June 9, 1954
"Have You No Sense of Decency?"
Wisconsin Republican Senator Joseph R. McCarthy rocketed to public attention
in 1950 with his allegations that hundreds of Communists had infiltrated the
State Department and other federal agencies. These charges struck a
particularly responsive note at a time of deepening national anxiety about the
spread of world communism.
McCarthy relentlessly continued his anticommunist campaign into 1953, when
he gained a new platform as chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations. He quickly put his imprint on that subcommittee, shifting its
focus from investigating fraud and waste in the executive branch to hunting for
Communists. He conducted scores of hearings, calling hundreds of witnesses in
both public and closed sessions.
A dispute over his hiring of staff without consulting other committee
members prompted the panel's three Democrats to resign in mid 1953. Republican
senators also stopped attending, in part because so many of the hearings were called
on short notice or held away from the nation's capital. As a result, McCarthy
and his chief counsel Roy Cohn largely ran the show by themselves, relentlessly
grilling and insulting witnesses. Harvard law dean Ervin Griswold described
McCarthy's role as "judge, jury, prosecutor, castigator, and press agent,
all in one."
In the spring of 1954, McCarthy picked a fight with the U.S. Army, charging
lax security at a top-secret army facility. The army responded that the senator
had sought preferential treatment for a recently drafted subcommittee aide.
Amidst this controversy, McCarthy temporarily stepped down as chairman for the
duration of the three-month nationally televised spectacle known to history as
the Army-McCarthy hearings.
The army hired Boston
lawyer Joseph Welch to make its case. At a session on June 9, 1954, McCarthy
charged that one of Welch's attorneys had ties to a Communist organization. As
an amazed television audience looked on, Welch responded with the immortal
lines that ultimately ended McCarthy's career: "Until this moment,
Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness."
When McCarthy tried to continue his attack, Welch angrily interrupted,
"Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have done enough.
Have you no sense of decency?"
Overnight, McCarthy's immense national popularity evaporated. Censured by
his Senate colleagues, ostracized by his party, and ignored by the press,
McCarthy died three years later, 48 years old and a broken man.
Related Links:
U.S.
Congress. Senate. Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations (McCarthy Hearings
1953-54), edited by Donald A. Rtichie and Elizabeth Bolling. Washington: GPO, 2003. S.
Prt. 107-84. Available
online.