Who coined the term “McCarthyism”? Was it Washington Post cartoonist Herb Block? Or someone more sinister? I report my original research as it stands now. You decide.
Joe McCarthy famously launched his campaign to expose communists working in the government in a February 1950 speech in Wheeling, West Viginia.
Washington Post cartoonist Herb Block (aka “Herblock”) is commonly credited with coining the term, possibly first used in his March 29, 1950 cartoon (above). Below is the Wikipedia entry for Herblock:
But… as Diana West recently explained:
So Budenz said that, as reported in the May 1950 issue of Political Affairs, the “battle against McCarthyism” was launched at the March 1950 plenary of the National Committee of the Communist Party USA.
After reading Budenz’s book several years ago, I chased down a copy of the May 1950 Political Affairs and discovered that the plenary was held in New York City on March 23-25, 1950 — less than a week before Herblock’s cartoon appeared. Although McCarthy was attacked in an address by Gus Hall at the plenary, the term “McCarthyism” is not to be found in the May 1950 report. What can we make of this?
Here are some possibilities:
- Herblock and the plenary never intersected, so Herblock did indeed coin the term.
- The term “McCarthyism” was verbally bandied about at the plenary and Herblock caught wind of it in the WaPo newsroom or was directly given it by a plenary attendee/CPUSA official.
- Perhaps the term had been used elsewhere (say in the The Daily Worker), and Herblock had seen it there.
I will chase down the latter possibility when I get the chance.