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This method might sound a bit crude, and certainly not something you can do in court, but can you name a single individual referenced in your comment who was, as it were, innocent?

The people involved in the Army-McCarthy hearings were innocent, just for starters. Where do you think that "do you at last have no sense of decency" comment came from?

McCarthy did great damage to conservatism. He fired a ton of buckshot, most of which missed the target and hit innocent people.

Nixon going after Hiss via HUAC (of which he was just a member, but the key investigator) was far more effective. It was targeted toward someone against whom there was clear evidence.

Nixon made a lot of enemies due to the Hiss hearings, but he didn't undermine the anti-Communist movement in the process. Rather Nixon proved something that McCarthy was never able to prove, the existence of Communists in high positions in Washington.

McCarthy used generalities ("I have here a list") and rarely had the evidence to support the charges. Yes, he was onto something. But with his wild accusations with minimal evidence, he hurt the cause. A more careful Senator would have rooted out the Lattimores and so forth instead of leaving them painted as victims for several decades.

Below is an excerpt from a website, but it is my understanding that this is fairly accurate. Besides this, I wonder if anyone here knows what the orginal Watergate breakin was about? The history of McCarthy and the Watergate breakin is truly twisted to suit the Democrats needs.

Documents from the Soviet Union’s archives, USSR spy messages deciphered by the U.S. government’s Venona program, and declassified FBI files and wiretaps all prove that hundreds of U.S. officials were agents of an international Communist conspiracy. If these previously inaccessible documents shed light on only a few of McCarthy’s specific charges, they certainly vindicate his general charge that security in the U.S. government was lax and that large numbers of Communists penetrated positions of great importance.

Alger Hiss, Roosevelt foreign policy advisor and first secretary general of the United Nations; Harry Dexter White, assistant secretary of the Treasury and Truman’s appointee as director of the International Monetary Fund; and Lauchlin Currie, administrative assistant to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, have all been confirmed, among hundreds of others, to have been agents of the USSR. In addition to the multitudes of executive branch agents, we also know of at least three Congressmen working clandestinely for the Soviet Union during this time period.

The people involved in the Army-McCarthy hearings were innocent . . . The Army Signal Corps laboratories at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey was a nest of spies--mostly engineers from City College. The testimony is in 3 of the 5 volumes released. Volume 5 is a good a place to start as any. Some excerpts:

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 . . .

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. 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. Mr. Cohn. We will have Mr. Buckley work with you on that angle, and we will do everything within our power to prevent that. We will be mindful of the fact that that is a problem.

(break)

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.

(break)

Mr. Cohn. While you were attending Cornell, did you know a man named Alfred Sarant?

Mr. Finestone. I refuse to answer that question on the grounds of the Fifth Amendment.

Mr. Cohn. Did Sarant recruit you into the Rosenberg spy ring?

Mr. Finestone. I refuse to answer that question on the grounds of the Fifth Amendment.

Mr. Cohn. Did you engage in a conspiracy to commit espionage with certain persons working for the Army Signal Corps? (snip)

Mr. Finestone. I refuse to answer that question on the grounds of the Fifth Amendment.

Mr. Cohn. In the year 1952, were you asked by William Perl to place a person working in the Army Signal Corps in contact with the Soviet underground in this country?

Mr. Finestone. I refuse to answer that question on the grounds of the Fifth Amendment.

Mr. Cohn. Did you transmit instructions to various members of the Rosenberg spy ring within the last eighteen months?

Mr. Finestone. I refuse to answer that question on the grounds of the Fifth Amendment. (snip)

The Chairman. Mr. Finestone, you have been accused, and obviously have been guilty of, espionage, which is treason against your country, or otherwise you would answer these questions. You have had an accusation against you of being a part of the Rosenberg spy ring. How many deaths that spy ring, including you, have caused, no one will ever know, of course.

How many more people have died because of your activities as a traitor, no one will know. Let me ask you this question: In view of the fact that the Rosenbergs were executed for the same crime of which you are obviously guilty, can you see any reason why you should not meet the same fate that they did?

[The witness conferred with his counsel.]

Mr. Finestone. I don't believe I can answer that question. I don't see the relevance or the assumptions that it is based on.

Getting out my 250 watt interrogators light, may we start over:

En zo Noombers Gai, you haf not answered zee ques-tion vich vas "Can you name anyone who was not guilty"?

Pushing the light aside, I note:

Another poster listed some folks involved in the Army-McCarthy Hearings who were guilty - it should seem to be a simple matter to begin naming the innocent.

Just one name, eh?!

Say what you will about McCarthy/Army, but by the time of the hearings, the Army's and State Department's involvement in allowing the Soviets to capture territory while we sat at the Elbe in 1945 was already a sore spot, aka Roosevelt's Potsdam betrayal (courtesy of Henry Wallace, maybe?).

Add to that the betrayal of Chaing Kai Shek and the Nationalist Chinese by sabotaging-by-dumping-at-sea his much needed military shipments from us to combat ChiComs easily leads one to believe that Communist infiltration at the highest levels, including the military, was something seriously at issue and in need of exposure/investigation. And we still ask, "Who lost China?" I'll bet McCarthy knew.

In time we may find that McCarthy's information was more accurate than the media once thought -- or was willing to admit. When one Senator takes on Hollywood AND commie sympathizers in the US military, it's a bigger fish than he or anyone alone would be capable of frying.