"Treason" and John Henry Faulk: An Open Letter to Ann Coulter (LONG)

theoverseer

[theoverseer]

Dear Ms. Coulter,

I understand that on a West Coast radio show you praised Free Republic. I certainly hope you monitor the posts here, because I believe I have something important to say to you.

Just the other day, I picked up your latest book, "Treason." I enjoyed "High Crimes and Misdemeanors;" it was an indictment of Bill Clinton worthy of a legal brief. I also enjoyed your pot-shots at liberals in "Slander." I have recently finished reading "Treason." While you certainly have a readable style (much better than many other conservative writers) I was somewhat disturbed by its premise.

While you make an excellent case for how the Left has become unpatriotic, you taint that message by making a "poet" out of Senator Joseph McCarthy. While men such as Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater deserve high places on conservative pedestals, McCarthy deserves to be locked in a closet alongside Bill Clinton, only to be opened as a lesson in how people hungry for power and personal gain.

Allow me to make my case, counselor.

On page 56 of your book, you write, "McCarthy's contribution to 'McCarthyism' consisted exclusively of his investigation of loyalty risks working for the federal government." An excellent argument made by a great legal advocate. In a court of law, one must make certain that their client is only credited for what they truly did. A good defense lawyer representing a person accused of murder would not allow prosecutors to delve into how his murder inspired others to committ similar murders.

Unfortunately for you, this is not a court of law; this is the court of public opinion. And, no matter how much you may admire your client, Joseph McCarthy, his reckless actions inspired others to committ heinous acts of slander and false accusation that destroyed many lives. My client, the late John Henry Faulk, is just one.

I studied "Treason" rather closely, and I found it interesting that I found no mention of my client or the organization that literally destroyed his career, AWARE, Inc. Perhaps in your obviously extensive research you missed this story. It could have happened.

John Henry Faulk was a Texan whose course of college study was folklore. Through his studies documenting sermons in African-American churches, he became firm in his belief that African-Americans and other minorities were unjustly being deprived of basic human rights. He later taught English at the University of Texas, using his folklore and storytelling abilities to praise the greatness of the Lone Star State, while challenging students on some of the state's and the country's less enlightened practices.

His outspokenness about racism made him somewhat of a faculty pariah, so he compensated through storytelling and humor. These talents led to his later career in broadcasting.

Faulk was kept out of the Army in the early part of America's participation in World War II due to an eye injury. He joined the Merchant Marines for a year and later was admitted to the Army as a medic.

Upon returning to civilian life, Faulk got short-lived jobs at several radio stations, due what he did best: tell stories. His popularity grew so large that CBS Radio premiered "The John Henry Faulk Show" in 1951. The show lasted six years.

Then a funny thing happened. In 1957, Faulk was told that the heads of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists were officers sympathetic to AWARE, Inc., a corporation inspired by your client, which offered "clearance" services to broadcasting stations. AWARE would determine whether or not a broadcasting employee was suspected of being a Communist. Most stations, fearing being tainted a "Red Channel," complied and hired AWARE.

Faulk, a staunch First Amendment defender, felt it was wrong for stations to screen employees through their political ideals, so he successfully challenged the union leadership. In retaliation, AWARE branded Faulk a Communist.

AWARE's evidence? Faulk had been seen at a dinner in the late 1940s with a "known Communist agent." That was true. Faulk was at a United Nations dinner, sharing the dais with the Soviet Premier. They shared no words. Additionally, Faulk met his wife at a presidential rally for Henry Wallace, which Faulk had been invited to.

Faulk's career was ruined by embellishment and innuendo. Later in 1957, Lawyer Louis Nizer, on Faulk's behalf, sued AWARE, which hired McCarthy associate Roy Cohn. Cohn and AWARE successfully stalled the suit until 1962, when a jury awared Faulk the largest libel judgment in history: $3.5 million. The award was consumed by legal fees and outstanding debts. This effectively destroyed AWARE.

