publisher=WW Norton & Co. |year=2001}}</ref> During the early 1950s, McCarthy launched a series of attacks on the [[CIA]], claiming it had been infiltrated by communist agents. [[Allen Dulles]], who suspected McCarthy was using information supplied by Hoover, refused to cooperate. According to the historian [[David Talbot]], Dulles also compiled a "scandalous" intimate dossier on the Senator's personal life and used the homosexual stories to take him down.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Talbot |first1=David |title=The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government |date=2015 |publisher=Harper}}</ref>

In any event, McCarthy did not sue Greenspun for [[libel]]. (He was told that if the case went ahead he would be compelled to take the witness stand and to rebut the charges made in the [[affidavit]] of the young man, which was the basis for Greenspun's story.)

In 1953, he married Jean Fraser Kerr, a researcher in his office. In January 1957, McCarthy and his wife adopted an infant with the help of [[Roy Cohn]]'s close friend [[Cardinal (Catholic Church)|Cardinal]] [[Francis Spellman]]. They named the baby girl Tierney Elizabeth McCarthy.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Oshinsky |first1=David |title=A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy |date=2019 |publisher=Free Press}}</ref>

==United States Senate==
Senator McCarthy's first three years in the Senate were unremarkable.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/joseph-mccarthy-dies |title=This Day in History: Joseph McCarthy Dies |date=2018 |website=History.com |publisher=A&E Television Networks, LLC |location=New York |access-date=August 22, 2018 |archive-date=August 22, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180822145710/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/joseph-mccarthy-dies |url-status=live }}</ref> McCarthy was a popular speaker, invited by many different organizations, covering a wide range of topics. His aides and many in the Washington social circle described him as charming and friendly, and he was a popular guest at cocktail parties. He was far less well liked among fellow senators, however, who found him quick-tempered and prone to impatience and even rage. Outside of a small circle of colleagues, he was soon an isolated figure in the Senate,<ref>
{{cite book|last = Herman
  |first = Arthur
  |title = Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator
  |publisher = Free Press
  |year = 1999
  |pages = [https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/44 44, 51, 55]
  |isbn = 0-684-83625-4
  |url = https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/44
  }}
</ref> who was often widely criticized.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Davis |first=Kenneth C. |title=Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-06-008381-6 |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=408 |author-link=Kenneth C. Davis}}</ref>

McCarthy was active in labor-management issues, with a reputation as a moderate Republican. He fought against continuation of wartime price controls, especially on sugar. His advocacy in this area was associated by critics with a $20,000 personal loan McCarthy received from a [[Pepsi]] bottling executive, earning the Senator the derisive nickname "The Pepsi-Cola Kid".<ref>
{{cite book|last = Herman
  |first = Arthur
  |title = Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator
  |publisher = Free Press
  |year = 2000
  |page = [https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/53 53]
  |isbn = 0-684-83625-4
  |url = https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/53
  }}</ref>

McCarthy supported the [[Taft–Hartley Act]] over Truman's veto, angering labor unions in Wisconsin but solidifying his business base.<ref>
{{cite book
  |last = Reeves
  |first = Thomas C.
  |title = The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy: A Biography
  |publisher = Madison Books
  |pages = 116–119
  |year=  1982
  |isbn = 1-56833-101-0}}</ref>

===Malmedy massacre trial===
{{Main|Malmedy massacre trial}}
In an incident for which he would be widely criticized, McCarthy lobbied for the commutation of death sentences given to a group of [[Waffen-SS]] soldiers convicted of war crimes for carrying out the 1944 [[Malmedy massacre]] of American prisoners of war. McCarthy was critical of the convictions because the German soldiers' confessions were allegedly obtained through torture during the interrogations. He argued that the U.S. Army was engaged in a coverup of judicial misconduct, but never presented any evidence to support the accusation.<ref>
{{cite book|last = Herman
  |first = Arthur
  |title = Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator
  |publisher = Free Press
  |year = 2000
  |pages = [https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/54 54–55]
  |isbn = 0-684-83625-4
  |url = https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/54
  }}</ref>

Shortly after this, a 1950 poll of the Senate press corps voted McCarthy "the worst U.S. senator" currently in office.<ref>
{{cite book|last = Herman
  |first = Arthur
  |title = Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator
  |publisher = Free Press
  |year = 1999
  |page = [https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/51 51]
  |isbn = 0-684-83625-4
  |url = https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/51
  }}
</ref>

McCarthy biographer [[Larry Tye]] has written that antisemitism factored into McCarthy's outspoken views on Malmedy, and noted that McCarthy frequently used anti-Jewish slurs.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Magazine |first1=Smithsonian |last2=Cushman |first2=Larry Tye,Chloe |title=When Senator Joe McCarthy Defended Nazis |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/senator-mccarthys-nazi-problem-180975174/ |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref> In this and McCarthy's other characteristics, such as the enthusiastic support he received from antisemitic politicians like Ku Klux Klansman [[Wesley Swift]] and his tendency, according to friends, to refer to his copy of ''[[Mein Kampf]],'' stating, "That's the way to do it," McCarthy's critics characterize him as driven by antisemitism. However, Tye notes that it was not, in his opinion, antisemitism ''alone'' that led to McCarthy's actions regarding the Malmedy massacre.{{CN|date=May 2025}}

It was later found that McCarthy had received "evidence" of the false torture claims from Rudolf Aschenauer, a prominent Neo-Nazi agitator who often served as a defense attorney for Nazi war criminals, such as Einsatzgruppen commander [[Otto Ohlendorf]].<ref>Richard Halworth Rovere: ''Senator Joe McCarthy''. University of California Press, Berkeley 1996, {{ISBN|0-520-20472-7}}, S. 112. (Reprint der Originalausgabe erschienen bei Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, New York 1959.)</ref>

==="Enemies within"===
McCarthy experienced a meteoric rise in national profile beginning on February 9, 1950, when he gave a [[Lincoln Day]] speech to the Republican Women's Club of [[Wheeling, West Virginia]]. His words in the speech are a matter of some debate, as no audio recording survives. However, it is generally agreed that he produced a piece of paper that he claimed contained a list of known Communists working for the [[United States Department of State|State Department]]. McCarthy is usually quoted as having said: "The State Department is infested with communists. I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department."<ref>{{cite book |last = Griffith |first = Robert |title = The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate |url = https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif |url-access = registration |publisher = University of Massachusetts Press |year=  1970 |page = [https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif/page/49 49] |isbn = 0-87023-555-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Phillips |first=Steve |editor=Martin Collier, Erica Lewis |title=The Cold War |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=MlNaN_k4YtcC |access-date=December 1, 2008 |series= Heinemann Advanced History |year= 2001|publisher= Heinemann Educational Publishers|location= Oxford|isbn= 0-435-32736-4|page= 65|chapter= 5}}</ref>

There is some dispute with whether or not McCarthy actually gave the number of people on the list as being "205" or "57". In a later telegram to President Truman, and when entering the speech into the ''[[Congressional Record]]'', he used the number 57.<ref name="CongRec81">{{cite web
|url = http://www.wvculture.org/hiStory/government/mccarthy01.html
|title = Congressional Record, 81st Congress, 2nd Session
|access-date = August 11, 2006
|date = February 20, 1950
|publisher = West Virginia Division of Culture and History
|archive-date = September 25, 2009
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090925175808/http://www.wvculture.org/history/government/mccarthy01.html
|url-status = dead
}}</ref>

The origin of the number 205 can be traced: in later debates on the Senate floor, McCarthy referred to a 1946 letter that then–Secretary of State [[James F. Byrnes|James Byrnes]] sent to Congressman [[Adolph J. Sabath]]. In that letter, Byrnes said State Department security investigations had resulted in "recommendation against permanent employment" for 284 persons, and that 79 of these had been removed from their jobs; this left 205 still on the State Department's payroll. In fact, by the time of McCarthy's speech only about 65 of the employees mentioned in the Byrnes letter were still with the State Department, and all of these had undergone further security checks.<ref>
{{cite book
  |last = Cook
  |first = Fred J.
  |title = The Nightmare Decade: The Life and Times of Senator Joe McCarthy
  |publisher = Random House
  |year=  1971
  |pages = 155–156
  |isbn = 0-394-46270-X}}
</ref>

At the time of McCarthy's speech, communism was a significant concern in the United States. This concern was exacerbated by the actions of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe, the [[Chinese Civil War#Resumed fighting (1946–1949)|victory of the communists in the Chinese Civil War]], the Soviets' [[Soviet atomic bomb project|development of a nuclear weapon]] the year before, and by the contemporary controversy surrounding [[Alger Hiss]] and the confession of Soviet spy [[Klaus Fuchs]]. With this background and due to the sensational nature of McCarthy's charge against the State Department, the Wheeling speech soon attracted a flood of press interest in McCarthy's claim.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mccarthy-says-communists-are-in-state-department|title=McCarthy says communists are in State Department|website=History|date=November 13, 2009 |language=en|access-date=January 17, 2020|archive-date=January 28, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200128183417/http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mccarthy-says-communists-are-in-state-department|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8369.html|title=McCarthy targets 'communists' in government Feb. 9, 1950|last=Andrew Glass|website=Politico|date=February 9, 2008|language=en|access-date=January 17, 2020|archive-date=December 4, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204023940/http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8369.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Tydings Committee===
{{main|Tydings Committee}}
McCarthy himself was taken aback by the massive media response to the Wheeling speech, and he was accused of continually revising both his charges and figures. In [[Salt Lake City]], Utah, a few days later, he cited a figure of 57, and in the Senate on February 20, 1950, he claimed 81.<ref>{{Cite thesis|type=Master's thesis|last=Swanson|first=Richard|date=1977|title=McCarthyism in Utah|url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/5154|publisher=Brigham Young University|access-date=January 17, 2020|archive-date=November 8, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191108125345/https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/5154/|url-status=live}}</ref> During a five-hour speech,<ref>Also reported as up to 8 hours in length.</ref> McCarthy presented a case-by-case analysis of his 81 "loyalty risks" employed at the State Department. It is widely accepted that most of McCarthy's cases were selected from the so-called "Lee list", a report that had been compiled three years earlier for the [[United States House Committee on Appropriations|House Appropriations Committee]]. Led by a former [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] agent named Robert E. Lee, the House investigators had reviewed security clearance documents on State Department employees, and had determined that there were "incidents of inefficiencies"<ref>
{{cite book
  |last = Reeves
  |first = Thomas C.
  |title = The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy: A Biography
  |publisher = Madison Books
  |page = 227
  |year=  1982
  |isbn = 1-56833-101-0}}</ref> in the security reviews of 108 employees. McCarthy hid the source of his list, stating that he had penetrated the "iron curtain" of State Department secrecy with the aid of "some good, loyal Americans in the State Department".<ref>
{{cite book
  |last = Griffith
  |first = Robert
  |title = The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate
  |url = https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif
  |url-access = registration
  |publisher = University of Massachusetts Press
  |year=  1970
  |page = [https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif/page/55 55]
  |isbn = 0-87023-555-9}}</ref> In reciting the information from the Lee list cases, McCarthy consistently exaggerated, representing the hearsay of witnesses as facts and converting phrases such as "inclined towards Communism" to "a Communist".<ref>
{{cite book
  |last = Griffith
  |first = Robert
  |title = The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate
  |url = https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif
  |url-access = registration
  |publisher = University of Massachusetts Press
  |year=  1970
  |page = [https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif/page/56 56]
  |isbn = 0-87023-555-9}}</ref>

[[File:Millardetydings.jpg|thumb|Senator [[Millard Tydings]]]]
In response to McCarthy's charges, the Senate voted unanimously to investigate, and the [[Tydings Committee]] hearings were called.<ref>David M. Barrett, ''CIA and Congress: The Untold Story from Truman to Kennedy'' (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005), p. 65.</ref> This was a subcommittee of the [[United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations]] set up in February 1950 to conduct "a full and complete study and investigation as to whether persons who are disloyal to the United States are, or have been, employed by the Department of State".<ref>
''Congressional Record'', 81st Congress, 2nd session, pp. 2062–2068; quoted in:<br />
{{cite book
  |last = Reeves
  |first = Thomas C.
  |title = The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy: A Biography
  |publisher = Madison Books
  |page = 243
  |year=  1982
  |isbn = 1-56833-101-0}}</ref>

Many Democrats were incensed at McCarthy's attack on the State Department of a Democratic administration, and had hoped to use the hearings to discredit him. The Democratic chairman of the subcommittee, Senator [[Millard Tydings]], was reported to have said, "Let me have him [McCarthy] for three days in public hearings, and he'll never show his face in the Senate again."<ref>
{{cite book|last = Oshinsky |first = David M.|title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy |publisher = Oxford University Press |year=  2005 |page = 119 |isbn = 0-19-515424-X|orig-year= 1983}}</ref>

During the hearings, McCarthy made charges against nine specific people: [[Dorothy Kenyon]], [[Esther Brunauer]], Haldore Hanson, [[Gustavo Durán]], [[Owen Lattimore]], [[Harlow Shapley]], [[Frederick L. Schuman|Frederick Schuman]], [[John S. Service]], and [[Philip Jessup]]. They all had previously been the subject of charges of varying worth and validity. McCarthy came to focus particularly on Lattimore, who at one point he described as a "top Russian spy".{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}

From its beginning, the Tydings Committee was marked by intense partisan infighting. Its final report, written by the Democratic majority, concluded that the individuals on McCarthy's list were neither Communists nor pro-communist, and said the State Department had an effective security program. The Tydings Report labeled McCarthy's charges a "fraud and a hoax," and described them as using incensing rhetoric—saying that the result of McCarthy's actions was to "confuse and divide the American people ... to a degree far beyond the hopes of the Communists themselves". Republicans were outraged by the Democratic response. They responded to the report's rhetoric in kind, with [[William E. Jenner]] stating that Tydings was guilty of "the most brazen whitewash of treasonable conspiracy in our history".<ref>{{cite book
  |last = Griffith
  |first = Robert
  |title = The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate
  |url = https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif
  |url-access = registration
  |publisher = University of Massachusetts Press
  |year=  1970
  |page = [https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif/page/101 101]
  |isbn = 0-87023-555-9}}</ref>
The full Senate voted three times on whether to accept the report, and each time the voting was precisely divided along party lines.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last = Fried
 |first = Richard M.
 |year = 1990
 |title = Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective
 |publisher = Oxford University Press
 |page = 128
 |isbn = 0-19-504361-8
}}</ref>

===Fame and notoriety===
[[File:Herblock1950.jpg|thumb|Herbert Block, who signed his work "[[Herblock]]", coined the term "[[McCarthyism]]" in this cartoon in the March 29, 1950, ''[[Washington Post]].'']]

