Joseph McCarthy

Joseph McCarthy was a Republican United States senator from Wisconsin whose name became synonymous with the anti-communist investigations and accusations of the early Cold War. Born in 1908, he worked as a lawyer and judge before serving in the Marine Corps during the Second World War and winning election to the Senate in 1946. In 1950 he achieved national prominence by claiming that communists had infiltrated the State Department, repeatedly changing the numbers and evidence behind his allegations.

McCarthy exploited genuine anxieties about Soviet espionage but relied heavily on insinuation, public accusation and weakly substantiated claims. His investigations damaged careers and helped intensify a broader climate in which government loyalty programmes, congressional committees and blacklists targeted alleged subversion. His influence declined sharply during the televised Army–McCarthy hearings of 1954, when his methods were exposed to a mass audience. The Senate formally censured him later that year. He remained in office but politically isolated until his death in 1957.

In Gore Vidal’s The Golden Age, Truman’s administration, the opening of the Cold War, the Korean War and the rise of Joseph McCarthy. In Gore Vidal’s Washington D C, Truman’s presidency, anti-communist investigations and Joseph McCarthy’s influence reshape the capital.