Senate unseals McCarthy transcripts

Sac Bee ^ | 5/5/03 | Frederic J. Frommer - AP

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Pushing an anti-communist crusade that riveted America a half century ago, Joseph McCarthy manipulated his Senate hearings by calling witnesses he could intimidate and ignoring those likely to oppose him, newly released transcripts show.

Among the roughly 400 witnesses covered in transcripts of closed door meetings, made public Monday by the Senate, are composer Aaron Copland, New York Times journalist James Reston and Eslanda Goode Robeson, the wife of blacklisted singer-actor Paul Robeson. Some 4,000 pages of newly released documents also show that McCarthy was convinced that many writers, government officials and secretaries had access to classified information.

[Eva]

My grandfather was investigated by this committee, but his accuser was a Democrat, not a Republican. He was his opponent for office in the Democrat primary for NJ state assembly. The only evidence that they had was that he was seen picking up a communist newspaper at a newstand and reading the headlines. They ruined his life, opened all his mail, talked to all his neighbors, visited his church and place of employment where he had held a top security clearance as the top tool and die maker for RCA. My grandmother said that they even attended his funeral in 1957, to make sure he was really in the coffin.

[btcusn]

Still, Republicans succeeded in portraying Democrats as soft on communism, riding that message to political gains in 1952.
And they still are!!! Even though communism has been proven to be a flawed, failed system of government.
Jack

[kcvl]

Though never an open member of the Communist Party, she was a well-wisher to Socialist countries like the Soviet Union and China after its 1949 revolution.

[kcvl]

Eslanda Robeson


She was born into trouble, the illegitimate niece of Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo, the appointee of Herbert Hoover who shocked the nation by writing the majority opinions that upheld the Roosevelt New Deal's social legislation.

That family relationship meant Eslanda was half Jewish. She called herself, openly and defiantly, Eslanda Cardozo Goode. Defiantly, because her other half was black. Although you couldn't tell it. Eslanda -- Essie, as she preferred to be known -- could and did, when necessity demanded, pass for a white woman

[ZULU]

McCarthy was right. A great American, he knew the Entertainment Industry was ridden with Communists and leftists, he knew the Educational Institutions and government agencies were ridden with communists and socialists - and they still are.

Remember Alger Hiss??? Released records from the Soviet Intelligence indicated he WAS a spy for them.

McCarthy was a patriotic American who was the first in a long series of patriotic Americans, like Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater, Bush I's Vice-President (the name escapes me), Newt Gingrich, and Bush II who have been slimed by the leftists who infect our television screens and movie theaters, dictate the propagandist ciricula in our universities and schoolrooms, manipulate public opinion in the mass news media, and infiltrate some government agencies like the State Department.

[familyofman]

"..there are at least fifty admitted communists in the Congress today."

I wasn't aware of that - can you provide specifics. I've had my doubts about Sens. Allen and Warner for some time now.

[jd777]

I know he tried to get William Bundy to testify. Bundy contributed to Hiss's defense. But DCIA Dulles made sure Bundy could get out of the contry. McCarthy even wrote an angry letter to Dulles...

How you like them apples...

[Aloysius]

Joe McCarthy was right.

Substitute the word "Communism" for "Al Qaeda" and conduct the same hearings today and NOBODY would have a problem with it (except the accused of course).

[bruinbirdman]

"Was McCarthy good or bad for the cause of anti-communism?"

Neocoms have a way with turning anti-communism around to suit their purposes. Anti-communism becomes McCarthyism. McCarthyism becomes associated with any anti-liberal stance.

Neo-coms have perfected stigma, conservatives have abandoned it.

"Those who control language control minds." Look at the textbook situation and the state of education in the U.S.

yitbos

[Aloysius]

Bush I's Vice-President (the name escapes me),

Dan Quayle

[AppyPappy]

I think he means "socialists".

[DPB101]

Great stuff! From NormsRevenge link (reply #5, Volume #5) THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1954