From 1950 onward, McCarthy continued to exploit the [[Red Scare|fear of Communism]] and to press his accusations that the government was failing to deal with Communism within its ranks. McCarthy also began investigations into homosexuals working in the foreign policy bureaucracy, who were considered prime candidates for blackmail by the Soviets.<ref name="David M. Barrett 2005 p. 67">David M. Barrett, ''CIA and Congress: The Untold Story from Truman to Kennedy'' (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005), p. 67.</ref> These accusations received wide publicity, increased his approval rating, and gained him a powerful national following.

In Congress, there was little doubt that homosexuals did not belong in sensitive government positions.<ref name="David M. Barrett 2005 p. 67"/> Since the late 1940s, the government had been dismissing about five homosexuals a month from civilian posts; by 1954, the number had grown twelve-fold.<ref>William N. Eskridge, "Privacy Jurisprudence and the Apartheid of the Closet, 1946–1961," ''Florida State University Law Review'' 23, no. 4 (Summer 1997); quoted in David M. Barrett, ''CIA and Congress: The Untold Story from Truman to Kennedy'' (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005), p. 70.</ref> As historian [[David M. Barrett]] would write, "Mixed in with the hysterics were some logic, though: homosexuals faced condemnation and discrimination, and most of them—wishing to conceal their orientation—were vulnerable to [[blackmail]]."<ref>David M. Barrett, ''CIA and Congress: The Untold Story from Truman to Kennedy'' (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005), p. 70.</ref> Director of Central Intelligence [[Roscoe Hillenkoetter]] was called to Congress to testify on homosexuals being employed at the [[CIA]]. He said, "The use of homosexuals as a control mechanism over individuals recruited for espionage is a generally accepted technique which has been used at least on a limited basis for many years." As soon as the DCI said these words, his aide signaled to take the remainder of the DCI's testimony off the record. Political historian David Barrett uncovered Hillenkoetter's notes, which reveal the remainder of the statement: "While this agency will never employ homosexuals on its rolls, it might conceivably be necessary, and in the past has actually been valuable, to use known homosexuals as agents in the field. I am certain that if [[Joseph Stalin]] or a member of the [[Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Politburo]] or a high satellite official were known to be a homosexual, no member of this committee or of the Congress would balk against our use of any technique to penetrate their operations ... after all, intelligence and espionage is, at best, an extremely dirty business."<ref>Hillenkoetter Testimony, 7-14-50, ''CIS Unpublished'' ''U.S. Senate Committee Hearings on Microfiche ''(Washington D.C.: Congressional Information Service); quoted in David M. Barrett, ''CIA and Congress: The Untold Story from Truman to Kennedy'' (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005), p. 79.</ref> The senators reluctantly agreed the CIA had to be flexible.<ref>David M. Barrett, ''CIA and Congress: The Untold Story from Truman to Kennedy'' (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005), p. 80.</ref>

McCarthy's methods also brought on the disapproval and opposition of many. Barely a month after McCarthy's Wheeling speech, the term "McCarthyism" was coined by ''[[Washington Post]]'' cartoonist [[Herblock|Herbert Block]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}} Block and others used the word as a synonym for [[demagogy|demagoguery]], baseless defamation, and mudslinging. Later, it would be embraced by McCarthy and some of his supporters. "McCarthyism is Americanism with its sleeves rolled," McCarthy said in a 1952 speech, and later that year, he published a book titled ''McCarthyism: The Fight For America''.{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}

McCarthy sought to discredit his critics and political opponents by accusing them of being Communists or communist sympathizers. In the 1950 Maryland Senate election, McCarthy campaigned for [[John Marshall Butler]] in his race against four-term incumbent Millard Tydings, with whom McCarthy had been in conflict during the Tydings Committee hearings. In speeches supporting Butler, McCarthy accused Tydings of "protecting Communists" and "shielding traitors". McCarthy's staff was heavily involved in the campaign and collaborated in the production of a campaign tabloid that contained a composite photograph doctored to make it appear that Tydings was in intimate conversation with Communist leader [[Earl Russell Browder]].<ref>{{cite book
  |last = Oshinsky
  |first = David M.
  |title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy
  |publisher = Oxford University Press
  |year=  2005
  |page = 175
  |isbn = 0-19-515424-X
  |orig-year= 1983}}</ref><ref>
{{cite book
  |title = The Official United States Congressional Daily Digest Records
  |publisher = Government Publishing Office, Thomas Library, Official Repository Library, Local, Bakersfield California, CSUB
  |year=  2009
  |pages = 8', 79th Congress, 3rd Session, Date August 2, 1946, Congressional Records&nbsp;– House, p. 10749
  |orig-year= 1946}}</ref><ref>
{{cite book
  |title = The United States Constitution
  |publisher = Government Publishing Office, Thomas Library, Official Repository Library, Local, Bakersfield California, CSUB
  |year=  2009
  |page = 10
  |orig-year= 1782}}
</ref> A Senate subcommittee later investigated this election and referred to it as "a despicable, back-street type of campaign", as well as recommending that the use of defamatory literature in a campaign be made grounds for expulsion from the Senate.<ref>
{{cite book
  |last = Cook
  |first = Fred J.
  |title = The Nightmare Decade: The Life and Times of Senator Joe McCarthy
  |publisher = Random House
  |year=  1971
  |pages = 150–151
  |isbn = 0-394-46270-X}}</ref> The pamphlet was clearly labeled a composite. McCarthy said it was "wrong" to distribute it; though staffer Jean Kerr thought it was fine. After he lost the election by almost 40,000 votes, Tydings claimed foul play.

In addition to the Tydings–Butler race, McCarthy campaigned for several other Republicans in the [[1950 United States Senate elections|1950 elections]], including [[Everett Dirksen]] against Democratic incumbent and Senate Majority Leader [[Scott W. Lucas]]. Dirksen, and indeed all the candidates McCarthy supported, won their elections, and those he opposed lost. The elections, including many that McCarthy was not involved in, were an overall Republican sweep. Although his impact on the elections was unclear, McCarthy was credited as a key Republican campaigner. He was now regarded as one of the most powerful men in the Senate and was treated with new-found deference by his colleagues.<ref>
{{cite book
  |last = Cook
  |first = Fred J.
  |title = The Nightmare Decade: The Life and Times of Senator Joe McCarthy
  |publisher = Random House
  |year=  1971
  |page = 316
  |isbn = 0-394-46270-X}}</ref> In the 1952 Senate elections McCarthy was returned to his Senate seat with 54.2% of the vote, compared to Democrat Thomas Fairchild's 45.6%. As of 2020, McCarthy is the last Republican to win Wisconsin's Class 1 Senate seat.

{{Election box begin no change
| title=1952 Wisconsin U.S. Senate election}}
{{Election box winning candidate with party link no change
  |party      = Republican Party (United States)
  |candidate  = Joseph McCarthy
  |votes      = 870,444
  |percentage = 54.2
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link no change
  |party      = Democratic Party (United States)
  |candidate  = [[Thomas E. Fairchild]]
  |votes      = 731,402
  |percentage = 45.6
}}
{{Election box total no change
  | votes = 1,601,846
  | percentage = 99.8
}}
{{Election box hold with party link no change
 |winner = Republican Party (United States)
 |loser =
 |swing =
}}
{{Election box end}}

===McCarthy and the Truman administration===
McCarthy and [[Harry S. Truman|President Truman]] clashed often during the years both held office. McCarthy characterized Truman and the Democratic Party as soft on, or even in league with, Communists, and spoke of the Democrats' "twenty years of treason". Truman, in turn, once referred to McCarthy as "the best asset the [[Moscow Kremlin|Kremlin]] has", calling McCarthy's actions an attempt to "sabotage the foreign policy of the United States" in a cold war and comparing it to shooting American soldiers in the back in a hot war.<ref>
{{cite book|last = Herman
  |first = Arthur
  |title = Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator
  |publisher = Free Press
  |year = 2000
  |page = [https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/131 131]
  |isbn = 0-684-83625-4
  |url = https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/131
  }}</ref>

It was the Truman Administration's State Department that McCarthy accused of harboring 205 (or 57 or 81) "known Communists". Truman's [[United States Secretary of Defense|Secretary of Defense]], [[George Marshall]], was the target of some of McCarthy's most vitriolic rhetoric. Marshall had been [[Chief of Staff of the United States Army|Army Chief of Staff]] during World War II and was also Truman's former [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]]. Marshall was a highly respected general and statesman, remembered today as the architect of victory and peace, the latter based on the [[Marshall Plan]] for post-war reconstruction of Europe, for which he was awarded the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] in 1953. McCarthy made a lengthy speech on Marshall, later published in 1951 as a book titled ''America's Retreat From Victory: The Story of George Catlett Marshall''. Marshall had been involved in American foreign policy with China, and McCarthy charged that Marshall was directly responsible for the loss of China to Communism. In the speech McCarthy also implied that Marshall was guilty of treason;<ref name="Retreat">
{{cite book
  |last = McCarthy
  |first = Joseph
  |title = Major Speeches and Debates of Senator Joe McCarthy Delivered in the United States Senate, 1950–1951
  |publisher = Gordon Press
  |year=  1951
  |pages = 264, 307, 215
  |isbn = 0-87968-308-2}}</ref> declared that "if Marshall were merely stupid, the laws of probability would dictate that part of his decisions would serve this country's interest";<ref name="Retreat" /> and most famously, accused him of being part of "a conspiracy so immense and an infamy so black as to dwarf any previous venture in the history of man".<ref name="Retreat" />

In December 1950, McCarthy teamed with right-wing radio star [[Fulton Lewis Jr.]] to smear Truman's nominee for Assistant Secretary of Defense, [[Anna M. Rosenberg]]. Their smear campaign attracted allies in anti-Semites and extremists like [[Gerald L. K. Smith]], who falsely claimed Rosenberg, who was Jewish, was a communist.<ref name="Gorham 2023">{{Cite book |last=Gorham |first=Christopher C. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1369148974 |title=The confidante : the untold story of the woman who helped win WWII and shape modern America |date=2023 |isbn=978-0-8065-4200-3 |location=New York |oclc=1369148974}}</ref> Unlike other women targets of McCarthyism, Rosenberg emerged with her career and integrity intact. When the smear campaign fizzled out, journalist [[Edward R. Murrow]] said "the character assassin has missed."<ref name="Gorham 2023"/>

During the [[Korean War]], when Truman dismissed General [[Douglas MacArthur]], McCarthy charged that Truman and his advisors must have planned the dismissal during late-night sessions when "they've had time to get the President cheerful" on bourbon and [[Bénédictine]]. McCarthy declared, "The son of a bitch should be impeached."<ref>
{{cite book
  |last = Oshinsky
  |first = David M.
  |title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy
  |publisher = Oxford University Press
  |year=  2005
  |page = 194
  |isbn = 0-19-515424-X
  |orig-year= 1983}}</ref>

===Support from Catholics and the Kennedy family===

One of the strongest bases of anti-Communist sentiment in the United States was the Catholic community, which constituted over 20% of the national vote. McCarthy identified himself as Catholic, and although the great majority of Catholics were Democrats, as his fame as a leading anti-Communist grew, he became popular in Catholic communities across the country, with strong support from many leading Catholics, diocesan newspapers, and Catholic journals. At the same time, some Catholics opposed McCarthy, notably the anti-Communist author Father [[John Francis Cronin]] and the influential journal ''[[Commonweal (magazine)|Commonweal]]''.<ref>
{{cite book|last =Crosby
  |first =Donald F.
  |title =God, Church, and Flag: Senator Joseph R. McCarthy and the Catholic Church, 1950–1957
  |publisher =University of North Carolina Press
  |year =1978
  |pages =[https://archive.org/details/godchurchflagsen0000cros/page/200 200, 67]
  |isbn =0-8078-1312-5
  |url =https://archive.org/details/godchurchflagsen0000cros/page/200
  }}</ref>

