Before the Cold War:

• born 1876 in Reno - became Nevada's 1st native-born senator 1932
  
• Nevada had smallest pop in U.S. in 1930 = 91,058 and most lived in north, Reno largest city = 18,529
  
• supported by AFL - served on approp comm to get fed. aid for highways, jobs
  
• served with Key Pittman, close supporter of FDR until death Nov. 10, 1940
  
• became leader of conservatives in Congress after 1937 court-packing crisis
  
• 1938 - won re-election to 2nd term
  
• emph defense stockpile of silver during war under Strategic Materials Act
  
• 1941 won $150m grant from Defense Plant Corp. for Basic Magnesium Inc. at Henderson, near Las Vegas, to take advantage of electricity from Boulder Dam
  
• 1941 Las Vegas Army Air Field began expansion north of Las Vegas - became Nellis AFB
• 1942 won approp for housing, sewage, airfields, power, schools in south Nevada
  
• 1943 aerial gunnery range built on 5800 acres in Black Rock Desert in Humboldt Co.
  
• 1944 - won re-election to 3rd term due to new population of south Nevada, especially Clark Co. of Las Vegas, Henderson, Boulder

After 1950:

• 1950 - won re-election to 4th term with 58% of popluar vote, especially federal employees
  1950/09/23 - passed Internal Security Act that required all communist-front organizations to register with the Attorney-General, prohibited communists for working in defense industies, prohibited immigration of any member of a totalitarian organization, allowed internment of communists in case of national emergency.
  
• 1950/12 - became chairman of new Senate Internal Security subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee:
  • McCarran's subcommittee held hearings on "loss" of China from July '51 to June '52, using files of the Institute of Pacific Relations seized by the subcommittee from Edward Carter's barn in Lee, Massachusetts, in Feb. 1951. Some of those named in the hearings would prove to be spies, such as Frederick V. Field who had also been named by Elizbeth Bentley. Most of the others who were named were not spies and suffered from unproven accusations, such as Prof. John K. Fairbank of Harvard.
  • the subcommittee also investigated unions, contributing to the expulsion of 1900 from the CIO for alleged communist activities
• 1952/06/30 - passed McCarran-Walter Act that revised immigration laws to admit more Asians (was pro-Nationalist China) but not "subversives", and allowed Attorney-General to deport subversives even after becoming citizens
  

Resources:

• Edwards, Jerome E. Pat McCarran, Political Boss of Nevada. Reno, Nev. : University of Nevada Press, 1982.
• Caute, David. The Great Fear; The Anti-Communist Purge Under Truman and Eisenhower. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978.
• Fried, Richard. Nightmare in Red: the McCarthy Era in Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.