Posted on 02/09/2022 2:39:01 AM PST by Kaslin
Set your DVR for a real treat being shown on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) at 8:45 AM Eastern Standard Time. The 1949 RKO film The Woman in Pier 13 (originally titled I Married a Communist) dates from the period derisively called “The Red Scare” by people who pretend that communism’s threat was never anything serious, and that those who tried to alert us to it were paranoid nutjobs.
As virtually every American Thinker reader already knows, the left did a brilliant job in turning Senator Joseph McCarthy into a demon, aided by his alcoholism and tendency to overstate his charges. For 7 decades, Hollywood has celebrated as victims and even heroes those who were “blacklisted” (the term at the time) or “cancelled” (to use the modern terminology) during the period when communist influence in the entertainment and media industry was being identified. “McCarthyism” became and remains a term for a search for a non-existent threats.
To be sure, there were some excesses, some people wrongly tainted, and reckless charges hurled. But as we now see all around us, Gramsci’s “long march through the institutions” has been spectacularly successful.
But in 1949, after Stalin’s forces had brutally occupied Eastern Europe, lots of Americans were deeply concerned about the spread of communism, among them Howard Hughes, who at the time owned RKO Studios. Prior to his purchase, RKO has assembled some formidable talent and became known for producing excellent examples of “film noir” – dark tales of intrigue and betrayal, often with an innocent man deceived by a femme fatale. The use of shadows and darkness is often striking in these films.
Some very talented people at RKO worked on The Woman in Pier 13, including director Robert Stevenson and cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca, and it shows.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Based on what we know now, Sen McCarthy actually understated the magnitude and the threat of Communist penetration of the US government. This has been conclusively proven with meticulous documentation obtained from actual records from Soviet era official docs, many of which are from the KGB archives. The Soviet docs backed up declassified US counter espionage docs . McCarthy had a drinking problem and may have been less than sober and a bit of a hyperbolic buffoon in some of his media appearances, but he was right
her web site: click image
All should read this as well.
Ping
Thank you!
I’ve set our DVR.
He wasn't any more of an alcoholic during his life than any other man of his era, but that changed after the Left targeted him and destroyed him, a collaborative effort on the part of government, entertainment, and media. He was a broken man for being brought down by the organs of his own country for defending his country.
Senator McCarthy never said Communists shouldn't be allowed to to work or be citizens. He simply said that they shouldn't be allowed in sensitive government positions or in the military.
He didn't slander innocent people. Every single person he went after was guilty, and he went after them with an accuracy that has always made me suspect he had access to the Venona decryptions.
The Truman Administration sided with the Leftists and protected those who McCarthy was trying to bring into the light, which is a black mark on Truman and his Presidency. He did this to protect the Democrat Party, which was riddled with Soviet agents. Shameful. If you are interested, ask, and I can expound on this.
Oddly, the only government agency that was at all of any value in this fight was the FBI, which understood fully what Senator McCarthy was talking about at that time. To see what the FBI has become now is very disillusioning.
I have read many books on this subject and those relating closely to them. The best book for anyone wishing to educate themselves is Blacklisted By History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies by M. Stanton Evans.
Mr. Evans did substantial original research on the subject (as opposed to nearly every single book written by Leftists over the decades which engaged in circular referencing, somewhat of a literary Ponzi scheme) and was a cub reporter at the time it was all taking place. He battled with the New York Times about their slanderous and fake reporting on McCarthy nearly his entire career right until he passed away.
Anyone who looks at was done to Senator Joseph McCarthy will instantly recognize the characteristic Leftist fingerprints of the politics of personal destruction, which is the modus operandi of the Left, and it is depressing to see how they have steadily maintained and brazenly expanded those tactics over the years.
Today, they do not even bother to conceal it.
Furthermore, the Department of Justice and the FBI are fully complicit in this Leftist activity, which now includes Republicans as well.
Joseph McCarthy made being a Communist a disreputable thing, and purchased with his reputation, his health, and eventually, his life, several more decades of forcing the communists to keep their heads down. Beginning in the late Sixties, into the Seventies, and coming to full fruition in the Nineties, the communists and their ideological sympathizers have come out of their holes, and we see them strutting proudly in the full daylight now. We see them in Congress, the White House, the Judiciary, all government agencies, and even in the military. Openly in the military. The execrable cadet Raposa was bounced out, but his presence was no secret. And how many of the Marxists who stood with the communist symbol of the clenched raised fist still occupy their ranks?


As Freeper rdcbn1 accurately pointed out, Senator McCarthy understated the extent of the issue, and we have seen it come to full fruition beginning with the Clinton Administration up to where we are now.
It should be noted that President Trump has suffered the exact same type of concerted assault of personal destruction and persecution from government, media, and entertainment that McCarthy did back in the early 1950's, and with his reputation and life purchased our country a few more decades.