McCarthy established a bond with the powerful [[Kennedy family]], which had high visibility among Catholics. McCarthy became a close friend of [[Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.]], himself a fervent anti-Communist, and he was also a frequent guest at the Kennedy compound in [[Hyannis Port, Massachusetts]]. He dated two of Kennedy's daughters, [[Patricia Kennedy Lawford|Patricia]] and [[Eunice Kennedy Shriver|Eunice]].<ref>
{{cite book |last = Morrow |first = Lance |title =The Best Year of Their Lives: Kennedy, Johnson, And Nixon in 1948 |publisher =Perseus Books Group |year= 1978 |page = 4 |isbn = 0-465-04724-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last = Bogle |first = Lori |title =Cold War Espionage and Spying |publisher =[[Routledge]] |year= 2001 |page = 129 |isbn = 0-8153-3241-6}}</ref> It has been stated that McCarthy was [[Godparent|godfather]] to [[Robert F. Kennedy]]'s first child, [[Kathleen Kennedy Townsend|Kathleen Kennedy]]. This claim was acknowledged by Robert's wife and Kathleen's mother [[Ethel Kennedy|Ethel]],<ref name=mccarthygodfather /> though Kathleen later claimed that she looked at her baptismal certificate and that her actual godfather was [[Manhattanville College|Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart]] professor Daniel Walsh.<ref name=mccarthygodfather>{{Cite book|title=Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon |last=Tye|first=Larry|publisher=Random House|year=2016|isbn=978-0812993349|location=New York|page=68|via=Electronic version}}</ref>

Robert Kennedy was unusual among his Harvard friends for defending McCarthy when they discussed politics after graduation.{{r|leamer2001}} He was chosen by McCarthy to be a counsel for his investigatory committee, but resigned after six months due to disagreements with McCarthy and Committee Counsel [[Roy Cohn]]. Joseph Kennedy had a national network of contacts and became a vocal supporter, building McCarthy's popularity among Catholics and making sizable contributions to McCarthy's campaigns.<ref>
{{cite book
  |last = Oshinsky
  |first = David M.
  |title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy
  |publisher = Oxford University Press
  |year=  2005
  |page = 240
  |isbn = 0-19-515424-X
  |orig-year= 1983}}
{{cite book
  |last = Reeves
  |first = Thomas C.
  |title = The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy: A Biography
  |publisher = Madison Books
  |page = 443
  |year=  1982
  |isbn = 1-56833-101-0}}</ref> The Kennedy patriarch hoped that one of his sons would be president. Mindful of the [[Anti-Catholicism|anti-Catholic prejudice]] which [[Al Smith]] faced during his [[Al Smith presidential campaign, 1928|1928 campaign]] for that office, Joseph Kennedy supported McCarthy as a national Catholic politician who might pave the way for a younger Kennedy's presidential candidacy.

Unlike many Democrats, [[John F. Kennedy]], who served in the Senate with McCarthy from 1953 until the latter's death in 1957, never attacked McCarthy. Due to his friendship with the Kennedys<ref name=amex>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/kennedys/ ''The Kennedys''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100227180938/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/kennedys/ |date=February 27, 2010 }}. ''[[American Experience]]''. Boston, Massachusetts: [[WGBH-TV]]. 2009.</ref> and, reportedly, a $50,000 donation from Joseph Kennedy, McCarthy did not campaign for JFK's [[United States Senate election in Massachusetts, 1952|1952 opponent]], Republican incumbent [[Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.]]. Lodge lost despite Eisenhower winning the state in the presidential election.{{r|johnson2005}} When a speaker at a February 1952 [[final club]] dinner stated that he was glad that McCarthy had not attended [[Harvard College]], an angry Kennedy jumped up, denounced the speaker, and left the event.<ref name="leamer2001">{{Cite book |last=Leamer, Laurence |url=https://archive.org/details/kennedymen19011900leam/page/346 |title=The Kennedy Men: 1901–1963 |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2001 |isbn=0-688-16315-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/kennedymen19011900leam/page/302 302-303]}}</ref> When [[Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.]] asked John Kennedy why he avoided criticizing McCarthy, Kennedy responded by saying, "Hell, half my voters in Massachusetts look on McCarthy as a hero".<ref name=johnson2005>
{{cite book
  |last = Johnson
  |first = Haynes
  |title =The Age of Anxiety: McCarthyism to Terrorism
  |url = https://archive.org/details/ageofanxietymcca00john
  |url-access = registration
  |publisher = Harcourt
  |year=  2005
  |page = [https://archive.org/details/ageofanxietymcca00john/page/250 250]
  |isbn = 0-15-101062-5}}</ref>

===McCarthy and Eisenhower===
[[File:Photograph of Dwight D. Eisenhower - NARA - 518138.jpg|thumb|right|[[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], 34th President of the United States.]]
During the [[1952 United States presidential election|1952 presidential election]], the Eisenhower campaign toured Wisconsin with McCarthy. In a speech delivered in [[Green Bay, Wisconsin|Green Bay]], Eisenhower declared that while he agreed with McCarthy's goals, he disagreed with his methods. In draft versions of his speech, Eisenhower had also included a strong defense of his mentor, George Marshall, which was a direct rebuke of McCarthy's frequent attacks. However, under the advice of [[conservatism in the United States|conservative]] colleagues who were afraid that Eisenhower could lose Wisconsin if he alienated McCarthy supporters, he deleted this defense from later versions of his speech.<ref name="autogenerated15">{{cite book|last = Wicker
 |first = Tom
 |year = 2002
 |title = Dwight D. Eisenhower: The American Presidents Series
 |publisher = Times Books
 |page = [https://archive.org/details/rutherfordbhayes00tref/page/15 15]
 |isbn = 0-8050-6907-0
 |url = https://archive.org/details/rutherfordbhayes00tref/page/15
 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book
  |last = Griffith
  |first = Robert
  |title = The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate
  |url = https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif/page/188
  |url-access = registration
  |publisher = University of Massachusetts Press
  |year = 1970
  |pages = [https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif/page/188 188+]
  |isbn = 0-87023-555-9
  }}</ref> The deletion was discovered by William H. Laurence, a reporter for ''[[The New York Times]],'' and featured on its front page the next day. Eisenhower was widely criticized for giving up his personal convictions, and the incident became the low point of his campaign.<ref name="autogenerated15" />

With his victory in the 1952 presidential race, Eisenhower became the first Republican president in 20 years. The Republican Party also held a majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate. After being elected president, Eisenhower made it clear to those close to him that he did not approve of McCarthy and he worked actively to diminish his power and influence. Still, he never directly confronted McCarthy or criticized him by name in any speech, thus perhaps prolonging McCarthy's power by giving the impression that even the President was afraid to criticize him directly. Oshinsky disputes this, stating that "Eisenhower was known as a harmonizer, a man who could get diverse factions to work toward a common goal. ... Leadership, he explained, meant patience and conciliation, not 'hitting people over the head.'"<ref>{{cite book
  |last = Oshinsky
  |first = David M.
  |title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy
  |publisher = Oxford University Press
  |year=  2005
  |page = 259
  |isbn = 0-19-515424-X
  |orig-year= 1983}}</ref>

McCarthy won reelection in 1952 with 54% of the popular vote, defeating former Wisconsin State Attorney General [[Thomas E. Fairchild]] but, as stated above, badly trailing a Republican ticket which otherwise swept the state of Wisconsin; all the other Republican winners, including Eisenhower himself, received at least 60% of the Wisconsin vote.<ref>{{cite book
  |last = Oshinsky
  |first = David M.
  |title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy
  |publisher = Oxford University Press
  |year=  2005
  |page = 244
  |isbn = 0-19-515424-X
  |orig-year= 1983}}</ref>
Those who expected that party loyalty would cause McCarthy to tone down his accusations of Communists being harbored within the government were soon disappointed. Eisenhower had never been an admirer of McCarthy, and their relationship became more hostile once Eisenhower was in office. In a November 1953 speech that was carried on national television, McCarthy began by praising the Eisenhower Administration for removing "1,456 Truman holdovers who were&nbsp;... gotten rid of because of Communist connections and activities or perversion." He then went on to complain that [[John Paton Davies Jr.]] was still "on the payroll after eleven months of the Eisenhower administration," even though Davies had actually been dismissed three weeks earlier, and repeated an unsubstantiated accusation that Davies had tried to "put Communists and espionage agents in key spots in the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]." In the same speech, he criticized Eisenhower for not doing enough to secure the release of missing American pilots shot down over China during the Korean War.<ref>All quotes in this paragraph: {{cite book|last = Fried
 |first = Albert
 |year = 1997
 |title = McCarthyism, The Great American Red Scare: A Documentary History
 |publisher = Oxford University Press
 |pages = [https://archive.org/details/mccarthyismgreat00frie/page/182 182–184]
 |isbn = 0-19-509701-7
 |url = https://archive.org/details/mccarthyismgreat00frie/page/182
 }}</ref> By the end of 1953, McCarthy had altered the "twenty years of treason" catchphrase he had coined for the preceding Democratic administrations and began referring to "twenty-''one'' years of treason" to include Eisenhower's first year in office.<ref>{{cite book|last = Fried
  |first = Albert
  |title = McCarthyism, The Great American Red Scare: A Documentary History
  |publisher = Oxford University Press
  |year = 1996
  |page = [https://archive.org/details/mccarthyismgreat00frie/page/179 179]
  |isbn = 0-19-509701-7
  |url = https://archive.org/details/mccarthyismgreat00frie/page/179
  }}</ref>

As McCarthy became increasingly combative towards the Eisenhower Administration, Eisenhower faced repeated calls that he confront McCarthy directly. Eisenhower refused, saying privately "nothing would please him [McCarthy] more than to get the publicity that would be generated by a public repudiation by the President."<ref>{{cite book
  |last = Powers
  |first = Richard Gid
  |title = Not Without Honor: The History of American Anticommunism
  |publisher = Yale University Press
  |year=  1998
  |page = 263
  |isbn = 0-300-07470-0}}</ref> On several occasions Eisenhower is reported to have said of McCarthy that he did not want to "get down in the gutter with that guy."<ref>{{cite book|last = Parmet
  |first = Herbert S.
  |title = Eisenhower and the American Crusades
  |publisher = Transaction Publishers
  |year = 1998
  |pages = [https://archive.org/details/eisenhowerameric00parm/page/248 248, 337, 577]
  |isbn = 0-7658-0437-9
  |url = https://archive.org/details/eisenhowerameric00parm/page/248
  }}</ref>

===Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations===
With the beginning of his second term as senator in January 1953, McCarthy was made chairman of the Senate Committee on Government Operations. According to some reports, Republican leaders were growing wary of McCarthy's methods and gave him this relatively mundane panel rather than the [[United States Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security|Internal Security Subcommittee]]—the committee normally involved with investigating Communists—thus putting McCarthy "where he can't do any harm", in the words of Senate Majority Leader [[Robert A. Taft]].<ref>{{cite book
 |last = Fried
 |first = Richard M.
 |year = 1990
 |title = Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective
 |publisher = Oxford University Press
 |page = 134
 |isbn = 0-19-504361-8
}}</ref> However, the Committee on Government Operations included the [[United States Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations|Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations]], and the mandate of this subcommittee was sufficiently flexible to allow McCarthy to use it for his own investigations of Communists in the government. McCarthy appointed [[Roy Cohn]] as chief counsel and 27-year-old [[Robert F. Kennedy]] as an assistant counsel to the subcommittee. Later, McCarthy also hired [[G. David Schine|Gerard David Schine]], heir to a hotel-chain fortune, on the recommendation of George Sokolsky.<ref name="auto">{{cite magazine |date=May 24, 1954 |title=The Press: The Man in the Middle |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,823411,00.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220202191548/http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,823411,00.html |archive-date=February 2, 2022 |access-date=February 2, 2022 |magazine=Time}}</ref>

This subcommittee would be the scene of some of McCarthy's most publicized exploits. When the records of the closed executive sessions of the subcommittee under McCarthy's chairmanship were made public in 2003–04,<ref>See "Transcripts, Executive Sessions ..." under Primary sources, below.</ref> Senators [[Susan Collins]] and [[Carl Levin]] wrote the following in their preface to the documents:

<blockquote>Senator McCarthy's zeal to uncover subversion and espionage led to disturbing excesses. His browbeating tactics destroyed careers of people who were not involved in the infiltration of our government. His freewheeling style caused both the Senate and the Subcommittee to revise the rules governing future investigations, and prompted the courts to act to protect the Constitutional rights of witnesses at Congressional hearings.&nbsp;... These hearings are a part of our national past that we can neither afford to forget nor permit to re-occur.<ref>{{cite web
  |first1 = Susan
  |last1 = Collins
  |first2 = Carl
  |last2 = Levin
  |author-link1 = Susan Collins
  |author-link2 = Carl Levin
  |title = Preface
  |work = Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
  |publisher = U.S. Government Printing Office
  |year = 2003
  |url = https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/Volume1.pdf
  |access-date = December 19, 2006
  |archive-date = December 28, 2006
  |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061228010804/http://senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/Volume1.pdf
  |url-status = live
  }}</ref></blockquote>

The subcommittee first investigated allegations of Communist influence in the [[Voice of America]], at that time administered by the State Department's [[United States Information Agency]]. Many VOA personnel were questioned in front of television cameras and a packed press gallery, with McCarthy lacing his questions with hostile innuendo and false accusations.<ref name="VOA">{{cite book
 |last = Heil
 |first = Alan L.
 |year = 2003
 |title = Voice of America: A History
 |publisher = Columbia University Press
 |page = 53
 |isbn = 0-231-12674-3
}}</ref> A few VOA employees alleged Communist influence on the content of broadcasts, but none of the charges were substantiated. Morale at VOA was badly damaged, and one of its engineers committed suicide during McCarthy's investigation. Ed Kretzman, a policy advisor for the service, would later comment that it was VOA's "darkest hour when Senator McCarthy and his chief hatchet man, Roy Cohn, almost succeeded in muffling it."<ref name="VOA" />

