Most of us were born either right before, or during, what is
now known as the McCarthy era, which lasted from 1950 to the early part of
1954,
Even though that is more than 70 years ago, the story of the
junior senator from Wisconsin is VERY relevant to our society today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy
A Democrat until 1944, McCarthy successfully ran for the U.S.
Senate in 1946 as a Republican, narrowly defeating incumbent Robert
M. La Follette Jr. in the Wisconsin
Republican primary, then Democratic challenger Howard McMurray by a 61% – 37% margin.
After three largely undistinguished years in the Senate
McCarthy rose suddenly to national fame in February 1950 when he asserted in a
speech that he had a list of "members of the Communist Party and members
of a spy ring" who were employed in the State
Department. In succeeding years
after his 1950 speech, McCarthy made additional accusations of Communist
infiltration into the State Department, the administration of President Harry S. Truman, the Voice of America, and the U.S.
Army. He also used various charges of communism,
communist sympathies, disloyalty, or sex crimes to attack a number of politicians and other individuals
inside and outside of government. This included a concurrent "Lavender Scare" against suspected homosexuals, whose illicit sexual activity was presumed to make them
vulnerable to blackmail by communists and others.
Ultimately he was censured by the Senate in 1954 for refusing
to cooperate with and abusing members of, the committee established to
investigate whether or not he should be censured. The term "McCarthyism",
coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy's practices was soon applied to
similar anti-communist activities. Today the term is used
more broadly to mean demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as
well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of
political opponents.
McCarthy served
as an intelligence briefing
officer for a dive bomber squadron VMSB-235 in the Solomon
Islands and Bougainville for 30
months (August 1942 – February 1945), and held the rank of captain at the time he
resigned his commission in April 1945. He volunteered to fly twelve combat
missions as a gunner-observer. These missions were generally safe, and after
one where he was allowed to shoot as much ammunition as he wanted, mainly at
coconut trees, he acquired the nickname "Tail-Gunner Joe". McCarthy
remained in the Marine Corps Reserve after
the war, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel.
He later falsely claimed participation in 32 aerial
missions so as to qualify for a Distinguished Flying Cross and
multiple awards of the Air Medal, which the Marine Corps decided to
approve in 1952 under his political influence. McCarthy also publicly
claimed a letter of commendation from his commanding officer and Admiral Chester
W. Nimitz, Chief of Naval Operations. However, his commander revealed that
McCarthy had written this letter himself, probably while preparing award
citations and commendation letters for his men, and that he had signed his
commander's name, after which Nimitz signed it routinely. A "war
wound"—a badly broken leg—that McCarthy attributed to varying adventures
involving airplane crashes or anti-aircraft fire, had in fact happened aboard
ship during a raucous celebration for sailors crossing
the equator for the first time. Because of McCarthy's various lies about
his military heroism, his "Tail-Gunner Joe" nickname was used in
mockery by his critics.
McCarthy was far from the first person to make accusations
about his fellow citizens, since the predecessor of the House and un-American
committee actually had its roots as early as 1919, when the Overman committee
was formed to investigate Bolshevik elements in the United States.
In 1930, the Fish committee was formed to investigate
communist activities.
From 1934 to 1937, the focus of the subsequent committee (called
the MCormack-Dickstein committee) shifted to investigate Nazi propaganda)
On May 26, 1938, the House Committee on
Un-American Activities was established as a special investigating committee,
reorganized from its previous incarnations as the Fish Committee and the
McCormack–Dickstein Committee, to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive
activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those
organizations suspected of having communist or fascist ties;
however, it concentrated its efforts on communists.
The House Committee on Un-American Activities became a
standing (permanent) committee on January 3, 1945.
Under
the mandate of Public Law 601, passed by the 79th Congress, the committee
of nine representatives investigated suspected threats of subversion or
propaganda that attacked "the form of government as guaranteed by our Constitution"
Under
this mandate, the committee focused its investigations on real and suspected communists
in positions of actual or supposed influence in the United States society. A
significant step for HUAC was its investigation of the charges of espionage
brought against Alger Hiss in 1948. This investigation
ultimately resulted in Hiss's trial and conviction for perjury, and convinced
many of the usefulness of congressional committees for uncovering communist
subversion
(Even
to this day, there is still no agreement on whether Hiss was guilty of innocent).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alger_Hiss
In
1947, the committee held nine days of hearings into alleged communist
propaganda and influence in the Hollywood motion picture
industry. After conviction on contempt of Congress charges
for refusal to answer some questions posed by committee members, "The Hollywood Ten" were blacklisted by
the industry. Eventually, more than 300 artists – including directors, radio
commentators, actors, and particularly screenwriters – were boycotted by the
studios. Some, like Charlie Chaplin, Orson
Welles, Alan Lomax, Paul
Robeson, and Yip Harburg, left the U.S or went underground to
find work. Others like Dalton
Trumbo wrote under pseudonyms or
the names of colleagues. Only about ten percent succeeded in rebuilding careers
within the entertainment industry
In
1947, studio executives told the committee that wartime films—such as Mission
to Moscow, The North Star, and Song
of Russia—could be considered pro-Soviet propaganda,
but claimed that the films were valuable in the context of the Allied war
effort, and that they were made (in the case of Mission to Moscow)
at the request of White House officials. In response to the House
investigations, most studios produced a number of anti-communist and
anti-Soviet propaganda films such as The Red Menace (August
1949), The Red Danube (October 1949), The Woman on Pier 13 (October
1949), Guilty of Treason (May
1950, about the ordeal and trial of Cardinal József Mindszenty), I Was a Communist for the FBI (May
1951, Academy Award nominated for best documentary 1951, also serialized for
radio), Red Planet Mars (May 1952), and John
Wayne's Big Jim McLain (August 1952).
