Welch was greeted with applause when he cut off the exchange with McCarthy. This was surprising to the people of the time, who had seen the Wisconsin senator running roughshod over his political enemies. They realized something important was happening.

Today, we have a better perspective on exactly how stinkin' important that exchange was.

The fact that people cheered showed that they were done with McCarthy's brand of witch hunting. Anyone today learning about the McCarthy Era wonders how it could possibly have taken so long. Seriously, try to imagine a politician of either party taking on the Army brass and imagine how quickly that career is gone. McCarthy actually thought it was going to work. And when it started to go south on him, he doubled down on the accusations by smearing an employee of the other side.

If anything, McCarthy is seen as a bigger villain today than he was back in 1954. There's no nuance when discussing him; the word McCarthyism is used to describe any brutal tactics used to make unsubstantiated allegations and suppress dissent or open discussion. He's up there with Darth Vader and General Zod in the public imagination.

But if you aren't someone who lived through the McCarthy era, it's hard to grok exactly how terrified Americans were by the possibility of a Communist takeover. The Soviet Union was one scary bear. Josef Stalin, the "brutalitarian" McCarthy described, had just died, and memories of his murderous, oppressive regime was fresh in the minds of Americans. Anyone who was hot on the trail of Communist infiltrators had the support of a large portion of the American public, even if his tactics were over-the-top.

With the benefit of hindsight, we can now see how difficult it is to justify trampling our civil liberties by using security scare tactics. But back then, the political atmosphere was way different.