Program Information

Having aroused America's fears about Communists lurking behind every institutional bush, Joe McCarthy met his match.

A Moment in Time is a brief, exciting and compelling journey into the past. Created to excite and enlighten the public about the past, its relevance to the present and its impact on the future, A Moment In Time is a captivating historical narrative that is currently broadcast worldwide.

Transcript

Lead: Having aroused America's fears about Communists lurking behind every institutional bush, Joe McCarthy met his match.

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: In 1950 McCarthy, a lackluster Republican Senator from Wisconsin, enlivened his bid for a second term with a campaign of accusation and innuendo alleging a vast Communist conspiracy operating in America's institutions of government and learning. He was reelected in 1952 and, because his party took the U.S. Senate, he could use that body's powers of investigation and subpoena to pursue his crusade. For two years, as Chairman of the Senate's Committee on Government Operations, he investigated numerous departments. In all that time he was unable to prove a credible case against a single individual--although by insinuation he was able to drive some people from their jobs and bring others under public censure. In the absence of evidence, he struck out in an increasingly irresponsible manner accusing Republican and Democrat leaders, including President Dwight D. Eisenhower, of complicity in the Communist conspiracy. Finally, Ike had enough and began to work quietly to crush McCarthy.

The Senator's fall came when he took on the U.S. Army. In 36 days of sensational televised hearings in the spring of 1954, little evidence was presented but McCarthy's bullying tactics were exposed. The climax to the hearings came when the Senator accused Fred Fischer, a young lawyer in the firm of Army counsel Joseph Welch, of being Communist. In a dramatic confrontation Welch stuck back:

"Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Little did I dream you could be so cruel and so reckless as to do an injury to that lad. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

Nearly overnight McCarthy's political and popular support collapsed.

At the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts.

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