Joseph McCarthy: Encyclopedia II - Joseph McCarthy

McCarthy was born on a farm in the town of Grand Chute, Wisconsin. Although both of his parents had also been born in Wisconsin, his paternal grandmother had been born in Germany, and his three other grandparents in England. McCarthy dropped out of junior high school to help his parents manage their farm, and later returned to school and earned his diploma in one year. McCarthy worked his way through school studying engineering and law, earning a law degree at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1930 to 1935, and he was admitted to the Bar Association in 1935. While working in a law firm in Shawano, Wisconsin, he launched an unsuccessful campaign to become District Attorney as a Democrat in 1936. In 1939, he successfully vied for the elected post of 10th District judge, becoming the youngest judge in Wisconsin's history.

In 1942, shortly after the U.S. entered World War II, although his judicial office exempted him from compulsory service, McCarthy enlisted as a private in the United States Marine Corps. He later took a commission as a Lieutenant and served as an intelligence briefing officer for a bomber squadron in the Solomon Islands and Bougainville. He flew eleven missions as an aerial photographer and tail gunner, and he was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross in 1952. McCarthy received a commendation from Admiral Chester Nimitz for flying despite an injury. Many of McCarthy's critics and some historians contend that he embellished or exaggerated his wartime service record when running for office. It has often been claimed that McCarthy exaggerated the number and nature of the flights he undertook, and that he may have obtained the commendation from Admiral Nimitz by deception. Also, the injuries referred to in the commendation citation were, according to members of his unit, the result of an accident during a shipboard hazing ritual, not combat wounds, as McCarthy later allowed people to believe.[1] Many critics also allege that McCarthy's Distinguished Flying Cross was unmerited and that high-ranking McCarthy allies in the Pentagon supported McCarthy's claim for the medal for political purposes.

He campaigned for the Republican Senate nomination in Wisconsin while still on active duty in 1944, but was easily defeated by incumbent Alexander Wiley. After resigning his commission in April 1945 and being re-elected unopposed to his circuit court position, he began a much more systematic campaign for the 1946 Senate election, again challenging a Republican incumbent, four term Senator and United States Progressive Party icon, Robert M. La Follette, Jr.. In his campaign, McCarthy attacked La Follette for not enlisting during the war, without mentioning that La Follette had been forty-six when Pearl Harbor was bombed. McCarthy also claimed that La Follette had made huge profits from his investments while he had been away fighting for his country. The suggestion that La Follette had been guilty of war profiteering (his investments had, in fact, been in a radio station) was deeply damaging and McCarthy won by 207,935 to 202,557.

McCarthy enjoyed the support of the state party organization, and he won the nomination narrowly. He easily defeated his Democratic opponent, Howard MacMurray, in the general election by a 2 to 1 margin, and he joined Senator Wiley, whom he had challenged two years earlier, in the Senate. On his first day in the Senate, McCarthy called a press conference where he proposed a solution to a coal strike that was taking place at the time. McCarthy called for John L. Lewis and the striking miners to be drafted into the Army. If the men still refused to mine the coal, McCarthy suggested that they should be court-martialed for insubordination and shot.

McCarthy married Jean Kerr, a researcher in his office, on September 29, 1953, when he was 44 years old. He and his wife adopted a baby girl in January 1957.