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McCarthyism
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====Senate committees==== In the Senate, the primary committee for investigating communists was the [[United States Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security|Senate Internal Security Subcommittee]] (SISS), formed in 1950 and charged with ensuring the enforcement of laws relating to "espionage, sabotage, and the protection of the internal security of the United States". The SISS was headed by Democrat [[Pat McCarran]] and gained a reputation for careful and extensive investigations. This committee spent a year investigating [[Owen Lattimore]] and other members of the [[Institute of Pacific Relations]]. As had been done numerous times before, the collection of scholars and diplomats associated with Lattimore (the so-called [[China Hands]]) were accused of "losing China", and while some evidence of pro-communist attitudes was found, nothing supported McCarran's accusation that Lattimore was "a conscious and articulate instrument of the Soviet conspiracy". Lattimore was charged with perjuring himself before the SISS in 1952. After many of the charges were rejected by a federal judge and one of the witnesses confessed to perjury, the case was dropped in 1955.{{sfn|Fried|1990|pp=145–150}} McCarthy headed the [[United States Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations|Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations]] in 1953 and 1954, and during that time, used it for a number of his communist-hunting investigations. McCarthy first examined allegations of communist influence in the [[Voice of America]], and then turned to the overseas library program of the State Department. [[Card catalogs]] of these libraries were searched for works by authors McCarthy deemed inappropriate. McCarthy then recited the list of supposedly pro-communist authors before his subcommittee and the press. Yielding to the pressure, the State Department ordered its overseas librarians to remove from their shelves "material by any controversial persons, Communists, [[fellow traveler]]s, etc." Some libraries actually burned the newly forbidden books.{{sfn|Griffith|1970|p=216}} Though he did not block the State Department from carrying out this order, President Eisenhower publicly criticized the initiative as well, telling the graduating class of Dartmouth College President in 1953: "Don't join the book burners! ... Don't be afraid to go to the library and read every book so long as that document does not offend our own ideas of decency—that should be the only censorship."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/119516/report-book-burning-under-huac-and-eisenhower|title=The Horrible, Oppressive History of Book Burning in America|publisher=The New Republic|date=June 26, 1953|access-date=February 12, 2020|archive-date=February 12, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200212203141/https://newrepublic.com/article/119516/report-book-burning-under-huac-and-eisenhower|url-status=live}}</ref> The president then settled for a compromise by retaining the ban on Communist books written by Communists, while also allowing the libraries to keep books on Communism written by anti-Communists.<ref name="Abdul-JabbarObstfeld2016">{{cite book|author1=Kareem Abdul-Jabbar|author2=Raymond Obstfeld|title=Writings on the Wall: Searching for a New Equality Beyond Black and White|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oafiDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT53|date= 2016|publisher=Time Inc. Books|isbn=978-1618935434|pages=53–}}</ref> McCarthy's committee then began an investigation into the [[United States Army]]. This began at the [[United States Army Signal Corps|Army Signal Corps]] laboratory at [[Fort Monmouth]]. McCarthy garnered some headlines with stories of a dangerous spy ring among the Army researchers, but ultimately nothing came of this investigation.{{sfn|Stone|2004|p=384}} McCarthy next turned his attention to the case of a U.S. Army dentist who had been promoted to the rank of major despite having refused to answer questions on an Army loyalty review form. McCarthy's handling of this investigation, including a series of insults directed at a [[Brigadier general (United States)|brigadier general]], led to the [[Army–McCarthy hearings]], with the Army and McCarthy trading charges and counter-charges for 36 days before a nationwide television audience. While the official outcome of the hearings was inconclusive, this exposure of McCarthy to the American public resulted in a sharp decline in his popularity.{{sfn|Fried|1990|p=138}} In less than a year, McCarthy was censured by the Senate, and his position as a prominent force in anti-communism was essentially ended.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://research.archives.gov/description/1157557 |title=Senate Resolution 301: Censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy |author=[[83rd United States Congress|83rd U.S. Congress]] |date=July 30, 1954 |publisher=U.S. National Archives and Records Administration |access-date=October 30, 2013 |archive-date=November 1, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101220854/http://research.archives.gov/description/1157557 |url-status=live }}</ref>
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