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REMEMBERING Mccarthyism James J

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REMEMBERING Mccarthyism James J REMEMBERING McCARTHYISM James J. Drummey is NewsEditor o/"The Review OfThe News. This article is taken from his address to the McCarthy Foundation in Wisconsin on the twenty-seventh anniversary of the death of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy. AjeCL . • The enemies of the late Senator ical and more dishonest as the years Joseph Raymond McCarthy continue pass. Two examples come immedi A> their venomous campaign of vilifica ately to mind. tion against him. In a dozen books, In June of1983, the ABC television unending newspaper and magazine network broadcast a one-hour pro articles, and a continuing series of gram called "McCarthyism: The television programs and films, the American Inquisition." A full-page specter of McCarthyism is raised advertisement for the program in again and again. And critics of Joe Time magazine said that, during the McCarthy seem to grow more hyster- McCarthy era, "thousands of ordi- NOVEMBER. 1984 11 4,.. r /rt- % i The alleged "reign ofterror" was notconducted by SenatorJoseph IVIcCarthy but against him. And it continues today with vilifying television programs, dishonest books, and criticisms bya press grown morehysterical as the years pass. Senator Joe McCarthy was and is smeared because he identified guilty people. naryAmericans lost their livelihoods leged victim's name in congressional and their homes. Without real evi Hearings, you find he neither ap dence, without hard proof, without peared before the McCarthy Subcom ever knowing their accusers." But, of mittee nor had any connection with these "thousands" of alleged victims, Senator McCarthy. ABC could only come up with two — A current example of dishonest a man who was denied a security writing about McCarthy is a book clearance by theAtomic EnergyCom published last year, A Conspiracy So mission, and a schoolteacher in West Immense: The World Of Joe Mc Virginia who lost her job chiefly be Carthy, by Rutgers University Pro cause of her unpopular views on reli fessor David M. Oshinsky. With more gion and sex. Neither of these people than a thousand footnotes, some of had the slightest connection with Joe them with multiple references, the McCarthy. The producer of the ABC documentation looks impressive and smear, Marshall Frady, had done a Oshinsky's conclusions seem con similar hatchet job on J. Edgar Hoo vincing until you compare them with ver a year earlier. the historical record. For instance, This linking of Senator McCarthy Oshinsky says that the McCarthy with anybody and everybody who Subcommittee conducted only sev was accused of anything in the de enteen public or semi-public Hear cade from 1945 to 1955 is common. ings in 1953. The fact is that the Sub Hardly a month passes that some al committee held 169 executive and leged victim of McCarthyism, some open Hearings in 1953. Oshinsky obscure professor somewhere, says the Senate Internal Security doesn't receive an award or an hon Subcommittee during the same pe orary degree for having courageously riod "conducted one hearing on sub survived the "horrors of Mc version in government" and "held 11 Carthyism." Whenyou look up the al hearings in all." The record shows. V* COMMUNIST PARTY ORGANIZATION ^U.i;.A.-FEB. 9.1950 I ]1. •'17^...,.F>- IV-i- •-'• S'- '••'k >*y,4^W-y tiTMrrajjnWuowOrScjftMt ruPaU^^""tUW ht tlMrJh^H vit KK* BIMifUHr rro-fl® rtn- nrwiUM" ««» uiuflBv rfurvnsiuui _ Senator Joseph McCarthy's desire to ferret out subversives was tempered by his concern for people's rights. Most of the subjects under investigatior] were identified only by a case number because, said the Senator, "If we should label one man a Communist when he is not a Communist, I think it would be too bad." however, that the Senate Internal j was no longer aCommunist problem? SecuritySubcommittee held a total of Not at all. What the S.I.S.S. said was seventy-eight Hearings in 1953, that "the Soviet international orga thirty of them dealing with "Inter nization has carried on a successful locking Subversion in Government and important penetration ofthe Departments." United States Government and this Now why do you suppose Professor penetration has not been fully ex Oshinsky failed to mention so signif posed." The Senate Subcommittee, of icant a series of Hearings? Perhaps which Joe McCarthy was not a mem because they would contradict his ber, called attention to the testimony statement that by 1950 "the Com of former Communist Elizabeth munist problem had been almost Bentley, who said that "to her knowl eradicated by the strenuous — and edge there were four Soviet espio sometimes questionable — efforts of nage rings operating within our the Democratic Administration." government and that only two of That's a good one, isn't it? Crediting these have been exposed." Thirty-one the Truman Administration, which years later, the members of those fought the removal of such top-level other two spy