Joseph McCarthy was an enemy of Communism. He should have been lionized in American history, not attacked and dismembered by it.
The Left were the ones primarily infiltrated by the Communists during that time frame. He exposed it, and they went to war on him, all the way up to Truman himself. Disgusting.
Most people don't know that about Truman.
I know this is long, but I think it provides some KEY context in two areas currently of concern to us: First, the machinations we see today on the part of the Left and how they relate to the current sets of Leftist scandals running the gamut from the Russiagate through the , and secondly, the obfuscation, behind the scenes manipulating, and outright lying on the part of the Left, and how it shows the Left of 2025 is the much the same in any ways to the Left of 1953. As it turns out, much more amenable to open violence. Sadly.
(NOTE: If this is too long to take the time and read or absorb, I won't be offended...:). I occasionally post things like this for anyone who shows an interest in it, so even an isolated piece of information can be very useful to you, if that is all you get out of it.)
Also, it both allows us to show both how McCarthy was unfairly demonized (he should be a celebrated American hero) and Truman was propagandized by the Left as an amazing Cold Warrior who fought Communism at every turn.
I hope you can take the time to read this somewhat long explanation to have some more context on McCarthy, Truman, and the Left in general. Hope this is interesting and helps. Much is taken from books I have read such as "Witness" and various books on Venona, but primarily from M. Stanton Evans in his landmark book . His viewpoint is interesting, because he is one of the few writers on events relating to McCarthy who was not only there and reporting at the time (albeit a cub reporter) and saw events with his own eyes, but did original research on the events, not simply regurgitating from what other people with a specific Leftist agenda have written and published.
I used to admire Truman, but his conduct with respect to the issue of Communists in the US government (State Department) in general and Joseph McCarthy in particular has prompted me to lose 90% of the respect I may have held for him.
There were two things in particular, that really disgusted me. (From the explanations provided by M. Stanton Evans in his landmark book ):
The lesser of those two things that bothered me were Truman's treatment of Harry Dexter White who in 1946, Truman appointed as the top American presence to the International Monetary Fund, which was a big deal at the time. Harry Dexter White had been a top aide to the Treasury Secretary Morganthau, was a key figure in big global groundwork laying activities at the time, and was key to putting people in various posts in Treasury and other departments.
He was also a key spy in a Soviet spy ring, identified first to the FBI by Whittaker Chambers, later identified separately by Elizabeth Bentley to the FBI when she came clean, and lastly, by the Venona decrypts when the Cold War ended.
The entire matter came to light in 1953 when normal Americans wondered how someone like Harry Dexter White could have risen to the position he had held and it blew up into a political scandal complete with political hearings. Truman openly lied about how it happened.
- First Truman said the FBI failed to inform him that Harry Dexter White was a spy.
- There were apparently many things that would royally piss off FBI Director Hoover, but one in particular was saying he was not thorough and failed to do his job. In this case, Hoover made himself available to testify (unasked) in front of the Senate Hearings in 1953, and produced carefully archived memos from the FBI to the White House, complete with custody chains, to show that not only had the Treasury and Truman Justice Department been told via multiple detailed and specific memos, the Truman White House been notified several times (INCLUDING A PERSONAL LETTER FROM HOOVER TO TRUMAN) beginning 6 months before Truman appointed Harry Dexter White to the International Money Fund in April 1946.
- Second, Truman said that once he found out, he took prompt and effective action against Harry Dexter White.
- Simply not true. President Harry Truman never, EVER did anything to publicly reveal, limit promotion or fire/prosecute Harry Dexter White.
- Third, Truman said once he knew Harry Dexter White was a spy, he allowed the appointment in 1946 to go through so "he could keep an eye on him and cooperate with the FBI in its investigation".
- Hoover was visibly angered at this open lie by Truman. From the testimony in front of the Senate where he notably addressed this specifically:
"...At no time was the FBI party to any arrangement to promote Harry Dexter White, and at no time did the FBI give its approval to such an agreement..." and went out of his way to further note that "White's move to the IMF impeded the FBI inquiry as the Bureau's investigative powers didn't extend to global bodies [such as the IMF]"
- To disgust me even more, Truman personally wrote a letter of congratulation to Harry Dexter White after his promotion, and a full six months after being first notified by the FBI of the security issues with Harry Dexter White. In this "flowery" letter where then President Truman expressed regret Harry Dexter White was leaving Treasury, he said:
"...my regret is lessened...in the knowledge that you leave the Treasury only to assume new duties for the government [at IMF]...In that position you will be able to carry forward the work you so ably began at Bretton Woods [My note: no doubt hand in hand with another known spy Alger Hiss in their instrumental efforts to create the United Nations!] I am confident that in your new position you will add to the distinction of your already distinguished career with the Treasury..."
