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The conclusion is based on the fact that there was a Democratic majority in the Senate and they opposed any efforts to investigate Communist infiltration in high government positions including the State Department.

In her book, Coulter does agree with you that McCarthy was perhaps the wrong messenger with the right message. He was merely doing what his "peers" in the Senate should have been doing but were too cowardly to do so.

As for his alleged military "record" his fight against Communist operatives in the US government is far more important than whether or not he did win the DFC for legitimate reasons. It is a far worse thing that Presidents Roosevelt and Truman and many within the Democratic Party embraced those whose idealogy we were fighting against.

"I'll give you something to research - it may give you an insight to my dislike for Senator McCarthy. Try looking up the term "Tailgunner Joe". That was the title given McCarthy after he claimed to have won the DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross) as an aircraft gunner during WWII. The fact was that he did not come close to winning a FDC - it was a complete fabrication"

I wasn't going to respond to Semper anymore but I can't let this hoary old smear slide. This POS was originally raised by a politican that was running against Joe. IIRC, this long time politician needed to besmirch Joe's military record because he never served.

As far as the awarding of the DFC is concerned, Joe accepted what was offered to every service man that had the qualifications of a certain number of flights under combat condition. Joe's photo recon flights WERE considered combat missions because (believe it or not) those jap zeros would shoot at the recon planes.

Yeah what a terrible man Joe was. He accepted a medal which every man that flew the same number of recce missions could get, just like Joe. But its Joe that's the bad man. Maybe we should go back and tarnish the career of every marine that took a purple heart when they cut themselves on their K-bar. It would be as fair as this smear on Joe.

When I was five years old, my best friend showed me his dad's DFC. His dad was a tailgunner in a Liberator. Did he get that DFC for heroism under fire. No, he got it the same way lot's of other men got it, he flew enough missions. I didn't know it at the time, but I guess my best friend's dad was a terrible man for accepting that medal.