Location: The Heritage Foundation's Lehrman Auditorium

From 1950-1954, it is almost universally agreed, America was plunged into a veritable Reign of Terror. The loyalty of patriotic Americans was impugned, senators were bullied, generals were maligned, professors were silenced, presidents expressed concern about the future of the country. One man was responsible for the five years of infamy: Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin. He gave birth to a term – “McCarthyism” – that is used so frequently by both liberals and conservatives it requires no definition. Webster’s defines McCarthyism as “the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, especially of pro-Communist activity, in many instances unsupported by proof or based on slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence.”

But now M. Stanton Evans, long one of the conservative movement’s most respected and thoughtful writers, has published a 663-page book of meticulous research and dispassionate analysis that argues the opposite: McCarthy was right about there being communists in government, his investigative methods were careful, thorough and of the highest standard, his adversaries were the ones who practiced “McCarthyism.”

Columnist Robert Novak, no fan of McCarthy, writes that Stan Evans makes “a convincing case” that Senator McCarthy did not drive “liberal” officials from public life, did not accuse “innocents” of being Communists, and did not degrade the public process by accusing rivals of treason. Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy is already one of the most talked-about books of the year about one of the most controversial figures in American politics. Heritage is pleased to present M. Stanton Evans and Herbert Romerstein, one of America’s leading experts on Soviet espionage, in a timely discussion of Joe McCarthy, the man and the ism.