Ism Into Wasm

Joe McCarthy rose in the Senate one afternoon last week with a resolution directing the Secretary of State to insist that the Big Four conference have an agenda item on the status of satellite nations. Since the U.S., Britain and France want no set agenda in meeting with the Russians, the resolution, if passed, would have hamstrung the anti-Communist leaders.

McCarthy knew that his resolution had no chance of passage. Joe wanted to make headlines and let his motion die quietly in committee. Democratic Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson had other plans. He rushed the resolution through the committee to the floor, where he mimicked McCarthy, saying that Joe would blame "the striped-pants boys from the State Department" if the resolution did not come to a vote. Then Johnson made it his own weapon: "The issue before the Senate is a very simple one. It is whether the President of the United States shall be sent to the Big Four Conference in a strait jacket." He forced the Senate to choose Ike or Joe.

Trapped, Joe attacked, but he fought the men who once stood at his side. McCarthy mocked Iowa's Senator Hick-enlooper, ranted at Indiana's Capehart. He sneered at California's Senator Knowland, saying that it should not be the Republican Party's role "to appease, to whine, to whimper." Crimson-faced, Knowland rose on the floor and roared in protest against the charge.

Then McCarthy tried to withdraw his resolution. Johnson and Knowland forced the resolution to a vote, and McCarthy lost, 77 to 4. Aside from Joe, the only remaining adherents of McCarthywasm were Indiana's Jenner, Nevada's Malone and North Dakota's Langer.

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