The Red Scare and McCarthyism » McCarthy's Downfall and the Impact of McCarthyism
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: Paper 1, Depth study 7, Key topic 1
- Why McCarthy's attack on the US Army led to his downfall in 1954
- The part played by television, journalists and the Senate's censure
- The overall impact of McCarthyism on the USA
- How to answer a 16-mark 'How far do you agree?' question
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Unlock This CourseMcCarthy takes on the Army
At the end of 1953 McCarthy still looked unbeatable. A year later he was finished. The turning point came when he chose the US Army as his next target.
In autumn 1953 he began hunting for spies at Fort Monmouth, an Army research base in New Jersey. He found none. He then seized on the case of Irving Peress, an Army dentist who had been promoted even though he refused to answer questions about his politics. In February 1954 McCarthy told General Ralph Zwicker, a decorated war hero, that he was 'not fit to wear that uniform'. Insulting a general angered the Army, many Republicans and President Eisenhower, who had been a general himself.
The Army hit back. In March 1954 it accused McCarthy and Roy Cohn of pressing officers to give special treatment to David Schine, a friend of Cohn's from McCarthy's staff who had been called up as a private soldier. McCarthy replied that the Army was holding Schine as a 'hostage' to stop his investigation. The Senate decided to look into both sets of charges.
Key terms:
- Censure: a formal vote by the Senate to condemn the behaviour of one of its own members.
- Dissent: openly disagreeing with the government or with what most people think.
The Army-McCarthy hearings, 1954
The hearings ran for 36 days, from 22 April to 17 June 1954, and were shown live on television. Millions of Americans watched. Until then most people had only read about McCarthy in newspapers. Now they saw him for themselves. He kept shouting 'point of order' to interrupt, bullied witnesses and sneered at opponents. Methods that had worked in headlines looked ugly on screen.
The key moment came on 9 June. The Army's lawyer was Joseph Welch, a calm and polite man from Boston. McCarthy suddenly announced that Fred Fisher, a young lawyer at Welch's firm, had once belonged to a lawyers' group accused of Communist links. Fisher had no part in the hearings. Welch replied, 'Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness.' When McCarthy carried on, Welch asked, 'Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?' People watching in the room burst into applause.
The hearings ended without a clear verdict, but the damage was done. Remember that in January 1954 half of Americans had a favourable opinion of McCarthy. By June the Gallup poll put the figure at about a third.
Television and journalists
Journalists had started the damage before the hearings opened. On 9 March 1954 Edward R. Murrow, a respected CBS reporter, gave a whole edition of his television programme See It Now to McCarthy. He mostly used film of McCarthy's own speeches and hearings, so viewers could judge the bullying for themselves. Murrow ended by telling them, 'We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.' Most of the calls and letters that reached CBS supported Murrow.
The programme mattered because it showed that McCarthy could be challenged in public without disaster. Newspapers had once spread his charges for him. Television now exposed the man behind them.
The Senate's censure
With the public turning, politicians at last felt safe to act. The mood of the country had changed too: the fighting in Korea had stopped in July 1953, so the fear McCarthy fed on was easing. In July 1954 Ralph Flanders, a Republican senator from Vermont, asked the Senate to censure McCarthy. A committee led by another Republican, Arthur Watkins, agreed. On 2 December 1954 the Senate voted by 67 to 22 to condemn McCarthy for conduct 'contrary to senatorial traditions'. Half of the Republicans who voted went against him.
McCarthy kept his seat but lost his power. The Democrats had won control of the Senate in the elections of November 1954, so he lost his chairmanship as well. Senators left the room when he spoke and reporters stopped covering him. He died on 2 May 1957, aged 48, his health ruined by heavy drinking.
The overall impact of McCarthyism
👥 Ruined lives
Thousands of people lost their jobs, including teachers, government workers, union officials and film-makers, usually with no proof that they had done anything wrong. Some never worked in their profession again. Yet McCarthy never proved that one person he named was a spy.
🏛 Politics and government
Politicians in both parties feared looking 'soft on Communism'. Congress passed the McCarran Internal Security Act (1950), which made Communist organisations register with the government, and the Communist Control Act (1954), which took away the Communist Party's legal rights. The State Department lost several of its experts on China, which weakened its advice on Asia.
📚 A climate of fear
Many Americans became afraid to join groups, sign petitions or criticise the government, because dissent was treated as disloyalty. People calling for change, including campaigners for black civil rights, were often accused of being Communists. In 1953 Arthur Miller's play The Crucible used the Salem witch trials of 1692 to attack this 'witch-hunt'.
The fear did not vanish when McCarthy fell. HUAC carried on its work into the 1960s, and anti-Communism stayed at the heart of American politics. But the worst was over. 'McCarthyism' became a lasting word for reckless accusation, and television had shown that it could break a politician as well as make one.
Common mistakes
Don't say the Army-McCarthy hearings found McCarthy guilty or removed him from the Senate. They only wrecked his reputation. It was the Senate's censure in December 1954 that ended his power, and even then he stayed a senator until his death. Don't write that McCarthyism was all McCarthy's work either: the loyalty checks, HUAC and the blacklist began before he made his Wheeling speech in February 1950.
Exam-style question
'The main reason for McCarthy's downfall was the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954.'
How far do you agree? Explain your answer. [16 marks]
You may use the following in your answer:
- the Army-McCarthy hearings
- Edward R. Murrow
You must also use information of your own.
Model answer
I agree to a large extent. The hearings did most to destroy McCarthy's public support, but he fell only because journalists and then his own party turned on him as well.
The Army-McCarthy hearings were a major reason. For 36 days from April 1954, millions watched McCarthy live on television. They saw him interrupt with 'point of order' and bully witnesses. On 9 June his attack on Fred Fisher, a young lawyer with no part in the case, led Joseph Welch to ask, 'Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?' This mattered because McCarthy's power rested on popularity: politicians feared him while voters backed him. Favourable opinion fell from half of Americans in January to about a third by June, so the hearings removed his main protection.
However, journalists had begun the damage earlier. On 9 March 1954 Edward R. Murrow used McCarthy's own words on See It Now to expose his methods, warning viewers not to 'confuse dissent with disloyalty'. Most letters to CBS supported Murrow. This showed that McCarthy could be criticised safely, which encouraged others. Yet one programme did not finish him. He was still strong enough afterwards to fight the Army on television for two months.
A third reason was the loss of Republican support. While McCarthy attacked Truman's Democrats he was useful to his party. By 1954 he was attacking Eisenhower's government and had insulted General Zwicker, a war hero. Republicans such as Ralph Flanders now led the move against him, and on 2 December 1954 the Senate censured him by 67 votes to 22, with half of the Republicans who voted going against him. This vote is what actually ended his power, because senators and reporters then ignored him. The end of the fighting in Korea in July 1953 had also eased the fear he depended on.
Overall, the hearings were the main reason, judged by which factor made the others possible. Murrow weakened McCarthy and the censure finished him, but senators had been too frightened to act for four years. They dared to vote against him only once the hearings had turned the public away from him.
What lifts this to the top level: it covers three reasons (one not in the bullets), keeps linking each to McCarthy's fall, and reaches a judgement using a stated test, which reason made the others possible.
Exam tip
An answer that uses only the two bullets cannot reach the top level. Here, add a third reason of your own, such as the Senate's censure or the loss of Republican support, and say in your conclusion exactly why the hearings mattered more or less than it did.