The republican senator from Wisconsin claimed, 60 years ago, that he knew of "206 card-carrying communists" who worked in the US State Department. As we know he said this in a speech he gave in West Virginia. Shortly thereafter he wrote to President Truman and said he had the names of 57 communists. On Feb 20, 1950 he told congress that he had a list of 81 commies. "When Congress actually started to investigate, the list shrank to 10 names". Even though there was no proof of the charges "...many of the accused lost their jobs and reputations". "McCarthyism now describes the practice of using unsubstantiated accusations of subversive activity to discredit an opponent".
(Source: "Did You Know" by Jan Housewerth from The Record on 2/8/10).
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