After 50 Years, Was McCarthy Right?

http://www.findarticles.com/m1571/9_16/60270502/p1/article.jhtml ^ | March 6, 2000 | John Elvin

[Stallone]

After 50 years, Was McCarthy Right?

Folk wisdom abounds with advice in various forms reminding us to judge the content and not the container. This advice might be appropriate with regard to Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

His enemies nearly have ceased to argue against the validity of his message in the face of evidence that has emerged during the last decade confirming his message of communist influence and infiltration in the government and culture during the early days of the Cold War.

Why bring this up now? In conjunction with an event the world little noted McCarthy's speech to a Republican women's fund-raiser in Wheeling, W. Va., half a century ago. It was there that the senator from Wisconsin waved a document and proclaimed, "I have here in my hand a list of 205 [State Department employees] that were known to the secretary of state as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department."

The Associated Press surveyed some of Wheeling's influential citizens to see if they would be celebrating the anniversary of McCarthy's first mention of what was to become the "Red Scare." Most of those contacted were only too happy to let the event slide by with a minimum of fanfare.

But AP did locate Douglas McKay, who was in the audience when McCarthy spoke. McKay thought the resultant crusade was a good thing because it forced its targets "to defend themselves rather than advance their socialist ideas."

If that is so, and the society and government we have today reflect only the aborted version of those ideas, then conservatives might want to doff their bonnets in a salute to ol' Tailgunner Joe. Things could be worse.

[Anamensis]

Where can I find this book, Venona Files? It's not in our library and Amazon has no record of it.

[sakic]

Article posted is 100% wrong. It was our fanatical fear of communism that caused us to create Bin Laden and his kind.

[Stallone]

Defending the rights of honest citizens while protecting them from terrorists.

These objectives are not mutually-exclusive.

The P-C left-wing proponents have swung the pendulum too far - and right-wingers will correct it, and one day may overreach.

So it goes.

What is certain is it's our turn now...

[Ditto]

But the unconstitutional tactics against everyone who fell into one of his hate-groups was anathema to the Constitution. It was a period of great fear for everyone - and a lot of WWII war heroes and dedicated patriots were terrified to do anything that might arouse suspicions. Anything.

WOW! Exactly what unconstitutional tactics were used and against whom?

McCarthy did not 'single out' any group unless you consider individuals who work for the US government and had access to classfied information to be a 'group." Of the 'names named' by McCarthy, he was proven to be 100% correct. Every one was giving secret information and assisting Joseph Stalin, the greatest mass murder in history. Are they an oppressed minority that needs protected?

[Ditto]

It was our fanatical fear of communism that caused us to create Bin Laden and his kind.

BS. Bin Laden whould be who he is and doing what he is doing if communiusm had never existed. It's a fight that predates Karl Marx by 600 years.

[TBP]

Joe's one of my heroes, as you can see in this old song from my YAF days, to the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (No, I didn't write it, but I wish I had.):

Oh, Fighting Joe McCarthy,
We're one and all for you.
You got the dirty commies
And you'll get the pinkos too.
Oh, Fighting Joe McCarthy,
We're one and all for you.
Our flag you'll wave,
Our land you'll save,
The dear red, white, and blue.

Now Fighting Joe McCarthy
Has gone to his reward.
And now he's up in Heaven
Fighting Commies for the Lord.
Oh, Fighting Joe McCarthy,
We're one and all for you.
Our flag you'll wave,
Our land you'll save,
The dear red, white, and blue.

[TBP]

Joe's one of my heroes, as you can see in this old song from my YAF days, to the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (No, I didn't write it, but I wish I had.):

Oh, Fighting Joe McCarthy,
We're one and all for you.
You got the dirty commies
And you'll get the pinkos too.
Oh, Fighting Joe McCarthy,
We're one and all for you.
Our land you'll save,
Our flag you'll wave,
The dear red, white, and blue.

Now Fighting Joe McCarthy
Has gone to his reward.
And now he's up in Heaven
Fighting Commies for the Lord.
Oh, Fighting Joe McCarthy,
We're one and all for you.
Our land you'll save,
Our flag you'll wave,
The dear red, white, and blue.

