Joseph McCarthy
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Joseph McCarthy was a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin who, in the 1950s, led a controversial campaign accusing government officials, military officers, and entertainers of being communist sympathizers, causing widespread fear and damaging many people's careers and reputations. His actions and the political upheaval they caused became so significant that the term "McCarthyism" was created to describe unfounded accusations and aggressive investigations based on limited evidence.
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The famous United States Senator who was vehemently anti-Communist. His unscrupulous tactics in identifying so-called Communists in the State Department gained him notoriety and infamy. He was censured in 1954 for his conduct, and his bright flame died quickly thereafter. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Joseph+McCarthy">Read more on Last.fm</a>
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Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican senator from Wisconsin from 1947 until his death 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 communist subversion. He alleged that numerous communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers had infiltrated institutions including the United States federal government and military, universities, and the film industry. 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-communist activities. Today, the term is used more broadly to refer to demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents.
Born in Grand Chute, Wisconsin, McCarthy commissioned into the Marine Corps in 1942, where he served as an intelligence briefing officer for a dive bomber squadron. Following the end of World War II, he attained the rank of major.
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1908 births1957 deaths20th-century American far-right politicians20th-century American lawyers20th-century Roman Catholics20th-century United States senators20th-century Wisconsin politiciansAlcohol-related deaths in MarylandAmerican anti-communistsAmerican Christian ZionistsAmerican conspiracy theoristsAmerican people of German descent