Senator Joseph McCarthy?

Question

So I've been thinking a lot about fear and repression, and one of the names that comes up for me is that of Junior Senator Joseph McCarthy.

I was wondering what people think of his methods. Was he a misguided man trying to do the right thing? Was he crazy, fueled by an almost religous fervor to persecute something he didn't understand? Was he performing a legitimate service in trying to rid our country of Communists? Was he repressive and antithetical to American rights? Was he protecting our country?

I don't want to hear about how Communism really isn't all it's cracked up to be, and how Socialism is great, or how Communism is anti-religous and bad, I have a good grasp of the concepts. What I do want to hear is what you personally see in Senator Joseph McCarthy. I'm going to pick a best answer not based on my own political beliefs, but based on who can give me the most thoughtful understanding of history, and who has a strong opinion.

Answer 1

what didn't he understand? and how could i answer this without talking about the threat of communism in the 1950's?

mccarthy was absolutely right to try and expose internal threats to national security. we were less than a decade removed from the most bloody war of all time, and our former allies-by-necessity were trying to control the countries around them at the barrels of guns. america was the only nation with the power to stop them, and idiots here who thought communism was a harmless and beautiful philosophy were a threat no matter how you look at it.

Answer 2

You're very stupid, aren't you? Communist media? McCarthy was only a Junior Senator from Wisconsin who was looking to further his political career and he ruined the lives of many. He accused people in the military and accused the U.S. Army of being communist! This is where he lost support even from his ardent fans. What American values? Many of those people weren't communists nor did they simpathize with communism. If I had been alive at that time, I'd support McCarthy but I would've been wrong. You should know that I'm anti-communist but McCarthy didn't made anything better. He was a joke and he didn't do anything productive while he was alive.

Answer 3

I think he was a misguided man trying to do the right thing
and I believe he was trying to perform a legitimate service on trying to rid this country of communists and I believe to this very day that he was on the right track about the State Department and Hollywood having communists within their ranks. In his mind, he thought that he was protecting this country. He made too many enemies too fast.

Answer 4

McCarthy was right all along. An ex-KGB general admitted thay had over 250 spies here in the USA. This has been verified by the declassification of the government's Venona Files in 1995. The Venona operation was instigated in 1942 and continued until the mid-1960s to intercept coded messages from the Soviet Union to American spies working in the U.S. government.

Also, the recent film "Good Night, and Good Luck," which depicts CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow as a hero for confronting Sen. Joseph McCarthy's "witch-hunt", is merely that last-ditch effort of the Old Guard Stalinists in Hollywierd to justify their pathetic communist sympathies.

Answer 5

When the USSR fell we saw into there old books. What is the most wide thing he was right. The USSR had their fingers in may thing here in the us. The KGB papers show that Green peace was set up by the KGB. For spying and to show that there way of life was better for the planet. This was on A&E.

Many of the thing that happened back then were under KGB controle.

So he was right all a long.

Answer 6

McCarthy was a paranoid, as were many conservatives at the time. The country was terrified by the Soviet Union because they kept pace with, and often exceeded us in the arms race. But McCarthy went too far in trying to root out infiltrators. He smeared anyone publicly who had ever said anything he thought was communist, and many intellectuals and artists lost their positions and income because of it. He couldn't tell the difference between speech and actions.

Answer 7

McCarthy was just a pawn of the Republicans, spreading fear and intimidation to the weak and infirm of the mind. The Russians weren't ever really a threat, outside of them (and us) having a stockpile of nuclear weapons. Read what Gore Vidal says about this, that Eisenhower and Kennedy knew it. We outspent them in the end and their house of cards came crumbling down and they have been exposed for the paranoid, tyrannical incompetents they were. What is really scary is the bush Reich using the same tactics, claiming that anyone that opposes their insane foreign policy is 'un-patriotic' and people believing them! (please see weak and infirm of the mind above) This sort of tactic is commonly used by paranoids and tyrants the world over.
SAVE AMERICA, VOTE A REPUBLICAN OUT OF OFFICE!
(if you don't want the Democrat in, vote Independant)

Answer 8

Actually a KGB agent wrote a book after the FALL OF COMMUNISM...hey libs notice I said fall of communism....

Anyway the KGB agent justified Mc Carthy he was on the right
track. They had infiltrated many institutions.

Answer 9

McCarthy, and his deputy Richard Nixon were motivated by greed, lust for power, and self-righteousness. They didn't save the nation from a single communist threat. They did manage to separate our country at a time where we needed to be brought together.

Answer 10

he was a cynical meglomaniac, using fear of communism in a desperate attempt to gain power and preserve his ride on the political gravy train...he was a drunken liar with no regard for honesty, decency, or the effect his witch hunt was having on the real lives of real people...