Mr. Cohn. Mr. Gragis, were you ever employed at the Federal Telecommunications Laboratory?
Mr. Gragis. Yes, sir.
Mr. Cohn. And did you work there from 1945 to 1950?
Mr. Gragis. Yes, roughly that.
Mr. Cohn. Did you work on any government work while you were there?
Mr. Gragis. Yes.
Mr. Cohn. Mr. Gragis, were you at that time a member of the Communist party?
Mr. Gragis. Not for the full length of that time, but for a good period of the time.
Mr. Cohn. You were a member of the Communist party?
Mr. Gragis. Yes.
Mr. Cohn. During what years were you a member of the Communist party?
Mr. Gragis. Say from about 1946 to very early in 1950.
Mr. Cohn. You were a member of the party from 1946----
Mr. Gragis. To rather early in 1950.
Mr. Cohn. I see. Were any of the other people working at the Federal Telecommunications Laboratory members of the Communist party?
Mr. Gragis. Some.
Mr. Cohn. Can you furnish us with their names?
Mr. Gragis. Yes, I can. Harry Hyman, Al Shadowitz, Ruth Levine, Jack Saunders.
The Chairman. I did not get the second name.
Mr. Gragis. Saunders.
The Chairman. The one after Harry Hyman.
Mr. Gragis. Shadowitz.
Mr. Cohn. Did you know Ernest Pataki?
Mr. Gragis. Yes.
Mr. Cohn. Was he a party member?
Mr. Gragis. Yes.
Mr. Cohn. How about Frank McGee?
Mr. Gragis. Yes.
Mr. Cohn. Leo Kantrowitz?
Mr. Gragis. Yes.
Mr. Cohn. Andy Castros?
Mr. Gragis. Yes.
Mr. Cohn. Did you ever attend any Communist meetings at Harry Hyman's home?
Mr. Gragis. Quite a number of times.
Mr. Cohn. At Hyman's home?
Mr. Gragis. Yes.
Mr. Cohn. How about at Pataki's home?
Mr. Gragis. Quite a few times.
Mr. Cohn. Did you ever have any at your own house?
Mr. Gragis. Yes. But that was not at 25 Collector Lane. That was when I lived in the city.
Mr. Cohn. And while attending these cell meetings with people from the Federal Telecommunications Laboratory, were there ever any discussions of revolution and specifically of ``State and Revolution'' by Lenin?
Mr. Gragis. Yes. Frank McGee was the leader of the educational discussion.
Mr. Cohn. He was the leader?
Mr. Gragis. Yes.
Mr. Cohn. And had he been employed at the Federal Telecommunications Laboratory?
Mr. Gragis. Yes.
Mr. Cohn. Mr. Chairman, this Mr. Gragis obviously is a most cooperative witness, and he is taking a very honorable approach to this. I was wondering, rather than asking him anything more, if Mr. Buckley could talk to him later in the afternoon or tomorrow, and then possibly we would have Mr. Gragis later. I think that is it. Mr. Buckley will work along with you, Mr. Gragis, and we will keep in touch with you that way. We certainly want to thank you for taking this attitude.
Mr. Gragis. If I might just say one word----
Mr. Cohn. Surely.
Mr. Gragis [continuing]. I wish to say this, that when I was separated from the company, FTL, I spent a good number of years thinking on just what I should do and before I read in the papers about Fort Monmouth or anything about FTL, I had come to the conclusion that I should voluntarily go to the FBI and I did. I gave them a complete history of myself for about twenty years back.
The Chairman. How long ago did you do that?
Mr. Gragis. That was around June of last year, I believe. Now, I might be wrong, but I think it is around then, June or maybe July.
The Chairman. I think the country owes a rather deep debt to people who have made a mistake and who are willing to rectify it as well as they can by going to the FBI or to the committee and give then that information. I know your job is an unpleasant one. It would be much easier for you to come in and refuse to testify and that sort of thing. I would like to thank you very, very much for the help not only that you have given to the committee but for the help that we understand you have also given to the FBI.
Mr. Gragis. May I say another thing?
The Chairman. Certainly.
Mr. Gragis. I have another fear now, too, and that is this: Although I went to the FBI, I knew that my appearance before them would be kept in the strictest confidence. Because I have appeared here now I have a fear that should I be publicized or anything, that some of these subversives might make my life miserable at home with my wife or daughter . . .

(same day testimony of Leo Kantrowitz)

Mr. Cohn. We just had a witness in here who said that while you were working at the Federal Telecommunications Laboratory, you were a member of the Communist party. Were you?
Mr. Kantrowitz. I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that under the Fifth Amendment a person may not be compelled to bear witness against himself.
Mr. Cohn. Are you a member of the party today?
Mr. Kantrowitz. I refuse to answer that question on the same ground.
Mr. Cohn. Were you a member of the party while working at Zenith on Monday?
Mr. Kantrowitz. I refuse to answer that question on the same grounds. . .

[bruinbirdman]

"I wasn't aware of that - can you provide specifics. "

Progressive (neocom) Caucus

yitbos

[skeeter]

Still, Republicans succeeded in portraying Democrats as soft on communism, riding that message to political gains in 1952. And they still are!!! Even though communism has been proven to be a flawed, failed system of government.

I heard the GOP wanted to make the jump from red baiting to race baiting, but the Democrats already had that racket sewed up.

[kegler4]

"My grandfather was investigated by this committee, but his accuser was a Democrat, not a Republican. He was his opponent for office in the Democrat primary for NJ state assembly. The only evidence that they had was that he was seen picking up a communist newspaper at a newstand and reading the headlines. They ruined his life..."

McCarthy was partly right, but some people apparently think the innocent lives destroyed by his crusade were necessary collateral damage. That's crap.

It might be stupid to be a communist or a socialist, but in the U.S. it's not illegal -- not unless you're selling or giving away secrets that damage our security.

[Eva]

In the case of my grandfather, the damage was intentional. Democrats followed the politics of personal destruction even then. His real crime was that he refused to vote the party line.

[weegee]

I think they phrase it this way in order to make it sound like the Cold War was a figment of the imagination of those affiliated with McCarthy.

The woman who insists on calling herself Queen Latifah voiced this same belief (that the Cold War was a hoax) on the View and did not have it explained to her that the Soviets were infiltrating countries, killing their own citizens, and arming for war and dominance. They propelled us into the space age.

[weegee]

The commies were and are everywhere.

They certainly were all over this Florida presidential ballot:

[DensaMensa]

}Joe McCarthy was right

Of course he was. But both CNN and Public Radio ran McCarthy reports this weekend which just happened to ignore this fact.

[weegee]

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