Where Have You Gone, Joe McCarthy?

June 20, 2003 | Adam Yoshida

[adamyoshida]

The only way you would have been in jail (and, in our timeline, no one was jailed because of McCarthy who hadn't committed any crime), would have been if you were a Soviet agent. Were you a Soviet agent?

Hell, if you were a member of the CPUSA or a fellow traveller, and you would have ended up in jail because of it, tough luck for you. I'm not going to be shedding any tears for Reds.

[c-b 1]

I have read plenty about Joe.

Revisionist histroy.

[Torie]

It was posited on Joe having absolute power. Of course, he was checked and balanced, and then imploded, due to his own fundamental amoral viciousness. This Dracula must remain in his coffin, and not being reanimated, with his corporeal hand shooting up out of the coffin to torture us in our nightmares, while we sleep. Dreaming about Hillary as President is enough to fully provision my nightmare fantasies at present.

[DPB101]

Always found it odd that McCarthy is more reviled than those who aided and abetted a system which murdered 30 million of its own citizens. Those people, and there were many, wanted that system to replace our Republic. Democrats think the Hollywood Ten are heros and McCarthy a lying, drunk who was a threat to the American way of life to this day. Go figure.

[Belial]

He did nothing but attempt to fight for the country, to defend it from Communist infiltration

It's hard to tell from your rhetoric what you mean.

Americans, from what I understand, have the freedom to choose a political philosophy, whether it be conservative, libertarian, or communist. We also have the freedom of association.

McCarthy attempted to undermine these essential freedoms, ultimately to serve his own political ends. It is for this simple reason that he represents a dark period in our country's political history.

The nostalgia for McCarthy is quite parallel to the fond thoughts many harbor for the dictator Pinochet. The champions of free enterprise seem to have considerable latitude when it comes to their tactics.

[Torie]

Stalin symps are all in hell, if there is a hell, and history has put them there, along with Joe. History has been good to us all.

[DPB101]

I would be in jail if Joe had been in totally in charge, in my time

Did you read the recently released transcripts of the McCarthy executive sessions? He protected the privacy of both CPUSA members and homosexuals. The former were only protected if they cooperated. McCarthy made clear to homosexuals that no matter if they cooperated or not, his committee would never release information on their sexual proclivities. And he didn't. An MIT professor who was a CPUSA member and a State Department employee who was gay both expressed thanks for his discretion.

[Torie]

I don't give a damn if Joe was kind to homosexuals, just like he was to his protege Mr. Coen. I don't care if he loved his pets either.

[Fred Mertz]

Moderates are meant to rule in times of peace and steadiness.

You've written a very intriguing article/essay.

[jd777]

The Rockefeller/Kissinger Neo-cons hate McCarthy becuase he got close to uncovering their treasonous double-dealing...

Real American Conservatives know better.

[DPB101]

Stalin symps are all in hell, if there is a hell

Not yet they aren't. Venona uncovered 349 Americans who maintained clandestine contact with Soviet intelligence. When McCarthy held the hearings, we only knew the identities of around 150 of them. And many of those were in very high positions. What was driving McCarthy nuts is where the other 200 were. We never found most of them. More than a few are no doubt alive today. Living on fat government pensions no doubt.

Another thing bugged McCarthy and others. Obviously, Venona did not expose everyone. How many more were there? And where? In 1945, America was the world's only super power. The Soviets were victorious but badly mauled. 6 years later , communists had taken half of Europe, all of China half of Korea and had the atomic bomb. Something was wrong with our government. Very, very wrong.

[Pompah]

If Joe had been totally in charge.
What the hell is that supposed to mean.?
Sounds a lot like the Party line to me.

[Torie]

That must be it. What was Kissenger doing while Joe was around? What was Rockefeller doing (whichever one)?

[Torie]

McCarthy was too ineffectual to expose anyone. He was a circus clown.

[DPB101]

Americans, from what I understand, have the freedom to choose a political philosophy . . .

The Communist Party USA was not a political "philosophy." It was created, funded and directed by the Kremlin. Party members took orders from Moscow. John Reed was given over a million dollars by Lenin in 1920 to fund the party in America. The money continued to pour in until the end of the Cold War. The Hollywood Ten's lawyers were on the phone to Moscow while they testified (or didn't) before congress.

[c-b 1]

That pretty well sums it up.

[DPB101]

McCarthy was too ineffectual to expose anyone. He was a circus clown.

All your comments on this thread so far are straight from the CPUSA handbook of talking points circa 1950.

"McCarthyism" itself was a creation of the Communist party. The Daily Worker coined the term.

The liberal blather of "civil liberties" being under seige by those who went after communists was the creation of Willi Munzenberg 25 years before McCarthy.He used it to make the Sacco and Vanzetti case an international cause. Worked so well back then, the CPUSA continued to use it. And liberals to this day use it. Here is the history of the tactic:

Genius Dunderheads

[jd777]

Well, Henry was Nelson Rockefeller's protege. Nelson at the time was leading the American delegation at the founding of United Nations... which his family generously donated the land for, and somebody, somewhere selected Mr. Alger Hiss for our side to write the charter for the UN... Great choice... later convicted as a soviet agent...

By the way, at this time Stalin was mass murdering tens of millions of people, Sweeeping through Eastern Europe. And Mao was getting ready to do his thing in China... Why was McCarthy worried, right?

[Torie]

Actually Joe got his traction after Mao put away China. Folks panicked a bit, and Joe was there to exploit it. What exactly was Kissinger doing around 1950? I really want to know.

[jd777]

Henry was about to be plucked out of obscure academia by Nelson Rockefeller and catipulted onto the world's stage...