History Shows Joe McCarthy's Reputation is Undeserved

Town Hall ^ | 1-28-08 | Phyllis Schafly

[smoothsailing]

History Shows Joe McCarthy's Reputation is Undeserved

By Phyllis Schlafly

Monday, January 28, 2008

Ronald Reagan was dismissed by the intelligentsia as just an actor who read speeches written by others until Kiron K. Skinner discovered a box of Reagan's original radio scripts written in his own hand on ruled yellow paper from 1975 to 1979.

Since he had no staff to research and write for him in those years, the scripts prove that Reagan was a one-man think tank, well versed in political philosophy and history, fully capable of writing his own speeches.

Skinner is the W. Glenn Campbell Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and an associate professor of history and political science at Carnegie Mellon University. In December 2005, he was appointed to the National Security Education Board by President George W. Bush.

Skinner's discovery, and the subsequent publication of many of Reagan's more than 1,000 handwritten radio commentaries, changed the way history now respects Reagan.

M. Stanton Evans, journalism professor and board member of the American Conservative Union, has performed a similar transformation for the most reviled American in modern U.S. history, Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

Evans' 663-page work, "Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies" (Crown Forum, $29.95), is the result of six years of reading primary sources. Evans proves that almost everything about McCarthy in current history books is a lie and will have to be revised.

It's an interesting sidelight that one of Reagan's old radio commentaries referred to Evans as "a very fine journalist." He is, indeed, but this book shows that he also is a Sherlock Holmes-type detective who chased every clue to find the truth and to write accurate history in elegant prose.

Evans' vindication of McCarthy was made possible by recently released files, such as the Venona papers (the secret messages between Moscow and its U.S. agents decrypted by our government and released in 1995), data from Soviet archives, and executive-session transcripts of Senate committees that were finally opened after a 50-year ban. Evans' book is copiously documented and reproduces some critical pages from never-before-released files.

In the early 1950s, Joe McCarthy was one of the most popular men in America. Average U.S. citizens recognized him as Horatio at the Bridge battling against our nation's sworn enemies, the Soviet Communists.

McCarthy understood, long before Reagan, that the Soviet Union was an evil empire, one of whose strategies was to infiltrate agents into our government in order to guide our policy to favor Communist goals. In fact, our government was much more infested with Soviet agents than McCarthy imagined.

It's now well known that Communist agents imbedded in high-ranking positions included White House confidant Lauchlin Currie, State Department official Alger Hiss and Treasury Department official Harry Dexter White. Evans quotes FBI files identifying atom bomb scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer as a secret Communist as early as 1942.

Taking on the anti-communist mission locked McCarthy in mortal combat against powerful forces: two U.S. presidents, the vast federal bureaucracy, malicious adversaries in Congress, left-wing lobby groups and the left-wing media who made him their daily target.

McCarthy was concerned only with Communist security risks who influenced U.S. policies. He never targeted Communists in Hollywood or academia.

One of McCarthy's early investigations exposed the gang of Communist agents embedded in our government whose mission it was to change U.S. policy to abandon our wartime ally Chiang Kai-shek and turn China over to the Communists. Owen Lattimore was the point man for articulating the Communist line, and the magazine Amerasia was the communications outlet for an interlocking network of soviet agents.

Evans describes how McCarthy deserves the credit for exposing the Amerasia scandal. Evans publishes for the first time McCarthy's lists of security risks employed by the State Department, proving that his charges were amply supported by FBI files.

Recent unrelated political controversies have shown that the cover-up is often worse than the crime, and the cover-up was McCarthy's prime target. He fought the federal bureaucrats who tolerated and even encouraged the widespread infiltration of our government by Communists whose first loyalty was to Russia.

The administration of President Harry S. Truman and the Democrats in Congress engaged in a massive cover-up, circling the wagons with their media friends. Their game plan was to deny the problem, evade political responsibility for tolerating security risks in government, and kill the messenger.

Evans' book proves that there was not a single innocent victim of McCarthy's investigations. The Senate committee transcripts prove that he was patient with witnesses, and never allowed anyone to be named a Communist or subversive unless he was given the chance to respond directly.

Joe McCarthy himself is probably the most investigated man in U.S. history, far more investigated than the Communist agents. Much of his energy had to be spent in defending himself against vindictive investigations initiated by the Democrats.

