Demagogue: The Life And Long Shadow Of Senator Joe McCarthy

629 Pages·2020·22.116 MB·English

by  Larry Tye

D E M A G O G U E $36.00
Higher in Canada
D
PRAISE FOR
D E M A G O G U E
E The definitive biography of the most
dangerous demagogue in American history,
M based on the first-ever review of his personal
“In an age when we see the resurrection of Senator Joe McCarthy’s tactics — exag- and professional papers, medical and military
geration and lies, guilt by association, the smearing of political opponents, and records, and recently unsealed transcripts of
T H E L I F E A N D
above all the acquiescence of enablers who know better — Larry Tye’s Demagogue his closed-door congressional hearings
A
is a gripping, essential read. Drawing on records newly unsealed after sixty years,
Tye explains how McCarthy’s fearmongering caught fire, offering timely insight into
the rise of bullies and what is required to defeat them.” G L O N G S H A D O W O F In the history of American demagogues, from Huey
Long to Donald Trump, never has one man caused
— SAMANTHA POWER, former US ambassador to the United Nations
so much damage in so short a time as Senator Jo-
and New York Times best-selling author of The Education of an Idealist O
S E N A T O R seph McCarthy. We still use “McCarthyism” to stand
LARRY TYE
is the best-selling author of
for outrageous charges of guilt by association, a
Bobby Kennedy and Satchel, as well as Super- “Larry Tye’s Demagogue nails the defining biography of Joe McCarthy. I grew up a
G weapon of polarizing slander. From 1950 to 1954,
man, The Father of Spin, Home Lands, and Rising Cold War kid watching it all on television. I thought I knew it all, but Tye makes it real.
J O E M c C A R T H Y McCarthy destroyed many careers and even entire
from the Rails, and coauthor, with Kitty Dukakis, To understand Donald Trump, you have to understand Joe McCarthy first, and Tye’s
lives, whipping the nation into a frenzy of paranoia,
of Shock. Previously an award-winning reporter at your guide.”
U accusation, loyalty oaths, and terror. When the pub-
the Boston Globe and a Nieman fellow at Harvard — JOHN KERRY, former US secretary of state
lic finally turned on him, he came crashing down,
University, Tye now runs the Boston-based Health
dying of alcoholism in 1957. Only now, through
Coverage Fellowship. He lives in Massachusetts. E
“Tye has written a fabulous, can’t-put-down examination of one of the most danger-
best-selling author Larry Tye’s exclusive look at the
ous politicians in American history. But Demagogue is more than a biography — it’s a
senator’s records, can the full story be told.
warning of the peril we are facing.”
Demagogue is a masterful portrait of a human
FURTHER PRAISE FOR
DEMAGOGUE — WILLIAM COHEN, former US secretary of defense being capable of immense evil, yet beguiling charm.
THE LIFE AND McCarthy was a tireless worker and a genuine war
“This well-crafted, deeply researched study of Jo- “As the demagogue now in the Oval Office — mentored personally by McCarthy’s hero. His ambitions knew few limits. Neither did his
seph McCarthy and McCarthyism reveals the awful unscrupulous disciple Roy Cohn — asserts monarchical authority, it has never been LONG SHADOW OF socializing, his drinking, and his gambling. When
consequences of demagoguery in America and its more urgent to have Tye’s definitive answers to the questions: How did Joe McCarthy he was elected to the Senate, he flailed around in
SENATOR
toll on our democracy. Tye provides not only untold get power in America? And how was he brought down?” search of an agenda and angered many with his
history, but an essential primer for the times of — DANIEL ELLSBERG, nuclear defense analyst and author of JOE Mc CARTHY sharp elbows and lack of integrity. After three years,
Trump. We cannot ignore the lessons revealed in any The Doomsday Machine he hit upon anticommunism. By recklessly charg-
p
this narrative.” m ing with treason everyone from George Marshall
o
C
— JOHN DEAN, former Nixon ng “Tye takes us, step by step, as one of America’s most dangerous right-wing populists to much of the State Department, he became the
hi L ARRY most influential and controversial man in America.
White House counsel ublis learns how to use fear and deception to vault his way into power and threaten our His chaotic, meteoric rise is a gripping and terrifying
P country’s most basic rights. The lessons for today are all too clear.”
urt object lesson for us all. Yet his equally sudden fall
o — STEVEN LEVITSKY, coauthor of How Democracies Die TYE
JACKET DESIGN BY BRIAN MOORE arc from fame offers reason for hope that, given the
JACKET PHOTOGRAPH: ULLSTEIN BILD DTL. / GETTY IMAGES H rope, most American demagogues eventually hang
n L A R R Y T Y E
AUTHOR PHOTOGRAPH © LISA FRUSZTAJER Miffli $36.00 Higher in Canada themselves.
