In the 1950s Joseph McCarthy, a Republican senator from Appleton, Wisconsin, waged a years-long battle against subversive conduct in the United States and against the Communists whom he believed to be hiding in all walks of American life—particularly in government, Hollywood, and academia. McCarthy's unsubstantiated claims led to upheaval, the destruction of careers, and to a concentrated attack on the freedoms guaranteed to Americans in the First Amendment of the Constitution. Despite attempts by conservative scholars to reinstate McCarthy's tarnished reputation, no one has proved that he ever identified an actual subversive. Nowhere were his bullying tactics more obvious than when he accused the United States Army of harboring Communists. The hearings on these activities and McCarthy's belligerent behavior were broadcast on network television in 1957.

Specifically, McCarthy targeted an army dentist who was in the process of being voluntarily discharged due to the illness of...