Changes

==Tensions of the times==

==Tensions of the times==

In 1947<ref>NSA Archives, National Cyptological Museum, [http://www-personal.umich.edu/~sanders/214/other/handouts/VenonaChrono.html Venona Chronology]; "~September 1: Col. Carter Clarke briefs the FBI's liaison officer Robert J. Lamphere on the break into Soviet diplomatic traffic. September: Carter W. Clarke of G-2 advises S. Wesley Reynolds, FBI, of successes at Arlington Hall on KGB espionage messages."

In 1947<ref>NSA Archives, National Cyptological Museum, [http://www-personal.umich.edu/~sanders/214/other/handouts/VenonaChrono.html Venona Chronology]; "~September 1: Col. Carter Clarke briefs the FBI's liaison officer Robert J. Lamphere on the break into Soviet diplomatic traffic. September: Carter W. Clarke of G-2 advises S. Wesley Reynolds, FBI, of successes at Arlington Hall on KGB espionage messages."

McCarthy sought to characterize President Truman and the Democratic party as soft on or even in league with the Communists.  McCarthy's allegations fell flat with Truman who was unaware of [[Venona project]] decrypts which corroborated [[Elizabeth Bentley]]'s debriefing after her defection from the Communists.

McCarthy sought to characterize President Truman and the Democratic party as soft on or even in league with the Communists.  McCarthy's allegations fell flat with Truman who was unaware of [[Venona project]] decrypts which corroborated [[Elizabeth Bentley]]'s debriefing after her defection from the Communists.

It was McCarthy's charges of Communist infiltration of the State Department that shot him into prominence. During his famous February 9th, 1950  speech in Wheeling, [[West Virginia]] at the Colonnade Room of the McClure Hotel he stated:

McCarthy made charges of Communist infiltration of the State Department, the administration of [[Harry Truman|President Truman]], Voice of America, and a United States Army research laboratory. He tried to expose government employees as CPUSA members and security risks. With the highly publicized Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954, McCarthy's support and popularity began to fade due to his lack of actual evidence and defendant convictions. Later in 1954, a special Senate committee was appointed to study and evaluate McCarthy's methods and actions. The committee exonerated McCarthy on all substantive charges (citation needed). Following the recommendations of this committee, the full Senate voted to censure Senator McCarthy by a vote of 65 to 22 (the votes for censure included all the Democratic senators and about half the Republican senators) for failing to cooperate with the subcommittee that was investigating him, and for insults to the committee that was trying to censure him <ref>Senate Report 104-137 - Resolution For Disciplinary Action. Library of Congress (1995). Retrieved on 2006-10-19.</ref>, making him one of the few senators ever to be disciplined in this fashion. [http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/60.htm]  McCarthy died in Bethesda Naval Hospital on May 2, 1957, at the age of 48. The cause of his death was acute hepatitis from smoking and drinking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where the Lee list read "This employee is with the office  of Information and Educational Exchange in New York City. His application is very sketchy. There has ben no investigation. (C-8) is a reference. Though he is 43 years of age, his file reflects no history prior to June 1941. Case is awaiting a report from the New York Office."

 

 

McCarthy made charges of Communist infiltration of the State Department and the administration of [[Harry Truman|President Truman]] and a United States army research laboratory. In 1953 McCarthy claimed that employees at [[Voice of America]], were engaging in deliberate sabotage, selecting sites for transmitters that would make it easier for the Soviets to jam signals. Attention was also focused on the content of VOA broadcasts, which in Truman’s time had a policy of “balanced presentation” that did not exclude communist writings. VOA overseas libraries were scrutinized, and among the several hundred books that ended up being purged from the libraries at the urging of McCarthy’s staff were works by Dashiell Hammett, Lillian Hellman, [[Jean Paul Sartre]], and Theodore H. White.

 

 

Reed Harris, acting chief of the IIA, was repeatedly questioned over three days of testimony about statements he’d made in a book he’d written twenty one years before as a college student at Columbia University. (The offending statement had been the assertion that communists had the right to teach in the public schools.) Harris resigned from his job shortly after appearing before the committee. <ref>”McCarthy Hearings, 1953-54 Vol 1. February 23, 1953"</ref>

 

 

 

 

