McCarthy got too bold with his accusations. The current President, Eisenhower, was very popular and to imply that his institution (the Army) was a nest of Communists was an allegation that the public was not buying. Additionally, old Joe Welsh seemed like a kind old patriotic American granddad who was being picked on. Everyone turned on McCarthy and he was cast out into oblivion to die of Alcoholism just three years later.
Shortly afterwards an American playwright named Arthur Miller wrote a play called "the Crucible" which paralleled McCarthyism with the Salem Witchtrials of 1692.
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