The Progressive's McCarthy Takedown.

Editor's note: From the start, The Progressive was a leading voice against Senator Joseph McCarthy. The magazine once called him "an ambitious faker living by his wits and guts, a ruthless egotist bent on personal power regardless of the consequence to his country, a shrewd and slippery operator with the gambler's gift for knowing when and how to bluff' These are words that sound eerily familiar today.

But the magazine's greatest shot across McCarthy's bow came in the form of its April 1954 issue titled, "McCarthy: A Documented Record." The issue was divided into sections including "The Numbers Game," "McCarthyism in Action," "Win at Any Cost," and most notably, "Striking at the Freedom of the Press," which chronicled McCarthy's efforts to undermine journalists and news outlets.

The Progressive's special issue sold 180,000 copies, making it by far the most popular in the magazine's history, and its bold, critical, and well-researched content no doubt played a part in McCarthy's downfall.

Morris Rubin, editor of "The Progressive/ram 1940 to 1973, wrote the introduction, an abbreviated version of which appears below:

This issue of The Progressive is devoted entirely to presenting a documented report of the public record of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy.

Our purpose is two-fold: 1) to provide the people of the United States with the factual background to help them evaluate the public statements and actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin; and 2) to make available to our friends of the free world authentic materials which will enable them to gain a clearer perspective of the meaning of McCarthyism and the extent to which it is at war with the finest traditions of Americanism.

McCarthy has...