Product Details

• Actors: A & E Biography
• Format: Black & White, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: A & E Home Video
• VHS Release Date: February 8, 2000
• Run Time: 50 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B000006QEH
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #36,670 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description
He hit on a sure-fire way to polish his political star. But the ambitious Wisconsin Senator has gone down in history as the driving force behind one of the most shameful and disturbing eras in American history. Joseph P. McCarthy had one of the most tumultuous political careers of the century. His accusations that communists had infiltrated the State Department kicked off the ""Red Scare,"" and for several years his constant finger-pointing made him the most powerful and feared politician in America. BIOGRAPHY; revisits the McCarthy era for a probing look at the climate of suspicion and paranoia he created and sustained. Through extensive interviews and fascinating archival footage, trace his rise from a small-town Midwestern chicken farmer to the heights of power and his precipitous fall from grace. Stunning footage of the Army hearings that marked the beginning of the end for McCarthy is featured. Join BIOGRAPHY; for the definitive portrait of the shameless man at the heart of one of the darkest eras of modern politics."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When democracy and decency almost failed, May 7, 2002

By	Charles Ashbacher "([e-mail])" (Marion, Iowa United States([e-mail])) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

On this tape, you will see democracy at its' best and worst. It also demonstrates how paranoid the United States was in the early fifties. Communism was perceived as the great evil and fear won out over reason. It is very sad to realize how people with the stature of Dwight Eisenhower and Robert Taft chose to keep silent over the cancer growing in their midst. Eisenhower's refusal to stand up for his friend and mentor General George Marshall when he was attacked by McCarthy will forever be a blot on his record.
It is amazing that despite all his ranting and the many informants who passed him information, McCarthy did not unearth a single communist or communist spy. The spies did exist, as it is now well-known that the Soviet nuclear weapons program was given an able assist by spies in the United States. In fact, the tactics employed by McCarthy probably aided the spies by deflecting attention elsewhere. Watching this tape, one finds it difficult to understand how anyone took him seriously. I can account for it only by appealing to two of the tactics used by Adolf Hitler in his rise to power in Germany. Whip up a powerful fear of an international, yet internal enemy and employ the big lie. The big lie is where you state something so outlandish and repeat it so often that people start to believe you.
The fundamental strength of democracy finally asserted itself and McCarthy was quickly relegated to an asterisk, even though he retained his seat in the senate. He died shortly after he fell out of favor, a man who basically got what he deserved. At the end of the tape, the pictures show a man who was truly beaten, with no friends and no prospect of getting any. Unfortunately, the man who helped him the most and was even more ruthless, Roy Cohn, somehow emerged relatively unscathed. Cohn is described accurately on the tape as a man with even less scruples than McCarthy, which is not an easy thing to do. I remember watching Cohn being interviewed on television in the eighties and nothing about him had changed. He was a liar in the fifties and he remained one to his death.
The two greatest threats to the U.S. constitution in the twentieth century were Huey Long and Joseph McCarthy. Both were demagogues, very intelligent, early successes and both died young as a consequence of their excesses. It is hard to argue against the statement that the country was better off without them. William F. Buckley says it best when he states on the tape, "As a fervent anti-communist I often wish Joe McCarthy had never existed."