McCarthy’s 1953 investigation into the [[United States Army]] Signal Corps Center at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, was prompted by a defecting East German Scientist’s claim of having seen microfilmed documents from that center..” <ref>”“McCarthy Hearings 1952-54, Vol 1.</ref> An investigation had led officials to the conclusion that he was unreliable, but Senator McCarthy’s subcommittee still began holding hearings on the case, suspending, among others, researcher Aaron H. Coleman. Coleman had been suspended in 1946 for not keeping classified documents he’d taken home in a safe with a three combination lock.  Army officials had determined that the documents, which were of little importance, had been used for personal study rather than any attempt at passing on information, but McCarthy declared that Coleman, who was guilty of having been a college classmate of Julius Rosenberg, “may have been the direct link between the laboratories and the Rosenberg Spy Ring. <ref>The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy: A Biography, Thomas C. Reeves.</ref>

 

The Army averred that no documents were missing and its own investigation had found no evidence of a spy ring, maintaining that what the defecting scientist had seen had probably been Signal Corp data that had been shared with the Russians during the War under Lend Lease. Still, the investigation went on. When electrical engineer Carl Greenblum broke down and wept during Roy Cohn’s cross-examination and had to be led, visibly upset, from the closed door session, McCarthy announced to the press that “I have just received word that the witness admits he was lying the first time and now wants to tell the truth.” Greenblum’s name was leaked to the press and he and his family were harassed, a hammer and sickle was painted on the door of their house. Greenblum explained that he'd been upset about the death of his mother two days  before, and that after he’d broken down he’d “sent word that I wanted to go back and tell my story from the beginning. That may have been interpreted to mean I was lying but that certainly was not the case.” Greenblum was fired from his job, but reinstated in 1958. <ref>”McCarthy Hearings 1952-54, Volume 3.</ref>

 

 

What ultimately destroyed McCarthy’s career were the famous [[Army-McCarthy hearings]] of 1954. McCarthy had already alienated the Army with his treatment of General Ralph Zwicker, the Commander of Camp Kilmer who had angered McCarthy by refusing to defy an executive order that forbade him to release names to McCarthy during McCarthy’s investigation into the promotion of an army dentist named Irving Peress who had invoked the Fifth Amendment while filling out the military loyalty questionnaire.  McCarthy had implied Zwicker was lying and strongly implied that this World War II veteran, who had served at Normandy and the Ardennes and had been awarded the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Bronze Star with two Oak Leaf Clusters and Arrowhead, the British Distinguished Service Order, and the French Legion of Honor and Croix de Guerre with Palm, and that he was “not fit to wear that uniform.” <ref>The life and Times of Joe McCarthy: A Biography, Thomas C. Reeves, pg 544."</ref>

 

 

 

The most famous exchange from the hearings is the “have you no decency” speech that many people today see as the fatal blow to Senator McCarthy’s public career. It happened while Welch was cross-examining Roy Cohn about the work Schine had had done with Cohn for the committee. When the interrogation seemed to be going badly for Cohn, McCarthy excused himself, left, then returned and, contrary to an agreement earlier made with Welch, launched into an attack on a young law associate of Welch’s, Fred Fisher.  Cohn was horrified by this breach, and sent McCarthy a note reading, “This is the subject which I have committed to Welch we would not go into. Please respect our agreement as an agreement because this is not going to do any good.” (The agreement had been that if Welch would not bring up Cohn’s military history, McCarthy would not bring up Fred Fisher.)  McCarthy acknowledged this only with the comment, “I know Mr. Cohn would rather it have me go into this," then went on to say:

 

“In view of Mr. Welch’s request that the information be given once we know of anyone who might be performing any work for the Communist party, I think we should tell him that he has in his law firm a young man named Fisher whom he recommended, initially, to do work on this committee, who has been for a number of years a member of an organization which was named, oh, years and years ago, as the legal bulwark of the Communist Party…I am not asking you t this time to explain why you tried to foist him on this committee. Whether you knew he was a member of that Communist organization or not, I don’t know. I assume you did not, Mr. Welch, because I get the impression that, while you are quite an actor, you play for a laugh, I don’t think you have any conception of the danger of the Communist party.”

 

This was, as Roy Cohn knew, a miscalculation, likely only to genuinely infuriate an opponent who was not going to become flummoxed or lose control as past opponents had.  It was a bit of showmanship – McCarthy knew full well about the agreement and knew Welch was aware of Fisher’s past – being unwisely used against a superior showman.

 

 

Later in 1954, a special Senate committee was appointed to study and evaluate McCarthy's methods and actions. The committee exonerated McCarthy on all substantive charges (citation needed). Following the recommendations of this committee, the full Senate voted to censure Senator McCarthy by a vote of 65 to 22 (the votes for censure included all the Democratic senators and about half the Republican senators) for failing to cooperate with the subcommittee that was investigating him, and for insults to the committee that was trying to censure him <ref>Senate Report 104-137 - Resolution For Disciplinary Action. Library of Congress (1995). Retrieved on 2006-10-19.</ref>, making him one of the few senators ever to be disciplined in this fashion. [http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/60.htm]  McCarthy died in Bethesda Naval Hospital on May 2, 1957, at the age of 48. The cause of his death was acute hepatitis from smoking and drinking.