Universal-International Pictures was
the only major studio that did not purposefully produce such a film
In
1947, the committee held nine days of hearings into alleged communist
propaganda and influence in the Hollywood motion picture
industry. After conviction on contempt of Congress charges
for refusal to answer some questions posed by committee members, "The Hollywood Ten" were blacklisted by
the industry. Eventually, more than 300 artists – including directors, radio
commentators, actors, and particularly screenwriters – were boycotted by the
studios. Some, like Charlie Chaplin, Orson
Welles, Alan Lomax, Paul
Robeson, and Yip Harburg, left the U.S or went underground to
find work. Others like Dalton
Trumbo wrote under pseudonyms or
the names of colleagues. Only about ten percent succeeded in rebuilding careers
within the entertainment industry.[citation
needed]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalton_Trumbo
Dalton Trumbo was finally given screen credit for his
films in 1960 for Exodus and Spartacus, but it was not until 2011 that he was
finally given credit for Roman Holiday, which was produced in 1953
The 2007 documentary about his life is worth watching.
Trumbo Official Trailer #1
(2015) - Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, Helen Mirren Biopic HD
The House Committee on Internal Security was formally
terminated on January 14, 1975, the day of the opening of the 94th Congress. The
committee's files and staff were transferred on that day to the House Judiciary
Committee.
How does all this related to today?
For one thing, Joe McCarthy’s lawyer was a man named Roy Cohn.
Many years later, he became the mentor to a young real estate developer named
Donald J. Trump.
Since loyalty for Trump is a one-way street, he did not
attend Cohn’s funeral. Oddly enough, both Joe McCarthy and Roy Cohn were
homosexuals. Although McCarthy died from alcoholism, Cohn died from AIDS.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Cohn
Apart from the fact that Donald Trump and Joe McCarthy were
not truthful about their military service (or lack thereof), unfounded accusations
about our fellow citizens are about to unfold.
After January 20, incoming FBI director Kash Patel has plans
to investigate at least 60 people that he considers to me “enemies” – and he
names them in his book “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth and the Battle
for Our Democracy”.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/12/03/nation/kash-patel-fbi-trump-plans/
As "The Nation mentioned on December 3, Kash Patel is a very poor choice to tun the F.B.I.
Among those whose names have been floated are former
Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming, who was vice chair of the bipartisan
committee that investigated Mr. Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the
Capitol; Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the former top infectious disease expert for the government
whose advice on Covid-19 made him a target of far-right attacks; Jack Smith, the outgoing special counsel who prosecuted Mr. Trump; and
Senator-elect Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California, who was a lead House prosecutor at
Mr. Trump’s first impeachment trial.
Like Hunter Biden, none of them are not going
to be treated fairly or honestly by the incoming administration, so the proper
thing to do is to issue a blanket pardon for ALL of them before January 20.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/05/us/politics/biden-trump-pardons.html
The
choices of Pam Bondi, a former
Florida attorney general and Trump surrogate, to run the Justice Department and Kash Patel, a former
Trump aide and far-right provocateur, to be director of the F.B.I. have put the
issue front and center.
Mr.
Patel has vowed to “come after” Mr.
Trump’s critics and even published a list of about 60 people he considered
“members of the executive branch deep state” as the appendix to a 2023 book.
Democrats on Capitol Hill have been pressing Mr.
Biden to do what he can to protect targets of Mr. Trump. Representative James
E. Clyburn of South Carolina, one of the president’s closest allies, urged the
White House to consider pre-emptive pardons shortly after Mr. Trump’s election
last month, and likewise recommended that the president pardon his son.
Mr.
Trump, who has argued that the many criminal and civil cases against him are
part of a sweeping “witch hunt” that has “weaponized” the justice system, has
done little to disguise his desire to use the law enforcement system to get
back at his foes. He has threatened to prosecute Democrats, election workers,
law enforcement officials, intelligence officials, reporters, former members of
his own staff and Republicans who do not support him.
He has said on social media that Ms. Cheney “should be prosecuted for what
she has done to our country” and that the whole Jan. 6
committee “should be prosecuted for their
lies and, quite frankly, TREASON!” He said that Vice President
Kamala Harris “should be impeached and
prosecuted.” He has promised to “appoint a real special
prosecutor to go after” Mr. Biden and his family. He has
suggested that Gen. Mark A. Milley, the retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, deserved execution.
I’m
not smart enough to predict how the next 4 years are going to unfold. The good
news, though, is that our democracy will somehow manage to survive, even though
there is little doubt that we will some difficult times after January 20. For
the sake of my sanity, though, I am not going to watch the inauguration or ANY of
his appearance on television.
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