[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Welcome to the FR. =]

I understand it can come as a shock that McCarthy might actually have had some truth to back him up. At the same time, there is a dispute that he might have used the wrong number of communists in his first announcement-- beaurocrats who also belonged to the Communist Party. Naturally, being a member of the Communist Party made someone a security risk, but Truman, and even FDR in some cases, gave hundreds if not thousands of card carrying communists security clearance. There was a specific instance mentioened by Coulter regarding both former DNC presidents who were actually warned that 'so-and-so' was a Soviet spy, and they got promoted anyway!

But, McCarthy had some problems of his own. His last head advisor really messed him up-- permanently. It was ugly. Ike turned against him in the end.

While it's good to set the record straight about McCarthy, it would be foolish to go overboard about it. McCarthy made himself an easy target. It's really sad because he cared about the USA, and he sacrificed a lot in this private war against Soviet infiltration. If he had won more victories, we would be much better off today.

On the other side of the coin, his last advisor was a scheming creep who tried to bully the military into promoting and transferring his homosexual partner. That really made things difficult for McCarthy, you could imagine.

FReegards....

[PhilipFreneau]

Naturally, being a member of the Communist Party made someone a security risk, but Truman, and even FDR in some cases, gave hundreds if not thousands of card carrying communists security clearance.

A good book by an FDR insider is "The Roosevelt Myth", by John T. Flynn. It was copyrighted in 1948. I have the 1956 revision. The book includes details of Eleanor's secretive role in securing the "red" vote.