Yes, OSS Was Riddled With Communists

Human Events Online ^ | 07/23/2007 | Mark LaRochelle

[Polybius]

Do you think McCarthy was acting completely independently, no one buzzing in his ear? I think that unlikely.

Well, for one thing, this was buzzing between his ears.

The bad guys won a very big battle, I do not think they just “fell into” that victory.

You are absolutely right, and, as Harry Truman said, McCarthy was "the Kremlin's biggest asset."

If I were the Head of the KGB back in Moscow and I observed a media-whore politician attacking everybody and the horse they rode in on, including the U.S. Army, of being Communist, I would send my agents out to feed the man "secret tips" and get agents to infiltarete his staff and pose as "anti-Communists" that would put ideas into his head that everybody from Dwight Eisenhower to the Navy steward in the Senate Lunch Room was a Communist traitor.

Once you start accusing everybody, you mortally wound yourself and your cause.

Robespierre's end came about precisely because of such a blunder.

Robespierre appeared at the Convention on 26 July, the 8th of Thermidor according to the Revolutionary calendar, and delivered a two-hour-long speech. He defended himself against charges of dictatorship and tyranny, and then proceeded to warn of a conspiracy against the Republic. Robespierre implied that members of the Convention were a part of this conspiracy, though when pressed he refused to name names. Members who felt that Robespierre was alluding to them tried to prevent the speech from being printed, and a bitter debate ensued until Bertrand Berèreput forced an end to it ....... those who saw him working on his speech the night before expected accusations to arise from it. ...He only had time to give a small part of his speech before Jean-Lambert Tallien interrupted him. ... Robespierre then attempted to secure the tribune to speak but his voice was shouted down. Robespierre soon found himself at a loss for words after one deputy called for his arrest, ... When one deputy realized Robespierre's inability to respond, the man shouted, "The blood of Danton chokes him!"..... The Convention ordered the arrest of Robespierre ... Robespierre was taken before the tribunal and then guillotined without trial on the Place de la Révolution

[longtermmemmory]

The agriculture department of the 1950s was practically communist controlled.

I bet as a result of Clinton we have MORE spies of other nations in our government than in any time before.

[David Isaac]

I see we agree that he was most likely fed tips, by the Russians directly, or perhaps indirectly through the many agents they had in place inside our government and out.

The Russians were very clever and effective. Our government, on the other hand, seemed to be quite obtuse and ineffective. Was there no one in our government, no one in the media or anywhere, that could see what direction this thing was going? My God, and we won the Cold War. Amazing!!!!! I really shoudn’t be surprised, they can’t see it now.

[David Isaac]

The Robespierre thing may have a parallel with J. Edgar Hoover. Except that instead of being condemned, Hoover was untouchable. In both cases, a great deal of the people in the government were “dirty”. Hoover could prove it and lived. Robespierre.......

[ozzymandus]

Yeah, the day after Pearl Harbor. But we were escorting British convoys (and fighting U-boats) before that.

[fso301]

Yeah, the day after Pearl Harbor. But we were escorting British convoys (and fighting U-boats) before that.

True, we were only nominally neutral prior to Dec 7 but our emphasis on stopping Germany really was because the Germans were the greater threat.

[Clemenza]

We also dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, whereas the worst thing that happenned in Germany was firebombing Dresden by the RAF.

In both cases, the allies were justified.

[yarddog]

Actually I don’t think either one was justified tho neither the Germans or the Japanese had any moral authority to complain.

I do think the atomic bombs should have been used but not on cities full of civilians. I Also think Dresden was a war crime, totally unjustified militarily. I am sorry to say that one of my heores, Churchill approved of it.

[yarddog]

I think McCarthy was totally right. He did no harm to the Amercan Conservatives, the Communists simply showed him who was boss.

[Polybius]

I think McCarthy was totally right. He did no harm to the Amercan Conservatives, the Communists simply showed him who was boss. ... yarddog

When you say "right", do you mean "right" in his beliefs that there were Communists sympathizers in America including in the Government or do you mean "right" in his methods?

If you mean mean "right" in his beliefs that there were Communists sympathizers in America including in the Government, he was no more "right" than you or I or millions of other Conservatives or Captain Obvious.

If you mean mean "right" in his methods, I totally disagree. McCarthy was a disaster for our anti-Comminist cause.

McCarthy was a media-whore and, if there was a headline in it for him, he would have no qualms whatsoever in accusing you or your brother or your cousin or your father or your grandfather of being a "Communist sympathizer" or a "traitor", with or without any credible proof.

McCarthy even labeled Republican President Dwight Eisenhower as a traitor during his first year in office.

McCarthy could very well have been played like a fiddle by the Soviet Union. See Post 41.

McCarthy's methods were to use any connection, no matter how flimsy, to accuse somebody of being a traitor.

For example, to use McCarthy tactics, it would go like this for you:

**********

"Everybody knows that the Kennedy family and their close friend John Kerry helped betray America to the Communist cause during the Vietnam War. In the 1950's, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., was a very close friend and ally of a Senator named Joe McCarthy. Joe McCarthy was was a frequent guest at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport. He dated two of Kennedy's daughters, Patricia and Eunice, and was godfather to Robert F. Kennedy's first child, Kathleen Kennedy.

Now, we have a man named Yarddog who defends a man like McCarthy. Yarddog defends a man who accused a great American Republican President, Dwight Eisenhower, during war time no less, of being a traitor! How could that not demoralize our soldiers fighting the Communists which is probably what the Kennedys and their henchmen like Joe McCarthy wanted all along.

McCarthy also acted in such a way in the Senate that made "anti-Communism" a phrase to be feared by many loyal, patriotic Americans who never had any connection with the Communist Party. That has made our job in fighting Communism much more difficult as we cannot now mention the dangers of Communism without millions of Americans turning away in fear because of the damage that man did to our cause. Is there any doubt that the real Communist and traitor was Joe McCarthy who may even have been the stalking horse of the KGB sent in to discredit our anti-Communist cause?

Is there any doubt that somebody like Yarddog that defends such a man like McCarthy is also a Communist sympathizer and a traitor that is only posing as a loyal American?"

**********

The immediate result was that Joe McCarthy made millions of loyal and patriotic Americans more afraid of Joe McCarthy accusing everybody and his dog of being a "traitor" than they were afraid of Joe Stalin who, at least, was on the opposite side of the World.

The end result is that, for millions of Americans and their descendants, McCarthy made the label "anti-Communist" synonymous with "somebody on a witch hunt who may very well come after me".

That has practically crippled our ability to bring up the subject of anti-Communism for the last half century.

You know, the more I think about what David Isaac wrote in Post 35, the more I wonder if Joe McCarthy actually was one of the Kremlin's most "useful idiots" with the KGB pulling his strings.

[ozzymandus]

The only reason we didn’t A-bomb the Germans was that they surrendered before the bombs were ready.

Both the RAF and the US Air Force bombed Dresden, whether or not it was justified. My personal opinion is that it was not, but was intended as a demonstration to the USSR of allied air power.