May 2, 1957- Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy dies at age 48
MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - On this day May 2, 1957, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy died at the age of 48.
McCarthy was born in in Grand Chute, Wisconsin in 1908.
McCarthy had been a key figure in the anti-communist hysteria known as the “Red scare” that consumed the U.S. in the years following World War II.
In 1942, he joined the Marines and served in the Pacific during World War II.
He returned home in 1944, and decided to start a career in politics, and defeated the popular Senator Robert La Follette in the Republican primary.
In 1950, he stunned an audience with the declaration that there were over 200 communists in the Department of State.
However, he never uncovered a single Communist, in or out of the U.S. Government.
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