We Now Know - The Myth of McCarthyism (Exposes Arthur Miller)

The New Criterion ^ | September 2000

[Route101]

Arthur Miller??....who cares?

[LoudRepublicangirl]

Miller's The Crucible is required reading in almost every high school, and it has been for nearly 40 years



I had to read it in highschool though I cannot tell you what it was about. But there is a book I read that educated me about McCarthy and that's Ann Coulter's Treason. She totally dispels the myth and clears his name in her book.

[cynicom]

We have a hardcore group of Millerites residing here on FR. They have their own agenda, just as did Miller, spreading their own version of communism, hidden by a wide facade.

[evad]

I have said for quite some time now for Senator McCarthy's name to be cleared...he was horribly and unjustly demonized for doing the right thing.

Ann Coulter tried her best in her book "Treason".

I remember the night she took O'Reilly apart on the subject.

[kitkat]

***The Left has invested so much in the demonization of McCarthy that successfully rehabilitating his historical record would probably cause it to shrivel up and die. Take away the myth of the evil and insane McCarthy, and it's like taking away oxygen for Leftists. It may be the single issue they can not live without.***

Yes, and the left is STILL using Joseph McCarthy as an example of all that is wrong with Republicans. They love to say things such as, "Why, this is as bad as the McCarthy era."

[Osage Orange]

Their stance on communism was one of the few things the Kennedys got right; I believe both JFK and RFK would slap Teddy across the face for his distortions of their legacies for his own political gain

I have to think, you are certainly correct......but I also think they would slap him, just on general purposes.

[PzLdr]

I don't know what McCarthy knew, but by the '50s (think Rosenbergs), the government knew quite a bit, thanks to the VENONA intercepts.

[Wiz]

What are the communists and socialists utilizing to demoralize America today? I would expect ANSWER and Tide Foundation.

[Wiz]

Oops, I meant Tides Foundation.

[Freepertwo]

I'm gonna get jumped on for this, but I have always admired RFK. I don't agree with all of his beliefs, politics, or policies, but I do believe he wanted to do what was right. There is a famous story of him talking to Ted when Ted wasn't sure which direction he wanted his career to go in. When he decided to run for the Senate Bobby told him, "Tell the people you care and are intent on making a difference. Let them know you are there for THEM, not yourself. Don't let them make you a politician." And they said he spat the word 'politician' like it was something foul tasting.

So, though I don't agree with RFK, and I'm sorry he was a Dem, I admire him. I think his heart was in the right place.

[Freepertwo]

I loved that book

[kipita]

What is really funny is the nice compartmentalization so many in the MSM and the Left generally take part in when it comes to the "Red Scare". While Roy Cohn's name often surfaces in discussing the hearings, little is said about McCarthy's other pit bull, Bobby Kennedy. Their stance on communism was one of the few things the Kennedys got right; I believe both JFK and RFK would slap Teddy across the face for his distortions of their legacies for his own political gain (antithetical to their ideologies).

That's exactly what I think too. My only problem with McCarthy is with his methodology, not his ideology. But again, times were different back then so I don't feel qualified to evaluate the players.

However, since roman times, it's best to "silently know" your enemies and only take action when you fully understand them and can easily defeat them.

[cynicom]

FDR was told by the French in 1939 that Hiss and his brother were communist spies. FDR loved communists.

[kipita]

I don't know what McCarthy knew, but by the '50s (think Rosenbergs), the government knew quite a bit, thanks to the VENONA intercepts.

Agreed. But to state it again (please read another response), since Roman times, it seems best to "silently know" your enemies and only take action when you fully understand them and can easily defeat them.

[TapTheSource]

Try to imagine how much better off the USA would be today if Joseph McCarthy had been allowed to complete his mission...

---

(Exerpt Taken From "Soviet Moles in the CIA")

Nathaniel Weyl, who broke with the Communist Party, USA, wrote that "In the Office of Strategic Services... employment of pro-Communists was approved at very high levels provided that they were suited for specific jobs."10 As it turned out, OSS director General William "Wild Bill" Donovan had systematically recruited his OSS personnel directly from Communist Party membership.

Nor was Donovan shy about admitting this. When confronted by the FBI with clear evidence of Communist agents in the OSS, Donovan boasted, "I know they're Communists; that's why I hired them."11

When the OSS became the CIA in 1947, the original personnel were largely retained, Communists and all. By 1952, CIA director Walter Bedell Smith publicly confirmed that hidden Communist agents were working inside his agency.12

Since no one in the Executive branch seemed to be interested in rooting out these spies, Congress began to take an interest. Joseph McCarthy's subcommittee specifically raised the idea of a formal investigation, as later described by legal advisor Roy Cohn:

“One desired investigation that never got started was that of the Central Intelligence Agency, headed by Allen W. Dulles. Our staff had been accumulating extensive data about its operations and McCarthy was convinced that an inquiry was overdue.

Our files contained allegations gathered from various sources indicating that the CIA had unwittingly hired a large number of double agents-individuals who, although working for the CIA, were actually Communist agents whose mission was to plant inaccurate data....

...although we spent far more for intelligence than other countries, the quality of the information we were receiving was so poor that at times the CIA found out what was happening only when it read the newspapers....

When the news broke out that McCarthy was contemplating an inquiry into the CIA, consternation reigned at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue [the White House]. Vice-President Nixon was assigned to the delicate job of blocking it.”13

Block it Nixon did, and no outside investigation of spies in the CIA has ever been held. The consequences were obvious. Even the Eisenhower administration was forced to admit in 1954 that CIA intelligence measures against the Soviet Bloc had been a dismal failure.14 Since the end of World War II and continuing to this day, the United States has never been able to infiltrate the KGB or recruit double agents of any significance.

[Stashiu]

My neighbor and I read through the Venona intercepts that were published. Counted 350 spies, many of whom got Soviet medals for their efforts.

[cgbg]

Did you know?

That the Stalinist Paul Robeson denounced Stalin's activities in his later years? Robeson was torn by guilt over Stalin's murder victims which included one friend of his.

This is covered in depth in one of David Horowitz's books.

The left continues to glorify the "young Robeson" while ignoring the "old Robeson"!

[Abogado]

endthematrix wrote:

"One would need to publish VOLUMES if to document the identities of Un-American Commies today!"

Just the ones in academia would fill an encyclopedia ...

[JasonC]

"any more than I could be"

The real punch line in the Miller quote. He wasn't saying he didn't believe in traitors. He was saying he was one - which he was.

[oldbrowser]

“One cannot,” Mr. Radosh concludes, “write about McCarthyism without first admitting that there were spies; the spies claimed idealism as a defense.”

These are the people we can thank for our stolen military secrets on nuclear fission, aircraft, and much more. Many of our problems today are linked to these "idealists" of the past. Even today we have that lawyer passing information from the blind sheik to his people on the outside and somehow claiming it's about civil rights.