Who is Joseph McCarthy from Robert Kennedy and His Times and what is their importance?

Senator Joe McCarthy from Wisconsin was the Chairman of the Senate Investigations Committee during the 1950's. An avid anti-Communist, he launched a major campaign to root out any Communists and/or Communist sympathizers, expose them, and ultimately imprison them if they refused to answer questions involving their own activities or to name fellow Communist-leaning individuals. An alcoholic, McCarthy was often characterized as an irrational demagogue. He eventually died of alcoholic-related liver conditions.