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McCarthy was "bullying and unscrupulous." Perhaps so. My recollection is that he had little or no charisma and definitely was not telegenic. I've seen "bullying and unscrupulous" from lots of Senators and Congressmen but they looked good on TV. Thus, no problem for them.

I remember reading that the effort to translate the Venona intercepts was halted after only a small portion was completed. If so why?

McCarthyism harmed the counterintelligence effort against the Soviet threat because of the revulsion it caused."

Yes, some honest Americans really were turned off -- but I suggest that the vast majority of us appreciated what the Senator was doing.

McCarthy was made the "issue" while what he was investigating sank out of sight. That was the plan -- led by CP/USA who I believe invented the term McCarthyism. Despite that the series "I led three lives" remained a popular TV drama and no other anti-communist beliefs suffered among the people I knew.

"We didn't have enough evidence to show there was a single Communist in the State Department, let alone 57 cases," said William Sullivan, who became the number three man in the bureau.

Hmmm.. the FBI apparently didn't have a enough evidence to show a single radical Muslim plotted to massacre Americans -- until it was too late. Next "proof" that McCarthy was lying and self-serving, please.

The author speaks of revisionists dangerously inviting history to be repeated. Well, dummy! This time we got the Internet and modern talk radio. The individual cannot be made the "issue" while the bad guys escape!

“We didn't have enough evidence to show there was a single Communist in the State Department, let alone 57 cases,” said William Sullivan, who became the number three man in the bureau.”

I don't understand this claim.
The Venona transcripts were not made public until decades later and not shared with the House or Senate, but I thought the FBI had access to them, an I read that there was something like 300 different agents revealed by the wire taps and that 150 of them were identified by name, many working for the Federal government and some of those in the state department.
Is Sullivan claiming that the FBI did not have access to the Venona intercepts or is he trying to play word games with the phrase ‘Communist’ or “enough evidence”.