The Army–McCarthy hearings

Army - McCarthy Hearings - were a series of hearings held by the United States Senate's Subcommittee on Investigations between March 1954 and June 1954. The hearings were held for the purpose of investigating conflicting accusations between the United States Army and Senator Joseph McCarthy. The Army accused chief committee counsel Roy Cohn of pressuring the Army to give preferential treatment to G. David Schine, a former McCarthy aide and a friend of Cohn's. McCarthy counter-charged that this accusation was made in bad faith and in retaliation for his recent aggressive investigations of suspected Communists and security risks in the Army. Chaired by Senator Karl Mundt, the hearings were convened on March 16, 1954, with witnesses appearing from April 22, 1954 until June 17, 1954. The hearings received considerable press coverage, including live television broadcasts, and are widely believed to have contributed to McCarthy's decline in popularity. A portion of the hearings were taken up for the express purpose of evaluating the security risk of homosexuals in government and the issue would be brought up on other occasions, as well as being an undercurrent in the investigations.

The Army–McCarthy hearings are considered to have been a key event in the fall of McCarthy from his position of power in American politics and society. Many in the television audience saw him as bullying, reckless and dishonest, and the daily newspaper summaries of the hearings were also frequently unfavorable to him.[11][12] Late in the hearings, McCarthy, after refusing to sign a document that he claimed had false statements in it, rebuked Senator Stuart Symington by saying, "You're not fooling anyone. I'm sure of that." Symington fired back with an angry but prophetic remark to McCarthy: "Senator, the American people have had a look at you now for six weeks. You're not fooling anyone, either."[13] In Gallup polls of January, 1954, 50% of those polled had a positive opinion of McCarthy. In June, that number had fallen to 34%. In the same polls, those with a negative opinion of McCarthy increased from 29% to 45%.[14]

On December 2, 1954, the Senate voted by a 2/3 margin to censure McCarthy. Though he was not expelled from his office, his role as major figure in national politics was effectively ended. McCarthy continued to chair the Subcommittee on Investigations, investigating Communist infiltration up until January 3, 1955, the day the 84th Congress was inaugurated. McCarthy would die just two years later of hepatitis.