Joseph+R.+McCarthy+(G6)

=Joe McCarthy=

Joseph Raymond McCarthy was born on November 14th, 1908. He became a republican senator from Wisconsin. McCarthy fought communism all his life.In a 1950 speech, McCarthy entered the public spotlight by claiming that communists had "infested" the State Department, dramatically waving a sheet of paper which purportedly contained the traitors' names. A special Senate committee investigated the charges and found them groundless. Unfazed, McCarthy used his position to wage a relentless anti-communist crusade, denouncing numerous public figures and holding a series of highly confrontational hearings. With little if any proof of his charges, McCarthy relied on accusation, slander and innuendo to tarnish his opponents' reputations. This was a practice now known as "McCarthyism". In 1954, televised hearings allowed millions to view McCarthy's methods for the first time, sparking a public backlash and official censure. He died at the age of 49 of complications related to alcoholism.