The clear-eyed vision of John G. Adams helped end Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s anti-Communism campaign.
While working as the chief legal adviser to Army Secretary Robert T. Stevens in 1953, Adams wrote a 40-page memo detailing his belief that McCarthy’s investigation of the Army for communist sympathizers was a personal vendetta. That memo led to weeks of televised hearings.
Although he called Adams a liar, the American public lost faith in McCarthy’s zealous campaign, and the Senate censured him.
Adams later worked for criminal defense attorneys in Washington, and wrote his memoirs, “Without Precedent: The Story of the Death of McCarthyism,” in 1983.
Adams died Thursday of lung cancer. He was 91.