Promoted to colonel, he served in the United States during most of World War II except for a temporary assignment in Europe, returning to civilian life in 1945.

[4] On January 29, 1953, Stevens was nominated to be Secretary of the Army by President Dwight Eisenhower and appeared for a hearing before the Senate Committee on Armed Services that same day.

In the fall of 1953, McCarthy began an investigation into the United States Army Signal Corps laboratory at Fort Monmouth.

[6] Next McCarthy investigated the case of Irving Peress, an Army dentist who had refused to answer questions in a loyalty-review questionnaire.

[7][8] Concurrent with these events, McCarthy's chief counsel, Roy Cohn, had been pressuring the army, including Stevens, to give preferential treatment to his friend G. David Schine, who had recently been drafted.

Although Stevens is generally considered to have handled the hearings poorly,[9] it was McCarthy who fared worst in the month-long investigation.

The exposure before a television audience of McCarthy's methods and manners during the hearings are credited with playing a major role in his ultimate downfall.

[1][10] Under John Peter Stevens it became one of the largest textile companies in the United States with mills in the North and South.