A Senator who would become an ‘ism’…

It has been 58 years since US Senator Joe McCarthy died on 2 May, 1957. He was 48 years old and serving his second term in the US Senate at the time. Senator McCarthy began his political career as Wisconsin’s youngest Circuit Court Judge and would go on to defeat Robert M. LaFollette, Jr. in the 1946 Republican Primary for US Senate. Senator McCarthy would create a world-wide sensation with his charges of disloyalty aimed at those in high places in government, among those he accused were US Army General Ralph Zwicker, a native of Stoughton, Wisconsin, who attended the UW-Madison prior to his being recommended to the US Military Academy at West Point. This photo of Senator McCarthy at a social event was taken on the UW-Madison campus.