Replies

One of our nation’s most accomplished and respected scholars about the McCarthy period in our history is Dr. John Earl Haynes who, along with co-author Harvey Klehr, has written extensively about the major defects in Sen. McCarthy’s viewpoints.

See Dr. Haynes’ articles below:

(a) Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Lists and Venona
http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page62.html

(b) Exchange with Arthur Herman re: Venona
http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page58.html

Also consider this message from Dr. Haynes to me:

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“Klehr and I have repeated made clear that neither Venona, Moscow archival material, nor Vassiliev’s notebooks provide any meaningful vindication for McCarthy.”

“First, that there had been significant Soviet espionage and Communist infiltration of key government agencies was not a view originating with McCarthy. That point had been publicly and vigorously advanced years before McCarthy arrived on the scene by, among other, Elizabeth Bentley, Whittaker Chambers, and Louis Budenz. The evidence that has emerged since the early 1990s certainly corroborates and vindicates their charges and the particulars of their testimony.”

“Second, Joseph McCarthy, however, went beyond them by claiming that the espionage and infiltration occurred with the knowledge and assistance of key Truman administration officials, namely Secretary of Defense and State George Marshall and Secretary of State Dean Acheson, both part of McCarthy’s “a conspiracy so immense”. There is no support in the new evidence for what was new in McCarthy’s charges or for the particular persons he named such as Acheson and Marshall. When McCarthy was right, he was not original and was only repeating charges made years earlier by others. When he was original, he was wrong. For my view of McCarthy, see
http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page58.html and
http://www.washingtondecoded.com/site/2007/12/mccarthy-accord.html “
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