Army-McCarthy Hearings - HISTORY

Joseph McCarthy and his role in stoking fears of communism and its sympathizers during the 1950s.

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On June 9, 1954, two-thirds of the way into the 36-day televised Army-McCarthy hearings in which Sen. Joseph McCarthy argued that the U.S. Army was harboring communists, the investigation hits a turning point. When Joseph Welch, the Army's special counsel, accuses McCarthy of having "no sense of decency," the tide of public opinion turns and McCarthy's career is eventually ruined.

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In March 1954, Sen. Joseph McCarthy appears before the Irish Fellowship Club of Chicago to discuss the continuing threat of Communism.

In protest to Sen. Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist crusade, Republican Sen. Margaret Chase Smith presents, on June 1, 1950, her "Declaration of Conscience" and delivers one of the most memorable speeches of her career.

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