Despite Faulk's vindication, CBS never hired him back. Faulk didn't perform on radio or television again until 1975, when he appeared on the show "Hee-Haw" for its five-year run. In 1983, he ran against Phil Gramm and lost. He spent the remainder of his life travelling around the country, lecturing about his battle with the blacklist and promoting the First Amendment until his death in 1990.

So you see, dear counselor Coulter, my client's name is not one you will find in the Venona files; you will not see his name on the membership roster of the Communist Party. You see simply a man who so loved his country he actively enjoyed its freedoms, and encouraged others to do so.

It is my hope the absence of my client's name in your book was simply an oversight in research. Perhaps M. Stanton Evans, the man you thank in your acknowledgments, will mention my client's story in his upcoming book about your client.

I rest.

Regards,

theoverseer.

[LanPB01]

It sounds to me like your client's problem lies with AWARE and Roy Cohn. They were "inspired" by McCarthy? Jesse Jackson can say he was inspired by Martin Luther King, but that doesn't mean there's actually any correlation between the two.

Faulk may have been wronged, but there's no reason in your letter to Ms. Coulter to come banging on the door of McCarthy's estate seeking reparations.

[Support Free Republic]

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[Chu Gary]

I've been wondering when the assault on Ann Coulter would begin. Apparently her last book intimidated Katie and others too much and with all of Ms. Coulter's footnoted references, it's pretty hard to mount an argument. But congrats to you, you found another way to do it, target something that wasn't in the book. Brilliant!! I think you might also accuse her of failing to talk about UFO's and the Civil War.

[WL-law]

Written by a pompous gasbag. Much windage based on a premise that's flimsier than flimsy.

[evad]

My client, the late John Henry Faulk, is just one.

Ahhh...all the false praise and bovine feces out of the way, now we cut to the chase.

I know nothing about Mr. Faulk. He may have been a just and honorable man.

I do know something aout Ann Coulter and hold her in the highest regard.

Now that leaves us with you. Is there any reason we should believe you?

[NutCrackerBoy]

Faulk's story serves as a counterweight to "Treason" in a way. But you make no case against McCarthy himself, except to say that AWARE was inspired by him.

You say his reckless actions inspired others to committ heinous acts of slander and false accusation that destroyed many lives.

You did not bother to establish which of his were reckless actions. Coulter was careful to separate McCarthy's actions from those to whom he had no ties.

Let's stipulate that an intemperately anti-Red movement was boosted, legitimized by McCarthy. Fine. Please be specific in describing how McCarthy's approach to rooting out well-placed Soviet spies could have been effective without creating the avalanche that hurt John Henry Faulk.

[FR_addict]

I read the book about John Henry Faulk, but it was quite a few years ago.

I admire Ann Coulter, but haven't read "Treason" yet.

I was wondering what she would say about the treatment of people like John Henry Faulk.

On the other hand, I am tired of the left yelling out McCarthyism everytime they want to blame conservatives for something. I hope Ann's book is a fair treatment on this subject.

It sounds like you are saying that McCarthy himself wasn't the problem, but an organization that capitalized on the hearings. This "Aware" organization sounds like Jesse Jackson's Rainbow coalition. His organization was an offshoot of the civil rights movement, but I wouldn't blame the civil rights movement for the tactics of the Rainbow coalition.

Ann shouldn't have left out mentioning organizations that took advantage of the times. I haven't read the book, but intend to.

[Radix]

I have yet to finish reading my copy of the Coulter book "Treason,"

I am not entirely pleased with Ms. Coulter, she has a website AnnCoulter.org with a message board area. Some serious aholes manage that board for her. (I resent certain of those those persons very much.) They are after the order of the Nazi's in my opinion.

Ms Coulter has seen fit to not address the issues that I have with the facists who represent her name on her website. That is how it appears to me. Ms Coulter has thus proven to me that she has an agenda that is not something that I can be in total compliance with.