rings havestill notbeen Communist spies as Alger Hiss in the exposed. State Department and Harry Dexter Mr. Oshinsky's reputation as an White in the Treasury Department, historian gets even worse when he with stamping out Communism in says that Joe McCarthy "never ex government. posed a real subversive" and "never On July 30,1953, theSenateInter uncovered a Communist." But there nal Security Subcommittee released are many such lies about Senator its Report on "Interlocking Subver McCarthy. Let us consider three of sion in Government Departments." them. Did the Subcommittee sav that there Lie NIIMRF.R OnR- .Top MrPnrtViv 1 If' conducted a "reign of terror" in the of a grand total of forty-six people, early Fifties during which people and particularly dramatized the were afraid to speakout againsthim. cases of only twenty-four of those Only one whowas not aroundin the forty-six. That's a far cry from thou 1950s could believe such nonsense. sands. The truth is that the reign of terror Longtime McCarthyites will re was not conducted by Joe McCarthy member that in Joe's first Senate butagainst him. Those who were not speech on Communists in the State afraid to denounceMcCarthyand call Department, on February 20, 1950, him every derogatory name included he repeatedly refused to make any of theiVeu; York Times, the Washington the eighty-one names public, even Post, Time, Life, Walter Lippmann, though his critics were demanding the Alsop brothers, Drew Pearson, that he do so. Joe identified his tar the cartoonist Herblock, Edward R. gets only as Case Number One, Case Murrow, Presidents Truman and Ei Number Twenty, Case Number senhower, virtually every "Liberal" Forty-five, etc. He stated that "if I politician, and famous people on the were to give all thenames involved, it Left from all walks oflife. might leave a wrong impression. If James Burnham, author of The we should label one man a Commu Web OfSubversion, a classic study of nist when he is not a Communist, I Communist penetration into the think it would be too bad." That's the highest levels of the U.S. Govern real Joe McCarthy talking, not the ment, once reviewed the statistics of fictional monstercreated by the Reds the so-called McCarthy terror: and their sympathizers and dupes. Number of persons killed — zero. The same concern for people's Number of persons wounded or in rights continued when Senator Mc jured — zero. Carthy took over the Permanent In Number of persons tortured — vestigations Subcommittee. In 1953, zero. for example, his staff examined 546 Number of persons arrested with persons in executive session and told out warrant — zero. them of the evidence against them. Number of persons held or impris The vast majority of these people oned without trial — zero. gave satisfactory explanations, were Number of persons evicted, exiled, waived off by the staff, and nobody or deported — zero. ever knew they had been summoned. Numberof persons deprived ofdue Those who appeared in public ses process — zero. sions were either hardened Fifth Lie Number Two: Senator Mc Amendment pleaders or persons Carthy smeared thousands of inno about whom there was a reasonably cent people. The best retort to this strongpresumption ofguilt. Buteven canard is to ask the accuser to name those brazen, insulting, and defiant oneperson smearedbyMcCarthy. Joe witnesses were afforded their consti McCarthy never even mentioned tutional rights to confer with their thousands of people in connection counsel, to confront their accusers, with subversion; he didn't even men and to invoke the First and Fifth tion hundreds. From the Wheehng Amendments rather than answer speech on February 9,1950, until he questions about theirCommunist as became Chairman ofthe Permanent sociations. Investigations Subcommittee three One witness who appeared be- yearslater,Joe mentioned thenames {Continued on page eighty-one.) ing in the suspension or discharge of more than twenty Fifth Amendment Communists. fore the McCarthy Subcommittee on Looking back from a vantage point March 10, 1954, a man named Peter of twenty-seven years, we can see Gragis, said that he had come to the that Senator McCarthy was right Hearing terrified because the press about a lot of things. He was right "had pointed out that you were very about Annie Lee Moss, the code clerk abusive, that you were crucifying in thePentagonwho had been a mem people .... My experience has been ber of the Communist Party. Mc quite the contrary. I have, I think, Carthy's detractors to this day refer been very understandingly treated. I only to her appearance before the have been, I think, highly respected McCarthySubcommitteein 1954 and despite the fact that for some 20 years insist that she was a victim of mis I had been more or less an active taken identity. They studiously ig Communist." nore a Report of the Subversive Lie Number Three: Senator Activities Control Board in 1958 con McCarthy never uncovered so much firming that Annie Lee Moss, the as a single Communist or subversive.
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