Available as an e-book and an audiobook on ISBN 978-1-328-95972-0
ht
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT g
u
o
H
hmhbooks.com © 1706918 New York Times best-selling author of Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon 0520
Tye_DEMAGOGUE_jacket_final.indd 1 2/12/20 4:22 PM
3-color (874 C) on matte lam with embossing
D E M A G O G U E $36.00
Higher in Canada
D
PRAISE FOR
D E M A G O G U E
E The definitive biography of the most
dangerous demagogue in American history,
M based on the first-ever review of his personal
“In an age when we see the resurrection of Senator Joe McCarthy’s tactics — exag- and professional papers, medical and military
geration and lies, guilt by association, the smearing of political opponents, and records, and recently unsealed transcripts of
T H E L I F E A N D
above all the acquiescence of enablers who know better — Larry Tye’s Demagogue his closed-door congressional hearings
A
is a gripping, essential read. Drawing on records newly unsealed after sixty years,
Tye explains how McCarthy’s fearmongering caught fire, offering timely insight into
the rise of bullies and what is required to defeat them.” G L O N G S H A D O W O F In the history of American demagogues, from Huey
Long to Donald Trump, never has one man caused
— SAMANTHA POWER, former US ambassador to the United Nations
so much damage in so short a time as Senator Jo-
and New York Times best-selling author of The Education of an Idealist O
S E N A T O R seph McCarthy. We still use “McCarthyism” to stand
LARRY TYE
is the best-selling author of
for outrageous charges of guilt by association, a
Bobby Kennedy and Satchel, as well as Super- “Larry Tye’s Demagogue nails the defining biography of Joe McCarthy. I grew up a
G weapon of polarizing slander. From 1950 to 1954,
man, The Father of Spin, Home Lands, and Rising Cold War kid watching it all on television. I thought I knew it all, but Tye makes it real.
J O E M c C A R T H Y McCarthy destroyed many careers and even entire
from the Rails, and coauthor, with Kitty Dukakis, To understand Donald Trump, you have to understand Joe McCarthy first, and Tye’s
lives, whipping the nation into a frenzy of paranoia,
of Shock. Previously an award-winning reporter at your guide.”
U accusation, loyalty oaths, and terror. When the pub-
the Boston Globe and a Nieman fellow at Harvard — JOHN KERRY, former US secretary of state
lic finally turned on him, he came crashing down,
University, Tye now runs the Boston-based Health
dying of alcoholism in 1957. Only now, through
Coverage Fellowship. He lives in Massachusetts. E
“Tye has written a fabulous, can’t-put-down examination of one of the most danger-
best-selling author Larry Tye’s exclusive look at the
ous politicians in American history. But Demagogue is more than a biography — it’s a
senator’s records, can the full story be told.
warning of the peril we are facing.”
Demagogue is a masterful portrait of a human
FURTHER PRAISE FOR
DEMAGOGUE — WILLIAM COHEN, former US secretary of defense being capable of immense evil, yet beguiling charm.
THE LIFE AND McCarthy was a tireless worker and a genuine war
“This well-crafted, deeply researched study of Jo- “As the demagogue now in the Oval Office — mentored personally by McCarthy’s hero. His ambitions knew few limits. Neither did his
seph McCarthy and McCarthyism reveals the awful unscrupulous disciple Roy Cohn — asserts monarchical authority, it has never been LONG SHADOW OF socializing, his drinking, and his gambling. When
consequences of demagoguery in America and its more urgent to have Tye’s definitive answers to the questions: How did Joe McCarthy he was elected to the Senate, he flailed around in
SENATOR
toll on our democracy. Tye provides not only untold get power in America? And how was he brought down?” search of an agenda and angered many with his
history, but an essential primer for the times of — DANIEL ELLSBERG, nuclear defense analyst and author of JOE Mc CARTHY sharp elbows and lack of integrity. After three years,
Trump. We cannot ignore the lessons revealed in any The Doomsday Machine he hit upon anticommunism. By recklessly charg-
p
this narrative.” m ing with treason everyone from George Marshall
o
C
— JOHN DEAN, former Nixon ng “Tye takes us, step by step, as one of America’s most dangerous right-wing populists to much of the State Department, he became the
hi L ARRY most influential and controversial man in America.
