McCarthy was right AND he "over-reached." He may have had better PR had he exercised a bit of rhetorical restraint. His fag buddy Roy Cohn didn't help.
I think you've confused him overreacting with everyone else under reacting and taking insufficient action. Or better, you're confusing over reacting with poor messaging/marketing. It's not that he over reacted but his messaging clearly was ineffective. So with an awkward combination of hindsight (you know now what was done, nothing) and ignorance (you know not how bad the problem really was), people look at him and say wow he was nuts. When in reality he was dead accurate and everyone else was a fool to not believe him.
McCarthy was right AND he "over-reached." He may have had better PR had he exercised a bit of rhetorical restraint. His fag buddy Roy Cohn didn't help.
I think you've confused him overreacting with everyone else under reacting and taking insufficient action. Or better, you're confusing over reacting with poor messaging/marketing. It's not that he over reacted but his messaging clearly was ineffective. So with an awkward combination of hindsight (you know now what was done, nothing) and ignorance (you know not how bad the problem really was), people look at him and say wow he was nuts. When in reality he was dead accurate and everyone else was a fool to not believe him.
OK.
I'll admit I don't know how many commies were actively trying to overthrow the USG in the "McCarthy era."
I'll have to get back to you after reading up on his actual claims and what the reality may have been.
And even if you did read up a lot of these weren't exactly advertised.