ABSTRACT
Joseph McCarthy was a Republican senator from Wisconsin who, from 1950 to 1954, launched a series of investigations into alleged Communist infiltration in the United States. McCarthy began his career as a senator when he defeated Senator Robert La Follette Jr., son of the famous Republican senator, in the 1946 Wisconsin election. McCarthy had run on an anticommunism agenda during his Senate campaign and made speeches against communism on the Senate floor, but after the West Virginia speech he became the driving force in Congress for anticommunism. McCarthy exhibited an overbearing demeanor and reckless conduct during the hearings, and he seemed less directed at rooting out Communists than garnering attention for his own purposes. McCarthy smeared the witnesses before his committee, but he and the entire anticommunism movement were smeared by his opponents. McCarthy's downfall was inevitable, as his attacks became more strident.
