Mc ‧ Car ‧ thy, Joseph /məˈjɑːθi $ -ɑːr-/ BrE AmE
(1909–57) a US politician in the ↑ Republican Party . He became famous in the early 1950s by saying officially that many famous people, important politicians, and military officers were ↑ communist s , and therefore enemies of the US. He influenced the development of strongly anti-Communist ideas in the US, and anyone who was called a Communist was treated extremely unfairly. In 1954, however, the US ↑ senate formally criticized his actions, and he lost most of his political support and power. ⇨ ↑ McCarthyism