Fifty years ago, Americans were able to turn on their televisions and radios, and witness the first ever nationally televised congressional inquiry. The Army-McCarthy hearings lasted 36 days. They marked the end of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s preeminence, but there is historical value in studying McCarthy. He’s thought to have started a new strain of insidious partisanship that still exists today.
For the first time, ordinary Americans were able to see McCarthy bullying witnesses, and take in his smirking and the growing evidence of his alcoholism. During the hearings McCarthy exuded a righteous passion, decrying “the traitors” in a quavering voice. Looking back on the “Red scare” chapter in American history and the legacy of Senator Joe McCarthy
Guests:
Victor Navasky, Publisher, The Nation
John Earl Haynes, politicial historian at the Library of Congress
Norma Barzman, Hollywood writer blacklisted during McCarthyism.