joe mccarthy gave a speech to a local republican women's club in west virginia. in which he really did wave around a piece of paper and say he had a list of communists on it. local newspaper quoted him saying at that west virginia meeting in 1950, quote, i have here in my hand a list of 205 state department employees that were made known to the secretary of state as being members of the communist party. and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the state department. he pulled that stuntd. it was a hit. it caused a sensation. he then kept doing it in all of his subsequent appearances, except senator mccarthy could never keep total track of the supposed number of communists he had on his sheet of paper. sometimes he would say it was 205 communists at the state department. sometimes he would say it was 81. sometimes it was 57.