White House counsel ublis learns how to use fear and deception to vault his way into power and threaten our His chaotic, meteoric rise is a gripping and terrifying
P country’s most basic rights. The lessons for today are all too clear.”
urt object lesson for us all. Yet his equally sudden fall
o — STEVEN LEVITSKY, coauthor of How Democracies Die TYE
JACKET DESIGN BY BRIAN MOORE arc from fame offers reason for hope that, given the
JACKET PHOTOGRAPH: ULLSTEIN BILD DTL. / GETTY IMAGES H rope, most American demagogues eventually hang
n L A R R Y T Y E
AUTHOR PHOTOGRAPH © LISA FRUSZTAJER Miffli $36.00 Higher in Canada themselves.
Available as an e-book and an audiobook on ISBN 978-1-328-95972-0
ht
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT g
u
o
H
hmhbooks.com © 1706918 New York Times best-selling author of Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon 0520
Tye_DEMAGOGUE_jacket_final.indd 1 2/12/20 4:22 PM
3-color (874 C) on matte lam with embossing
DEMAGOGUE
Tye_DEMAGOGUE_interior-final.indd 1 2/7/20 10:26 AM
Books by Larry Tye
Bobby Kennedy:
The Making of a Liberal Icon
Superman:
The High-Flying History of America’s Most Enduring Hero
Satchel:
The Life and Times of an American Legend
Shock:
The Healing Power of
Electroconvulsive Therapy (coauthor)
Rising from the Rails:
Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class
Home Lands:
Portraits of the New Jewish Diaspora
The Father of Spin:
Edward L. Bernays and the Birth of Public Relations
Tye_DEMAGOGUE_interior-final.indd 2 2/7/20 10:26 AM
D E M A G O G U E
THE LIFE AND LONG SHADOW
OF SENATOR JOE McCARTHY
L ARRY T YE
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Boston New York
2020
Tye_DEMAGOGUE_interior-final.indd 3 2/7/20 10:26 AM
Copyright © 2020 by Larry Tye
All rights reserved
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write
to [email protected] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.
hmhbooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Tye, Larry, author.
Title: Demagogue : the life and long shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy / Larry
Tye. Other titles: Life and long shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy
Description: Boston : New York : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, [2020] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019024932 (print) | LCCN 2019024933 (ebook) | ISBN
9781328959720 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781328960023 (ebook) | ISBN
9780358316619 | ISBN 9780358315087
Subjects: LCSH: McCarthy, Joseph, 1908–1957. | McCarthy, Joseph,
1908–1957  —  Influence. | Anti-communist movements  —  United
States  —  History. | Legislators  —  United States  —  Biography. | Subversive
Activities  —  United States  —  History  —  20th century. | United States.
Congress. Senate  —  Biography.
Classification: LCC E748.M143 T94 2020 (print) | LCC E748.M143 (ebook) |
DDC 328.73/092 [B]  —  dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019024932
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019024933
Book design by Margaret Rosewitz
Printed in the United States of America
DOC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Joseph McCarthy Papers accessed through the Department of Special
Collections and University Archives, Marquette University Libraries.
Access granted by permission of the donors. Excerpts from the diaries of
Reed Harris used by kind permission of Donald Harris. Selections from Jim
Juliana's unpublished memoir used by permission of the Juliana family.
Tye_DEMAGOGUE_interior-final.indd 4 2/7/20 10:26 AM
To Dorothy Rubinoff Tye, my mother, earliest editor, and
enduring inspiration. She turned a joyful 101 while I was
completing this book, but did not live to see its publication.
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Tye_DEMAGOGUE_interior-final.indd 6 2/7/20 10:26 AM
CONTENTS
Preface 1
A Joe McCarthy Chronology 11
Author’s Note 15
1. Coming Alive 17
2. Senator Who? 65
3. An Ism Is Born 114
4. Bully’s Pulpit 188
5. Behind Closed Doors 244
6. The Body Count 300
7. The Enablers 341
8. Too Big to Bully 372
9. The Fall 447
Epilogue 475
Acknowledgments 483
Notes 487
Bibliography 523
Index 571
Tye_DEMAGOGUE_interior-final.indd 7 2/7/20 10:26 AM
Tye_DEMAGOGUE_interior-final.indd 8 2/7/20 10:26 AM