Pat McCarran
|
|
Pat_McCarran.jpg
Patrick Anthony McCarran (August 8, 1876 – September 28, 1954) was a Nevada senator for 22 years and noted for his strong anti-Communist stance. McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas is named for him.
Pat McCarran was born in Reno, Nevada. After graduating from the University of Nevada, Reno, he worked in farming. In 1903 he became a member of the State legislature and after studying for a law degree he eventually became district attorney of Nye County (1907–09).
McCarran was also Nevada Chief Justice (1917–18), chairman of the Nevada State Board of Parole Commissioners (1913–18) and chairman of the Nevada State Board of Bar Examiners (1919–32). A member of the Democratic Party, McCarran, after two unsuccessful bids in 1916 and 1926, was elected the U.S. Senate in 1932.
He sponsored laws concerned with the nation's security, including the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938; the Federal Airport Act of 1945; the Administrative Procedures Act of 1946. He was also an early advocate of a separate U.S. Air Force.
After the Second World War, McCarran established himself as the Senate's most powerful anti-Communist. He was the chairman of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee that investigated the administrations headed by Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman. In September 1950 he was the chief sponsor of the McCarran-Woods Act. This legislation required registration with the Attorney General of the American Communist Party and affiliated organizations.
In June 1952, McCarran joined Francis Walter in instigating the passing of the McCarran-Walter Act that imposed more rigid restrictions on entry quotas to the United States. It also stiffened the existing law relating to the admission, exclusion and deportation of dangerous aliens defined by the Internal Security Act. Pat McCarran remained in the Senate until his death in Hawthorne, Nevada in 1954.
In 1960, the state of Nevada donated a bronze statue of McCarran to the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection.
External links
- NSHC biography: McCarran (http://www.aoc.gov/cc/art/nsh/mccarran.htm)