Joseph+McCarthy

=__Joseph McCarthy__= toc Joseph Raymond McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. senator from Wisconsin. He went from being a fairly unknown man to a man with tons of power during the 1950s. He was completely against communism, and if he thought anyone was a communist or a communist sympathizer, he felt as though they had to be done away with. He was also a total fraud because all of his charges and accusations were false.

Early Life
Joseph McCarthy was born on November 14, 1908. He was the fifth of seven children to his parents Bridget and Timothy, and born in Grand Chutes, Wisconsin on a farm. McCarthy dropped out of junior high when he was 14 to help his parents with their farm. He then entered high school when he was 20 years old, and graduated in only one year. In college he studied engineering, law, and earned a law degree at Marquette University. But all of these things were just a beginning to many things that Joseph McCarthy was going to do later on in his lifetime.

McCarthyism
McCarthyism is a politically motivated practice of making false accusations about many things, including treason, communism, and disloyalty. In other words, McCarthyism was Joseph McCarthy's way of convincing people that certain other people were either communists or supported communism. McCarthy became very powerful through McCarthyism. This is because he supposedly had a "list of communist people" (that was fake), and if he suspected anyone of being a communist, he would claim that their name was on the list. Since no one expected McCarthy to be lying about all these people, they believed him, which caused the certain "communist" people to lose their jobs, and possibly face imprisonment.

Military Service
Apart from McCarthyism, Joseph McCarthy had some experience with the military. In 1942, a little bit after the U.S. entered World War II, and was commissioned to the United States Marine Corps. He served as many things, including officer, second lieutenant, and intelligence briefing officer for a dive bomber squadron. McCarthy campaigned for the Republican Senate nomination in Wisconsin while still on active duty in 1944, but he was beaten by Alexander Wiley. He resigned his commission in April 1945, only five months before the Pacific war ended.

United States Senate
While campaigning, McCarthy attacked LaFollette for various reasons, and when the suggestion was made that LaFollette had been suspected of war profiteering, McCarthy won. As a senate, he was very popular with people, and made very good speeches over a range of topics. He was active in labor-management issues, with a reputation as a moderate Republican. He also fought against wartime price controls (especially on sugar). Another important thing that McCarthy did was supporting the Taft-Hartley Act over Truman's veto, which showed that he did what he believed, and wasn't afraid of what people thought.

Final Years
After his censure, McCarthy continued senatorial duties for another two and a half years, but his career was ruined. People didn't listen to him anymore, and he was ignored. He didn't have any more major speeches, and his colleagues in the Senate avoided him. Even after this, McCarthy still had hatred for communists, and communist sympathizers. He tried to convince people that they were up to no good, and to avoid them. On May 2, 1957, at the age of 48, McCarthy died of an inflammation of the liver (hepatitis). Some people thought that his death also had to do with alcohol consumption. In 1957, an election was held to see who would take McCarthy's place, and William Proxmire won.