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Joseph McCarthy (R-Wi)
Begins First Term in Office (January 3, 1947) |
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He successfully ran for the United States Senate in 1946, defeating Robert M. La Follette, Jr.
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Truman Institutes
Loyalty Oaths |
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On March 21, 1947, concerned with Soviet subversive penetration and infiltration into the United States government by American citizens who held oaths of allegiance to a foreign power during war time, President Harry S Truman instituted a Loyalty Program, requiring loyalty oaths and background investigations on persons deemed suspect to holding party membership in organizations that advocated violent and anti-democratic programs.
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Hollywood Blacklist
Hearings (November 25, 1947) |
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Clifford Odets
Publishes "The Big Knife" (1949) |
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After several largely undistinguished years in the Senate, McCarthy rose suddenly to national fame in 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 State Department.
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McCarthy: I Have
List of Members of Communist Spy Ring
February 9, 1950 |
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After several largely undistinguished years in the Senate, McCarthy rose suddenly to national fame in 1950 when he asserted in a speech that he had a list of
205 "members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring" who were employed in the State Department.
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"I have in my hand a list of 205 - a list of
names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being
members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still
working and shaping policy in the State Department...There the
bright young men who were born with silver spoons in their mouths
are the ones who have been the worst."
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McCarthy: Immense
Conspiracy to Advantage of the Kremlin
June 14, 1951 |
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[Part of] a conspiracy on a scale so immense as to
dwarf any previous such venture, in the history of man...always and
invariably serving the world policy of the Kremlin.
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Arthur Miller
Premieres "The Crucible" (January 22, 1953) |
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The play was written in the early 1950s during the time of McCarthyism, when the US government blacklisted accused communists.
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Miller himself was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956.
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The play was first performed on Broadway on 22 January 1953. The reviews of the first production were hostile, but a year later a new production succeeded and the play became a classic.
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Today it is studied in high schools and universities, because of its status as a revolutionary work of theatre and for its allegorical relationship to testimony given before the House Committee On Un-American Activities during the 1950s.
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Broadcaster Edward
R. Murrow Polemicizes Against McCarthy
February 2, 1954 |
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Upon what meat does Senator McCarthy feed? Two of the
staples of his diet are the investigations (protected by immunity)
and the half truth.
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General: "Have
You No Sense of Decency, Sir?" (June 9, 1954) |
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On June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the hearings, McCarthy accused Fred Fisher, one of the junior attorneys at Welch's firm, of association (while in law school) with the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), a group which J. Edgar Hoover was seeking to have the U.S. Attorney General designate as a Communist front organization (see Army-McCarthy hearings).
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Welch wrote off Fisher's association with the NLG as a youthful indiscretion and famously rebuked:
"You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
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