McCarthy sacrificed his life to expose them, and Trump sacrificed his reputation and office to expose them today.
And Trump will not succumb as McCarthy sadly did. We owe it to him to get him back into a position where he can bring these verminous traitors into the light of day.
BKMRK
The usual slander from cowardly, lazy, ignorant, or malicious people. It is impossible to read nearly anything, even from sympathetic people, who are unable to say the truth without uttering some form of the untruth above.
It is lazy and dishonest, even when it comes from someone like Lifson who I am inclined to have more respect for speaking out, though he utters this mealy-mouthed disclaimer. Shame on you, Lifson. I expected more from you.
But they do it as a shield, and it is an unnecessary shield.
We know from the Venona decrypts that McCarthy was spot on with his targets. It is revealing that when someone mouths the usual "...To be sure, there were some excesses, some people wrongly tainted, and reckless charges hurled..." type of comment, when asked to provide specifics, they cannot. And even the ones who want to give the appearance of being more erudite will trot out the case of Annie Lee Moss. For proof of this, one need only read the Wikipedia entry on Annie Lee Moss to see the "accepted truth" that she was mistakenly singled out by McCarthy, when it was nothing of the sort as shown conclusively by M. Stanton Evans.
This particular case also explains my complete and utter disdain for Senator "Scoop" Jackson, a fraud. He listened to the evidence on Annie Lee Moss, and let it be known that he fully believed her to be a communist, and overnight, changed his story in a most disgusting fashion. It was not explained why, but it is likely due to pressure from the Democrat leadership at the time. I can expand on this also, for anyone who is interested.
M. Stanton Evans bequeathed his all his research files, correspondence, and records to Diana West. She carries on his work. All of her books have copious notes and bibliographies.
I did not know that.
I was going to write Mr. Evans a letter of gratitude for his efforts, but he passed on before I got around to it.
The problem I see, The Left has a plan and executes their plan. The Right idly sits by and does nothing but small attempts at window dressing.
i.e. The Right is for "smaller government". Well that's B.S. and they have failed mightily.
As I mentioned earlier, Diana West has quite a few of her interviews and symposia sessions on youtube. She is a very sharp and engaging speaker. Well worth watching...especially for those who have not yet read her works.
That is a problem.
Another classic film concerning communism in college, here is a transcript from “My Son John.”
Members of the graduating class and their fathers and mothers, I mention your parents because I address you as representing their tomorrows. Sometimes this day is called graduation, sometimes commencement. For you, as for me, it will be both. But my life will be altogether different from yours.
By now a plane has arrived in Lisbon. It would’ve carried me far beyond the laws of my native land. But no plane, no means of transportation, nothing can take a man away from himself. He lives with himself day and night. His conscience lives with him. It’s force will not be stilled. Mine warned me that I would not be free in Lisbon, but I would only find my freedom here.
So here I stand hardly believing that but a few years back I sat down there in my cap and gown like all of you. I looked like you then. I felt like you feel today. Ready to go. Forward! Full of zeal, full of purpose. I was going to help make a better world. I was flattered when I was immediately recognized as an intellect. I was invited to homes where only superior minds communed. It excited my freshman fancy to hear daring thoughts that I wouldnt’ve dreamed of when I lived at home. A bold defiance of the only authorities I’d ever known: my church and my mother and father.
I know that many of you have experienced that stimulation. But stimulants lead to narcotics. As the seller of habit forming dope gives the innocent their first inoculations with the cunning worthy of a serpent, there are other snakes lying in wait to satisfy the desire of the young to dedicate themselves to something positive, to give their existence purpose. The lure is to every young American’s sense of justice, their love of fair play that makes all decent men rebel against the evil forces that exploit the weak. With the purest and noblest motives we eagerly embrace an organized, definite and active movement to alleviate the suffering all around us. A beautiful liberalism is now aroused and we have faith in ourselves, our comrades. Somewhere along the line our brain has been numbed so that we have substituted faith in man for faith in God.
Even now the eyes of Soviet agents are on some of you. They’ve observed your abilities and seen qualities that I once possessed. It’s too late to save me. It is not too late for you to save yourselves. No one warned me as solemnly as I am warning you now. Hold fast to honor. It’s sacred! No one tried to live the part they wrote for me more than I did. But living it with no spiritual compass I lost all sense of direction. Any means justified their ends: shameless falsehood, self abasement, treachery! And before I realized the enormity of the steps I had taken I was an enemy of my country and a servant of a foreign power.
Now you know that the honor conferred upon me in this citation is false. Every word in it is a lie because I am a living lie. I AM A TRAITOR. I AM A NATIVE AMERICAN COMMUNIST SPY and may God have mercy on my soul. There is another paper waiting for me, this time truthfully worded; a warrant for my arrest. That is my proper degree and this also my commencement day, the beginning of a new life so help me God.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.