Joseph McCarthy

Joseph Raymond McCarthy was born in Grand Chute Township, Wisconsin in 1908. He was born into a large family that resided on a farm in a desolate town. There are two theories on McCarthy's childhood. The first one being that he endured an unhappy childhood on his parent's farm in Wisconsin. The other theory is that his childhood was normal, and that little sets him apart from his peers in the "Irish Settlement" he resided in. McCarthy himself spoke little about his childhood; even in an autobiography he composed he mentions nothing of his youth. Little knowledge of his influences exists. Some speculate that because he was an Irish minority in Grand Chute at the time this gave him the drive to rise and succeed in life. Others speculate that the teasing he endured in school because of his style of dress (being traditional Irish dress) lead him to success. However, many think that the simple fact that he was raised fairly poor in a small town and saw his father struggle in the farm made him want to do better for himself. In the eight grade he decided school was no longer for him, and at the mere age of fourteen he dropped out of school. He began working full time in his father's field. His father was overjoyed that his son wanted to be like him. Eventually he ended up renting land from his father and set up a chicken farm. Within two years he built his 65 original dollar investment into 2000 laying hens, 10 thousand broilers, a chicken house, and an old truck for transportation. He began driving his products to Chicago markets on a regular basis. McCarthy was a hard worker; he put in 12-14 hour days, 7 days a week. Than disaster struck, and Joe began very ill. He was unable to attend to his farm, and had too much pride to ask his father for help. Instead he hired two local boys to care for his things and everything was destroyed within a few weeks. As he recuperated, he was left with nothing. He decided it was time to leave, so in 1929 he left home for Manawa, a town of approximately 1000, but larger than Grand Chute. He began working as the manager of a local grocery chain. Soon enough his chain was generating more profits than any other of the chains, and he became somewhat of a local celebrity. He soon realized however that his eigth grade education would not get him very far, so he enrolled back in high school in 1930 at the age of 20. He graduated in one year, that is four years of high school in one year. At graduation, the principal made a special speech about his perseverance and his drive. After receiving a high school diploma he was off to college at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI in 1930. He originally enrolled in the school of engineering. Shortly after enrolling in college he joined the schools debate team to try to overcome his fear of public speaking. The club was called the Franklin Club and within a few months he ran for the presidency of the club, but he was defeated. He also began to box. Around this time he changed his major to law as the intellectual challenge of law attracted him. As a senior he was voted class president by two votes (one being his own). He went on to law school and finished his legal studies in 1935 and was admitted to the Wisconsin state bar. Right away he opened his own practice in Waupaca, WI. The first six months of his practice he only handled four cases and generated less than eight hundred dollars. He did not have a good reputation as an attorney. So he did what he always did and dove into new ventures. He became a member of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, The lions club, and a local softball team. In 1936, a Republican lawyer in Shawro offered him a job at fifty dollars a week in his firm, and McCarthy accepted. Fifty dollars a week in 1936 was a decent living, however McCarthy was always in debt as he threw all his money around trying to impress people to form "connections".

In 1939, elections were held for a judgeship in Wisconsin and McCarthy decided to run. He ended up winning and took office immediately. World War two began a few months after his judgeship. He soon after joined the Marines and was commissioned first lieutenant in July of 1942. He spent most of his time as an intelligence officer in the Pacific and it was said he saw little or no action. In 1944 he resigned. Also, in 1944 he began challenging Senator Alexander Willey in the Republican primary, but Wiley beat McCarthy and was re-elected. McCarthy did not give up at that, he ran again for Senator in 1946 and this time he won. His first day in the senate he tried to make an appointment with the President and was turned down. The second day on the job he held a press conference to end the coal strike that existed at the time. His first two years as a Senator he was well known for his fight to end wartime sugar controls, and to stress prefabricated homes rather than public housing programs. The Allied Molasses Company, sugar supplier for Pepsi, somehow got a hold of a million and a half gallons of high grade sugar cane syrup, which it refined and sold to Pepsi. For unknown reasons, this sugar slipped past the rations, and the Department of Agriculture demanded that the rations for Allied Molasses be cut back. $20,000 was slipped to McCarthy by Russell Arundel, Pepsi's Washington lobbyist, and McCarthy helped end the sugar rationing six months before originally scheduled. In 1949, he was dropped from the banking and currency committee when democrats took over the house. Later he became involved in the investigation of the 1944 Malmedy Massacre confessions of SS troopers to the Murder of 100 American soldiers at Malmedy. All senators were encouraged to involve themselves and make themselves familiar with these investigations, but McCarthy was the only one that threw himself into the investigations. McCarthy cross-examined witnesses and began dominating the hearings.

