One example should suffice to discredit anything else this ignorant termagant had to say in the "symposium": In her opening screed, Estrich tosses out the old smear that McCarthy "was casting about for a Big Issue to ride into a second term. With the help of a rabidly anti-communist Catholic clergyman of the Father Coughlin-ilk, McCarthy found his issue: Reds in the Government!" This smear, so useful to liberals, Democrats, and "anti-McCarthyites," originated in a claim made by Drew Pearson, a liberal partisan dedicated to "bringing down McCarthy," that, not Pearson, but his lawyer had sat in on a luncheon in which McCarthy was supposedly casting around for an "issue" in a campaign for his re-election campaign which would take place four years later (McCarthy was elected to the Senate in 1948). The "rabidly anti-Communist Catholic clergyman of the Father Coughlin ilk" that Escrement so cravenly omits to name was according to Pearson's lawyer's recollection supposed to be the distinguished diplomat and foreign policy expert Edmund J. Walsh, who also happened to oversee famine relief efforts in the newly Soviet Russia in the 1920's and to have founded Georgetown's School of Foreign Service. (For the record, Father Walsh did consult with Sen. McCarthy but denied ever counselling McCarthy to adopt "anti-communism" as a campaign issue---it was a "campaign issue" for most Congressmen years before McCarthy was even elected). Estrich's vicious, bigoted, Catholic-baiting smear of a distinguished American who was indeed anti-communist but who could never credibly be charged with anti-Semitism is in itself a "McCarthyite" smear of the most despicable order, and both Horowitz and Glazov deserve condemnation for allowing this scoundrel to peddle her partisan attacks at this "symposium."
Now for Profs. Haynes and Klehr, whom as I said I will treat respectfully. Let me begin with Prof. Klehr's opener:
Klehr: Mr. Brennan claims never to have heard of any people falsely or maliciously attacked by McCarthy. How about James Wechsler, editor of the New York Post? Wechsler had long been public about his Communist background in the student movement of the 1930s and had for years been a vigorous and forthright anti-communist liberal.
Senator McCarthy went after him largely because Wechsler had criticized McCarthy and suggested that Communist denunciations of Wechsler were actually part of a Communist effort to make him appear to be an anti-communist.
Two points. One, according to transcripts in Herman's 2000 biography of McCarthy, McCarthy did not accuse Wechsler of continuing to be a communist---he admittedly belonged to the Communist Youth League in the '30's---but of serving "consciously or not" the communist cause. Second, if McCarthy's accusations "harmed" Wechsler, I'd like to know how. I can remember Wechsler's columns in the NY Post long after McCarthy had died. By the way, when McCarthy died in 1957, Wechsler of course called him "reckless" and all the usual epithets, but also denied that McCarthy was personally responsible for the militantly anti-communist spirit of the late '40's and '50's in America, and even called McCarthy "not unlikeable" as a person.
Even when he was attacking Communist sympathizers or fellow-travellers, McCarthy was often reckless and wrong. Did it do the anti-communist cause any good to accuse Owen Lattimore, a despicable man to be sure, of being the top Soviet spy in the United States? Whatever Lattimore's sins, that was not one of them.
There are still plenty of questions regarding Owen Lattimore's true role in Soviet espionage in the '30's and '40's--surely Ann is right to emphasize this point in her book. It is documented, and through a Chinese Communist source published in 1988, that Lattimore used Comintern channels to hire a Chinese Communist for the staff of his magazine Amerasia in 1936 who managed an espionage ring. Thousands of classified documents were found in Amerasia's New York offices in 1945. Although it is true that references to Lattimore have apparently not been found in Venona cables deciphered so far, Klehr's concession that Lattimore was merely "despicable," as if he owed back child support, does not do justice to the sheer stench emanating from the guy.
And now for Prof. Haynes:
Haynes: Let's get the dates straight. Joseph McCarthy did not emerge as an anticommunist spokesman until 1950. By that time the back of the domestic Communist movement already had been broken and anticommunism dominated both major parties. President Truman in 1948 set up a massive loyalty program to remove Communists from federal employment.
With all due respect to Prof. Haynes, this statement contains quite a bit of "spin." McCarthy "did not emerge as an anticommunist spokesman" until 1950, but it is wrong to imply that McCarthy had not paid any attention to the issue until 1950, or that he was not himself a strongly identified "anti-communist."
Haynes' assertion that the "back" of the CPUSA had been broken by 1950 is consistent with the thesis in the 1992 book he and Professor Klehr authored "The American Communist Movement: Storming Heaven Itself," that the 1948 campaign in which the CPUSA backed Henry Wallace for President effectively destroyed it as a political force. However, no one outside of the Communist party (and certain wings of the Democrat party obviously) ever expected the CPUSA to ever become an electoral force in American politics---the real concern was over Communist infiltration of, influence over, and espionage of the Federal government.
Truman did indeed set up a "loyalty program" in response to Republican pressure---remember the Republicans had taken control of Congress in 1946 in part based on their attacks on Truman's security policy. At the same time, Truman made sure that Federal employee files under the program would not be made available to Congress, not even under subpoena. It was this policy of instituting a "loyalty program" that was not subject to Congressional oversight that was one of the things that drove McCarthy into action.
