Dexter, Lewis A. "What If Joseph McCarthy Had Not Been a U.S. Senator in 1950-55? and/or What If There Had Been a Serious, Responsible Senator with Gifts as Great as McCarthy's for Publicity Who Had Pre-Empted the Communism-in-Government Issue from Him in 1949"
Divergence: 1946 CE
What if: As the title says.
Comments: Without obvious witch-hunting, a better job of explaining the dangers of pro-Stalinism and rooting it out would have occurred.
Published: In What If? Explorations in Social-Science Fiction (ed. Nelson W. Polsby), q.v.