McCarthy's career came to an end after he was censured by the Senate, but 45 out of the 46 charges had to be dismissed as baseless. He was censured only for failing to pay proper deference to the committees that were maliciously bent on destroying him.

Everyone who henceforth writes about McCarthy will have to check his facts with Evans' documented discoveries.

......................................................

Phyllis Schlafly is a national leader of the pro-family movement, a nationally syndicated columnist and author of Feminist Fantasies.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Why you insist on dragging the late Rabbi Me'ir Kahana' (zt"l; Hy"d) into your remarks on Leftist Jews who hate the American heartland I have no idea. Rabbi Kahana' was a lifelong rightwinger and anti-Communist, and so far as I know his beef was not with the American heartland at all. Perhaps you are confusing him with the lamentable Irv Rubin, the pseudo-conservative "Republican" who took over the US JDL after Rabbi Kahana' moved to Israel. Unlike Rabbi Kahana', Rubin did indeed have a problem with the American heartland at once burnt a Confederate flag. If Rabbi Kahana' ever did any such thing I've never heard of it. In fact, the Rabbi was regularly accused of "racism" by all the usual suspects, and he was a vociferous critic of the liberal US Jewish establishment (which refused to have anything to do with him).

While we're on the subject of liberals making scapegoats of people, if you ever read Evans' book on McCarthy you will read that it was not "Protestant America" but Roman Catholicism (McCarthy was Catholic) which the liberals made into a big bugaboo, even making a big show of defending Protestants when one of his staffer (a Protestant himself) allegedly "attacked" them. Believe me, as one of FR's most notorious "anti-Catholics," I take no pleasure from this observation!

At any rate, your attitude towards Rabbi Kahana' is every bit as groundless as the attitude of most Jews to McCarthy.

[Zionist Conspirator]

I've said it before and I'll say it again... the next aircraft carrier ought to be named Senator McCarthy.

I second that! My only point of contention is that it should be named the Joseph R. McCarthy so as to avoid confusion with Senator Eugene J. McCarthy, the Sixties hippies' candidate in '68.

[r9etb]

One of my questions is why Eisenhower would also take action against McCarthy, which he did.

Because there was more to it than just the truth of what McCarthy was saying. There was also the manner in which he was saying it. In politics, the messenger and his demeanor are at least as important as the message itself.

[Captainpaintball]

bflr

[gunnedah]

I am almost certain that the MSM along with America’s bastions of higher education is run by Communist or those with Communist leanings.

[justiceseeker93]

Your brief synopsis of Meir Kahane and the Jewish Defense League is off base. The JDL was not a reaction to any events of the McCarthy era and was founded a considerable time thereafter. It was considered to be a right wing "extremist" group and focused its interest primarily on antisemitism in New York and LA, much of which was perpetrated by newly developed black radical groups. Rather than venturing out into the heartland to confront imaginary Christian enemies, it was primarily a force in an urban struggle against violent crime, motivated by antisemitism, perpetrated upon Jews in urban areas.

On another issue, the Soviet government (though unquestionably antisemitic) never "expelled" Jews. Rather, c. 1970, they began to begrudgingly let some oppressed Jews out of the country in response to international protest. The goal of the Soviet communists was to rid the Jewish population of its religious, cultural, and ethnic identity so it could completely assimilate into "good" communists. Those who got in the way were severly punished.

[LifeOrGoods?]

Good piece. She’s always writes good stuff.

[Zionist Conspirator]

And in addition to the opportunities communism presented to Jews, there was a biblical antecedent for jewish communists in the bible in the person of Joseph in Egypt because the relationship between Jews to Joseph’s Egypt maps over well to that between Jews and Communist Russia. And the history of the Jews from Joseph to Moses looks very similar to the rise to prominence of many Jews in the soviet communist bureaucracy from the 1917-1970 and the decades long expulsion of Russia’s jews after 1970 when it became clear that communism was not working.

Unfortunately, in my haste to defend Rabbi Kahana' (zt"l; Hy"d) I completely missed this paragraph in which you dare to attack Yosef HaTzaddiq (a'h"sh) and the holy Jews of the Torah as precursors of the Communists! This is the very same theory preached by such as the late, unlamented neo-Nazi Francis Parker Yockey (y'sh"v!), who claimed that Joseph had imposed "the new deal" on Egypt(!!!).