The subcommittee then turned to the overseas library program of the International Information Agency. Cohn toured Europe examining the card catalogs of the State Department libraries looking for works by authors he deemed inappropriate. McCarthy then recited the list of supposedly pro-communist authors before his subcommittee and the press. The State Department bowed to McCarthy and ordered its overseas librarians to remove from their shelves "material by any controversial persons, Communists, fellow travelers, etc." Some libraries went as far as [[Book burning|burning]] the newly-forbidden books.<ref>{{cite book
  |last = Griffith
  |first = Robert
  |title = The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate
  |url = https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif
  |url-access = registration
  |publisher = University of Massachusetts Press
  |year=  1970
  |page = [https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif/page/216 216]
  |isbn = 0-87023-555-9}}</ref> Shortly after this, in one of his public criticisms of McCarthy, President Eisenhower urged Americans: "Don't join the book burners.&nbsp;... Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book."<ref>{{cite web
 |url         = http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/stories/Ike-Milton-McCarthy.htm
 |title       = Ike, Milton, and the McCarthy Battle
 |access-date  = August 9, 2006
|publisher   = Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20060615173752/http://eisenhowermemorial.org/stories/Ike-Milton-McCarthy.htm
 |archive-date = June 15, 2006
|df          = mdy-all
}}</ref>

Soon after receiving the chair to the Subcommittee on Investigations, McCarthy appointed [[J. B. Matthews]] as staff director of the subcommittee. One of the nation's foremost anti-communists, Matthews had formerly been staff director for the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]]. The appointment became controversial when it was learned that Matthews had recently written an article titled "Reds and Our Churches",<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?lr=&q=%22Reds%20and%20Our%20Churches%22%20Matthews&btnG=Search%20Books|title='Reds and Our Churches' Matthews |via=Google Search}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?lr=&q=%22Reds%20in%20Our%20Churches%22%20Matthews&btnG=Search%20Books|title='Reds in Our Churches' Matthews |via=Google Search}}</ref> which opened with the sentence, "The largest single group supporting the Communist apparatus in the United States is composed of Protestant Clergymen." A group of senators denounced this "shocking and unwarranted attack against the American clergy" and demanded that McCarthy dismiss Matthews. McCarthy initially refused to do this. As the controversy mounted, however, and the majority of his own subcommittee joined the call for Matthews's ouster, McCarthy finally yielded and accepted his resignation. For some McCarthy opponents, this was a signal defeat of the senator, showing he was not as invincible as he had formerly seemed.<ref>{{cite book
  |last = Griffith
  |first = Robert
  |title = The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate
  |url = https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif
  |url-access = registration
  |publisher =University of Massachusetts Press
  |year=  1970
  |page = [https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif/page/233 233]
  |isbn = 0-87023-555-9}}</ref>

===Investigating the Army===
In autumn 1953, McCarthy's committee began its ill-fated inquiry into the [[United States Army]]. This began with McCarthy opening an investigation into the [[Signal Corps (United States Army)|Army Signal Corps]] laboratory at [[Fort Monmouth]]. McCarthy, newly married to Jean Kerr, cut short his honeymoon to open the investigation. He garnered some headlines with stories of a dangerous spy ring among the army researchers, but after weeks of hearings, nothing came of his investigations.<ref>{{cite book|last = Stone|title = Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism|isbn = 0-393-05880-8|url = https://archive.org/details/periloustimesfre00ston|publisher = W.W. Norton & Co.|year = 2004}}</ref> Unable to expose any signs of subversion, McCarthy focused instead on the case of [[Irving Peress]], a New York dentist who had been drafted into the army in 1952 and promoted to major in November 1953. Shortly thereafter it came to the attention of the military bureaucracy that Peress, who was a member of the left-wing [[American Labor Party]], had declined to answer questions about his political affiliations on a loyalty-review form. Peress's superiors were therefore ordered to discharge him from the army within 90 days. McCarthy subpoenaed Peress to appear before his subcommittee on January 30, 1954. Peress refused to answer McCarthy's questions, citing his rights under the [[Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifth Amendment]]. McCarthy responded by sending a message to [[United States Secretary of the Army|Secretary of the Army]] [[Robert T. Stevens]], demanding that Peress be court-martialed. On that same day, Peress asked for his pending discharge from the army to be effected immediately, and the next day [[Brigadier general (United States)|Brigadier General]] [[Ralph Wise Zwicker|Ralph W. Zwicker]], his commanding officer at [[Camp Kilmer]] in [[New Jersey]], gave him an honorable separation from the army. At McCarthy's encouragement, "Who promoted Peress?" became a rallying cry among many anti-communists and McCarthy supporters. In fact, and as McCarthy knew, Peress had been promoted automatically through the provisions of the [[Conscription in the United States#Cold War|Doctor Draft]] Law, for which McCarthy had voted.<ref>{{cite news |last=Barnes |first=Bart |date=November 18, 2014 |title=Irving Peress, dentist who was subject of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's hearings, dies at 97 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/irving-peress-dentist-who-was-subject-of-sen-joseph-mccarthys-hearings-dies-at-97/2014/11/18/196bd42a-6f3b-11e4-ad12-3734c461eab6_story.html |newspaper=Washington Post |location=Washington, DC |access-date=September 2, 2017 |archive-date=March 12, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312031823/https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/irving-peress-dentist-who-was-subject-of-sen-joseph-mccarthys-hearings-dies-at-97/2014/11/18/196bd42a-6f3b-11e4-ad12-3734c461eab6_story.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Army–McCarthy hearings===
{{Main|Army–McCarthy hearings}}
Early in 1954, the U.S. Army accused McCarthy and his chief counsel, [[Roy Cohn]], of improperly pressuring the army to give favorable treatment to [[G. David Schine]], a former aide to McCarthy and a friend of Cohn's, who was then serving in the army as a private.<ref>Schwarz, Frederick D. "[http://www.americanheritage.com/content/1954-50-years-ago-0 1954 50 Years Ago: The Demagogue's Downfall] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201031423/http://www.americanheritage.com/content/1954-50-years-ago-0 |date=December 1, 2017 }}". ''[[American Heritage (magazine)|American Heritage]]'', November/December 2004. Retrieved November 30, 2017.</ref> McCarthy claimed that the accusation was made in bad faith, in retaliation for his questioning of Zwicker the previous year. The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, usually chaired by McCarthy himself, was given the task of adjudicating these conflicting charges. Republican senator [[Karl Earl Mundt|Karl Mundt]] was appointed to chair the committee, and the [[Army–McCarthy hearings]] convened on April 22, 1954.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/censure_cases/133Joseph_McCarthy.htm |title=U.S. Senate: The Censure Case of Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin (1954) |access-date=July 27, 2020 |archive-date=January 7, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100107030754/https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/censure_cases/133Joseph_McCarthy.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:McCarthy Cohn.jpg|thumb|McCarthy chats with [[Roy Cohn]] (right) at the [[Army-McCarthy hearings]].]]
The army consulted with an attorney familiar with McCarthy to determine the best approach to attacking him. Based on his recommendation, it decided not to pursue McCarthy on the question of communists in government: "The attorney feels it is almost impossible to counter McCarthy effectively on the issue of kicking Communists out of Government, because he generally has some basis, no matter how slight, for his claim of Communist connection."<ref name=Arthur1>
{{cite book|last = Herman
  |first = Arthur
  |title = Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator
  |publisher = Free Press
  |year = 1999
  |page = [https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/264 264]
  |isbn = 0-684-83625-4
  |url = https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/264
  }}
</ref>

The hearings lasted for 36 days and were broadcast on [[live television]] by [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] and [[DuMont Television Network|DuMont]], with an estimated 20 million viewers. After hearing 32 witnesses and two million words of testimony, the committee concluded that McCarthy himself had not exercised any improper influence on Schine's behalf, but that Cohn had engaged in "unduly persistent or aggressive efforts". The committee also concluded that Army Secretary Robert Stevens and Army Counsel John Adams "made efforts to terminate or influence the investigation and hearings at Fort Monmouth", and that Adams "made vigorous and diligent efforts" to block subpoenas for members of the Army Loyalty and Screening Board "by means of personal appeal to certain members of the [McCarthy] committee".<ref>Karl E. Mundt [Senator] et al., ''Report no. 2507, pursuant to Senate Resolution 189'' (Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, August 30, 1954), 80. Online at books.google.com/books?id=Nh64jR1OzjUC&pg=RA245-PA80</ref>

Of far greater importance to McCarthy than the committee's inconclusive final report was the adverse effect that the extensive exposure had on his popularity. Many in the audience saw him as bullying, reckless, and dishonest, and the daily newspaper summaries of the hearings were also frequently unfavorable.<ref>
{{cite book
  |last = Morgan
  |first = Ted
  |title = Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America
  |publisher = Random House
  |year=  2004
  |page = 489
  |isbn = 0-8129-7302-X}}</ref><ref>
{{cite book
  |last = Streitmatter
  |first = Rodger
  |title = Mightier Than the Sword: How the News Media Have Shaped American History
  |publisher = Westview Press
  |year = 1998
  |page = [https://archive.org/details/mightierthanswor00rodg/page/167 167]
  |isbn = 0-8133-3211-7
  |url = https://archive.org/details/mightierthanswor00rodg/page/167
  }}</ref> Late in the hearings, Senator [[Stuart Symington]] made an angry and prophetic remark to McCarthy. Upon being told by McCarthy that "You're not fooling anyone", Symington replied: "Senator, the American people have had a look at you now for six weeks; you're not fooling anyone, either."<ref>
 {{cite book
  |last = Powers
  |first = Richard Gid
  |title = Not Without Honor: The History of American Anticommunism
  |publisher = Yale University Press
  |year=  1998
  |page = 271
  |isbn = 0-300-07470-0}}
</ref>

In [[Gallup polls]] of January 1954, 50% of those polled had a favorable opinion of McCarthy. In June, that number had fallen to 34%. In the same polls, those with a unfavorable opinion of McCarthy increased from 29% to 45%.<ref name="autogenerated138">
{{cite book
 |last = Fried
 |first = Richard M.
 |year = 1990
 |title = Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective
 |publisher = Oxford University Press
 |page = 138
 |isbn = 0-19-504361-8}}</ref>

An increasing number of Republicans and conservatives were coming to see McCarthy as a liability to the party and to anti-communism. Representative [[George H. Bender]] noted, "There is a growing impatience with the Republican Party. McCarthyism has become a synonym for witch-hunting, [[Star Chamber]] methods, and the denial of&nbsp;... civil liberties."<ref>
{{cite book
  |last = Griffith
  |first = Robert
  |title = The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate
  |url = https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif
  |url-access = registration
  |publisher = University of Massachusetts Press
  |year=  1970
  |page = [https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif/page/264 264]
  |isbn = 0-87023-555-9}}</ref> [[Frederick Woltman]], a reporter with a long-standing reputation as a staunch anti-communist, wrote a five-part series of articles criticizing McCarthy in the ''[[New York World-Telegram]].'' He stated that McCarthy "has become a major liability to the cause of anti-communism", and accused him of "wild twisting of facts and near-facts [that] repels authorities in the field".<ref>
{{cite book
  |last = Cook
  |first = Fred J.
  |title = The Nightmare Decade: The Life and Times of Senator Joe McCarthy
  |publisher = Random House
  |year=  1971
  |page = 536
  |isbn = 0-394-46270-X}}</ref><ref>
{{cite magazine
  |title = About McCarthy
  |magazine = [[Time (magazine)|Time]]
  |date=  July 19, 1954
|url = http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,857509,00.html
  |archive-url = https://archive.today/20130204083053/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,857509,00.html
  |url-status = dead
  |archive-date = February 4, 2013
|access-date =December 18, 2006}}</ref>

[[File:Welch-McCarthy-Hearings.jpg|thumb| [[Joseph N. Welch]] (left) being questioned by Senator McCarthy, June 9, 1954.]]
The most famous incident in the hearings was an exchange between McCarthy and the army's chief legal representative, [[Joseph N. Welch|Joseph Nye Welch]]. On June 9, 1954,<ref>{{cite web |title=June 9, 1954: "Have You No Sense of Decency?" |url=https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/investigations/mccarthy-hearings/have-you-no-sense-of-decency.htm |publisher=United States Senate |access-date=May 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513145200/https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/investigations/mccarthy-hearings/have-you-no-sense-of-decency.htm |archive-date=May 13, 2021}}</ref> the 30th day of the hearings, Welch challenged Roy Cohn to provide [[United States Attorney General|U.S. Attorney General]] [[Herbert Brownell Jr.]] with McCarthy's list of 130 Communists or subversives in defense plants "before the sun goes down". McCarthy stepped in and said that if Welch was so concerned about persons aiding the Communist Party, he should check on a man in his Boston law office named [[Fred Fisher (lawyer)|Fred Fisher]], who had once belonged to the [[National Lawyers Guild]], a progressive lawyers' association.<ref>
{{cite book
  |last = Oshinsky
  |first = David M.
  |title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy
  |publisher = Oxford University Press
  |year=  2005
  |page = 459
  |isbn = 0-19-515424-X
  |orig-year= 1983}}</ref>

In an impassioned defense of Fisher, Welch responded, "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness&nbsp;..." When McCarthy resumed his attack, Welch interrupted him: "Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, Sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" When McCarthy once again persisted, Welch cut him off and demanded the chairman "call the next witness". At that point, the gallery erupted in applause and a recess was called.<ref>
{{cite book
  |last = Oshinsky
  |first = David M.
  |title = A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy
  |publisher = Oxford University Press
  |year=  2005
  |page = 464
  |isbn = 0-19-515424-X
  |orig-year= 1983}}</ref>{{anchor|Murrow|See It Now}}

===Edward R. Murrow, ''See It Now''===

[[File:Edward r murrow challenge of ideas screenshot 2.jpg|thumb|right|[[Edward R. Murrow]], pioneer in broadcast journalism.]]
Even before McCarthy's clash with Welch in the hearings, one of the most prominent attacks on McCarthy's methods was an episode of the television documentary series ''[[See It Now]]'', hosted by journalist [[Edward R. Murrow]], which was broadcast on March 9, 1954. Titled "A Report on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy", the episode consisted largely of clips of McCarthy speaking. In these clips, McCarthy accuses the Democratic party of "twenty years of treason", describes the [[American Civil Liberties Union]] as "listed as 'a front for, and doing the work of', the Communist Party",<ref>{{cite web
  |title = Transcript – See it Now: A Report on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy
  |publisher = CBS-TV
  |date = March 9, 1954
|url = http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/murrowmccarthy.html
  |access-date = February 15, 2015
|archive-date = November 10, 2015
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151110194223/http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/murrowmccarthy.html
  |url-status = live
  }}</ref> and berates and harangues various witnesses, including General Zwicker.<ref>{{cite book |last=Burns |first=Eric |date=2010|title=Invasion of the Mind Snatchers: Television's Conquest of America in the Fifties |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=quEq4ICW96UC&pg=PA175 |location=Philadelphia|publisher=Temple University Press |page=175 |isbn=978-1-4399-0288-2}}</ref>

In his conclusion, Murrow said of McCarthy:

{{Blockquote|No one familiar with the history of this country can deny that congressional committees are useful. It is necessary to investigate before legislating, but the line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine one, and the junior Senator from Wisconsin has stepped over it repeatedly. His primary achievement has been in confusing the public mind, as between the internal and the external threats of Communism. We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men—not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.

