Why did Joseph McCarthy’s influence decline?

Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy catapulted to national prominence in the United States after his claim in February 1950 that 205 communists were at that time employed by the State Department. Over the next few years, McCarthy capitalized on existing Cold War fears that Soviet communist subversion from within threatened the United States at the highest reaches of government. The ensuing scramble to purge the government of these alleged infiltrators spread across the country. Although he lacked evidence for his claims, McCarthy leveled accusations of communist persuasion against government officials high and low. He was particularly critical of the Democratic administration of Pres. Harry S. Truman, singling out Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Secretary of Defense George C. Marshall, and even Truman himself. Despite his increasingly outlandish allegations, McCarthy’s popularity seemed to soar higher than ever.

In the fall of 1953, cracks began to form in the Wisconsin senator’s facade. McCarthy claimed that the Army Signal Corps Laboratories at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, had been infiltrated by communist operatives. To prove this, he seized upon the story of U.S. Army dentist Irving Peress. Peress had leftist leanings and refused to take an oath of loyalty in his occupation, citing the Fifth Amendment when asked if he had been involved in any subversive activities. Although the Army recommended his dismissal, he was promoted to major before the recommendation could be reviewed by his superiors. McCarthy painted this series of events as a damning breach of loyalty in the Army and directed his Senate subcommittee to investigate Peress. The dentist continued to invoke the Fifth Amendment when questioned, but he applied for and was granted an immediate honorable discharge.

Peress’s uncooperativeness in the hearing, compounded with his honorable discharge, motivated McCarthy to summon the dentist’s commanding officer, Brig. Gen. Ralph W. Zwicker. Zwicker was a heavily decorated and well-respected World War II veteran. McCarthy demanded that the general give the subcommittee the names of every officer who had handled Peress’s promotion and honorable discharge. Zwicker adamantly refused, per the Army counsel’s advice. An enraged McCarthy assaulted the general’s intelligence and reputation, telling him that he was unfit to wear his Army uniform.

McCarthy’s attacks on Zwicker did not go unnoticed. On March 9, 1954, Edward R. Murrow presented a 25-minute television exposé of the Wisconsin senator’s anticommunist crusade. Using evidence from McCarthy’s speeches and hearings, Murrow argued that the senator’s unsavory tactics involved “the half-truth” and investigations in which his bullying was “protected by immunity.” McCarthy attacked Murrow by calling him a communist, but the journalist deftly countered the accusation and damaged McCarthy’s reputation in the process.

The Army, it seemed, was also tired of McCarthy’s behaviour. In the fall of 1953, McCarthy staffer G. David Schine had been drafted into the Army. Schine was good friends with McCarthy’s chief counsel, Roy M. Cohn, and Cohn pressured Army Secretary Robert Stevens to keep his friend on American soil. When Stevens refused, Cohn demanded that Schine be promoted to officer and receive preferential treatment. The Army investigated this matter and found that Stevens had acquiesced to Cohn’s demands due to 44 counts of “improper pressure,” including threats to “wreck the Army” if the Army secretary remained defiant. McCarthy retaliated against the Army’s report, arguing that the Schine investigation was an unfair response to his Peress inquiry. McCarthy’s subcommittee, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, was tasked with adjudicating the dispute.

Starting on April 22, 1954, the Army-McCarthy hearings were broadcast on television for 36 days to an estimated 80 million viewers. The Army had as its counsel the Boston attorney Joseph Nye Welch, who was instrumental in laying bare McCarthy’s lies. He uncovered doctored photographs that McCarthy had submitted for evidence and exposed his forgery of a memo concerning Army Signal Corps’ alleged communist subversives. When McCarthy attacked Welch’s firm because it had employed an attorney with vague connections to the Communist Party, the Army counsel responded: “Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator; you’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”

The Army-McCarthy hearings were resolved in mid-June. McCarthy was acquitted of improperly pressuring the Army on Schine’s behalf. Their lasting impact, however, was on the senator’s political relevance. Having been disgraced on national television, McCarthy was formally censured by his fellow senators in December 1954 by a vote of 67 to 22. He died less than three years later, before he completed his second term. McCarthy’s flame, which had captivated the nation for over four years, went out almost overnight.

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