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Basically, his accusations were the equivalent of tabloid psychic predictions that occasionally
score lucky hits...

Which is why PBS said that McCarthy was dead wrong when he pointed the finger at
individual targets. He totally blew that assignment.

...and did great damage to the cause of legitimate and rational investigation
into real Communist infiltration.

The PBS NOVA episode also discussed this, in light of the inherent conflict between
the "need to know" for an oversight body such as the Congress and a "need to keep secret"
investigative agency such as the FBI or CIA.

IIRC, the tone the NOVA special took in this area was that maybe the FBI/CIA should have
let McCarthy in on a bit of what they actually knew...I suppose with the thought
McCarthy might quiet down, knowing the infiltators were being watched.
How much good that would have done? I suspect that sharing secrets with an alcoholic
guy searching for the spotlight...probably would have led to worse consequences.

McCarthy did lots of damage, not only in ruining the lives of many innocents
and also making anti-Communists a target of ridicule.

But, all said and done, it did freak me out to hear PBS, often an outlet for apologists
for Communists, conclude that McCarthy's ranting about Communist infilitrators
in the US government did reflect what has been learned from many sources, such
as the Venona intercepts.

In McCarthy's case, it was a real-life case of what Woody Allen once said:
"Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they aren't out to get you."

McCarthy did lots of damage, not only in ruining the lives of many innocents .. .

Such as?

The first Hollywood blacklist was a decade before McCarthy by communists against those not in the party. It was vicious. Rumors were floated that those who didn't go along with the party line supported Hitler.

The first Congressional "witch hunt" was led by Samuel Dickstein (D-NY) against German Americans, anti-communists and those opposed to entering WWII. Dickstein was a KGB agent (code name:crook). When he chaired an immigration committee, he sold Soviet agents visas. He was never chastised, never caught and his name never became a household word.

Btw...the word "McCarthyism" was coined by the Communist Party USA and first appeared in print in the Daily Worker.

McCarthy did lots of damage, not only in ruining the lives of many innocents...

Please name one. I'm genuinely curious. This is a charge against McCarthy that gets flung arond a lot, but I have yet to see one person held up as an example who's life was "ruined" who was not actually a clandestine communist.