One might ask themselves, what should I make of that letter from a man who has been personally delivered a letter six months prior from then Director Hoover DIRECTLY addressed to then President Truman which explained in depth the serious security concerns Hoover felt about this Soviet Spy in the high levels of the Treasury Department?
The thing that DID bother me the MOST about Truman was his shameful behavior regarding the investigation by Senator McCarthy into the security risks at the State Department and the handling and access to the State Department Security Files.As McCarthy knew (and was subsequently verified by Venona decrypts time and time again) the State Department in the 1930's through 1950 was riddled with Soviet agents. In his attempts to clean them up, he attempted to obtain access to the security files of State Department employees, which were both physically kept and maintained by the security team employed by the State Department itself.
Or so he and many others thought.
During the Senate Tydings Committee Hearings in the Summer of 1950 McCarthy and his committee requested delivery to them for their review the security files on specific employees at State (AS WAS BOTH THEIR JOB AND RIGHT TO DO, THAT RIGHT BOLSTERED BY A MANDATE FROM THE SENATE IN FULL TO DO) and they got a song and dance, first from Tydings, then from the Truman White House.
- McCarthy was having great difficulty getting cooperation from State. This was in 1950, and McCarthy suspected that the files being examined by Senators on the committed had things removed that should not have been since they could see references to documents in the files that were missing from the files.Their suspicions dated back in 1947, where they had proof that someone at the State Department was scrubbing the files on people, illegally removing material from files outside the normal procedures that audit handling, so they asked the FBI examine the files.
NOTE: this "proof" of security file tampering would later be verified in front of a committee under oath by a Mrs. Balog, who was the Supervisor of the State Department Security Filing Systems, and said there was one man who, for the entire year of 1949 had been spending a lot of time in the file room working with confidential files, and would ask for the key so he could work overnight on the confidential employee files. When the committee asked the name of that man, she named "John Service". That was the same John Stuart Service who (from Wikipedia, no conservative source) was part of the Silvermaster Spy Group, and was identified (from post-cold war KGB archives) in 1948, Chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S. Anatoly Gorsky identified Adler (in KGB archives summarized by former KGB agent Alexander Vassiliev) as the agent code-named "Sachs," who appears in Venona as an NKVD source on China." Yep. That John Service.
HE was the one rifling thorough state security files for over a year.
Scumbag Senator Tydings, who was working behind the scene for the White House interests (and not those of the Senate) then issued a statement saying that the FBI had examined those employee security files and found no issues.
Director Hoover saw these comments from Senator Tydings, and since Hoover had his finger on EVERYTHING at the FBI, was confused, and asked his staff it that statement from Senator Tydings was correct, and they assured him it WASN'T. Tydings had issued that declaration on his own. Amazing.
By the time the FBI was allowed to conduct its actual search months later, they found only minor irregularities, which then made them suspicious that the missing material had surreptitiously been replaced back into the personnel security files. - And here is the part that really burns me the most: Leading up to the kerfuffle with the files, the Truman White House vacuumed all the relevant State Department Personnel Security files and had them brought over to the White House where he isolated them, sequestered them, and refused to release them. Truman did this.
- First, Truman refused to release the files to the Senate Subcommittee.
- Second, he would only release summaries to the committee, not the files themselves.
- Third, from President Truman's Legal Team (as relayed to Mickey Ladd at the FBI):
- If they insist on viewing the raw files, they will only be able to do it in the White House, in the direct presence of Truman himself
- The Senators will be forbidden from taking any notes whatsoever during these viewing sessions under the watchful eye of Truman himself.
- Legal Counsel for the committee or its members will not be allowed to be present.
- I have to defy ANYONE to read this section above, and not come to the conclusion there was a deliberate, orchestrated, and in your face obstruction of the investigation by the Senate Subcommittee into these matters. It wasn't Executive Privilege. It was the equivalent Andrew Jackson's famous quote about his intent to ignore a Supreme Court decision: "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!"
As you can see, I believe that Truman was far, FAR more interested in protecting the interests of the Democrat Party in general, and his administration's conduct in particular than it was in protecting the National Security of The United States. To him, it was preferable to have Soviet agents burrowed into the decision making apparatus of our national institutions such as the State Department and the Military (see the 1954 Army-McCarthy Hearings for more evidence of this truth). I have, over the years, come to see him as primarily a political hack similar to the majority of politicians we see today in the "deep state" which I have come to accept as well.