I don't care if you're a member of the class of '98. As far as I'm concerned, someone with your views doesn't belong on a conservative forum.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

It's now well known that Communist agents imbedded in high-ranking positions included White House confidant Lauchlin Currie, State Department official Alger Hiss and Treasury Department official Harry Dexter White. Evans quotes FBI files identifying atom bomb scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer as a secret Communist as early as 1942.

Taking on the anti-communist mission locked McCarthy in mortal combat against powerful forces: two U.S. presidents, the vast federal bureaucracy, malicious adversaries in Congress, left-wing lobby groups and the left-wing media who made him their daily target.

I do think journalism went through a period of about 100 years (1860-1960) where the majority of reporters and editors tried to be "objective" and adopted codes of conduct to try to ensure objectivity (always get more than one witness; get the other side of the story; no unsourced stories; etc.) In other words, I do think for a while most reporters attempted to be "fair and balanced" and "objective." Whether they succeeded is a different question.

One of the problems is that if you ALWAYS get the "other side of the story," it does introduce the notion that there always IS another "side of the story." What was the other side of the story to the Holocaust? Should we "get Hitler's take?" In other words, it legitimizes falsity.

The Market for Conservative-Based News

One thing to suggest that there was a good-faith attempt at objectivity by the Associated Press and the papers associated with it at the start of the institution of the AP. Quite another to believe that "the news" ever was actually objective. IMHO the novelty of the AP newswire and its ability to inform the width and breadth of the nation instantly created journalism as we know it. And journalism as we know it is inherently demagogic, so that it is naturally easy and gutless to align yourself with journalism's negative, superficial perspective. And thus, it requires courage and unusual acuity to be able to stake out a non-demagogic political position in opposition to the AP and Big Journalism.

At some point the parties divided on that basis. Politicians who aligned themselves with demagogic so-called "objective" journalism are designated by journalists as "liberals" - and those who refuse to do so are designated by journalists as (evil) "conservatives." "Maverick John McCain" attempts a straddle whereby he retains the "conservative" label while pandering to the demagogic tendencies of "objective" journalism by, among other heresies, demagoging the pharmaceutical companies as "the enemy."

[smoothsailing]

"Contrary to today's image of McCarthy as a despised Torquemada, McCarthy was given a rare state funeral with a private memorial service in the Senate chamber, his seat covered with flowers. St. Matthew's Cathedral bestowed him with the highest honor the Catholic Church can confer, performing a Solemn Pontifical Requiem Mass before one hundred priests and two thousand well-wishers. Seventy senators attended his funeral, as did J. Edgar Hoover. Thirty thousand Americans lined up outside the Washington funeral home where McCarthy lay to pay their final respects from early in the morning until late at night. Condolences poured in to McCarthy's wife, amounting to more than seventy bags of mail." -- Ann Coulter,Treason P. 123

[Syncro]

Wow, great thanks!

I didn’t read that book, don’t have it.

She’s pretty smart for a girl!

LOL

[PGalt]

Thanks for the ping. BUMP-TO-THE-TRUTH!

[Milhous]

the scripts prove that Reagan was a one-man think tank, well versed in political philosophy and history

Reagan also invented a method to keep a perfect crease in your work pants that personally helps me stay dapper looking. :) Allow me to explain. An excerpt from Seinfeld's The Doll episode gives you the general idea.

(The Maestro gets up. Realizing that he isn't wearing pants, Kramer and Frank stare in bewilderment)

MAESTRO: (Noticing the expressions) Ohh, my pants. (Begins putting on a near-by pair of pants) It's an old conductor's trick I learned from Leonard Bernstein.

KRAMER: Really?

MAESTRO: You keep a perfect crease by not sitting in them before the performance.

(Kramer and Frank are obviously impressed)

KRAMER: That's good thinking.

An Air Force One pilot reveals that Reagan changed into sweat pants during flights aboard Air Force One. Before touchdown Reagan would change back into suit pants with a perfect crease.

---

Coral Ridge Ministries: Proclaiming truths that transform the world.

