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Ron Peters's Reviews > Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy
Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy
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“This is a book about America’s love affair with bullies.” Larry Tye
I just finished Beverly Gage’s (2022) Pulitzer Prize winning biography, G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century, so I read Tye’s book on McCarthy.
Gage says Hoover had an on-again, off-again relationship with McCarthy. Though he shared most of McCarthy’s views, Hoover worried about the public perception of McCarthy’s tactics and had an instinctual resentment of any competitor who might intrude on FBI territory.
Overall, McCarthy (a not-so-Grand Inquisitor) is an interesting psychological study, but a less interesting person than Hoover who, dislikable as he was, was better rounded and more mysterious. A fellow politician summed McCarthy up simply: “He only had two questions in life: What do I want, and How do I get it?”
McCarthyism was characterized by reckless accusations, guilt by association, fearmongering, outright lies, manipulation of the press, and political double-dealing, followed by ruined lives and multiple suicides. The word ‘demagogue’ is defined as “a political leader who seeks support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument.” Who do these things remind you of? It’s no surprise that McCarthy’s top aide was Roy Cohn, the long-time mentor and lawyer for Donald Trump (see https://tinyurl.com/57h2h295).
McCarthy was a one-note politician who spotted an opportunity to advance himself by witch-hunting communists and went for it with everything he had. The ride lasted five years, ending in his being censured by the Senate, addicted to morphine, and hospitalized repeatedly for alcoholism before he died of liver failure at age 48.
One thing I never heard of that showed up in the bios of both Hoover and McCarthy was the Venona Program, which involved Russian intelligence intercepted by the British and shared with the CIA and FBI. This sounds interesting and, at some point, I’d like to read more about it.
I just finished Beverly Gage’s (2022) Pulitzer Prize winning biography, G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century, so I read Tye’s book on McCarthy.
Gage says Hoover had an on-again, off-again relationship with McCarthy. Though he shared most of McCarthy’s views, Hoover worried about the public perception of McCarthy’s tactics and had an instinctual resentment of any competitor who might intrude on FBI territory.
Overall, McCarthy (a not-so-Grand Inquisitor) is an interesting psychological study, but a less interesting person than Hoover who, dislikable as he was, was better rounded and more mysterious. A fellow politician summed McCarthy up simply: “He only had two questions in life: What do I want, and How do I get it?”
McCarthyism was characterized by reckless accusations, guilt by association, fearmongering, outright lies, manipulation of the press, and political double-dealing, followed by ruined lives and multiple suicides. The word ‘demagogue’ is defined as “a political leader who seeks support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument.” Who do these things remind you of? It’s no surprise that McCarthy’s top aide was Roy Cohn, the long-time mentor and lawyer for Donald Trump (see https://tinyurl.com/57h2h295).
McCarthy was a one-note politician who spotted an opportunity to advance himself by witch-hunting communists and went for it with everything he had. The ride lasted five years, ending in his being censured by the Senate, addicted to morphine, and hospitalized repeatedly for alcoholism before he died of liver failure at age 48.
One thing I never heard of that showed up in the bios of both Hoover and McCarthy was the Venona Program, which involved Russian intelligence intercepted by the British and shared with the CIA and FBI. This sounds interesting and, at some point, I’d like to read more about it.
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Boudewijn
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Sep 26, 2023 04:23AM
Interesting review Ron, one of the dark chapters of post-ww2 American history.
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McCarthy and Hoover make interesting "bookends" for this history. It's also surprising how strongly both these men were supported by Jack and Bobby Kennedy.
