A Taste of Publicity

The McCarthy Red Scare

The Beginning

A Taste of Publicity

      For the celebration of Lincoln’s birthday in 1950, McCarthy was sent to the Women’s Republican Club in Wheeling, WV. Few thought he had any chance of being reelected next term; the people that went to Wheeling for these celebrations weren’t exactly top tier. Little did they know, McCarthy was about to deliver the most important speech of his life.

       "I have here in my hand a list of 205 . . . a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department."
     - Joseph McCarthy (Speech of Joseph McCarthy, Wheeling, West Virginia, February 9, 1950)

    This was McCarthy’s first lie—there was nothing in his hand. McCarthy was cited to have changed this figure merely a day later.

"Sen. Joseph McCarthy speaking at Shorewood auditorium", Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

       "As you are aware, the Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee which investigated Senator McCarthy's allegations in 1950 found that actually he used the figure ‘205’ rather than ‘57’ at Wheeling, West Virginia (February 9, 1950) and that he used the figure ‘57’ in his speech at Salt Lake City, Utah (February 10, 1950) when he said, ‘last night I discussed communists in the state department. I stated that I had the names of 57 card-carrying members of the Communist Party.’"
       - Carlisle Humelsine, The Deputy Under Secretary of State for Administration, to Senator William Benton, July 1, 1952 (United States Department of State 1417–21)

         This suggests that McCarthy made an outlandish claim, and upon realizing how much attention it got, he had to find something tangible. Humelsine had testified on how there were 54 people who were dismissed or resigned during their investigation and 3 who had been determined disloyal. So, one day later, McCarthy completely changed his figure. But it didn’t matter; regardless of how baseless his claim was, he began making headlines—he had finally found his niche.