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There are people who believe in really wacky things. But on the other hand, it's pretty clear from historical evidence that the USSR and othe communist nations were out to get us. Have you not read that the USSR had spies, that were even in prominent positions in the FDR administration? There are very few credible historians who believe otherwise, especially since now released USSR intelligence documents show this to be true. The CPUSA has als9o been shown to have taken direct orders from Stalin. The fact that Earl Browder, Norman Z. Foster, and Gus Hall, got orders from the USSR is established historical fact. So does believing this makes one a wacked-out conspiracy theorist? Does believing that the Rosenbergs were guilty make one a John Bircher? 108 posted on 10/05/2003 7:22 PM PDT by nickcarraway

The existence of a highly elaborate, complex, multi-level international Communist conspiracy, despite the glib and smug sarcasm from liberals about McCarthyism, the John Birch Society, or VAST RIGHT-WING Wackos, as a matter of history, is not a "theory" but based on hard facts. The KGB archives, since the Berlin Wall came crashing down, have actually made Sen. McCarthy's claims seem rather mild and understated. There were a lot more than 100 or 200 Commie agents in other words. Just because McCarthy didn't have the evidence to back his claims does not mean they weren't there. KGB penetration was vast and deep.

The Dodd claims seem sensationalist, but then the USSR was a pretty weird monster. The whole Kim Philby psychodrama with moles in British Intelligence was a pretty bizarre episode. Check out the materials on the various mole hunts. Peter Wright's Spycatcher is an interesting read. The stuff on the investigations of the assassination attempt on John Paul II in '81, the death of Pope John Paul I, and all the weird banking scandals in Italy reveals quite a lot on the political and espionage levels focused on the Vatican by various countries. There's no way anyone could read about Hungary in the 1950s and come away from that not understanding that the Catholic Church was a target of Communist aggression and mischief of great interest to the KGB.

McCarthy was the Christopher Columbus of his time: right about the big picture, wrong about the details.

I read Witness by Whitaker Chambers; an excellent read. Interesting how cospiracy theories are a sign of intellectual laziness but dismissing all the facts with a wave of the hand and a phrase like "nutty theories" or "paranoid kook" is the epitome of rigorous intellect.

The only place I had ever read about what the communists were doing was from the Catholic presses. I don't recall much in the secular press at the time.