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- Dec 16, 2010
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*Caution -- Long Post Ahead*
Here, McCarthy poses with his campaign poster circa 1946, as he runs for the US Senate.
In actual fact, McCarthy never saw combat in WW II and would later forge documents, claiming that he did, to support his application for the Distinguished Flying Cross, a medal of valor he was never entitled to receive.
McCarthy was a Wisconsin circuit court judge when, in violation of his ethical obligations as a judge, he campaigned for the US Senate in 1946. WW II had ended only the year before, in 1945. McCarthy's campaign strategy was to smear his opponent by claiming he was a "war profiteer", a terribly vile accusation in 1946 America. He also accused his opponent, Wisconsin Progressive Party icon Robert M. La Follette, Jr., of dodging military service during WW II.
La Follette was 46 when the US entered WWII and likely was 4-F. McCarthy was himself a war profiteer of the first water. McCarthy was awarded a Purple Heart, the medal servicemen receive when they are injured during military operations, but the injury it was based upon was a minor cut that was inflicted by a fellow Marine accidently. McCarthy lied about his military record from the time he left the Marines until his death. In 1952, he was wrongfully awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross solely on the basis of letters allegedly written by his commanding officer, but in fact forged by McCarthy himself.
This pattern of committing crimes and ethical violations while simultaneously accusing others who were innocent of having criminal backgrounds and ethical laspes was the very touchstone of McCarthy's entire career in American politics.
McCarthy had a dismal education and it isn't thought he was overly-bright. He was a HS student for only a year and attended a "bible college" for his undergrad and law degree.
He arrived in DC in January of 1947 as a freshman US Senator, and tried to be a Big Man On Campus, but was shunned by more senior politicans. Frustrated by his lack of "high power image", McCarthy cast around for a hobby horse he could ride to fame and glory, and the ultra-ultra-ultra conservative owner of the majority of Wisconsin newspapers suggested communism. (The wiki article does not cover this; if you need more info, say so and I'll flip through McCarthy's biography and find it.) If that publisher had suggested another fear to monger besides communism, McCarthy would have leapt on it with the same passion....his only motive was to become famous and powerful by any means whatsoever.
In February of 1950, McCarthy spoke in Wheeling, WV, claiming that a paper he held in his hand listed the names of dozens of State Department employees who were avowed communists. The numbers of such people McCathy would claim appeared on that list would change over time as to the exact number of people allegedly listed as communists (historians disagree but at least as many as 207 and no fewer than 57), and the paper allegedly containing these names was never produced.
It is now known that McCarthy's 1950 claim of any list of specific communists in American government was entirely baseless -- a big fat lie.
Following his 1950 speech and newspaper coverage of it, fear ripped through the nation like wildfire. McCarthy demanded and was given a Senate Subcommitee dedicated to investigating the problem of "communists" in American government. That expanded to communists in American media, and finally, communists in any walk of life in America. This is the infamous House UnAmerican Activities Committee. People were dragged in, and if they implicated others as fellow communists, only smeared. If they refused to name names, they were utterly destroyed. McCarthy also chaired a sub-sub Senate committee that investigated his allegations of the presence of numerous communists in the US Army. No one was ever charged with any crimes as a result of the Army Hearings, but many careers and lives of American soldiers and their families were ruined.
McCarthy targeted all Democrats as "soft on communism" at best, and actual communists or sympathizers at worst -- including President Truman. Over time, his accusations collapsed under their own weight -- if McCarthy was to be believed, there were literally millions of communists and their sympathizers among the American people. It finally dawned on the public at large that McCarthy was liar and a powermonger.
Heroic stands were made against McCarthy by Pres. Truman, Pres. Eisenhower (who had been a WW II general), Edmund R. Murrow (possibly the most powerful media pundit in the nation at the time), Father John Francis Cronin (a very influential Catholic leader) and the editors of the influential journal Commonweal. Future Pres. Reagan, who was an actor and union leader at the time of the McCarthy Hearings, also opposed him heroically. Many thousands of people who were not famous did so as well.
Without this heroism, the evil of McCarthyism would not have been stopped when it was.
Before he was done, though, McCarthy damaged the American consciousness severely. He asserted, over and over, that blacks, Jews, gays, labor leaders, union members, and virtually all other American minority groups were largely populated by actual communists, former communists, "de facto" communists and communist sympathizers.
McCarthy went on to assert these minority-type communists conspired among themselves and with others to disable the US, demoralize its people and bring about its defeat at the hands of the USSR. Non-minority whites of the era largely came to accept McCarthy's accusations as an article of faith.
In fact, McCarthy's accusations were utterly baseless lies.
Lingering racism, antisemetism, homophobia, class hatred and other social ills that exist today can, in large part, be traced back directly to McCarthy personally. It's almost impossible to exaggerate that man's evil influence on American society.
