In 1950, Joseph McCarthy accused Owen Lattimore of being a "top Russian spy." Lattimore's experience defending himself explains how the anti-communist system worked. | American Experience | PBS

The Army-McCarthy hearings had gripped the country for weeks before coming to an unforgettable head on this day in 1954. When Senator Joe McCarthy drudged up Army lawyer Fred Fisher's past affiliation with a communist front group (in violation of an agreement made before the hearings), lead Army counsel Joseph Welch gave voice to the growing frustration with McCarthy's tactics: "Have you no sense of decency, sir?" | American Experience | PBS

Before his name became synonymous with political witch hunts, Joseph McCarthy was simply a senator from Wisconsin. Tune in or stream #McCarthyPBS Mon, Jan 6 at 9/8c on American Experience | PBS. | PBS

By 1950, it seemed that Joseph McCarthy, the junior Senator from Wisconsin, was doomed to fade into obscurity. But with a single speech in Wheeling, West Virginia on February 9 of that year, he ignited a firestorm that would forever change American politics—and carve out his space in history. Speaking before a small Women’s Republican Club, McCarthy claimed to have a list of 205 "known communists" in the State Department, sparking a nationwide hysteria over subversive elements in the United Stat