So, it looks like those outed by the Venona intercepts (350) are to be added to Joe's lists, it seems.
Agere: FYI: As of January 11, 1956, the FBI's Security Index listed a total of 11,396 names in its "Communist" category.
The Security Index was the FBI's method of tracking all CPUSA members and sympathizers as well as other left-wing radicals whom the Bureau considered to be a potential security risk and eligible for detention during times of national emergency.
As of January 1, 1956, there were 2 persons (out of that 11,396) who worked, in some capacity, for the U.S. Government. [FBI file 100-358086, serial #2142.]
After I posted my first reply to your message, I decide to check the FBI's Security Index (SI) statistical reports for 1950 to compare McCarthy's assertions to FBI data.
The SI captured statistics regarding all known or suspected CPUSA members, sympathizers, and fellow-travellers, as well as members and sympathizers of other radical left groups such as Socialist Workers Party, Independent Socialist League, Proletarian Party of America.
During the early 1950's, the FBI's Security Index had a section entitled "Special Section". The Special Section captured SI statistics on the following specific categories:
* U.S. government employees
* Atomic Energy Program employees
* Foreign government employees
* United Nations employees
* Prominent persons
* Espionage subjects
The May 1950 edition of the FBI Security Index reflects that a total of 157 persons were listed in the "Special Section" -- which combines all of the above-referenced categories.
Obviously, Lloyd, from this data and the previous info summarized by John Haynes, McCarthy's numbers were grievously mistaken and misrepresented our actual internal security status.
I also have the FBI files on Gen. George C. Marshall and Dean Acheson. There is no derogatory information in their files with respect to disloyalty or sympathy with subversive organizations.
Honorable men and women can debate the policies which our nation implemented, as well as our failures, our defective understanding of historical events, etc. --- but it is morally wrong for us to convert our critics or opponents into evil, sinister, disloyal actors in a plot to eviscerate our very existence as a free country.
Incidentally, in later years, the Bureau revised its SI statistical report to include a column which specifically identified the number of U.S. government employees on the SI.
FYI: In the period from January 1956 thru February 1963, the largest number of known or suspected CPUSA and other radical left group members, sympathizers, and fellow travellers working in the U.S. Government was 22.
In the period from 1956 thru 1958 the total number was always in single-digits. [I haven't completed
reviewing the statistics from 1951 thru 1955 so can't give you specifics yet about that time period.]