Let's remember something else about that year 1950. McCarthy's Wheeling speech came right at the beginning of 1950, and the worst news about security breaches was yet to come. Later that year, the arrest of Klaus Fuchs in Britain would lead to the Rosenberg spy ring and its successful efforts on behalf of the Soviet Union to obtain nuclear secrets from top secret US installations. The security problem was by no means "handled" by 1950, and Prof. Haynes is wrong to imply it was.
Truman's Justice Department convicted the leadership of the CPUSA under the Smith Act, convicted Alger Hiss, and in 1950 arrested and later convicted the Rosenbergs, David Greenglass, Harry Gold, and Morton Sobell for espionage.
Spin again. Much of the CPUSA leadership was convicted only after McCarthy's speech, and as I noted, the Rosenberg ring was uncovered fortuitously and only after McCarthy's speech. As for Alger Hiss, anyone who knows the history of the Hiss-Chambers case knows that the initial response of the Truman Administration to Chambers' revelations was to threaten to indict Chambers for perjury! It was only after Chambers came up with the famous "Pumpkin Papers" that Truman's Justice Department had no other choice but to indict Hiss.
Most importantly, Truman, Cold War Democrats and anticommunist liberals in 1948 smashed the bold attempt of the Communists and Popular Front liberals to carve out a major role in mainstream politics through Henry Wallace's presidential campaign and the Progressive Party.
"Smashed"? Wow, sounds like Prof. Haynes has been taking rhetorical points from the Communists he's been studying. The truth is that in their "BC" (i.e., "Before Coulter") book "Storming Heaven Itself," Profs. Klehr and Haynes use nowhere near as lurid language to describe Truman's efforts---they attribute the defeat of the Wallace candidacy to a combination of boneheaded moves by the CPUSA, labor's desire to see the Republicans lose the election, and (let it be said) the honorable efforts of groups like the ADA to combat Wallace. And once again, what does the electoral demise of the CPUSA have to do with the continuing security problem that was McCarthy's focus?
The expulsion of Communist-led unions from the CIO completed the destruction of the institutional base of Communist influence in 1949.
As Richard Gid Powers makes it clear in "Not Without Honor" (Free Press, 1995), the expulsion of communists from the UAW and CIO was the direct result of the passage by a Republican Congress, over Truman's veto, of the Taft-Hartley Act, which required union leadership to swear that they were not communists in order to get the protection of the NLRA. Truman didn't have anything to do with it.
Abroad, Truman enunciated the Truman Doctrine of aid to nations facing Soviet aggression, committed America to war in Korea to stop Communist aggression, and launched the Marshall Plan that restored European prosperity and contained the internal Communist threat there.
Again check the historical record---these programs were put forth under pressure from a "partisan" Republican Congress elected in 1946.
That's all for now. Let me repeat: Profs. Klehr and Haynes are deserving of respectful attention. But they should also be challenged when they are being more polemical than scholarly, as was unfortunately the case in this "symposium."
Map Kernow just took down the beast with a .600 Nitro Express
Anyone care to butcher it? Got a few garnishes to add myself but Kernow's reply deserves some time for reflection on what would best go with his kill.
Exactly. John Reed wrote off a Bolshevik takeover of America in 1918. From Lenin on, the goal was always to undermine America--to disarm and demoralize America using the Democratic Party as a proxy--not make the Communist Party a major player.
From the recently unsealed McCarthy transcrips (Volume 2)
The Chairman. Just by way of resume, Mr. Hawkins has been testifying as to what was told him by an undercover agent of the FBI. This undercover agent of the FBI is taken out of the underground by the FBI and will be available to testify on this court case on trial, and the Justice Department or the FBI has requested we not call this witness until after he has completed his testimony in the pending case, and as far as you understand, he will be available to testify at that time.Mr. Cohn. Yes.
Mr. Surine. Mr. Hawkins, did this witness turn over to you a document concerning that meeting?
Mr. Hawkins. Yes, he did.
Mr. Surine. On December 4, 1952?
Mr. Hawkins. Yes,
Mr. Surine. I wonder if you could read that into the record? Describe what the document is?
Mr. Hawkins. The document lists five points listing the instructions and information that was given out at this Communist party meeting on December 4, 1952.
The Chairman. That will be inserted in the record. We will withhold any further testimony from Mr. Hawkins.
Mr. Cohn. Delete the name of the witness from that statement.
I. The present ``peace offensive'' is designed to be the last stage in the program of administering a ``sedative'' to the American people before the hammer of war falls on Continental United States. All functionaries have been alerted to concentrate on this present phase of the ``peace offensives'' for the purpose of building resistance to war and clamour for tax reduction so as to effect the defensive power of the Nation.II. In line with the ``peace offensive,'' all trade union functionaries have been ordered to lay low, to make it appear that the class struggle has been sidetracked by the present Russian regime.
III. Actual ``operation propaganda'' is concentrating upon school, churches and children with principal reliance on front agencies, notably Civil Rights Congress.
IV. Senator McCarthy is among those listed for liquidation or murder--an American agent assigned to the job (L.B.).
V. The pending communist cases against known communist functionaries have been ordered dragged out for the purpose of diverting the attention of the American people to the `down in the mouth defendants' to make it appear that the communists apparatus U.S.A. is bankrupt, defunct and on its way to the prison, when actually, there has never been more money or more activity in the communist apparatus in the past eleven years.