This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.

The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn't create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it—and rather successfully. [[Gaius Cassius Longinus|Cassius]] was right: [[Julius Caesar (play)|"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."]]<ref>{{cite web
  |title = Transcript – See it Now: A Report on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy
  |publisher = CBS-TV
  |date = March 9, 1954
  |url = http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/murrowmccarthy.html
  |access-date = March 9, 2008
  |archive-date = November 10, 2015
  |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151110194223/http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/murrowmccarthy.html
  |url-status = live
  }}</ref>
}}

The following week, ''See It Now'' ran another episode critical of McCarthy, this one focusing on the case of [[Annie Lee Moss]], an African-American army clerk who was the target of one of McCarthy's investigations. The Murrow shows, together with the televised Army–McCarthy hearings of the same year, were the major causes of a nationwide popular opinion backlash against McCarthy,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/03/04/archives/murrow-vs-mccarthy-see-it-now.html |title=Murrow vs. McCarthy |newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 4, 1979 |author=Joseph Wershba |access-date=August 19, 2017 |quote=CBS said it was the greatest spontaneous response in the history of broadcasting: 12,348 telephone calls and telegrams in the first few hours ... 11,567 of these supported Murrow. |archive-date=August 25, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190825183907/https://www.nytimes.com/1979/03/04/archives/murrow-vs-mccarthy-see-it-now.html |url-status=live }}</ref> in part because for the first time his statements were being publicly challenged by noteworthy figures. To counter the negative publicity, McCarthy appeared on ''See It Now'' on April 6, 1954, and made a number of charges against the popular Murrow, including the accusation that he colluded with [[VOKS]], the "Russian espionage and propaganda organization".<ref>{{cite web |title = Transcript – Senator Joseph R. McCarthy: Reply to Edward R. Murrow, See It Now |publisher = CBS-TV |date = April 6, 1954 |url = http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/murrowmccarthy2.html |access-date = February 15, 2009 |archive-date = March 7, 2009 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090307063143/http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/murrowmccarthy2.html |url-status = live }}</ref> This response did not go over well with viewers, and the result was a further decline in McCarthy's popularity.{{Citation needed|date=January 2013}}

==="Joe Must Go" recall attempt===
On March 18, 1954, ''Sauk-Prairie Star'' editor Leroy Gore of [[Sauk City, Wisconsin|Sauk City]], Wisconsin urged the [[Recall election|recall]] of McCarthy in a front-page editorial that ran alongside a sample petition that readers could fill out and mail to the newspaper. A Republican and former McCarthy supporter, Gore cited the senator with subverting President Eisenhower's authority, disrespecting Wisconsin's own Gen. [[Ralph Wise Zwicker]] and ignoring the plight of Wisconsin dairy farmers faced with price-slashing surpluses.<ref name="thelen">David P. Thelen and Esther S. Thelen. "[http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/wmh/id/45658 Joe Must Go: The Movement to Recall Senator Joseph R. McCarthy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180301164512/http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/wmh/id/45658 |date=March 1, 2018 }}". ''Wisconsin Magazine of History'', vol. 45, no. 3 (Spring 1966):185–209.</ref>

Despite critics' claims that a recall attempt was foolhardy, the "Joe Must Go" movement caught fire and was backed by a diverse coalition including other Republican leaders, Democrats, businessmen, farmers and students. [[Constitution of Wisconsin|Wisconsin's constitution]] stipulates the number of signatures needed to force a recall election must exceed one-quarter the number of voters in the most recent gubernatorial election, requiring the anti-McCarthy movement to gather some 404,000 signatures in sixty days. With little support from [[organized labor]] or the [[Democratic Party (Wisconsin)|state Democratic Party]], the roughly organized recall effort attracted national attention, particularly during the concurrent Army-McCarthy hearings.{{citation needed|date=February 2018}}

Following the deadline of June 5, the final number of signatures was never determined because the petitions were sent out of state to avoid a subpoena from [[Sauk County, Wisconsin|Sauk County]] district attorney Harlan Kelley, an ardent McCarthy supporter who was investigating the leaders of the recall campaign on the grounds that they had violated Wisconsin's Corrupt Practices Act. Chicago newspapermen later tallied 335,000 names while another 50,000 were said to be hidden in Minneapolis, with other lists buried on Sauk County farms.<ref name="thelen"/>

===Public opinion===
{|class="sortable wikitable"
|+ McCarthy's Support in Gallup Polls<ref>{{cite journal|first=Nelson W.|last= Polsby|author-link=Nelson W. Polsby |title=Towards an Explanation of McCarthyism|journal=Political Studies|volume= 8|issue= 3|date=October 1962|page= 252|doi=10.1111/j.1467-9248.1960.tb01144.x |s2cid= 147198989 |issn = 0032-3217}}</ref>
! Date !! Favorable !! No Opinion !! Unfavorable !! Net Favorable
|-
|'''1952 August'''
|15 ||63 ||22 ||−7
|-
|'''1953 April'''
|19 ||59 ||22 ||−3
|-
|'''1953 June'''
|35 ||35 ||30 ||+5
|-
|'''1953 August'''
|34 ||24 ||42 ||−8
|-
|'''1954 January'''
|50 ||21 ||29 ||+21
|-
|'''1954 March'''
|46 ||18 ||36 ||+10
|-
|'''1954 April'''
|38 ||16 ||46 ||−8
|-
|'''1954 May'''
|35 ||16 ||49 ||−14
|-
|'''1954 June'''
|34 ||21 ||45 ||−11
|-
|'''1954 August'''
|36 ||13 ||51 ||−15
|-
|'''1954 November'''
|35 ||19 ||46 ||−11
|}

===Censure and the Watkins Committee===
[[File:FLANDERS, RALPH. SENATOR LCCN2016862620 (composed).jpg|right|thumb|Senator [[Ralph Flanders]], who introduced the resolution calling for McCarthy to be [[Censure in the United States|censured]].]]
Several members of the U.S. Senate had opposed McCarthy well before 1953. Senator [[Margaret Chase Smith]], a [[Maine]] Republican, was the first. She delivered her "[[Declaration of Conscience]]" speech on June 1, 1950, calling for an end to the use of smear tactics, without mentioning McCarthy or anyone else by name. Only six other Republican senators—[[Wayne Morse]], [[Irving Ives]], [[Charles W. Tobey]], [[Edward John Thye]], [[George Aiken]], and [[Robert C. Hendrickson]]—agreed to join her in condemning McCarthy's tactics. McCarthy referred to Smith and her fellow senators as "Snow White and the six dwarfs".<ref>
{{cite book|last = Wallace
  |first = Patricia Ward
  |title = Politics of Conscience: A Biography of Margaret Chase Smith
  |publisher = Praeger Trade
  |year = 1995
  |page = [https://archive.org/details/politicsofconsci00wall/page/109 109]
  |isbn = 0-275-95130-8
  |url = https://archive.org/details/politicsofconsci00wall/page/109
  }}</ref>

On March 9, 1954, [[Vermont]] Republican senator [[Ralph Flanders#The censure of Joseph McCarthy|Ralph E. Flanders]] gave a humor-laced speech on the Senate floor, questioning McCarthy's tactics in fighting communism, likening McCarthyism to "house-cleaning" with "much clatter and hullabaloo". He recommended that McCarthy turn his attention to the worldwide encroachment of Communism outside North America.<ref>
{{cite book
  |last = Flanders
  |first =Ralph
  |title =Senator from Vermont
  |publisher =Little, Brown
  |year= 1961
  |location =Boston
  }}
</ref><ref>
{{cite web
 |title       = Text of Flanders's speech
 |date        = March 9, 1959
|url         = http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Flanders3-9-1954Speech.jpg
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20071127182919/http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a0/Flanders3-9-1954Speech.jpg
 |archive-date = November 27, 2007
|df          = mdy-all
}}</ref>

In a June 1 speech, Flanders compared McCarthy to [[Adolf Hitler]], accusing him of spreading "division and confusion" and saying, "Were the Junior Senator from Wisconsin in the pay of the Communists he could not have done a better job for them."<ref>
{{cite book
  |last = Woods
  |first = Randall Bennett
  |title = Fulbright: A Biography
  |publisher = Cambridge University Press
  |year=  1995
  |page = 187
  |isbn = 0-521-48262-3}}</ref>

On June 11, Flanders introduced a resolution to have McCarthy removed as chair of his committees. Although there were many in the Senate who believed that some sort of disciplinary action against McCarthy was warranted, there was no clear majority supporting this resolution. Some of the resistance was due to concern about usurping the Senate's rules regarding committee chairs and seniority. Flanders next introduced a resolution to [[censure in the United States|censure]] McCarthy. The resolution was initially written without any reference to particular actions or misdeeds on McCarthy's part. As Flanders put it, "It was not his breaches of etiquette, or of rules or sometimes even of laws which is so disturbing," but rather his overall pattern of behavior. Ultimately a "bill of particulars" listing 46 charges was added to the censure resolution. A special committee, chaired by Senator [[Arthur Vivian Watkins]], was appointed to study and evaluate the resolution. This committee opened hearings on August 31.<ref>
{{cite book
  |last = Griffith
  |first = Robert
  |title = The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate
  |url = https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif/page/277
  |url-access = registration
  |publisher = University of Massachusetts Press
  |year = 1970
  |pages = [https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif/page/277 277 et seq.]
  |isbn = 0-87023-555-9
  }}</ref>
[[File:Arthur V. Watkins, 1950.jpg|thumb|Senator [[Arthur Vivian Watkins|Arthur V. Watkins]]]]
After two months of hearings and deliberations, the Watkins Committee recommended that McCarthy be censured on two of the 46 counts: his contempt of the Subcommittee on Rules and Administration, which had called him to testify in 1951 and 1952, and his abuse of General Zwicker in 1954. The Zwicker count was dropped by the full Senate on the grounds that McCarthy's conduct was arguably "induced" by Zwicker's own behavior. In place of this count, a new one was drafted regarding McCarthy's statements about the Watkins Committee itself.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last = Rovere
 |first = Richard H.
 |title = Senator Joe McCarthy
 |publisher = University of California Press
 |year=  1959
 |pages = 229–230
 |isbn = 0-520-20472-7}}</ref>

The two counts on which the Senate ultimately voted were:
* That McCarthy had "failed to co-operate with the Sub-committee on Rules and Administration", and "repeatedly abused the members who were trying to carry out assigned duties&nbsp;..."
* That McCarthy had charged "three members of the [Watkins] Select Committee with 'deliberate deception' and 'fraud'&nbsp;... that the special Senate session&nbsp;... was a 'lynch party{{'"}}, and had characterized the committee "as the 'unwitting handmaiden', 'involuntary agent' and 'attorneys in fact' of the Communist Party", and had "acted contrary to senatorial ethics and tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute, to obstruct the constitutional processes of the Senate, and to impair its dignity".<ref>{{cite web
|url =http://www.historicaldocuments.com/JosephMcCarthyCensure.htm
|title =Senate Resolution 301: Censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy
|access-date =March 9, 2008
|publisher =HistoricalDocuments.com
|archive-date =February 11, 2021
|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20210211032807/http://www.historicaldocuments.com/JosephMcCarthyCensure.htm
|url-status =dead
}}</ref>

