WELCH CONFRONTS MCCARTHY ON ACCUSATION OF LAW PARTNER BEING A COMMUNIST
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On June 9, 1954, Senator Joseph McCarthy* (R-Wisconsin) was confronted by Joseph N. Welch**, Special Counsel for the United States Army, after the Senator's attack on Frederick G. Fisher, a member of Welch's law firm.
Mr. Fisher was accused of being a communist because he had been a member of the National Lawyers Guild, the first racially integrated bar association in the United States.
Incensed by the accusation, Mr. Welch said...
"Until this moment...I...never gauged your cruelty or recklessness. Have you no sense of decency, Sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
According to the U.S. Senate, the nationally televised confrontation, part of the Army-McCarthy Hearings***, caused the Senator's "immense national popularity" to vanish overnight.
*Joseph Raymond McCarthy (1908-1957) was born in Grand Chute, Wisconsin. JRM served in the US Senate 1947-1957. After the Army-McCarthy hearings, he was censored by the Senate & died a broken man.
**Joseph Nye Welch (1890-1960) was born in Iowa & educated at Harvard Law School. JNW served in the U.S. Army in WWI.
***Army-McCarthy Hearings (April-June 1954) series of televised hearings conducted by the USS Subcommittee on Investigations which looked into conflicting accusations by the army & Senator McCarthy.
SOURCES
"Have you no sense of decency," U.S. Senate, www.senate.gov/
"June 9, 1954: Joseph Welch Confronts Senator Joseph McCarthy," Zinn Education Project, www.zinnedproject.org/
