The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy: A Biography

Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower (a democrat and republican president respectively) both hated McCarthy more than any other person in the world. According to their respective biographers (D. McCullough and S. Ambrose), Truman hated only three men during his lifetime: Douglas MacArthur, Dwight Eisenhower and McCarthy. On the other hand, Eisenhower hated only two men during his lifetime: Adolf Hitler and McCarthy.After reading these two biographies, I wanted to get a glimpse at McCarthy's "side" and thus bought this book. The surprise is that even after reading "his" side you don't feel any better for the man. It is difficult to find any other person in the 20th century history of the USA that created so much division, generated so much hatred, ruined so many lives and careers, diverted so much attention from the real issues and thus ironically, at the end of the day probably helped more the cause of communism than even Stalin. "Were the junior senator from Wisconsin in the pay of the Communists, he could not have done a better job for them."The terror he created in the USA was comparable to that of any dictator (even Eisenhower was afraid of him and did his best to prevent an open confrontation: "I won't get into a pissing contest with that skunk"). "It seemed that the Eisenhower administration would never summon the courage to stand up to the powerful Wisconsin senator".In the middle of this fear, unwillingness to take action and even cowardice, there was at least one extremely brave man that committed himself to defeating McCarthy: Senator William Benton. He confided to a magazine editor that many of the professional politicians "think I am making a mistake in terms of my own political future; but I can only reply that I would rather be right than be a senator." If only Eisenhower had had half the guts of Benton history would have been much different, for the better.The other person well worth mentioning is Jean Fraser Kerr, McCarthy's wife. She seems to have been an exceptional woman: very intelligent (more so than McCarthy), completely loyal to her husband, very hard working, etc. Her "first love" was politics and she contributed greatly to McCarthys career (first as his assistant and then as his wife).Something that came as a surprise to me was that McCarthy was a very good friend of the Kennedy's and he even hired Robert Kennedy to his staff. What is more, Joseph Kennedy (JFK father) contributed thousands of dollars to McCarthy's political career. "After Wheeling, Joseph P. Kennedy was to become one of McCarthy's most loyal defenders and financial supporters, and the senator would give Bobby Kennedy his first job."All the destruction, hatred, and enemies he created were finally too much and his political career was finally destroyed. On the personal level he had a wonderful wife and a new baby daughter (Tierney) but he technically committed suicide because his life was politics and here he had lost it all. (His doctor had told him

Despite the "review" claiming this book is tedious, it is actually a quick read for more than 800 pages. It may be the only thorough and truly fair account of McCarthy's life. Not among the band of writers who do nothing but demonize McCarthy, Reeves looks deeper, at the other sides of the senator, and presents an insightful portrait. No one will finish this book loving Joe McCarthy, but they will certainly understand him and the times that helped create him. This is an excellent scholarly book that is also easy to read. I highly recommend it.