On December 2, 1954, the Senate voted 67-22 to censure Senator Joseph McCarthy, who had led the fight in Congress to root out suspected Communists from the Federal Government. The Democrats voted solidly for McCarthy’s rebuke, but Republicans split straight down the middle with 22 voting for …
Joseph McCarthyRalph FlandersArthur WatkinsMargaret Chase Smithred-scareinstitutional-resistancepolitical-accountabilitysenate-procedures
On the 30th day of the Army-McCarthy hearings, Boston lawyer Joseph Welch—hired by the Army to make its case—delivered one of the most famous rebukes in American political history. The hearings, which ran from April to June 1954, investigated conflicting accusations between the U.S. Army and Senator …
Joseph WelchJoseph McCarthyRoy CohnG. David Schinered-scarepolitical-persecutioninstitutional-resistancemedia
On April 22, 1954, the Army-McCarthy hearings began—36 days of televised proceedings that exposed Senator Joseph McCarthy’s methods to a national audience and began his political downfall. The hearings were triggered by the Army’s March 11 report charging McCarthy and his chief counsel …
Joseph McCarthyRoy CohnRobert StevensJoseph WelchG. David Schine+2 moremccarthyismcongressional-actionmilitary-politicspolitical-theaterinstitutional-resistance
In early 1953, Roy Cohn begins developing a systematic blackmail infrastructure during the McCarthy Senate hearings, leveraging anti-communist hysteria and homophobic tactics to gather compromising information on political and cultural figures. As 24-year-old chief counsel to Senator Joseph …
Roy CohnJoseph McCarthyJ. Edgar HooverFBIGenovese Crime Familyblackmailpolitical-manipulationmccarthy-eraintelligence-operationsorganized-crime+2 more
On June 1, 1950, less than four months after McCarthy’s Wheeling speech, Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith delivered a fifteen-minute speech on the Senate floor known as the “Declaration of Conscience.” As a freshman senator, a fellow Republican who considered herself a friend of …
Margaret Chase SmithJoseph McCarthyWayne MorseGeorge AikenEdward J. Thye+3 morered-scarepolitical-resistanceinstitutional-corruptioncivil-liberties
On February 9, 1950, junior senator Joseph McCarthy from Wisconsin delivered a Lincoln’s birthday address to the Women’s Republican Club of Wheeling, West Virginia, claiming he possessed a list of communists working in the State Department. McCarthy declared: “While I cannot take …
Joseph McCarthyHarry S. Trumanred-scarepolitical-persecutiondisinformationinstitutional-corruptionauthoritarian-tactics