Background+Info+on+Joseph+McCarthy+-+p5

Steve Koopman

Joseph McCarthy was a republican born in a close-knit Irish farm town in Grand Chute, Wisconsin on November 14th, 1909. He was the fifth of nine children. He died on May 2nd, 1957 in Bethesda, Maryland.

He left school at age fourteen and became a chicken farmer before managing a grocery store in the nearby town of Manawa. He went back to school at the age of nineteen and attended a four year high school and finished it in only one year. He was the senator of Wisconsin from 1947 to 1957. McCarthy gained worldwide attention in the early 1950's by charging that communists were working within the government. McCarthy had attacked the Democratic Party, the state department, and the protestant churches, and then he began warning people of communist influence in the army. That charge was so explosive that the U.S. Senate finally decided to hold public hearings on it. The hearings were originally scheduled to last only about two weeks, but they ended up lasting almost three months. He did not succeed in identifying any communists employed by the government.

McCarthyism is a word that was made up and named after Joseph McCarthy. It means to accuse someone of disloyalty especially a pro communist. In many cases, unsupported by proof or based on slight, doubtful, evidence. In 1942, shortly after the U.S. entered World War II, McCarthy enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, despite the fact that his judicial office exempted him from compulsory service. His position as a judge qualified him for an automatic commission as a second lieutenant, and he would leave the Marines with the rank of captain.

After winning re-election in 1952, McCarthy became chairman of the Permanent Investigations Subcommittee, a position he used to launch many of his investigations of government officials and agencies. Joseph McCarthy was such an important part of American history because he was the senator of Wisconsin. Everyone was very nervous of the influence that China might have in making Asia communist. McCarthy started to accuse alot of people for being communists without any proof of them being communists. They called this McCarthyism. This ruined many peoples jobs and just completely destroyed their lives.

__Bibliography__
1. Bartlett, Charles. “McCarthy, Joseph Raymond.” World Book Online Reference Center. 2007 http://www.worldbookonline.com.ezproxy.cooklib.org:2048/wb/article?id=ar350760 2. “McCarthy, Joseph R. Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Grolier Online http://gme.grolier.com.ezproxy.cooklib.org:2048/cgi-bin/article?assetid=0500720-0 3. “Joseph McCarthy.” Wikipedia. 7 Feb. 2007 <[|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy>.] 4. “Joseph McCarthy.” Spartacus. 7 Feb. 2007 <[|http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmccarthy.htm>.] Cohen, Daniel. Joseph McCarthy. Brookfield, Connecticut: The Millbrook P, 1996. 10. 5. Cohen, Daniel. Joseph McCarthy. Brookfield, Connecticut: The Millbrook P, 1996. 10.