[WalterSkinner]

We know now that Whittaker Chambers was right.

[freedomnews]

The reason for these increasingly regular and violent attacks was Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. These extreme groups (condemned by most peaceful Muslims) want to force America out of the Middle East and drive Israel into the sea. But where did they come from and how are they linked?

It was the overthrow of the shah of Iran by a radical Muslim movement in 1979 that set fundamentalist Islam on a collision course with America. The new government led by Ayatollah Khomeini determined to humiliate the "Great Satan", as they dubbed America; one of its first actions was to seize dozens of hostages in the American embassy in Tehran and hold them captive for almost a year.

THANK YOU JIMMY CARTER

[frodolives]

#22 YES YES YES! McCarthyism brought this on us. Had to overthrow the Evil Empire at ALL costs. Who cares about that goat herder Osama? He's going to be our good buddy. Yup, like Marcos, and our pal in Panama.

[Billthedrill]

IMHO McCarthy was a convenient "out" for a number of people who might have fared worse had HUAC been able to proceed in a less bombastic, wildly accusatory manner and the Senate not butted in. He hijacked the former proceedings from that young feller whatsisname Nixon who was doing just fine until Tailgunner Joe thought the adults could do a better job.

Was he correct in that the State Department and other federal agencies had been penetrated by geniune Communists? Yes, and the evidence to back that up is coming out in reams from their former paymasters in the Soviet Union.

[mountainfolk]

I worked the night shift at a DC government agency during the McCarthy hearings. I watched them during the day and would later read in the newspapers a warped, different version of what I had seen . This was my introduction to the power of the news media to slant reportage in whatever direction they desired. Later, the campaign against Barry Goldwater was so filled with lies which the media repeated that it solidified my position as a conservative. Thanks to Joe McCarthy, I only have to skip read a small portion of any publication to determine the drift. The other media avenues are also easy to spot. Senator McCarthy may have rubbed some of his political contemporaries the wrong way, but he was right and they were cowards.

[backhoe]

Tailgunner Joe--Patriot Whistleblower or Right-Wing Witch-hunter?

[Stallone]

A great read - Communists had infiltrated government, and the course of history without him would have been different, Comrade.

Thanks!

[Verginius Rufus]

I don't have any references to any book with exactly that title (Venona Files), but the following may be useful:

Benson, Roger Louis, and Warner, Michael (eds.), VENONA: Soviet Espionage and the American Response, 1939-1957 (Washington, DC: National Security Agency/CIA, 1996)

West, Nigel, Venona: The Greatest Secret of the Cold War (London, HarperCollins, 1999)

Andrew, Christopher, and Mitrokhin, Vasili, The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB (NY, Basic Books, 1999)

The last book, incidentally, mentions McCarthy only on a couple of pages and takes the view that "McCarthy ultimately did more for the Soviet cause than any agent of influence the KGB ever had."

For Whittaker Chambers' disillusionment with McCarthy, see Arthur Herman, Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator (NY, The Free Press, 2000), and
Sam Tanenhaus, Whittaker Chambers: A Biography (NY, Random House, 1997)

[rvoitier]

Yes, he was.

The Venona Project

[backhoe]

GTBOS ( glad to be of service )- if you ever see a copy ( in a yard sale, old book store- it's OLD- 1954 ) of "Praised and Damned- the story of Fulton Lewis, Jr.," by Booton Herndon, pick it up if it's cheap.

It's a 147 page book that names a lot of names from that era you may have heard of. The McCarthy episode rates a small chapter, but there's lots of double-dealing exposed from that time.

[blam]

"Where can I find this book, Venona Files? It's not in our library and Amazon has no record of it."

Excuse me. The FBI called them the Venona Files. The books about this subject are: Venona and Venona Secrets. They can be found new and used at www.bookfinder.com, I read Venona, good reading.

[ex-snook]

The communists and their willing supporters are still spinning. Hitler is long gone but the anti-Americans are still around smearing McCarthy. All those for America first are demonized by these anti-Americans.

[Jimhimself]

Of course he was. Look who destroyed him.