The end of the anticommunist crusade of U.S. senator Joseph McCarthy (1909–1957) of Wisconsin began in the spring of 1954 during hearings, televised live, of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The Subcommittee was investigating a series of charges and countercharges made between McCarthy and the U.S. Army's top generals, which is why the proceedings became known as the "Army-McCarthy Hearings."

General Ralph Zwicker, one of many who testified at the "Army-McCarthy" hearings in 1954. Corbis Corporation. Reproduced by permission.

The hostility between the two parties began in November 1953 when a member of McCarthy's staff, G. David Schine (1927–1996), was drafted into the army. Almost immediately, McCarthy and his chief counsel, Roy Cohn (1927–1986), began to lobby the army to get Schine special treatment, such as easy training and assignment to a desirable duty station. When the army did not cooperate with his requests, McCarthy charged that it was...