56 Facts About Pat McCarran

Patrick Anthony McCarran was an American farmer, attorney, judge, and Democratic politician who represented Nevada in the United States Senate from 1933 until 1954.

Pat McCarran studied law privately and was admitted to the bar in 1905, then won election as Nye County District Attorney.

Pat McCarran served a two-year term, after which he returned to Reno.

From 1913 to 1919, Pat McCarran was a justice of the Supreme Court of Nevada, serving as chief justice from 1917 to 1919.

In 1932, Pat McCarran unseated incumbent Republican Tasker Oddie to become the state's first US Senator born in Nevada; he was reelected three times and served from 1933 until his death.

Pat McCarran sponsored the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938 and was a proponent of establishing the United States Air Force.

Pat McCarran was an anti-communist to the point of supporting some fascists to limit its international spread.

Pat McCarran sponsored the McCarran Internal Security Act, restricting the political activities of those supporting "totalitarian dictatorship" in the United States.

Pat McCarran was educated in Reno and graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1897 at Reno High School.

Pat McCarran's mother was a devout Catholic, and he inherited his mother's faith.

Pat McCarran attended Nevada State University but withdrew to work on the family sheep ranch after his father suffered an injury.

Some sources incorrectly state that Pat McCarran received a bachelor's degree in 1901 and a master's degree in 1915.

Pat McCarran ran for the Nevada Assembly in 1902 as a free silver Democrat with encouragement from his political science professor Anne Henrietta Martin.

Pat McCarran was elected and served one term from 1903 to 1905.

Pat McCarran served one term, 1907 to 1909, after which he moved to Reno to continue practicing law.

In 1912, McCarran was elected to the Supreme Court of Nevada, succeeding John G Sweeney.

Pat McCarran served as a justice from January 1913 to January 1917.

Pat McCarran was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1918 and left office in January 1919.

Pat McCarran was a member of the Board of Parole Commissioners from 1913 to 1918, and he served on the Board of Bar Examiners from 1919 until 1932.

Pat McCarran was president of the Nevada Bar Association from 1920 to 1921 and was a vice president of the American Bar Association from 1922 to 1923.

Pat McCarran ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination in 1916, and lost to incumbent Key Pittman.

Pat McCarran endorsed Pittman in the general election, and Pittman was reelected.

In 1926, Pat McCarran was again a candidate for the US Senate.

Pat McCarran lost the Democratic nomination to Raymond T Baker, who was defeated by Republican incumbent Tasker Oddie in the general election.

In 1932, Pat McCarran won the Democratic nomination and defeated Oddie in the general election.

Pat McCarran served from March 4,1933 until his death in 1954.

In 1944, McCarran was challenged by Vail M Pittman in the Democratic primary, leading to an especially hard-fought campaign that was finally won by McCarran.

Pat McCarran served as co-chairman of the Joint Committee on Foreign Economic Cooperation.

Pittman's serious alcoholism rendered him less effective in his last years, and Pat McCarran was able to become the dominant force within the Nevada Democratic Party by 1938.

Pat McCarran was critical of Roosevelt's willingness to intervene in Europe, particularly in alliance with the Soviet Union.

From 1939 to 1941, Pat McCarran opposed Roosevelt's plans for aid to Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and France, accusing the president of trying to involve America in a war that was not its business.

Pat McCarran supported the war effort after the United States entered the conflict following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Outside of Nevada, Pat McCarran had the reputation of a narrow-minded and parochial senator; the same reasons that made him unpopular outside of Nevada made him popular to Nevadans as he developed the reputation of a dogged fighter for Nevada's interests.

Pat McCarran repeatedly attempted via filibusters to force the federal government to stockpile silver, a measure that would have benefited Nevada where silver mining was a major industry, but was widely denounced outside of Nevada as a plan for wasteful spending designed only to benefit his state.

Pat McCarran was well known for his efforts at constituent services, often going to extraordinary lengths on behalf of Nevada residents who requested his aid.

For instance, Pat McCarran intervened to shield a teenager from Nevada who stole 150 volumes from the Library of Congress and mutilated hundreds of books.

In 1942, Pat McCarran pressured the State Department to engage in a prisoner exchange to return the son of a Reno couple who had been captured by the Japanese at Wake Island.

Over time, Pat McCarran used his position as chairman of the Judiciary Committee to engage in much deal-making that allowed him to collect a significant number of political "debts", making him one of the most powerful Senators.

In 1950, when Pat McCarran was asked that question by a reporter, he responded: "I can do more good by staying in the Democratic Party and watching the lunatic fringe-the Roosevelt crowd".

Pat McCarran was against the plans of the Roosevelt and Truman administrations for federal health insurance and increased education spending; favored restricting the power of unions; was opposed to increased immigration, saying he did not want "undesirables from abroad" coming to America; and was against the United Nations, which he called "a haven for spies and Communists".

Pat McCarran sponsored numerous laws concerning the early commercial aviation industry, including the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938 and the Federal Airport Act of 1945.

Pat McCarran was an early advocate of separating the United States Army Air Forces from the Army as the Air Force and began sponsoring the necessary legislation in 1933.

In 1945, Pat McCarran co-sponsored the Pat McCarran-Ferguson Act, which exempted the insurance industry from most federal regulations, including antitrust rules.

Pat McCarran established himself as one of the Senate's most ardent anti-Communists.

McCarran voted for President Harry S Truman's 1947 plan to provide aid to Greece and Turkey as part of an effort to prevent them from becoming communist, but in 1949 McCarran broke with Truman after he rejected McCarran's request for increased economic aid to Spain and military aid to Chiang Kai-shek's nationalist Chinese government.

In 1949, Pat McCarran visited Spain, where he was welcomed as if he were a visiting head of state, and made clear his admiration for Franco.

Pat McCarran was a supporter of Chiang Kai-shek and attributed the "loss of China" to communists to Soviet influence in the US State Department.

In 1950, Pat McCarran was the chief sponsor of the Pat McCarran Internal Security Act, which required the Communist Party and affiliated organizations to register with the Attorney General and established the Subversive Activities Control Board to investigate possible communist subversion and communist front organizations.

Pat McCarran was careful not to accuse Lattimore of espionage, which would have allowed him to sue for libel, but came very close with the statement: "Owen Lattimore was, from some time beginning in the 1930s, a conscious, articulate instrument of the Soviet conspiracy".

Pat McCarran subsequently pushed successfully for Lattimore to be indicted for perjury.

Lattimore's lawyer Abe Fortas defended him by claiming Pat McCarran had deliberately asked questions about arcane and obscure matters that took place in the 1930s in the hope that Lattimore would not be able to recall them properly, thereby giving grounds for perjury indictments.

Pat McCarran attracted national attention when he criticized President Dwight Eisenhower on the Senate floor for signing the armistice, which he called "a perpetuation of a fraud on this country and the United Nations".

Pat McCarran believed that the United States and the rest of its allies fighting under the United Nations banner in Korea should have fought on until all of Korea was unified under the leadership of President Syngman Rhee, which led him to see the armistice as a sort of American defeat.

Pat McCarran used his legislative skill to prevent immigration by Holocaust survivors, opposing admission of Jews and potential communists.

Pat McCarran died in Hawthorne, Nevada, on September 28,1954, collapsing of a heart attack following a speech he gave at a political rally.

McCarran Boulevard in Reno is named for Pat McCarran, as is McCarran Street in North Las Vegas.