Despite my misgivings concerning her site, I like her stuff very much. She is pretty cool, and the book is awesome. I believe that it is important, and actually imperative that we challenge left wing BS at every opportunity.

I do not know anyone effected by the HUAC, or the Senate hearings which were held before my birth. I am cognizant of the fact that McCarthy has been assailed for the last 50 years or so as a sort of demonic figure.

Please show me exactly where Ann Coulter is wrong in her accounts of the hearings and trials of those days. I'd bet a years pay that you cannot provide evidence against her. Ann Coulter is a very shrewd person, and she is also someone that I admire, despite certain criticisms.

Your personal issues with her are a completely different thing than what she has writen. I think so, but as I mentioned, I have not finished her book yet.

You may have your own issues with Senator McCarthy, but can you dispute Ann Coulter's book and the things that she actually wrote?. I doubt it. Perhaps we can discuss the issues after I finish the book that she actually wrote.

[Richard Kimball]

John Henry Faulk supported the Communist regime in Nicaragua, and spoke highly of them on radio station KLBJ on several occasions. I've listened to quite a bit of his work, and he has impressed me as being pretty much like Garrison Keeler. Faulk wasn't that great a storyteller. I knew many storytellers who were far better at "spinnin a yarn" than Faulk was. Faulk, however, put a socialist spin to his stories that made him palatable to the media. The reason he didn't get much work for a long time is because he just wasn't that good. He rode the bicycle of "I was blackballed because of the communist scare" until the wheels fell off. He lost a job in a dispute with a media company. Cry me a river. Gosh, I guess nobody else ever got fired from a job. He ended up telling stories on Hee Haw, and he wasn't as good as Grandpa Jones at that.

[DPB101]

First I've heard of AWARE. "Red Channels" was another publication which complied lists of celebrities who joined communist Fronts or supported Stalin. Americans have a right to do that. Freepers and liberals do it today. The writer of this article has no case against Coulter or McCarthy.

If someone wants to wring hands about the McCarthy era, I suggest they feel sympathy for the families of Americans killed in Korea with technology supplied to the USSR by traitors.

[smoothsailing]

Is this the best you've got, Conason?

The Left is truly pathetic.

[MEG33]

You did not make your case that McCarthy was responsible for your client's job loss.

[Blake#1]

How did you get "Old Joe the Hater Conason" tied to this story?

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

I does look like something Joe "Buy My Book Dammit Because I Want You To" Conason would write.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

6 and counting.

[Radix]

Re: your profile

Terrific graphics, bad choice of fonts, I cannot read your words. The colors simply do not work.

I am not a professional critic. I simply felt that you might want to know my impression.

[sweetliberty]

That is just such a perfect graphic for these threads. Hehe...

[Arkinsaw]

And then there is Elia Kazan. At age 89, when he was to get a lifetime achievement award solely on the merits of his work......Bitter and unrelenting, writer/director, Abraham Polonsky quipped, “I’ll be watching, hoping someone shoots him. It would no doubt be a thrill in an otherwise dull evening.”

Who was Mr. Polonsky inspired by?

[ggekko]

Who knows what associations John Henry Faulk actually had? I do not accept the gratuitous assertions of his attorney at face value.

The real value of "Treason" consists in highlighting the revelations of the Venona decrypts which have been obscured by a smog of Liberal disinformation. The Venona decrypts not only vindicate Mcarthy AND the HUAC commission but demonstrate the scope of the massive Soviet intelligence operation in this country.

The plain facts are that a number of Hollywood figures, figures in academia, figures in the Labor movement, and figures in various "peace" movements were paid Soviet agents. These agents were knowingly cooperating with an entity pledged to the violent overthrow of the US government. This is treasonous behavior by the leagally accepted definition. Such cooperation is indistinguishable from the actions of Aldrich Ames and the Walker family spy ring.

The Left is again attempting to obscure this awful reality by using the "Mcarthy witch hunt" smokescreen. Hopefully this time the Left will not be able to get away with this tactic.