On December 2, 1954, the Senate voted to "condemn" McCarthy on both counts by a vote of 67 to 22.<ref>{{cite web
  |last = United States Senate
  |first = Historical Office
  |title = The Censure Case of Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin (1954)
  |url = https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/censure_cases/133Joseph_McCarthy.htm
  |access-date = January 4, 2010
|archive-date = January 7, 2010
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100107030754/https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/censure_cases/133Joseph_McCarthy.htm
  |url-status = live
  }}</ref> The Democrats present unanimously favored condemnation and the Republicans were split evenly. The only senator not on record was [[John F. Kennedy]], who was hospitalized for back surgery; Kennedy never indicated how he would have voted.<ref>[[David Oshinsky|Oshinsky]] [1983] (2005), pp. 33, 490; Michael O'Brien, ''John F. Kennedy: A Biography'' (2005), pp. 250–254, 274–279, 396–400; Reeves (1982), pp. 442–443; [[Thomas Maier]], ''The Kennedys: America's Emerald Kings'' (2003), pp. 270–280; Crosby, ''God, Church, and Flag,'' 138–160.</ref> Immediately after the vote, Senator [[Styles Bridges|H. Styles Bridges]], a McCarthy supporter, argued that the resolution was "not a censure resolution" because the word "condemn" rather than "censure" was used in the final draft. The word "censure" was then removed from the title of the resolution, though it is generally regarded and referred to as a censure of McCarthy, both by historians<ref>
{{cite book
  |last = Griffith
  |first = Robert
  |title = The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate
  |url = https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif
  |url-access = registration
  |publisher = University of Massachusetts Press
  |year=  1970
  |page = [https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif/page/310 310]
  |isbn = 0-87023-555-9}}</ref> and in Senate documents.<ref>{{cite web
  |title = Senate Report 104-137 – Resolution For Disciplinary Action
  |publisher = Library of Congress
  |year = 1995
  |url = http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/?&dbname=cp104&sid=cp104susc7&refer=&r_n=sr137.104&item=&sel=TOC_91694&
  |archive-url = https://archive.today/20121213125136/http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/?&dbname=cp104&sid=cp104susc7&refer=&r_n=sr137.104&item=&sel=TOC_91694&
  |url-status = dead
  |archive-date = December 13, 2012
  |access-date = October 19, 2006
}}</ref> McCarthy himself said, "I wouldn't exactly call it a vote of confidence." He added, "I don't feel I've been lynched."<ref>
{{cite book
 |last = Rovere
 |first = Richard H.
 |title = Senator Joe McCarthy
 |publisher = University of California Press
 |year=  1959
 |page = 231
 |isbn = 0-520-20472-7}}</ref>

However, [[Indiana]] Senator [[William E. Jenner]], one of McCarthy's friends and fellow Republicans, likened McCarthy's conduct to that of "the kid who came to the party and peed in the lemonade."<ref>{{cite book |last=Thomas |first=Evan |date=1991 |title=The Man to See |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=clHAVMYiZQwC&pg=PA77 |location=New York|publisher=Simon & Schuster |pages=76–77 |isbn=978-0-671-68934-6}}</ref>

==Final years==
[[File:Harry J. Anslinger (cropped).jpg|thumb|301x301px|[[Harry J. Anslinger]] criticized but supplied McCarthy's morphine addiction.]]
After his condemnation and censure, McCarthy continued to perform his senatorial duties for another two and a half years. His career as a major public figure, however, had been ruined. His colleagues in the Senate avoided him; his speeches on the Senate floor were delivered to a near-empty chamber or received with intentional and conspicuous displays of inattention.<ref>
{{cite book
  |last = Griffith
  |first = Robert
  |title = The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy and the Senate
  |url = https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif
  |url-access = registration
  |publisher = [[University of Massachusetts Press]]
  |location=Amherst, Massachusetts
  |year=  1970
  |page = [https://archive.org/details/politicsoffearjo00grif/page/318 318]
  |isbn = 0-87023-555-9}}</ref>

The press that had once recorded his every public statement now ignored him, and outside speaking engagements dwindled almost to nothing. Eisenhower, finally freed of McCarthy's political intimidation, quipped to his Cabinet that McCarthyism was now "McCarthywasm".<ref>
{{cite book |last=Fried |first=Richard M. |year=1990 |title=Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |page=141 |isbn=0-19-504361-8}}</ref>

Still, McCarthy continued to rail against Communism and Socialism. He warned against attendance at summit conferences with "the Reds", saying that "you cannot offer friendship to tyrants and murderers&nbsp;... without advancing the cause of tyranny and murder."<ref>
{{cite book
 |last = Graebner
 |first = Norman A.
 |year = 1956
 |title = The New Isolationism: A Study in Politics and Foreign Policy since 1950
 |publisher = Ronald Press
 |location=New York
 |page = 227
}}</ref>

He declared that "co-existence with Communists is neither possible nor honorable nor desirable. Our long-term objective must be the eradication of Communism from the face of the earth." In one of his final acts in the Senate, McCarthy opposed President Eisenhower's nomination to the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] of [[William J. Brennan]], after reading a speech Brennan had given shortly beforehand in which he characterized McCarthy's anti-Communist investigations as "witch hunts". McCarthy's opposition failed to gain any traction, however, and he was the only senator to vote against Brennan's confirmation.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Justice for All: William J. Brennan Jr., and the Decisions That Transformed America|isbn=978-0-671-76787-7|first=Kim Isaac|last=Eisler|year=1993|publisher=Simon & Schuster|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/justiceforallwil00eisl/page/119 119]|url=https://archive.org/details/justiceforallwil00eisl/page/119}}</ref>

McCarthy's biographers agree that he was a changed man, for the worse, after the censure; declining both physically and emotionally, he became a "pale ghost of his former self", in the words of Fred J. Cook.<ref>
{{cite book
  |last = Cook
  |first = Fred J.
  |title = The Nightmare Decade: The Life and Times of Senator Joe McCarthy
  |publisher = [[Random House]]
  |location  = New York
  |year=  1971
  |page = 537
  |isbn = 0-394-46270-X}}</ref>

It was reported that McCarthy suffered from [[cirrhosis|cirrhosis of the liver]] and was frequently hospitalized for alcohol abuse. Numerous eyewitnesses, including Senate aide [[George Reedy]] and journalist [[Tom Wicker]], reported finding him drunk in the Senate.

Journalist [[Richard Rovere]] (1959) wrote:

<blockquote>He had always been a heavy drinker, and there were times in those seasons of discontent when he drank more than ever. But he was not always drunk. He went on the wagon (for him this meant beer instead of whiskey) for days and weeks at a time. The difficulty toward the end was that he couldn't hold the stuff. He went to pieces on his second or third drink, and he did not snap back quickly.<ref>
{{cite book
  |last = Rovere
  |first = Richard H.
  |title = Senator Joe McCarthy
  |publisher = [[University of California Press]]
  |location  = Berkeley, California
  |year=  1959
  |pages = 244–245
  |isbn = 0-520-20472-7}}</ref></blockquote>

McCarthy had also become addicted to [[morphine]]. [[Harry J. Anslinger]], head of the [[Federal Bureau of Narcotics]], became aware of McCarthy's addiction in the 1950s, and demanded he stop using the drug. McCarthy refused.<ref name="Hari2015">{{cite book |last=Hari |first=Johann |author-link=Johann Hari |date=January 15, 2015 |title=Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs |location=London |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing|Bloomsbury]]|pages=289–290 |isbn=978-1-4088-5782-3 |oclc=881418255|title-link=Chasing the Scream }}</ref> In Anslinger's memoir, ''The Murderers'', McCarthy is anonymously quoted as saying:

<blockquote>I wouldn't try to do anything about it, Commissioner ... It will be the worse for you ... and if it winds up in a public scandal and that should hurt this country, I wouldn't care&nbsp;[…] The choice is yours.<ref name="Hari2015" /></blockquote>

Anslinger decided to give McCarthy access to morphine in secret from a pharmacy in Washington, D.C. The morphine was paid for by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, right up to McCarthy's death. Anslinger never publicly named McCarthy, and he threatened with prison a journalist who had uncovered the story.<ref name="Hari2015" /> However, McCarthy's identity was known to Anslinger's agents, and journalist [[Maxine Cheshire]] confirmed his identity with [[Will Oursler]], co-author of ''The Murderers,'' in 1978.<ref name="Hari2015" /><ref name="Cheshire1978">{{cite magazine |last=Cheshire |first=Maxine |author-link=Maxine Cheshire |date=December 1978 |title=Drugs and Washington, D.C. |url=http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/e1970/drugswashdc.htm |access-date=December 17, 2017 |magazine=[[Ladies' Home Journal]] |volume=95 |oclc=33261187 |archive-date=April 30, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170430204040/http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/e1970/drugswashdc.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Death==
[[File:Tombstone of Joseph McCarthy from left.jpg|thumb|Tombstone of Joseph McCarthy with the [[Fox River (Green Bay tributary)|Fox River]] in the background.]]
McCarthy died in the [[Walter Reed National Military Medical Center|Bethesda Naval Hospital]] on May 2, 1957, at the age of 48. His death certificate listed the cause of death as "[[Hepatitis]], acute, cause unknown"; previously doctors had not reported him to be in critical condition. It was hinted in the press that he died of [[alcoholism]] (cirrhosis of the liver), an estimation that is now accepted by modern biographers.<ref name=causeofdeath/>  [[Thomas C. Reeves]] argues that he effectively died by suicide.<ref>The Real American: Joe McCarthy (2012) (documentary)</ref> He was given a state funeral that was attended by 70 senators, and a [[Pontifical High Mass|Solemn Pontifical]] [[Requiem Mass]] was celebrated before more than 100 priests and 2,000 others at Washington's [[Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle (Washington, D.C.)|St. Matthew's Cathedral]]. Thousands of people viewed his body in Washington. He was buried in [[St. Mary's Parish (Appleton, Wisconsin)|St. Mary's Parish]] Cemetery, [[Appleton, Wisconsin]], where more than 17,000 people filed through St. Mary's Church in order to pay him their last respects.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.apl.org/history/mccarthy/photos3.html |title= Joseph McCarthy Photographs: The Funeral |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120205005715/http://www.apl.org/history/mccarthy/photos3.html |archive-date= February 5, 2012 |access-date= July 18, 2014 }}</ref> Three senators—[[George W. Malone]], [[William E. Jenner]], and [[Herman Welker]]—had flown from Washington to Appleton on the plane that carried McCarthy's casket. [[Robert F. Kennedy]] attended the funeral in Wisconsin. McCarthy was survived by his wife, Jean, and their daughter, Tierney.

In the summer of 1957, a special election was held to fill McCarthy's seat. In the [[Partisan primary|primaries]], voters in both parties turned away from McCarthy's legacy. The Republican primary was won by Governor [[Walter J. Kohler Jr.]], who called for a clean break from McCarthy's approach; he defeated former Representative [[Glenn Robert Davis]], who charged that President Eisenhower was soft on Communism.<ref>{{cite web |last=Nichols |first=John |title=In 1957, a McCarthy-free morning in America |work=[[The Capital Times]] |date=July 31, 2007 |url=http://www.madison.com/tct/archives/index.php?archAction=arch_read&a_from=search&a_file=%2Ftct%2F2007%2F07%2F31%2F0707310204.php&var_search=Search&keyword_field=In%201957,%20a%20McCarthy-free%20morning%20in%20&pub_code_field=tct&from_date_field=&to_date_field=&var_start_pos=0&var_articles_per_page=10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090405143136/http://www.madison.com/tct/archives/index.php?archAction=arch_read&a_from=search&a_file=%2Ftct%2F2007%2F07%2F31%2F0707310204.php&var_search=Search&keyword_field=In%201957,%20a%20McCarthy-free%20morning%20in%20&pub_code_field=tct&from_date_field=&to_date_field=&var_start_pos=0&var_articles_per_page=10 |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 5, 2009 }}</ref>

Kohler was defeated in the special general election by Democrat [[William Proxmire]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,862682,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100902153700/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,862682,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 2, 2010 |title=Wisconsin: Running Scared |newspaper=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=August 26, 1957 |access-date=May 30, 2017}}</ref> After assuming his seat, Proxmire did not pay the customary tribute to his predecessor and stated instead that McCarthy was a "disgrace to Wisconsin, to the Senate, and to America."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://yomi.mobi/egate/Joseph_McCarthy/753/a |title=Joseph_McCarthy – Himatsubushi Wikipedia |access-date=January 26, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131006111051/http://yomi.mobi/egate/Joseph_McCarthy/753/a |archive-date=October 6, 2013}}</ref> As of 2025, McCarthy is the last Republican to have held, or won election to, Wisconsin's Class 1 Senate seat.<ref>{{Cite web |title=U.S. Senate: States in the Senate {{!}} Wisconsin Senators |url=https://www.senate.gov/states/WI/senators.htm |access-date=2025-02-09 |website=www.senate.gov}}</ref>

==Legacy==
{{Conservatism US|politicians}}
[[William Bennett]], former [[Presidency of Ronald Reagan|Reagan Administration]] [[U.S. Secretary of Education|Secretary of Education]], summed up his perspective in his 2007 book ''America: The Last Best Hope'':

{{blockquote|The cause of anti-communism, which united millions of Americans and which gained the support of Democrats, Republicans and independents, was undermined by Sen. Joe McCarthy&nbsp;... McCarthy addressed a real problem: disloyal elements within the U.S. government. But his approach to this real problem was to cause untold grief to the country he claimed to love&nbsp;... ¨Best¨ of all, McCarthy besmirched the honorable cause of anti-communism. He discredited legitimate efforts to counter Soviet subversion of American institutions.<ref>{{cite web|last=Thomma|first=Steven|title=Not satisfied with U.S. history, some conservatives rewrite it|publisher=[[The McClatchy Company|McClatchy Newspapers]]|date=April 1, 2010|url=http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/04/01/91478/some-right-wingers-ignore-facts.html?storylink=MI_emailed|access-date=April 1, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100402053657/http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/04/01/91478/some-right-wingers-ignore-facts.html?storylink=MI_emailed|archive-date=April 2, 2010|df=mdy-all}}</ref>}}

===House Un-American Activities Committee===
McCarthy's hearings are often incorrectly conflated with the hearings of the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] (HUAC). HUAC is best known for its investigations of [[Alger Hiss]] and the [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood film industry]], which led to the [[Hollywood blacklist|blacklisting]] of hundreds of actors, writers, and directors. HUAC was a House committee, and as such it had no formal connection to McCarthy, who served in the Senate, although the existence of the House Un-American Activities Committee thrived in part as a result of McCarthy's activities. HUAC was active for 37 years (1938–1975).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/house-un-american-activities-committee.html |title=House Un-American Activities Committee |publisher=infoplease.com |access-date=January 17, 2017 |archive-date=January 18, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118053003/http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/house-un-american-activities-committee.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===In popular culture===
From the start of his notoriety, McCarthy served as a favorite subject for political cartoonists. He was traditionally depicted in a negative light, normally pertaining to McCarthyism and his accusations. [[Herblock]]'s cartoon that coined the term ''McCarthyism'' appeared less than two months after the senator's now famous February 1950 speech in [[Wheeling, West Virginia]].

