Stupid, idiotic special characters made it think my post had HTML in it and compressed it into a block of unreadable text! Here is what I MEANT to say:
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I am with you 100% on this. As you can see from my FreepPage, Joe McCarthy should be an American Hero, he gave his life for his country just as certainly as if he had been killed by a bullet on the battlefield.
When I read Ann Coulter’s “Treason”, it struck me that her version of Joseph McCarthy was significantly different than any version of him that I had ever heard in my entire life, even though I have always considered myself a conservative. But I did utter on a number of occasions a variant of “Yes, there were communist agents, but what Joe McCarthy did was not the right way to go after them...he was not a shining example of what our system should be like...”
Well. I couldn’t square that round peg after reading “Treason” and thought someone is completely wrong here.
It is either Ann Coulter, and that means all the negative things liberals say about her are correct, or every single account I had ever heard about Joseph McCarthy in my entire life was wrong, and the teachers, professors, books, and media accounts were wrong.
It was that simple. And to be honest, I did not even consider for a moment what I would do if I found out I had been fed a line of BS about a subject by people I had trusted throughout my life. Didn’t even think about that effect it might have on me. But I thought “Someone has to be wrong. They can’t both be right.”
So, I did what the Internet allows one to do: I downloaded the PDF files of the transcripts of the Army-McCarthy hearings. And I read them.
I was already a conservative, and had been since a kid when I realized that Hubert Humphrey was a tool of the Left, and Nixon was the only alternative. But after reading those transcripts, I was shaken all the way down to the bed rock. The thing that did it for me was reading about the famous Welch comment that is a sacred liberal artifact to this day, when he said “Senator, may we not drop this? We know he belonged to the Lawyers Guild ... Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Ann Coulter’s characterization of this encounter was 100% on target, and not even close. When reading the transcript, Welch was ridiculing McCarthy’s assistant Roy Cohn, repeatedly, over and over, until McCarthy, who had enough, made his statement about an assistant for Welch (Fred Fisher) being part of a communist organization.
It was a real stunner for me. I had believed all I had heard over the years about how McCarthy had relentlessly harassed the witness until Welch exploded, only to find out it was the complete reverse.
After that, I read a good number of books covering this issue, including some of the screeds that viciously attacked McCarthy, a number of books on Venona, finally culminating in “Blacklisted by History” which was enough to make me buy the electronic book version so I could electronically mark it up for reference (when I have ‘disagreements’ with liberals) the book is that good.
During this time, I also read “Witness” by Whittaker Chambers, and the truth he spoke hit me like an artillery shell. And when I looked at the way Truman Justice and the liberal media (even if it was less liberal back then) attacked him with long knives, conspiring to destroy Chambers, it shocked me.
And it also changed my views of Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower. I already held a dim view of Roosevelt and was somewhat neutral on Eisenhower, but it changed me 180 degrees on Truman. In my opinion, the reputation of his administration and the Democrat party was far, FAR more important than the national security of this country in the face of communist infiltration at all levels of government. That was something that stuck in my craw. Instead of bringing out into the open these people who conspired against both the non-communist resistance forces in Yugoslavia and China (Draza Mihailovic and Chiang Kai-shek, both horrible, shameful black marks of betrayal on our historic record) Roosevelt and Truman stabbed them in the back by protecting these scumbags at all levels of government. Boy, it makes me hopping mad to think how both Roosevelt and Truman are revered in many circles in this country.
I am listening to the audiobook version, and am particularly struck by the perfidy of Truman, protecting communists from exposure. When Republicans on the committee were asking for the records on these McCarthy cases, I was dumbstruck by the outright OBSTRUCTION by Truman and his administration to PROTECT these people who were CLEARLY security risks to our nation! And it wasn’t some flunkies or advisers, it was TRUMAN HIMSELF! How he got all the records under his control both physically and organizationally, then made rules that only the committee chairs could see the records, they couldn’t take notes, they couldn’t have assistants present, and they HAD TO REVIEW THOSE RECORDS IN THE DIRECT PRESENCE OF TRUMAN HIMSELF! I always liked the concept of Truman as tough Cold Warrior, but now...I very nearly despise him. I respect him for making that decision to drop the bomb on Japan, and his lack of regret, but in retrospect, a lot of people at that time would have made the same choice. Now, I view him as a despicable political hack.
I am STILL blown away by this. He was PROTECTING these communist agents, because he didn’t want the Democrats to look bad.
Anyway, the culmination of all this was that I had to recognize I had been lied to, both deliberately and unintentionally, I had to alter my views on the early Cold War and the roles of many people in it. I found it deeply disillusioning, but...I would rather recognize the truth and feel angst, than accept lies and be happy in my ignorance.
And overall, it solidly cements my view of Democrats and the Left as domestic enemies of the United States, because they haven’t changed a bit. Not one iota. The methods they used to destroy their enemies back then, they still use today.
(Sorry this is so long, but...as you can see...this had a significant effect on my outlook and viewpoints.)
Welcome to the light. There is much in your post that I find moving. My trajectory was similar to yours, reading Treason, then onto Blacklisted by History. I never doubted Coulter’s accounts. Her research was solid
It’s amazing when you look at Democrats of the past and fast forward to the Obama years—you see how little has changed. Only now we’re infiltrated not just with communists but islamists. There is some history behind liberals and Islam. I’m going to dig into that.
Perhaps President Trump will be a McCarthy of our time, outing the evil doers in our government.
I completely agree—McCarthy was a great American hero. He suffered slings and arrows from every direction, not unlike our current president. I, too, hold the Left accountable for McCarthy’s premature death.
At least we can take the time to correct the record when we see Tail Gunner Joe’s name besmirched.