PBS ran the latest episode of their long running historical documentary program Monday night, The American Experience, titled “McCarthy.” Given the outlet, it’s an interesting examination of the junior senator from Appleton, Wisconsin, Joe McCarthy and the fear of communism in the 1950s.
There is a 3-and-a-half minute segment that I found fascinating, where historians dismiss the prevalence of leftist elites joining the Soviet era communist party and openly swearing allegiance to the Soviet Union. It includes an admission that upwards of 75 of these American citizens working in the federal government during the Roosevelt administration betrayed their country to Russia. At the 14:00 through the 16:40 mark. Here
The program goes on to paint McCarthy as a drunken bully forced to defend Roy Cohn and his dalliance with staffer and trust fund kid David Schine. The idiot McCarthy is eventually brought down by Eisenhower, Edward R. Murrow and the Senate, but not before destroying the lives of many people. People who had joined the communist party back in the 30s and 40s. People who had the 1st amendment right to associate with whom ever they want, but no the right to shield traitors to their own nation (which the program somehow fails to point out).
.
If you’re interested in just how high up the penetration and betrayal to the Soviets it went I suggest two books, “American Betrayal” by Diana West and “The Venona Secrets” by Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel on Amazon Here
After the Welch hearings, McCarthy lost reelection and “retired” back to Appleton.
He died of alcoholism a few years later, a pathetic and broken man.
I love a happy ending.
Mccarthy was right, Bob. Idiot.
“The idiot McCarthy”
Wut
Is IOTW going LGF?
Venona Papers bobdog. McCarthy was right all along,
Another good book is DUPES, by Paul Kengor.
Annon. that’s the way the program portrayed McCarthy, I’m not condoning that characterization.
Did McCarthy go after people during the red scare era of the 1950s and hurt their employment prospects. Yes. Were the people that he went after make themselves vulnerable to such assaults by indulging in communism when it was fashionable on the left? Again the answer is yes.
How many traitors to their nation are too many, the program asks. The correct answer is not even one, but the program tried to rationalize the betrayal to the country.
What I’m trying to do with this post is put McCarthy and that era in proper perspective. The academic and entertainment left wants us all to gloss over the fact that FDR’s administration was shot through with communist traitors.
The program also missed the opportunity to compare the abuse of congressional power we have been observing today with McCarthy’s era. Which is an unfortunate oversight.
I’m surprised this info’s still available on the interwebs
https://www.bing.com/search?q=operation+paperclip+prescott+bush&FORM=HDRSC1
McCarthy was right on the money when it came to the commie inflitration of our government.
@Doc the evidence is so overwhelming even PBS had to admit it, though they tried to down play it as not all that serious in this program.
I’m very grateful I *found* M. Stanton (Stan) Evans about five years before he died. He was an amazing source of information about the McCarthy era and Soviet infiltration of the U.S. government.
“Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America’s Enemies”
https://www.amazon.com/Blacklisted-History-Senator-McCarthy-Americas/dp/1400081068/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=M.+Stanton+Evans&qid=1578535090&sr=8-1
Stalin’s Secret Agents: The Subversion of Roosevelt’s Government
https://www.amazon.com/Stalins-Secret-Agents-Subversion-Roosevelts/dp/1439147701/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=M.+Stanton+Evans&qid=1578535182&sr=8-3
And if you want an engaging, multi-part explanation in great detail told by someone who has made McCarthy his hobby, there is a YT series: “A Pumpkin Patch, a Typewriter and Richard Nixon” by John Berresford, about Whitaker Chambers and that part of the Left’s rewritten history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag_JqCKYcRM&list=PLie7a5zBMKKyyN-oOUMvn_i_oa2UYnhTs
All to say: The communists have been at this for a long, long time.
@Dr. Tar — PBS really downplayed it, alright. A best conservative guess by those who know is at least 500 card-carrying communists in U.S. gov’t within a well-run, organized group working to damage our country from within by overseeing or influencing policy. Same thing that is happening right now with those we call the “Deep State.”
Read the “Autobiography of Roy Cohn” by Sidney Zion. Interesting view of the way things were…..
@Abigail
Whitaker Chambers’ farm is only about 1/2 hour from my house.
@Jethro — Ooooo! That would be an interesting visit. Do any of his family still own it?
What percentage of liberals think Senator McCarthy ran the HUAC?
I have 2 copies of Witness by Whittaker Chambers, one of them was from my dad, a Book of the month club edition from 1952 that I found with a lot of his books after he died a couple of years ago and my Regnery edition that I bought in the 1980’s. I am becoming more interested in reading some of his essays while he was an editor at Time magazine back in the 1950’s. He along with Alexander Solzhenitsyn are two of my true anti communist heroes who helped change my worldview about the evils of communism.
Everyone who has run for the democrat presidential nomination these past 2 years is a genuine communist. Every. One. Of. Them.
Tell me McCarthy wasn’t RIGHT.
I was glad to see Elia Kazan, director of “On the Waterfront” and others, finally got his lifetime achievement award, even though he confessed and named names to the HUAC
For those of us who had the misfortune to live through the scary times called the “McCarthy Era”, any attempts to rehabilitate his image will fall woefully short. Regardless of how many “Communists” that Tail Gunner Joe claimed were in the U.S. Government, the man was an opportunist and a fraud.
Sorry for all those who think he was a great anti-Communist hero. He was not. Beware of false prophets.
Prothonotary Warbler: Great reference to Chambers and Hiss and the bird watching that helped prove who was lying in this case.
I highly recommend Allen Weinstein’s “Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case” to anyone who wants to know all of the details about this legal confrontation between two men caught in the Soviet Union’s massive espionage operations against the United States.
Communists? We have had a muzzie President and muzzies have now infiltrated Congress and many local government positions. Maybe we should acknowledge the real problem at the present time.
Bingo!
^^^^^^^
Just the fact that he was so viciously attacked should be a good indicator of how accurate his accusations were. Compare it to today and the same thing is happening.
Also look how Goldwater another patriotic american politician was smeared and hounded out of public life.
@Abigail
“I’m very grateful I *found* M. Stanton (Stan) Evans about five years before he died. He was an amazing source of information about the McCarthy era and Soviet infiltration of the U.S. government.”
Me too. It is an excellent book about McCarthy – an American hero. He tried to do the right thing, and was hounded unto death.
@Bobdog
There is a concept known as “reality”. Try real hard to understand it.