Joseph McCarthy was born in 1908 in Appleton, Wisconsin. He attended school until he was fourteen but dropped out in eighth grade to help on the family farm as well as raise chickens. At the age of twenty, he decided to go back to school and in one year went through ninth to twelfth grades to graduate. He graduated with honors yet he told people he had higher grades than he actually earned. (Morgan 2003)
Ted Morgan in Legal Affairs noted that McCarthy’s high school grades were below 90 due to poor performance in Latin. Yet twelve years later, in 1942 when applying for a commission in the Marines, McCarthy wrote to a Major Holt that he had “graduated on the Honor Roll with an average of slightly over 90”(Podair, Jerald, Kimberly Louagie, Richard Fried, Edward Linenthal, Arthur Herman, Michael O'Brien, and David Oshinsky 2004).
After high school, McCarthy attended five years of school, finally leaving as a lawyer. (Morgan 2003) He worked as a circuit judge from 1939 to 1942 and McCarthy made another poor choice when the Wisconsin Supreme Court criticized him in 1941 for removing a page from a court transcript. He had made a comment on the record that the specific case was a waste of time for him and he did not want this comment to be seen. (Podair, Jerald, Kimberly Louagie, Richard Fried, Edward Linenthal, Arthur Herman, Michael O'Brien, and …show more content…
The Russians, who were supposed to be allies, had successfully tested the atomic bomb. Alger Hiss, who worked for the State Department was accused in 1949 of spying for the Russians in the 1930s. (Wall 2016) Add to all this McCarthy’s lack of a conscience, his ability to do whatever it took to root out the Communists, well, McCarthy ended up seriously hampering real Anti-Communism efforts. His “Red” histrionics brought much attention to innocent people and promoted investigation of those blameless citizens when work could have been concentrated elsewhere. (Wall
Ted Morgan in Legal Affairs noted that McCarthy’s high school grades were below 90 due to poor performance in Latin. Yet twelve years later, in 1942 when applying for a commission in the Marines, McCarthy wrote to a Major Holt that he had “graduated on the Honor Roll with an average of slightly over 90”(Podair, Jerald, Kimberly Louagie, Richard Fried, Edward Linenthal, Arthur Herman, Michael O'Brien, and David Oshinsky 2004).
After high school, McCarthy attended five years of school, finally leaving as a lawyer. (Morgan 2003) He worked as a circuit judge from 1939 to 1942 and McCarthy made another poor choice when the Wisconsin Supreme Court criticized him in 1941 for removing a page from a court transcript. He had made a comment on the record that the specific case was a waste of time for him and he did not want this comment to be seen. (Podair, Jerald, Kimberly Louagie, Richard Fried, Edward Linenthal, Arthur Herman, Michael O'Brien, and …show more content…
The Russians, who were supposed to be allies, had successfully tested the atomic bomb. Alger Hiss, who worked for the State Department was accused in 1949 of spying for the Russians in the 1930s. (Wall 2016) Add to all this McCarthy’s lack of a conscience, his ability to do whatever it took to root out the Communists, well, McCarthy ended up seriously hampering real Anti-Communism efforts. His “Red” histrionics brought much attention to innocent people and promoted investigation of those blameless citizens when work could have been concentrated elsewhere. (Wall