Joseph McCarthy’s War on Voice of America

In nationally televised hearings, Senate Republicans denounce Voice of America. They accuse the government’s international broadcasting arm of harboring saboteurs, misspending taxpayer funds, condoning anti-Semitism, compromising security by relying on foreign-born workers, and denigrating the country it is supposed to serve. The committee chairman grills VOA executives, middle managers, and even copy editors, zeroing in on their alleged left-wing associations and on scripts and word choices that he deems un-American. “We intend…to detect duplications, waste, incompetence, subversion, in other words laying the entire picture on the table,” he proclaims.

These hearings that gripped the country were not part of the Trump administration’s recent campaign against VOA. They took place in 1953, and the committee chair running them was none other than Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy, then at the peak of his power. Although his allegations were largely unsubstantiated, dread of his wrath was so pervasive that leaders of VOA’s parent agency resigned, numerous employees were fired, and an engineer killed himself.