Tag: joseph mccarthy
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Duck and Cover: America’s Troubled History with Civil Defense
After World War II, America tried to develop a plan for civil defense in case of a nuclear attack. Why didn’t it work out, and who’s to blame for its failure?
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Thank God I’m A Country Boy: Kefauver’s Musical Connection
Throughout his career, Estes Kefauver used country music to connect with people and promote his campaigns. Like Kefauver himself, it may not have impressed the powerful, but it hit home with regular people.
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Haste Makes Waste… and Bad Laws: Kefauver and the Jencks Act
What do you get when you have two months to pass a law driven by anti-Communist paranoia, anti-Supreme Court resentment, and with the FBI and Justice Department holding a gun to your head? Nothing good. But it’s a law that’s stood for 75 years.
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Don’t Touch That Dial: Kefauver and Television
Estes Kefauver was the first politician to use TV as a springboard to national fame. Why has his pioneering role been forgotten?
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Never Get Involved in a Land War in Asia: Kefauver and the Formosa Crisis
Estes Kefauver died before America got heavily involved in the Vietnam War. But we can envision how he would have reacted based on his reaction to another Asian conflict: the Formosa crisis of 1955.
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Anybody But Estes: Truman’s Biggest Mistake?
Harry Truman was looking for a successor… as long as it was anyone but Estes Kefauver. Did Truman let a personal grudge cost the Democrats their best shot at beating Ike and extending Truman’s legacy?
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Feeling Badly About Adlai
Adlai Stevenson was one of the most admired losing candidates of all time. Here’s my hot take: He was a lousy candidate, and he encouraged the Democrats’ worst tendencies.
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Porcine Populism: The Presidential Campaigns of Henry Krajewski
Kefauver wasn’t the only 1950s presidential hopeful who came up short. There was also Krajewski, the New Jersey pig farmer and bar owner, whose views were a little… different.
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FBI: No Time For Organized Crime
Kefauver’s hearings on organized crime exposed just how little the FBI was doing to combat the problem. So they learned their lesson from that, right? Yeah… not so much.
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Busting Myths About the Juvenile Delinquency Hearings
I’ve been reluctant to write about these hearings, since they’re so often misunderstood and frequently caricatured. So today, I’m tackling some of the biggest myths about these hearings. Comic book fans, take note.
