Senator Joe McCarthy – Address in Chicago – October 27, 1952 – Mutual Broadcasting – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
As a reminder that Capitol Hill has never been too far away from controversy whether it be personal or political, Senator Joe McCarthy, the Republican Senator from Wisconsin had a virtual stranglehold on the State Department during what many would describe as the McCarthy Reign of Terror.
Joe McCarthy rose suddenly to national fame in February 1950, when he asserted in a speech that he had a list of “members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring” who were employed in the State Department. In succeeding years after his 1950 speech, McCarthy made additional accusations of Communist infiltration into the State Department, the administration of President Harry S. Truman, the Voice of America, and the U.S. Army. He also used various charges of communism, communist sympathies, disloyalty, or sex crimes to attack a number of politicians and other individuals inside and outside of government. This included a concurrent “Lavender Scare” against suspected homosexuals; as homosexuality was prohibited by law at the time, it was also perceived to increase a person’s risk for blackmail.
With the highly publicized Army–McCarthy hearings of 1954, and following the suicide of Wyoming Senator Lester C. Hunt that same year, McCarthy’s support and popularity faded. On December 2, 1954, the Senate voted to censure Senator McCarthy by a vote of 67–22, making him one of the few senators ever to be disciplined in this fashion. He continued to speak against communism and socialism until his death at the age of 48 at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, on May 2, 1957. His death certificate listed the cause of death as “Hepatitis, acute, cause unknown”. Doctors had not previously reported him to be in critical condition. Some biographers say this was caused or exacerbated by alcoholism.
During the peak of his popularity McCarthy often took to the airwaves to spread his message and stoke the proverbial flames of the Red Scare. This address, delivered in Chicago on October 27, 1952 is certainly typical of McCarthy’s style and his message.
Editors note: There are few bursts during the course of this address which sound like electrical interference. They only last a few seconds, but they are annoying no matter what. Since they come and go quickly, be aware of it.
Summer is over and everybody is back at work or school. If you’re in school you’re probably knee-deep in History – tests, reports, papers – homework. Reading about things that happened decades before you were born – can’t quite wrap your head around it. If you’re a teacher, it’s like pulling teeth to get your students even remotely interested in what happened before they were born. If you’re at work, you may be one of those people in middle-management who have to do presentations – something to amaze your boss and your colleagues – no pressure, but you have to deliver the goods, usually yesterday. Not to brag, but Past Daily is one website where you can find out about a lot of things you didn’t know about – hear things you aren’t familiar with – and by becoming a subscriber you can download all this audio (at last count over 10,000 sound files) you can build your own reference library, a mouse click away. You can also go exploring by using the Search Engine to dig deep.
You can do all that if you become a subscriber with Patreon – subscribing for as little as $5.00 a month, you have access to all this history, pop culture, music, famous and not-so-famous people, to download and keep forever.
All you gotta do is click on the red box (Become A Patron!) just below and make your pledge. You can do it for a month, a year or forever. And it helps us out by being able to keep the archive running – digitizing everything and fixing things when they break. Takes a lot of time to run Past Daily. We’re in it for the history and the long haul – and we need your help. We don’t run ads because they are distracting and annoying – so we depend on you. If you like what we do and you like exploring, click on the link and make a pledge – totally painless and you get 7 days for free just to check us out. Cool, no? Yeah, we thought you’d like that.