Only two people were ever charged and convicted of any act of betrayal of the US as communists. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, convicted of espionage (attempting to pass atomic secrets to the USSR) were executed for their crimes in 1953. The actual guilt of these two people is still today the subject of much debate by historians. It'd be fair to say there is a vigorous argument that can be made that the Rosenbergs were, in fact, innocent of any crimes whatsoever. If the Rosenbergs' convictions are viewed as wrongful, then the proper statement is that NO PERSON in this country was ever convicted of any crime against the US as a result of McCarthy's "hearings".
NOT ONE.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans had their reputations and lives ruined by McCarthy's accusations, but not one American was ever tried in a court of law and found guilty of any crime of treason or espionage on allegations made by McCarthy.
McCarthy is the subject of wide speculation among historians as to whether he himself was gay. He married his secretary, Jean Kerr, in 1953 at the age of 44. It is widely believed McCarthy and his secretary wed only to prevent her from being compelled to testify against him in censure proceedings. To be fair, Jean Kerr McCarthy did give birth to a daughter, Tierney Elizabeth, in 1957 shortly before Joe McCarthy died.
McCarthy's greatest supporter and ally, FBI creator and inital Director J. Edgar Hoover, is now generally accepted to have been a closeted gay. The persecution of gays in American by McCarthy and Hoover caused thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of suicides, divorces, ruined lives and ruined reputations and created an atmosphere in which blackmail absolutely flourished. The homophobia that lingers in America to this day is in large part directly due to the evil acts of McCarthy and Hoover personally. McCarthy-style tactics would later be used by Hoover, as director of the FBI, against blacks in the Civil Rights Movement and against young people in the anti-Vietman war movement. These two closeted gay men, who so mercilessly hunted other gays, are a large part of the reason for the widely-held supposition that rabidly homophobic "straight" men are, in fact, closeted gays themselves. It does seem clear a powerful self-hatred and an unbounded hypocrisy was at work in the psyches of McCarthy and Hoover both.
In 1954, the Senate voted to "condemn" McCarthy.....his career arc as a US Senator-cum-communist-hunter was only four years long. In that brief time, McCarthy devastated the lives of thousands of Americans, injuring all the rest by instiling needless but extreme anxiety, bigotry and hate that had absolutely no basis in fact.
In 1957, McCarthy, a severe alcoholic, died, utterly disgraced, of acute hepatitis at the age of 48.
I can recommend the wikipedia article on McCarthy; I have studied him extensively and I see no major flaws in it. If you would prefer a full-blown biography, I can recommend a very heavily researched and reliable one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy
Look around you. Hatred is again being preached by politicans on the far right in America today. Don't allow them to recreate the darkest hours in our beloved country's past.
Fight the hate.
Fight the lies.
Peace out, my brethren.
Here, McCarthy poses with his campaign poster circa 1946, as he runs for the US Senate.
In actual fact, McCarthy never saw combat in WW II and would later forge documents, claiming that he did, to support his application for the Distinguished Flying Cross, a medal of valor he was never entitled to receive.
McCarthy was a Wisconsin circuit court judge when, in violation of his ethical obligations as a judge, he campaigned for the US Senate in 1946. WW II had ended only the year before, in 1945. McCarthy's campaign strategy was to smear his opponent by claiming he was a "war profiteer", a terribly vile accusation in 1946 America. He also accused his opponent, Wisconsin Progressive Party icon Robert M. La Follette, Jr., of dodging military service during WW II.
La Follette was 46 when the US entered WWII and likely was 4-F. McCarthy was himself a war profiteer of the first water. McCarthy was awarded a Purple Heart, the medal servicemen receive when they are injured during military operations, but the injury it was based upon was a minor cut that was inflicted by a fellow Marine accidently. McCarthy lied about his military record from the time he left the Marines until his death. In 1952, he was wrongfully awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross solely on the basis of letters allegedly written by his commanding officer, but in fact forged by McCarthy himself.
This pattern of committing crimes and ethical violations while simultaneously accusing others who were innocent of having criminal backgrounds and ethical laspes was the very touchstone of McCarthy's entire career in American politics.
McCarthy had a dismal education and it isn't thought he was overly-bright. He was a HS student for only a year and attended a "bible college" for his undergrad and law degree.
He arrived in DC in January of 1947 as a freshman US Senator, and tried to be a Big Man On Campus, but was shunned by more senior politicans. Frustrated by his lack of "high power image", McCarthy cast around for a hobby horse he could ride to fame and glory, and the ultra-ultra-ultra conservative owner of the majority of Wisconsin newspapers suggested communism. (The wiki article does not cover this; if you need more info, say so and I'll flip through McCarthy's biography and find it.) If that publisher had suggested another fear to monger besides communism, McCarthy would have leapt on it with the same passion....his only motive was to become famous and powerful by any means whatsoever.
In February of 1950, McCarthy spoke in Wheeling, WV, claiming that a paper he held in his hand listed the names of dozens of State Department employees who were avowed communists. The numbers of such people McCathy would claim appeared on that list would change over time as to the exact number of people allegedly listed as communists (historians disagree but at least as many as 207 and no fewer than 57), and the paper allegedly containing these names was never produced.