In 1951, [[Ray Bradbury]] published "The Fireman", an allegory on suppression of ideas. This served as the basis for ''[[Fahrenheit 451]]'' published in 1953.<ref>{{cite web|author=A Bruin Birthday Tribute To Ray Bradbury Tweet|url=http://www.spotlight.ucla.edu/ray-bradbury/|title=First Spark: Ray Bradbury Turns 90; The Universe and UCLA Academy Celebrate|publisher=Spotlight.ucla.edu|date=August 22, 2010|access-date=September 30, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005161805/http://www.spotlight.ucla.edu/ray-bradbury/|archive-date=October 5, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first1=Issac |last1=Asimov |first2=Ray |last2=Bradbury |first3=John W. |last3=Campbell |others=Narrated by Norman Rose |title=Ticket to the Moon (tribute to SciFi) |date=December 4, 1956 |work=Biography in Sound |publisher=NBC Radio News |url=https://oldradioprograms.us/My%20Old%20Radio%20Shows/B/Biographies%20In%20Sound/Biographies%20In%20Sound%20(NBC)-1956-12-04-Ticket%20To%20The%20Moon%20-%20Tribute%20To%20Scifi.mp3 |format=mp3 |access-date=February 2, 2017 |at=27:10–27:30 |quote=I wrote this book at a time when I was worried about the way things were going in this country four years ago. Too many people were afraid of their shadows; there was a threat of book burning. Many of the books were being taken off the shelves at that time. |archive-date=February 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209110704/https://oldradioprograms.us/My%20Old%20Radio%20Shows/B/Biographies%20In%20Sound/Biographies%20In%20Sound%20(NBC)-1956-12-04-Ticket%20To%20The%20Moon%20-%20Tribute%20To%20Scifi.mp3 |url-status=live }}</ref> Bradbury said that he wrote ''Fahrenheit 451'' because of his concerns at the time (during the [[McCarthyism|McCarthy era]]) about the threat of book burning in the United States.<ref name=LAweekly>{{cite web|title=Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 Misinterpreted|last=Johnston|first=Amy E. Boyle|date=May 30, 2007|work=LA Weekly website|url=http://www.laweekly.com/2007-05-31/news/ray-bradbury-fahrenheit-451-misinterpreted/full|access-date=August 3, 2013|archive-date=September 2, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130902154602/http://www.laweekly.com/2007-05-31/news/ray-bradbury-fahrenheit-451-misinterpreted/full/|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Bob Hope]] was one of the first comedians to make jokes about McCarthy. During his 1952 Christmas show, Hope made a joke about [[Santa Claus]] writing to let Joe McCarthy know he was going to wear his red suit despite the Red Scare. Hope continued to offer McCarthy jokes as they were well received by most people, although he did receive some hate mail.

In 1953, the popular daily comic strip ''[[Pogo (comics)|Pogo]]'' introduced the character [[Pogo (comics)#Simple J. Malarkey|Simple J. Malarkey]], a pugnacious and conniving [[wildcat]] with an unmistakable physical resemblance to McCarthy. After a worried [[Rhode Island]] newspaper editor protested to the syndicate that provided the strip, creator [[Walt Kelly]] began depicting the Malarkey character with a bag over his head, concealing his features. The explanation was that Malarkey was hiding from a [[Rhode Island Red]] hen, a clear reference to the controversy over the Malarkey character.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.netstate.com/states/symb/possums/ga_pogo.htm |title=Georgia State 'Possum |date=September 18, 2014 |website=Netstate.com |access-date=December 22, 2014 |archive-date=April 3, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403164640/http://www.netstate.com/states/symb/possums/ga_pogo.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1953, playwright [[Arthur Miller]] published ''[[The Crucible]]'', suggesting the [[Salem witch trials]] were analogous to McCarthyism.<ref name=blakesleym>Blakesley (1992, xv).</ref>

As his fame grew, McCarthy increasingly became the target of ridicule and parody. He was impersonated by nightclub and radio [[Impressionist (entertainment)|impressionists]] and was satirized in ''[[Mad (magazine)|Mad]]'' magazine, on ''[[The Red Skelton Show]]'', and elsewhere. Several comedy songs lampooning the senator were released in 1954, including "Point of Order" by [[Stan Freberg]] and [[Daws Butler]], "Senator McCarthy Blues" by [[Hal Block]], and unionist folk singer [[Joe Glazer]]'s "Joe McCarthy's Band", sung to the tune of "[[McNamara's Band]]". Also in 1954, the radio comedy team [[Bob and Ray]] parodied McCarthy with the character "Commissioner Carstairs" in their soap opera spoof "Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife". That same year, the [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]] radio network broadcast a satire, ''[[The Investigator]]'', whose title character was a clear imitation of McCarthy. A recording of the show became popular in the United States, and was reportedly played by President Eisenhower at cabinet meetings.<ref>{{cite book| first = Thomas| last = Doherty| title= Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture| url = https://archive.org/details/coldwarcoolmediu00dohe| url-access = registration| publisher= Columbia University Press| page = [https://archive.org/details/coldwarcoolmediu00dohe/page/213 213]| year= 2005| isbn= 978-0-231-12953-4}}</ref> The 1953 short story ''Mr. Costello, Hero'' by [[Theodore Sturgeon]] was described by journalist [[Paul Williams (Crawdaddy)|Paul Williams]] as "the all-time great story about Senator Joseph McCarthy, who he was and how he did what he did."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theodoresturgeontrust.com/williams.html|title=Theodore Sturgeon, Storyteller|last=Williams|first=Paul|date=1976|access-date=February 28, 2016|archive-date=March 13, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313073810/http://www.theodoresturgeontrust.com/williams.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

====Post-censure reaction====
''Mr. Costello, Hero'' was adapted by [[X Minus One]] into a radio teleplay and broadcast on July 3, 1956.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Mr Costello Hero {{!}} X Minus One |url=https://archive.org/download/OTRR_X_Minus_One_Singles/XMinusOne56-07-03058MrCostelloHero.mp3|language=en|access-date=May 25, 2020}}</ref> While the radio adaptation retains much of the story, it completely remakes the narrator and in fact gives him a line spoken in the original by Mr. Costello himself, thus changing the tone of the story considerably. In a 1977 interview, Sturgeon commented that it was his concerns about the ongoing McCarthy hearings that prompted him to write the story.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Saucer of Loneliness|editor=Paul Williams|publisher=North Atlantic Books|location=Berkeley|date=2000|volume=VII: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon|pages=384–385|isbn=1-55643-424-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=amWBa48lb6AC&q=%22a+saucer+of+loneliness%22|access-date=February 28, 2016}}</ref>

A more serious fictional portrayal of McCarthy played a central role in the 1959 novel ''[[The Manchurian Candidate]]'' by [[Richard Condon]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=  Welsh|first1=James Michael |last2= Lev |first2=Peter |date=2007 |title=The Literature/film Reader: Issues of Adaptation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1alUlyaDUbcC&q=%22the+manchurian+candidate%22+novel+mccarthy+iselin&pg=PA205 |location=Plymouth, UK|publisher=Scarecrow Press |page=205 |isbn=978-0-8108-5949-4}}</ref> The character of Senator John Iselin, a [[demagogy|demagogic]] anti-communist, is closely modeled on McCarthy, even to the varying numbers of Communists he asserts are employed by the federal government.<ref>{{cite book |last1= Sachleben |first1=Mark |last2= Yenerall |first2=Kevan M. |date=2008 |title=Seeing the Bigger Picture: Understanding Politics Through Film & Television |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qR5ov7nKF_sC&q=%22the+manchurian+candidate%22+mccarthy+iselin+varying+numbers+communists&pg=PA64 |location=New York |publisher=Peter Lang Publishing |page=64 |isbn=978-0-8204-7144-0}}</ref> He remains a major character in the [[The Manchurian Candidate (1962 film)|1962 film version]].<ref>{{cite book |last= DiMare |first=Philip C. |date=2011 |title=Movies in American History: An Encyclopedia, Volume 1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=miascUWIa0UC&q=%22the+manchurian+candidate%22+mccarthy+iselin+james+gregory&pg=PA325 |location=Santa Barbara |publisher=ABC-CLIO, Inc. |page=325 |isbn=978-1-59884-296-8}}</ref>

The 1959 novel ''[[Advise and Consent]]'' by [[Allen Drury]] features an overzealous demagogue, Senator Fred Van Ackerman, based on McCarthy. Although the fictional senator is an ultraliberal who proposes surrender to the Soviet Union, his portrayal strongly resembles the popular perception of McCarthy's character and methods.

McCarthy was portrayed by [[Peter Boyle]] in the 1977 Emmy-winning television movie ''[[Tail Gunner Joe]]'', a dramatization of McCarthy's life.<ref>{{cite news |first=Stephen |last=Miller |title=Peter Boyle, 71, Character Actor Played Psychotics and Monsters |work=New York Sun |date=December 14, 2006 |url=http://www.nysun.com/obituaries/peter-boyle-71-character-actor-played-psychotics/45138/ |access-date=December 22, 2014 |archive-date=January 28, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150128212536/http://www.nysun.com/obituaries/peter-boyle-71-character-actor-played-psychotics/45138/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> He was portrayed by [[Joe Don Baker]] in the 1992 HBO film ''[[Citizen Cohn]]''.<ref>{{cite news |title='Citizen' Woods: James Woods Rips Roy Cohn, the Press and His Own Image |work=Los Angeles Times |date=August 16, 1992 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-08-16-tv-6474-story.html |access-date=February 18, 2020 |archive-date=January 8, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190108204947/http://articles.latimes.com/1992-08-16/news/tv-6474_1_citizen-cohn |url-status=live }}</ref> Archival footage of McCarthy himself was used in the 2005 film ''[[Good Night, and Good Luck]]'' about Edward R. Murrow and the ''See It Now'' episode that challenged McCarthy.<ref>{{cite news |first=Mick |last=LaSalle |title=Newsman Challenges a Powerful Politician |work=San Francisco Chronicle |date=October 7, 2005 |url=http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Newsman-challenges-a-powerful-politician-2565905.php |access-date=December 22, 2014 |archive-date=January 28, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150128222704/http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Newsman-challenges-a-powerful-politician-2565905.php |url-status=live }}</ref> <!--Please don't add mention of the unsubstantiated (though widely reported) rumor that test audiences felt that the "performer" who "played" McCarthy was overacting in the absence of a well-documented and/or first-hand account of where and when such a reaction actually occurred.--> In the German-French docu-drama ''The Real American – Joe McCarthy'' (2012), directed by [[Lutz Hachmeister]], McCarthy is portrayed by the British actor and comedian [[John Sessions]].<ref>Dorothy Rabinowitz. "A Name That Lives in Infamy", ''Wall Street Journal'', 23. November 2012</ref> In [[Lee Daniels]]' 2020 film, ''[[The United States vs. Billie Holiday]]'', McCarthy is portrayed by actor [[Randy Davison]].
<!--Please don't add a note about Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible" here. It's relevant to McCarthyism rather than Joseph McCarthy, and it is already mentioned in the McCarthyism article.  -->

[[R.E.M.]]'s song "Exhuming McCarthy", from their 1987 album ''[[Document (album)|Document]]'', deals largely with McCarthy and contains sound clips from the [[Army-McCarthy Hearings]].

'Joe' McCarthy is also mentioned in [[Billy Joel]]'s 1989 song "[[We Didn't Start the Fire]]".