 

McCarthy’s most enduring legacy may be in giving a name to the conflation of dissent with disloyalty, a tendency to cite criticism of an administration as if it were evidence of treason, or even treason itself  – “McCarthyism.”  Perhaps an inevitable result of the Cold War era, “McCarthyism” was the acceleration of something that had existed before McCarthy became famous, and waxed and waned long after he had dropped from public sight.

==VENONA files==

==VENONA files==

Venona transcripts confirm the Senate Civil Liberties Subcommittee, chaired by former Senator Robert LaFollette, Jr., whom McCarthy defeated for election in 1946, had at least four staff members working on behalf of the [[KGB]].  Chief Councel of the Committee [[John Abt]]; [[Charles Kramer]], who served on three other Congressional Committees; Allen Rosenberg, who also served on the National Labor Relations Board, [[Board of Economic Warfare]] (BEW), the [[Foreign Economic Administration]] (FEA) and later argued cases before the United States Supreme Court; and [[Charles Flato]], who served on the BEW and FEA, all were [[CPUSA]] members and associated with the [[Comintern]].

Venona transcripts confirm the Senate Civil Liberties Subcommittee, chaired by former Senator Robert LaFollette, Jr., whom McCarthy defeated for election in 1946, had at least four staff members working on behalf of the [[KGB]].  Chief Councel of the Committee [[John Abt]]; [[Charles Kramer]], who served on three other Congressional Committees; Allen Rosenberg, who also served on the National Labor Relations Board, [[Board of Economic Warfare]] (BEW), the [[Foreign Economic Administration]] (FEA) and later argued cases before the United States Supreme Court; and [[Charles Flato]], who served on the BEW and FEA, all were [[CPUSA]] members and associated with the [[Comintern]].

While the underlying premise of Communists in the government was true, many of McCarthy's targets were not complicit in espionage.  Recent scholarship has established of 159 persons investigated between 1950 and 1952, there is substantial evidence nine had assisted Soviet espionage using evidence from Venona or other sources.  Of the remainder, while not being directly complicit in espionage, many were considered security risks.<ref>[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page62.html Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Lists and Venona]</ref> The overwhelming majority of those who McCarthy named and whose lives he affected, however, are not mentioned in Venona. Reed Harris is not identified as an agent. Nor is Aaron Coleman, or Gustavo Duran, or Harlow Shapely, or Fred Fisher. Nor are most of the many, many teachers, writers, performers, filmmakers, and workers who lost their job and even careers as the result of McCarthyism.

While the underlying premise of Communists in the government was true, many of McCarthy's targets were not complicit in espionage.  Recent scholarship has established of 159 persons investigated between 1950 and 1952, there is substantial evidence nine had assisted Soviet espionage using evidence from Venona or other sources.  Of the remainder, while not being directly complicit in espionage, many were considered security risks.<ref>[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page62.html Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Lists and Venona]</ref>

== Support from Ann Coulter ==

== Support from Ann Coulter ==

#Morgan, T. (Nov./Dec. 2003).  Judge Joe:  How the youngest judge in Wisconsin's history became the country's most notorious senator.  Legal Affairs.

#Morgan, T. (Nov./Dec. 2003).  Judge Joe:  How the youngest judge in Wisconsin's history became the country's most notorious senator.  Legal Affairs.

#[http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19960101fareviewessay4179/arthur-m-schlesinger-jr/anticommunism-s-two-faces-the-irresponsible-won-out.html ''Anticommunism's Two Faces''], Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Foreign Affairs, January/February 1996; as review of ''Not Without Honor: The History of American Anticommunism''. Richard Gid Powers. New York: The Free Press, 1995.

#[http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19960101fareviewessay4179/arthur-m-schlesinger-jr/anticommunism-s-two-faces-the-irresponsible-won-out.html ''Anticommunism's Two Faces''], Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Foreign Affairs, January/February 1996; as review of ''Not Without Honor: The History of American Anticommunism''. Richard Gid Powers. New York: The Free Press, 1995.

# Wicker, Tom. Shooting Star: The Brief Arc of Joe McCarthy. New York: Harcourt, Inc., 2006.

# Wicker, Tom. Shooting Star: The Brief Arc of Joe McCarthy. New York: Harcourt, Inc.,  

# Wicker, Tom. Shooting Star: The Brief Arc of Joe McCarthy. New York: Harcourt, Inc., 2006.

2006.

 

 

==Copyright Notice==

==Copyright Notice==