It is now known that McCarthy's 1950 claim of any list of specific communists in American government was entirely baseless -- a big fat lie.
Following his 1950 speech and newspaper coverage of it, fear ripped through the nation like wildfire. McCarthy demanded and was given a Senate Subcommitee dedicated to investigating the problem of "communists" in American government. That expanded to communists in American media, and finally, communists in any walk of life in America. This is the infamous House UnAmerican Activities Committee. People were dragged in, and if they implicated others as fellow communists, only smeared. If they refused to name names, they were utterly destroyed. McCarthy also chaired a sub-sub Senate committee that investigated his allegations of the presence of numerous communists in the US Army. No one was ever charged with any crimes as a result of the Army Hearings, but many careers and lives of American soldiers and their families were ruined.
McCarthy targeted all Democrats as "soft on communism" at best, and actual communists or sympathizers at worst -- including President Truman. Over time, his accusations collapsed under their own weight -- if McCarthy was to be believed, there were literally millions of communists and their sympathizers among the American people. It finally dawned on the public at large that McCarthy was liar and a powermonger.
Heroic stands were made against McCarthy by Pres. Truman, Pres. Eisenhower (who had been a WW II general), Edmund R. Murrow (possibly the most powerful media pundit in the nation at the time), Father John Francis Cronin (a very influential Catholic leader) and the editors of the influential journal Commonweal. Future Pres. Reagan, who was an actor and union leader at the time of the McCarthy Hearings, also opposed him heroically. Many thousands of people who were not famous did so as well.
Without this heroism, the evil of McCarthyism would not have been stopped when it was.
Before he was done, though, McCarthy damaged the American consciousness severely. He asserted, over and over, that blacks, Jews, gays, labor leaders, union members, and virtually all other American minority groups were largely populated by actual communists, former communists, "de facto" communists and communist sympathizers.
McCarthy went on to assert these minority-type communists conspired among themselves and with others to disable the US, demoralize its people and bring about its defeat at the hands of the USSR. Non-minority whites of the era largely came to accept McCarthy's accusations as an article of faith.
In fact, McCarthy's accusations were utterly baseless lies.
Lingering racism, antisemetism, homophobia, class hatred and other social ills that exist today can, in large part, be traced back directly to McCarthy personally. It's almost impossible to exaggerate that man's evil influence on American society.
Only two people were ever charged and convicted of any act of betrayal of the US as communists. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, convicted of espionage (attempting to pass atomic secrets to the USSR) were executed for their crimes in 1953. The actual guilt of these two people is still today the subject of much debate by historians. It'd be fair to say there is a vigorous argument that can be made that the Rosenbergs were, in fact, innocent of any crimes whatsoever. If the Rosenbergs' convictions are viewed as wrongful, then the proper statement is that NO PERSON in this country was ever convicted of any crime against the US as a result of McCarthy's "hearings".
NOT ONE.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans had their reputations and lives ruined by McCarthy's accusations, but not one American was ever tried in a court of law and found guilty of any crime of treason or espionage on allegations made by McCarthy.
McCarthy is the subject of wide speculation among historians as to whether he himself was gay. He married his secretary, Jean Kerr, in 1953 at the age of 44. It is widely believed McCarthy and his secretary wed only to prevent her from being compelled to testify against him in censure proceedings. To be fair, Jean Kerr McCarthy did give birth to a daughter, Tierney Elizabeth, in 1957 shortly before Joe McCarthy died.
McCarthy's greatest supporter and ally, FBI creator and inital Director J. Edgar Hoover, is now generally accepted to have been a closeted gay. The persecution of gays in American by McCarthy and Hoover caused thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of suicides, divorces, ruined lives and ruined reputations and created an atmosphere in which blackmail absolutely flourished. The homophobia that lingers in America to this day is in large part directly due to the evil acts of McCarthy and Hoover personally. McCarthy-style tactics would later be used by Hoover, as director of the FBI, against blacks in the Civil Rights Movement and against young people in the anti-Vietman war movement. These two closeted gay men, who so mercilessly hunted other gays, are a large part of the reason for the widely-held supposition that rabidly homophobic "straight" men are, in fact, closeted gays themselves. It does seem clear a powerful self-hatred and an unbounded hypocrisy was at work in the psyches of McCarthy and Hoover both.
In 1954, the Senate voted to "condemn" McCarthy.....his career arc as a US Senator-cum-communist-hunter was only four years long. In that brief time, McCarthy devastated the lives of thousands of Americans, injuring all the rest by instiling needless but extreme anxiety, bigotry and hate that had absolutely no basis in fact.
In 1957, McCarthy, a severe alcoholic, died, utterly disgraced, of acute hepatitis at the age of 48.
I can recommend the wikipedia article on McCarthy; I have studied him extensively and I see no major flaws in it. If you would prefer a full-blown biography, I can recommend a very heavily researched and reliable one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy
Look around you. Hatred is again being preached by politicans on the far right in America today. Don't allow them to recreate the darkest hours in our beloved country's past.
Fight the hate.
Fight the lies.
Peace out, my brethren.
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