Eisenhower and the downfall of Joseph McCarthy

Eisenhower found McCarthy distasteful but had not desire to enter into a political fight with him. He thought that this would diminish the presidency and give lie to the idea that America was a harmonious post war society. He hoped that the public mood would change and when McCarthy was finally defeated the evidence suggests that attitudes were transitioning away from hysteria anyway. It was his decision to conduct televised hearings into suspected communist subversion in the army that eventually led to his political demise, and in this podcast we explore how Eisenhower was able to play a role at the 11th hour.

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