What did Joseph McCarthy do during the cold war?

US citizens had to be carefull how they exercised their freedom of speech during the McCarthy era. Rumors and gossip concerning communism could get those individuals investigated as being communists.

NONSENSE!

McCarthy Vindicated At Last 12/18/2007 http://bit.ly/b2fmz8

"...These intercepted cables proved that there were over 350 Americans spying for the Soviets, and enabled investigators to identify about half of them. Joe McCarthy had access to the information contained in the top secret Venona intercepts, access given him by J. Edgar Hoover and others concerned with the extent of Soviet espionage and penetration, but he could not defend himself against charges of recklessly accusing people of being Soviet agents by revealing the source of his information without alerting the Soviets that some of their most important secrets were known to U.S. Intelligence..."