The Truth About "Treason" (Book Review)

Claremont Institute ^ | July 25, 2003 | Ken Masugi

[TheDon]

McCarthyism should be redefined as an earlier version of being "Borked", as in being defamed by liberals.

[TheDon]

Ping

[moneyrunner]

Great point.

[MEG33]

Great find.The reviewer,unlike most,read the book.

[backhoe]

Locator ^

[dk/coro]

I suggest we tread a bit carefully here. My credentials as a conservative Republican are unassailable. However, I personally well remember the McCarthy Hearings in January, 1954 like it was yesterday.

McCarthy, without a shred of evidence, unleashed a vitriolic diatribe against the US Army (with the support of a thoroughly disreputable assistant, a sullied homosexual by the name of Cohn).

Robert Walsh, the superby competent counsel for the Army, shredded both McCarthy and Cohn (for both vicious slander and malicious lies) to the degree that the McCarthy Hearings were shortly thereafter brought to an abrupt end...and McCarthy was censured by the House for "abuse of his position and scurrulous conduct".

So much for Joe McCarthy. My contacts in Appleton, Wisc. have relayed to me that McCarthy should have been hospitalized for acute alcoholism even before the Hearings commenced; and was incapacitated a large part of the time...and subject to violent outbursts and fits of depression.

My point here is that Ann's case would have been much better served had she not treaded into these murky -- and most dangerous -- waters.

[jla]

Can the House of Rep's censure a Senator?

[MEG33]

I remember how unpleasant that was,too.Weren't those hearings actually investigating McCarthy?By that time Drew Pearson and others had thoroughly trashed him and the love sick Cohn had made a mess of things trying to get Shine special treatment.McCarthy's alcohol cosumption had increased and he was in the soup.Those are not the hearings that got him trashed.There are transcripts available of his hearings behind closed doors you will find enlightening.DPB101 has them.There were spies in the army.

[MEG33]

No.It was the Senate.

[jla]

No.It was the Senate.

DK's relating that it was the House.
Anyway, when either of you actually refute anyhing in our Ann's book, gimme a ping, will ya.

[DPB101]

McCarthy, without a shred of evidence, unleashed a vitriolic diatribe against the US Army. . .

Are you aware of the treason at the Ft. Monmouth Army Lab and the refusal of Ike to allow the Army to testify even in executive session?

[MEG33]

Actually I have found nothing in Ann's book to trash.That "appearance of McCarthy "during those hearings is not pretty.I just ggoogled the the famous "Have you no shame quote" and found a transcript.Guess who was attacked and browbeaten..it wasn't someone from the army.Welch practised that scene and took great delight in his dramatic outrage.No one has yet been able to name one person who McCarthy unfairly attacked and ruined.McCarthy was right.

[AUsome Joy]

Did you read Treason?

[MEG33]

I knew that McCarthy was right about Communists in government but had a bad impression of those hearings.Please read Ann's book and realize whatever his alcohol problems were,he has been unfairly attacked and smeared .

Ann is a flame thrower and makes some of us uncomfortable but the book is well researched and she makes you laugh,too.I thought I knew all about it but I learned more and of course the book is about more than McCarthy.

[dix]

Sounds interesting, but I gotta read this in the morning.

[potlatch]

PING!

[HISSKGB]

Robert Welsh was a lying grandstander. He demanded McCarthy publicly name names. When finally McCarthy named Fred Fisher, Welsh's law partner, this info had already become public two months before by the NYT with confirmatory quotes from Welsh. Robert Welsh told the NYT that Fischer belonged to a communist organization weeks before he said to McCarthy "Have you no decency!" for saying the same thing.

Communists were working for the Army. Communists were stealing classified information. A communist defector from East Germany brought with him prototypes of US secret military stuff stolen from Fort Monmouth where Julius Rosenberg ran a huge spy cell working in classified areas. McCarthy held investigations in order to stem the tide and put pressure on those who were allowing these criminals commit these crimes.

Those that snivel about McCarthyism are either completely uninformed or are deliberately defending traitors.

[At _War_With_Liberals]

The point is not whether the man had his faults, but rather the fact that he nailed alot of communists spot on.

His attackers knew he was nailing communists rightly and attacked him viciously, denying each and every assertion he made. They were protecting anti US leftists who were in high positions via conspiracy. They then changed history to cover up.

'McCarthy, without a shred of evidence, unleashed a vitriolic diatribe against the US Army'...Congress persecutes groups before hearings daily. So what?
The army needed to receive the message that they had better not tolerate subversives. He was censored by mostly democrats who wanted to shut him down for their own political reasons, not to defend the army.

As far as his acute alcoholism for years, this is simply impossible. An acute alcoholic could never function like he did. If he was wasted daily it would have been obvious and the story of the decade. It wasn't even the story of the week.

'My point here is that Ann's case would have been much better served had she not treaded into these murky -- and most dangerous -- waters.'...Communists and sympathisers were exerting influence all over society and government-then there was a coverup and rewriting of history regarding the evil McCarthy era. These are facts. The truth is finally exposed...and you are worried about him being aggressive? You are upset that Communists were exposed and the coverup is now evident?

Have you ever been a member of the Communist party?

[MEG33]

Thanks for the posts.

[Plutarch]

McCarthy, without a shred of evidence, unleashed a vitriolic diatribe against the US Army...

Robert Walsh, the superby competent counsel for the Army, shredded both McCarthy and Cohn...

So McCarthy's allegations of espionage within the Army were "vitriolic diatribe" [bad!], while Robert Walsh's "shredding" (free of 'vitriolic diatribe'?] was evidence of his being "superby competent"?

Sounds like Pravda: "Everyone knows that McCarthy was bad...."