[Milhous]

The administration of President Harry S. Truman and the Democrats in Congress engaged in a massive cover-up, circling the wagons with their media friends. Their game plan was to deny the problem, evade political responsibility for tolerating security risks in government, and kill the messenger.

The high cost of a single traitor.

In 1949, Philby was in Washington, D.C., as the MI6 liaison to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The two agencies launched an attempted revolution in Soviet-influenced Albania. The exiled King Zog had offered his troops and other volunteers to help, but, for three years, every attempted landing in Albania met with a Soviet or Albanian Communist ambush (the Soviets knew the emergency radio call routine). Philby's betrayal cost 300 Albanian lives, and a similar betrayal occurred in the Ukraine. Couriers would travel to Soviet territory and disappear, and no useful information was coming out.

Philby is believed to have passed to Moscow information on the small size of the United States' stockpile of atomic weapons and its capacity (at that time, severely limited) to produce new atomic bombs. Based in part on that information, Stalin went ahead with a 1948 blockade of West Berlin and began a large-scale offensive armament of Kim Il Sung's North Korean Army and Air Force that would later culminate in the Korean War. The latter conflict would later consume the lives of over one million Koreans, and about 30,000 U.S./Allied soldiers and marines.

[rlmorel]

Joseph McCarthy was an American hero. He was slandered and defamed by the same type of people who practice the same types of tactics on their enemies today.

I was one of those people who unthinkingly believed about McCarthy what my teachers taught me in school, and what I saw in the newpapers, magazines and on television.

When I read Ann Coulter’s book “Treason”, I was perplexed. I was puzzled why her account of the famous encounter between Joseph Welch and Joseph McCarthy was so completely and diametrically different from the accounts I had grown up with and been taught.

It wasn’t just a little different, it was COMPLETELY different. So I did what the Internet allows you to do these days: I researched. I obtained the transcripts of the actual hearings, and read them.

Ann Coulter was spot on in her characterization of that hearing, and the others as well. After I read that, I began to read everything that didn’t appear to be completely slanted against McCarthy. I read three separate books on Venona, and then capped it off with the book that was, for me, the most important political book I have read in my life.

“Witness”, by Whittaker Chambers.

I was completely astounded by that book, and it explained a lot of things for me. It explained why the Left viewed Richard Nixon and Joseph McCarthy the way they did, and why all three of them, Chambers, Nixon, and McCarthy were villified and slandered by a poisonous and biased media.

I have a web page on my site devoted to this issue at:

http://web.mac.com/rlmorel/iWeb/Site/Whittaker%20Chambers.html

What is perhaps most disturbing of all is to see that the Left practices the exact same form of character assassination warfare today that it practiced fifty years ago against Whittaker Chambers. Exactly.

I admit freely that it was a disillusioning time for me. To realize that all my teachers, people I had no reason to distrust, fed me a steady diet of falsehood regarding Joseph McCarthy. There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever.

The good thing about it is that I now view everything political with a grain of salt, which I think is healthy. I am also now completely biased towards the right of the political spectrum. I have no use for the Left.

This was cemented for me last March at the Gathering of Eagles down in Washington, D.C.

I saw with my OWN eyes what happened that day, and I watched the news with ten other people afterwards, and was stupefied by the way the media presented it on television. Everyone in the room, all of us who had actually BEEN there and seen what went on, looked at each other in disbelief. I will say that there was not one person who was surprised by it, but...that didn’t mean we had to accept it. That was the first time I had seen on my own, the bias of the media.

[rlmorel]

By the way, thank you for the considerate ping...

[Theodore R.]

Historians won’t alter the anti-McCarthy script, for it would prove them massively wrong. So the lies will continue for generations, with the sheeple too uninformed to find the truth.

[Theodore R.]

One of those was a VT icon named Ralph Flanders. Another was Mrs. M.C. Smith of ME.

[smoothsailing]

Thanks for the post, rlmorel!

I remember March 17th, I was at GOE as well,and I agree with you about the MSM. The media coverage was a gross distortion of reality. The media could not nor will it ever report the truth of that wonderful day.

[rlmorel]

Thanks...so you know what I mean...I was with the trooprallys afterwards, and it was pretty disillusioning, but...we kind of expected it.