Joseph McCarthy wasn't always the brash and aggressive man that history has made him out to be. McCarthy was born to a good Irish Catholic family. Neighbors remember Joseph as being a shy lad, seen-but-not-heard. At nineteen McCarthy left home to fill a position as a store manager. At about this time the once shy and timid boy began to change into a sharp and aggressive man. McCarthy went back to school where he graduated from Marquette University with the title class president and a law degree. McCarthy began practicing law in a small town and was soon offered a position with a well-respected law firm, which he snatched up.

Anderson & May, McCarthy the Man the Senator the "ism", The Beacon Press, Boston, 1952

McCarthy was an opportunist and one Senator was quoted as saying of McCarthy that, " he will run the knife into you - particularly if the public is going to see it - and he will do it for no particular reason." McCarthy when questioned and confronted turned the table around and attacked the person rather than the idea that was being debated. "If one was ever approached by another person in a not completely friendly fashion, one should start kicking at the other person as fast as possible below the belt until the other person was rendered helpless." -McCarthy. McCarthy's strategy was to go on the offense at all times. Above all McCarthy's major contribution to government was his extreme views towards communism and subsequent branding of people as traitors or communists in order to gain the spotlight.

McCarthy also used all out lies and arm pulling of the truth to gain power. After McCarthy gave his first famous speech in Wheeling, West Virginia. In this speech he claimed the he had a list of 205 members of the Communist Party who were working in the State Department. The List, which he had received, was over ten years old and the FBI cleared most of the people on the list of all charges. In actuality the list was only 57 names long and McCarthy drastically fabricated the actual content of the Lee List. Take for example Lee case no. 40 and McCarthy case no. 36 that were later discovered to be the same case.

McCarthy's opponents most often than not were destroyed verbally or at the election booths across the country. "This man, terribly dangerous in the eyes of sophisticated observers of American politics, had obtained the backing of millions of American people." But in early 1954 the opinion of what McCarthy was doing began to change. People were becoming tired of the same old thing so McCarthy would push harder and make more audacious attacks which would offend more and more people. In 1954 McCarthy went after the largest military branch at the time in our nation, the army, looking for communists. McCarthy attacked the army with trumped up charges and used circumstantial evidence to support his findings.

Michael Paul Rogin, The Intellectuals and McCarthy the Radical Specter, The MIT Press, Boston, 1967

Opponent," because of this McCarthy was able to exploit an age issue, which he used it in his campaign. McCarthy also ran an aggressive mailing campaign sending out thousands of letters. All of these factors lead Joseph R. McCarthy to the courthouse and granted him his first taste of political power.

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Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)