Why was Senator Joe McCarthy so powerful?

Brands, Chapter 3:  Agnostics and Believers, 1949-1954

  • Institutionalizing the Revolution (pp. 45-48)
  • The China Syndrome (pp. 48-49)
  • Tail Gunner Joe (pp. 50-55)
  • Redefining the Perimeter (pp. 55-58)
  • Liking Ike (pp. 58-61)
  • The Quiet Americans (pp. 61-64)
  • The Shadow Lengthens (pp. 64-67)

Image Gateway

McCarthy and Cohn

Roy Cohn (left) and Sen. Joseph McCarthy (right)

Timeline

  • 1949 // NATO
  • 1949 // Soviets test atomic bomb (fission)
  • 1949 // Communist China
  • 1950 // McCarthy claims communists have infiltrated US State Department
  • 1950-53 // Korean War
  • 1953 // US tests hydrogen bomb (fusion)
  • 1954 // US Army – McCarthy hearings & then censure vote
  • 1954 // Break up of French Indochina
  • 1954 // Doolittle Report

Oppenheimer (2023)

America and Dickinson College Confront McCarthyism

  • 1954 Debate over Censure for Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI)

  • 1956 Firing of Dickinson professor and subsequent AAUP censure

LaVallee