The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy Read online

  Chapter 24. Joseph Welch's impression of the Senate caucus room: the New York Times, April 23, 1954. Joe's first "point of order": Cohn, McCarthy. Secretary of the Army Stevens's testimony on April 24 and the days that followed: U.S. Senate, Special Senate Investigation on Charges and Countercharges Involving Secretary of the Army Robert T. Stevens, [et al.], and Senator Joe McCarthy, Roy Cohn, and Francis P. Carr. 83rd Cong., 2nd sess., 1954 (hereafter referred to as Army-McCarthy Hearings). Disputed photograph of Schine and Secretary Stevens: Reeves, Army-McCarthy Hearings. Conservative Republicans eager for hearings to end: Reeves, Army-McCarthy Hearings. McCarthy introduces as evidence a spurious 1951 letter from J. Edgar Hoover to an Army general, warning of security problems at top-secret Signal Corps laboratories at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey: Reeves, Army-McCarthy Hearings. Joe's schedule during the hearings: Time magazine, May 3, 1954. Mark Catlin's impressions of McCarthy: Reeves interview with Catlin.

  Chapter 25. Testimony of Army Counsel John G. Adams: Reeves. Wicker, Army-McCarthy Hearings. Army rests its case on May 26, 1954: Reeves, Wicker, Army-McCarthy Hearings. Testimony of Roy Cohn, and Joseph Welch's cross-examination: Reeves, Army-McCarthy Hearings. Joe attempts to gain an advantage in the hearings by raising the issue of Welch's legal colleague, Fred Fisher, who was briefly a member of a left-wing lawyers' organization: Reeves, Wicker, Army-McCarthy Hearings. Welch defends Fisher and ends by asking Joe, "Have you no sense of decency, sir?" Reeves, Wicker, Army-McCarthy Hearings.

  Chapter 26. Negative reaction to Joe's confrontation with Welch: Madison Capital Times, June 11, 1954, Washington Star, June 10, 1954, as cited by Reeves. Joe's faltering performance on the witness stand: Army-McCarthy Hearings, as excerpted by Reeves. Hearings come to an end on June 17; meanwhile, Senator Ralph Flanders on June 11 introduces resolution in the Senate to censure McCarthy: the Congressional Record, 83rd Cong., 2nd sess., June 15, 1954, Reeves, Wicker. Roy Cohn resigns as Joe's legal counsel: the New York Times, July 21, 1954, Reeves, Wicker. Committee formed to decide on censure charges against Joe: Reeves, Wicker. Censure proceedings begin on August 31, 1954, under the chairmanship of Senator Arthur Watkins: Watkins Committee Hearings, as excerpted by Reeves and Wicker. Debate resumes on November 8 after a break for the midterm elections: Reeves, Wicker. On November 9, McCarthy releases text of speech in which he charges Communists are behind censure attempt: the New York Times, November 10, 1954, Reeves, Wicker. Supporters organize rallies in defense of Joe and present him with awards: the New York Times, November 12, 1954, Reeves. Senate votes to "condemn" Joe on two counts: the New York Times, December 3 and 4, 1954, Reeves, Wicker.

  Chapter 27. Joe's despairing mood after the censure: Cohn, McCarthy, as excerpted by Reeves. President Eisenhower congratulates Senator Watkins for doing "a very splendid job" of chairing the censure committee, Joe responds by breaking openly with the president: the New York Times, September 5, 1954, as recounted by Reeves. Joe no longer welcome at the White House: Madison Capital Times, January 20, 1955, as excerpted by Reeves, Wicker. Joe's resolution in the Senate to block President Eisenhower's participation in a July 1955 meeting with new Soviet leaders in Switzerland is soundly defeated: the New York Times, June 17–23, 1955, as recounted by Reeves and Wicker. Press starts to ignore McCarthy: Cohn, McCarthy, as excerpted by Reeves. By the late summer of 1956, Joe's alcoholism requires frequent hospital detoxification: Milwaukee Sentinel, September 5, 1956, as recounted by Reeves. Joe suffers attack of delirium tremens during a gathering at home of Urban Van Susteren: Reeves's 1977 interviews with Van Susteren. The McCarthys adopt a baby girl in January 1957: Cohn, McCarthy, Reeves, Wicker. Joe dies in Bethesda Naval Hospital, May 2, 1957: Milwaukee Journal, May 3, 1957, as excerpted by Reeves. Formal funeral service held in Washington's St. Matthew's Cathedral on May 6, followed by a second service in the Senate chamber and burial in Appleton, Wisconsin: Appleton Post-Crescent, May 6, 7, and 8, 1967, as recounted by Reeves, Wicker.

  After McCarthy's Death

  Jean Kerr McCarthy: Her second marriage, to G. Joseph Minetti: Time magazine, September 15, 1961. Mrs. Minetti's restrictions on the use of Senator McCarthy's personal papers: fact sheet from the Marquette University Archives.

  Roy Cohn. Cohn's later life and death from AIDS: Nicholas von Hoffman, "The Snarling Death of Roy M. Cohn," article in Vanity Fair magazine, March 1988; Wikipedia biographical entry. Information on Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Wikipedia. The play itself: New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1993–94.

  G. David Schine. Life after the Army-McCarthy hearings and death with wife and eldest son in the crash of the family's private plane: Wikipedia.

  Joseph N. Welch. Biographical entry and quote about his decision to play a role in the film Anatomy of a Murder: Wikipedia.

  Lyndon B. Johnson. Life, career, and death: Wikipedia and the Columbia Encyclopedia.

  Richard M. Nixon. Life, career, and death: Wikipedia and the Columbia Encyclopedia.

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  Index

  Page numbers in italics refer to photos and illustrations.

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