McCarthyism is one of the subjects of [[Barbara Kingsolver]]'s 2009 novel ''[[The Lacuna]]''.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-lacuna-by-barbara-kingsolver-1819457.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220617/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-lacuna-by-barbara-kingsolver-1819457.html |archive-date=June 17, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=The Lacuna, By Barbara Kingsolver|date=November 13, 2009|newspaper=The Independent|access-date=February 13, 2017|language=en-GB}}</ref>

McCarthy is a secondary character in the 2023 Showtime television drama ''[[Fellow Travelers (miniseries)|Fellow Travelers]]''.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/11/06/fellow-travelers-tv-review-showtime|title="Fellow Travelers" Shows Another Side of Gay History|first=Inkoo|last=Kang|magazine=The New Yorker |date=October 27, 2023|via=www.newyorker.com|access-date=November 5, 2023|archive-date=November 4, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231104193626/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/11/06/fellow-travelers-tv-review-showtime|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Reconsideration ===
McCarthy remains a controversial figure. [[Arthur L. Herman|Arthur Herman]], popular historian and senior fellow of the [[Hudson Institute]], says that new evidence—in the form of [[Venona project|Venona]]-decrypted Soviet messages, Soviet espionage data now opened to the West, and newly released transcripts of closed hearings before McCarthy's subcommittee—has partially vindicated McCarthy by showing that some of his identifications of Communists were correct and the scale of Soviet espionage activities in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s was larger than many scholars had suspected.<ref>{{cite book|last = Herman
  |first = Arthur
  |title = Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator
  |publisher = Free Press
  |year = 2000
  |pages = [https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/5 5–6]
  |isbn = 0-684-83625-4
  |url = https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/5
  }}</ref>

In his 2007 book [[Blacklisted by History|''Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies'']], journalist [[M. Stanton Evans]] similarly argued that evidence from the Venona documents shows significant penetration by Soviet agents.<ref name="Evans 2009 p.">{{cite book | last=Evans | first=M. Stanton | authorlink=M. Stanton Evans|title=Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies | publisher=Three Rivers Press | location=New York| year=2009 | isbn=978-1-4000-8106-6 }}</ref>

Historian [[John Earl Haynes]], who studied the Venona decryptions extensively, challenged Herman's efforts to rehabilitate McCarthy, arguing that McCarthy's attempts to "make anti-communism a partisan weapon" actually "threatened [the post-War] anti-Communist consensus", thereby ultimately harming anti-Communist efforts more than helping them.<ref>{{cite web
  |last = Haynes
  |first = John Earl
  |title = Exchange with Arthur Herman and Venona book talk
  |date = February 2000
  |url = http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page58.html
  |access-date = July 11, 2007
|archive-date = February 24, 2021
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210224175005/http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page58.html
  |url-status = live
  }}</ref> Haynes concluded that, of the 159 people who were identified on lists used or referenced by McCarthy, evidence only substantially proved that nine of them had aided Soviet espionage efforts—while several hundred Soviet spies who were actually known based on Venona and other evidence were mostly never named by McCarthy. Haynes' own view was that a number of those accused on McCarthy's lists above, perhaps a majority, likely posed some form of possible security risk, but a significant minority of others likely did not, and several were indisputably no risk at all.<ref name="johnearlhaynes62">{{cite web|url=http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page62.html|title=Senator Joseph McCarthy's Lists and Venona|last=Haynes|first=John Earl|year=2006|access-date=August 31, 2006|archive-date=May 2, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180502132728/http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page62.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>
{{cite book
 |first1 = John Earl
 |last1=Haynes
 |first2=Harvey
|last2=Klehr
  |year = 2000
 |title = Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America
 |publisher = [[Yale University Press]]
 |location=New Haven, Connecticut
 |isbn = 0-300-08462-5
}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of United States Congress members who died in office (1950–1999)]]
* [[List of United States senators expelled or censured]]
* [[McCarthyism]]
* [[McCarthyism and antisemitism]]

==References==
===Citations===
{{reflist}}

===Primary sources===
* {{cite book
  |last = Adams
  |first =John G.
  |title =Without Precedent: The Story of the Death of McCarthyism
  |url = https://archive.org/details/withoutprecedent0000adam
  |url-access = registration
  |publisher =W.W. Norton & Company
  |year= 1983
  |isbn = 0-393-30230-X}}
* {{cite web
|url = http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/60.htm
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071120130436/http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/60.htm
|archive-date = November 20, 2007
|title = Censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy (1954)
|access-date =June 2, 2009
|publisher = The United States Department of State
}}
* {{cite book|last = Fried
  |first = Albert
  |title = McCarthyism, The Great American Red Scare: A Documentary History
  |publisher = Oxford University Press
  |year = 1996
  |isbn = 0-19-509701-7
  |url = https://archive.org/details/mccarthyismgreat00frie
  }}
* {{cite web
|url = http://www.trumanlibrary.org/index.php
|title = Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum
|access-date = August 11, 2006
|archive-date = April 16, 2019
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190416165335/https://trumanlibrary.org/index.php
|url-status = live
}}
* {{cite book
  |last = McCarthy
  |first = Joseph
  |title = Major Speeches and Debates of Senator Joe McCarthy Delivered in the United States Senate, 1950–1951
  |publisher = Gordon Press
  |year = 1951
  |isbn = 0-87968-308-2
  |url = https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=9034820
  |access-date = September 2, 2017
|archive-date = June 9, 2012
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120609150033/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=9034820
  |url-status = dead
  }}
* {{cite book
  |last = McCarthy
  |first = Joseph
  |title = America's Retreat from Victory, the Story of George Catlett Marshall
  |publisher = Devin-Adair
  |year=  1951
  |isbn = 0-8159-5004-7}}
* {{cite book
  |last = McCarthy
  |first = Joseph
  |title = ''Fight for America''
  |url = http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001745985
  |publisher = Devin-Adair
  |year = 1952
  |isbn = 0-405-09960-6
  |access-date = August 30, 2009
|archive-date = February 25, 2021
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210225140246/https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001745985
  |url-status = live
  }}
* {{Cite AV media
  |people = Edward R. Murrow & Fred W. Friendly (Producers)
  |title = Edward R. Murrow: The McCarthy Years
  |medium = DVD (from 'See it Now' TV News show)
  |publisher = CBS News/Docudrama
  |date=  1991}}
* {{cite web
 |url          = http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate/senate12cp107.html
 |title        = Senate Committee Transcripts, 107th Congress
 |access-date   = August 11, 2006
|publisher    = Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20060716151950/http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate/senate12cp107.html
 |archive-date = July 16, 2006
|url-status     = dead
 |df           = mdy-all
}}
* {{cite web
  |title = Transcripts, Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
  |publisher = U.S. Government Printing Office
  |year = 2003
  |url = https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/McCarthy_Transcripts.htm
  |access-date = December 19, 2006
|archive-date = December 27, 2006
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061227223358/http://senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/McCarthy_Transcripts.htm
  |url-status = live
  }}
* {{cite book
  |last = Watkins
  |first = Arthur Vivian
  |title = Enough Rope: The inside story of the censure of Senator Joe McCarthy
  |publisher = Prentice-Hall
  |year=  1969
  |isbn = 0-13-283101-5}}

===Secondary sources===
* Anderson, Jack and May, Ronald W (1952). ''McCarthy: the man, the Senator, the "ism",'' Beacon Press.
* {{cite book
  |last = Bayley
  |first = Edwin R.
  |title = Joe McCarthy and the Press
  |publisher = University of Wisconsin Press
  |year=  1981
  |isbn = 0-299-08624-0}}
* {{cite book|last = Belfrage
  |first = Cedric
  |author-link = Cedric Belfrage
  |title = The American Inquisition, 1945–1960: A Profile of the "McCarthy Era"
  |publisher = Thunder's Mouth Press
  |year = 1989
  |isbn = 0-938410-87-3
  |url = https://archive.org/details/americaninquisit00cedr
  }}
* {{cite book
 |last = Buckley
 |first = William F.
 |author-link = William F. Buckley Jr.
 |year = 1954
 |title = McCarthy and His Enemies: The Record and Its Meaning
 |publisher = Regnery Publishing
 |isbn = 0-89526-472-2}}
* Caballero, Raymond. ''McCarthyism vs. Clinton Jencks.'' Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019.
* Crosby, Donald F. "The Jesuits and Joe McCarthy". ''Church History'' 1977 46(3): 374–388. {{ISSN|0009-6407}} [https://www.jstor.org/pss/3164134 Fulltext: in Jstor]
* {{cite book
  |last = Daynes
  |first = Gary
  |title = Making Villains, Making Heroes: Joseph R. McCarthy, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Politics of American Memory
  |publisher = Taylor & Francis
  |year=  1997
  |isbn = 0-8153-2992-X}}
* {{cite book
  |last = Evans
  |first = M. Stanton
  |author-link = M. Stanton Evans
  |title = Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies
  |publisher = Three Rivers Press
  |year=  2007
  |isbn = 978-1-4000-8106-6}}
* {{cite book
  |last = Freeland
  |first = Richard M.
  |title = The Truman Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthyism: Foreign Policy, Domestic Politics, and Internal Security, 1946–1948
  |publisher = New York University Press
  |year=  1985
  |isbn = 0-8147-2576-7}}
* Fried, Richard M. ''A Genius for Confusion Joseph R. McCarthy and the Politics of Deceit'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022), the most recent major scholarly biography.
* {{cite book
  |last = Fried
  |first = Richard M.
  |title = Men Against McCarthy
  |publisher = Columbia University Press
  |year=  1977
  |isbn = 0-231-08360-2}} [https://archive.org/details/menagainstmccart0000frie online]
  
* Gauger, Michael. "Flickering Images: Live Television Coverage and Viewership of the Army-McCarthy Hearings". ''Historian'' 2005 67(4): 678–693. {{ISSN|0018-2370}} Fulltext: in Swetswise, Ingenta and Ebsco. Audience ratings show that few people watched the hearings.
* {{cite book
  |last = Latham
  |first = Earl
  |title = Communist Controversy in Washington: From the New Deal to McCarthy
  |publisher = Macmillan Publishing Company
  |year=  1969
  |isbn = 0-689-70121-7}}
* {{cite book | title=American Demagogues: Twentieth Century| chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/americandemagogu0000luth| chapter-url-access=registration| publisher=Beacon Press | author=Luthin, Reinhard H. | author-link=Reinhard H. Luthin | year=1954 | chapter=Ch. 11: Joseph R. McCarthy: Wisconsin's Briefcase Demagogue |pages=272–301|oclc=1098334|asin=B0007DN37C|lccn=54-8228}}
* {{cite journal |last=Morgan |first=Ted |title=Judge Joe: How the youngest judge in Wisconsin's history became the country's most notorious senator |journal=Legal Affairs |date=November–December 2003 |url=http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/November-December-2003/story_morgan_novdec03.msp |access-date=January 13, 2006 |archive-date=April 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210429124425/https://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/November-December-2003/story_morgan_novdec03.msp |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite book |last=O'Brien |first=Michael |title=McCarthy and McCarthyism in Wisconsin |publisher=Olympic Marketing Corp |year=1980 |isbn=0-8262-0319-1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/mccarthymccarthy00obri }}
* Oshinsky, David M. ''A conspiracy so immense : the world of Joe McCarthy''(1985), a major scholarly biography. [https://archive.org/details/conspiracysoimme00oshi online]
* {{cite book
  |last = Ranville
  |first = Michael
  |title = To Strike at a King: The Turning Point in the McCarthy Witch-Hunt
  |publisher = Momentum Books Limited
  |year=  1996
  |isbn = 1-879094-53-3}}
* Reeves, Thomas C. ''The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy: A Biography'' (1997), a major scholarly biography. [https://archive.org/details/lifetimesofjoemc0000reev online]
* {{cite journal
  | last = Reeves
  | first = Thomas C.
  | title = The Search for Joe McCarthy
  | journal = Wisconsin Magazine of History
  | volume = 60
  | issue = 3
  | date =Spring 1997
  | pages = 185–196
  | url = http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/wmh/id/34091
  | access-date = December 4, 2016
| archive-date = December 20, 2016
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161220075209/http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/wmh/id/34091
  | url-status = live
  }}
* {{cite book
  |last = Rosteck
  |first = Thomas
  |title = See It Now Confronts McCarthyism: Television Documentary and the Politics of Representation
  |url = https://archive.org/details/seeitnowconfront0000rost
  |url-access = registration
  |publisher = University of Alabama Press
  |year=  1994
  |isbn = 0-8173-5191-4}}
* {{cite book
  |last = Strout
  |first = Lawrence N.
  |title = Covering McCarthyism: How the Christian Science Monitor Handled Joseph R. McCarthy, 1950–1954
  |publisher = Greenwood Press
  |year=  1999
  |isbn = 0-313-31091-2}}
* {{cite book |last1=Tye |first1=Larry |author-link=Larry Tye |title=Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy |date=2020 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |location=New York |isbn=978-1328959720}}
* {{cite book|last = Wicker
 |first = Tom
 |author-link = Tom Wicker
 |year = 2006
 |title = Shooting Star: The Brief Arc of Joe McCarthy
 |publisher = Harcourt
 |isbn = 0-15-101082-X
 |url = https://archive.org/details/shootingstarbrie00wick
 }}

==External links==
{{Commons|Joseph McCarthy}}
{{wikiquote}}
* {{Biographical Directory of Congress|M000315}}
* [http://www.marquette.edu/library/archives/Mss/JRM/JRM-main.shtml Joseph McCarthy Papers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170905090435/http://www.marquette.edu/library/archives/Mss/JRM/JRM-main.shtml |date=September 5, 2017 }} [[Marquette University]] Library
* {{Internet Archive film clip|id=gov.archives.arc.95766|description="Longines Chronoscope with Sen. Joseph McCarthy (June 25, 1952)"}}
* {{Internet Archive film clip|id=gov.archives.arc.95785|description="Longines Chronoscope with Sen. Joseph McCarthy (September 29, 1952)"}}
* [https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/research/online-documents/mccarthyism-red-scare Documents on McCarthyism at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210145028/https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/research/online-documents/mccarthyism-red-scare |date=February 10, 2023 }}
* [https://archive.org/details/redhunternovelb00buck ''The Redhunter: a novel based on the life and times of Senator Joe McCarthy''] by [[William F. Buckley, Jr.]]
*{{Librivox author |id=18111}}

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{{s-ttl|title=[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] nominee for [[United States Senator|U.S. Senator]] from [[Wisconsin]]<br>([[Classes of United States Senators|Class 1]])|years=[[1946 United States Senate election in Wisconsin|1946]], [[1952 United States Senate election in Wisconsin|1952]]}}
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{{United States senators from Wisconsin}}
{{SenHomelandSecurityCommitteeChairmen}}
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