Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. By United Press – Library of Congress.
As we struggle for balance in the maelstrom of public events, it may be helpful to remember that we have been through this before in the period seventy years ago called McCarthyism for its creator, Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin.
This pestilence grew in a period of anxiety initiated and maintained by the atmosphere of the Cold War when we were besieged by rumors of betrayers everywhere: Soviet spies embedded in the U.S. State Department, “moles” operating in the Army, Communism a terrifying threat to all because of what had happened recently in the Soviet Union.
These fears might have faded harmlessly away, allowing common sense to resurface, except by the incendiary role played by Senator Joseph McCarthy, beginning in 1954 with his speech denouncing hundreds of un-named spies for the Soviets in the Station Department, continuing with the black listing of writers working in Hollywood, causing them to lose their jobs with the studios, and culminating in the Army-McCarthy hearings in front of the Senate in April through June of 1954, by which time many lives had been ruined.
It is always usefully politically to fan fears, especially in a country where we are all somewhat credulous and easily persuaded by a powerful speaker, promoted by newspapers and television, that the country is in imminent danger of disaster.
Indeed, one of the slogans of the McCarthy hysteria was “the enemy from within.” Where have you heard that slogan repeated today? It heralds an all-out attack on the democracy.
The rampage was finally halted in 1954 by the chief counsel for the U.S. Army, Joseph Welsh, who rose up during the Senate McCarthy hearings to demand of McCarthy, “Have you no sense of decency, at long last? Have you no sense of decency?”
That was the start of the Senate’s censoring of McCarthy and the country’s slow realization that he had led us into a pit of lies. But by then lives had been ruined.
The only useful action now is group action, but that must be set on fire by one principled individual who can ask of our would-be tyrant, “Have you left no sense of decency, at long last? Have you no sense of decency?”
In the first Face the Nation broadcast on television, Sen. Joseph McCarthy responds to questions about his infamous hearings. (CBS NEWS)
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