By 1950 he was hated by many people in both parties because of his strong opinions and how he never backed down from expressing them. At the same time, he was under investigation by the Wisconsin tax department, nearly disbarred, and was without any major committee assignment. The reelection in 1952 he decided his needed a "popular issue" to win over the people, so he used domestic communism as his issue. In February 1950 he flew to West Virginia for Lincoln's Birthday address to tackle the question of communists governments. His speech started as follows: "I have in my hand a list of 205 cases of individuals who appear to be either card-carrying members or certainly loyal to the Communist Party." After giving an elaborate speech on this issue that day, the witch-hunts soon after began. It started with Owen Lattimore, a John Hopkins University professor. He charged him with "being the top Russian espionage agent in the United States". Although he had no evidence on this man or any reason whatsoever, people still listened and Owen was heavily investigated. He also blocked the nomination of Philip Jessup as a UN delegate; he accused General George Marshall of being a man who "would sell his grandma for any advantage". He grew more powerful as Republicans regained control in congress.

Today we see his ideas as absurd and we wonder how anyone took this senator seriously. However, in the 1950's a national poll showed that 50 percent of people approved of his methods and 20 percent were undecided. From 1950 to 1954, Joseph McCarthy was on the top. A simple sentence of his could be enough to ruin a man's career; a few kind words to the voters helped many fellow Republicans into office. By the end of 1953 people began to wonder about McCarthy however as he began to attack the Eisenhower administration. McCarthy got into a confrontation with the United States Army in May of 1954 and its secretary, Robert Stevens and the probe of the communist infiltration of the army went underway. These hearing were called the "Army-McCarthy" hearings. With a television audience of twenty million Americans, McCarthy randomly fired accusations of Communism toward certain Army officers. With the assistance of his aide Roy Cohn, he was able to put together enough evidence to give him at least slight credibility. Many feel that the hearings are what destroyed McCarthy's career. After the hearings he was kicked off the chair of the Government Operations Committee. Senator Ralph Flanders (Republican of Vermont) filed for resolution for censure of McCarthy. A special committee was appointed to investigate McCarthy. December 2, 1954, McCarthy was formally censured by a vote of 67 to 22 in the United States Senate. They condemned him for "conduct contrary to Senatorial traditions." The condemnation, only the third one in 165 years, noted the abuse of his Senatorial powers. This year he also became a full time alcoholic, sometimes he would be drunk for days. In 1955, a "McCarthy Day" celebration in Boscobel, WI drew only 1,500 people (mostly high school band members). In 1956 every senator but Joe was invited to a dinner dance by Nixon in the White House. This summer he was hospitalized for his alcoholism. In 1957 his large investment in uranium went sour and he lost most of his life savings. For some reason the same year he also adopted a 5-week-old baby girl. He died in Bethesda Hospital in Maryland at the Naval Medical Center on May 2, 1957 of peripheral neuritis. At his family's request, there was a funeral for him in the Senate chamber, and he was buried in Appleton, Wisconsin, seven miles from his birthplace. This man had gone from an everyday senator, to being nationally recognized, to being condemned by the United States senate, an alcoholic and death all in 7 years. I am not sure which is more impressive, that or his graduating high school in one year. McCarthy played on people's fears. "The Fight For America" was nothing more than a cleverly thought-out plan that took advantage of America's hysteria about Communism during the Cold War. All aside, he lived a tremendous life for a man from a humble background, and he is still in the minds of American politicians today.