It’s almost axiomatic that anything written about this era will always include “witch hunt” or “paranoia” or “red scare” somewhere in there, probably a couple others I’m forgetting.
I hadn’t realized the allegations under the surface at the time. McCarthy was accused as a homosexual, perhaps in part response that was how Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss got involved, apparently. Hiss was an erudite, urbane worldly sophisticate and Chambers was a little rough around the edges and not in the same league. How did their paths cross?
They didn't. Hiss was convicted and sent off to prison in January, 1950, and McCarthy burst on the scene about a month later with his famous speech at the McClure Hotel in Wheeling, WV about Russian agents in the State Department. Incidentally, the hotel still stands, and although the facade is new, the room where McCarthy delivered that speech is still there.