'McCarthyism' Facts & Fiction
The truth isn't always as it seems.
Standard histories of “McCarthyism” portray the “McCarthy Era” in the 1950s as a time when innocent victims were falsely accused of subversion. The evil Senator Joseph McCarthy supposedly never produced a single communist or Soviet agent, the legend goes, despite the “blacklisting” of his suspects.
“This version of the matter is false in virtually every aspect,” says M. Stanton Evans, a preeminent McCarthy scholar and author of Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America’s Enemies.1 The truth is that McCarthy tracked down a small army of subversives. U.S. and Soviet records declassified in the 1990s confirm that more than 50 McCarthy suspects were Soviet agents or U.S. communists with sworn oaths of loyalty to Moscow. Over 100 McCarthy suspects took the Fifth to avoid self-incrimination when asked about their ties to communism and Soviet espionage.2 3
In case after case McCarthy was right about the communist infiltration of our government and the officials covering it up. U.S. security laxness about the widespread internal communist problem started under the administrations of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman, both Democrats.4 5 “The clamor McCarthy raised was extremely harmful to their party, which helps explain why under Truman every possible measure was taken to thwart McCarthy and obscure the truth about his cases,” explains Evans. “McCarthy, throughout, was battling for public disclosure of the relevant data, while the typical stance of his adversaries was to suppress or obscure the facts, on whatever pretext.”6
U.S. communists concocted an attack against McCarthy during the 1950 session of the National Committee of the Communist Party. Over the next few years, they fanned the flames of their “McCarthyism” smear campaign with an onslaught of well-funded propaganda. Soon communist propaganda about McCarthy was repeated by newspapers, TV and radio commentators and politicians across the nation. To the ecstasy of the communist propagandists, these false narratives eventually spread to conservative dupes.7 Even Truman’s successor, Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican and former Chief of Staff of the Army, became unwilling to have a well-substantiated communist infiltration of the U.S. army exposed on his watch.8
What did these elites in the media, politics and communist organizations have in common? In order to avoid exposure of government security leaks and corruption, they scapegoated McCarthy and plotted for his total and eternal destruction.9 The elites united behind the communist-created label “McCarthyism” to deflect the blame from themselves. A more accurate description of what really transpired is the “Truman Eisenhower Far-Left Hoax.”
Here is Evans’ summary of the evidence available today on Senator Joseph McCarthy:
Measured by the total record of his cases and political battles, McCarthy, whatever his faults, was a good man and true—better and truer by far than the tag teams of cover-up artists and backstage plotters who connived unceasingly to destroy him. The truth he served, moreover, was of the greatest import—the exposure of people who meant to do us grievous harm, and of long-standing indifference toward this menace by many at high official levels. In so doing, he summoned the nation to a firm-willed resistance to the Communist challenge, both abroad and on the home front. At the peak of his influence, the storm of protest he ignited shook a negligent ruling class to its foundations and scattered a host of furtive agents its lassitude had sheltered.10
In the end the elites defeated McCarthy. They set up a show trial with a rigged outcome. Propaganda amassed over months was presented in a deceptive fashion while factual evidence was disallowed. McCarthy was censored by the Senate 67-22. The 22 “no” votes all came from Republicans, with McCarthy and his fellow Wisconsin senator not voting. He died 30 months later at the young age of 48.11
Yet, even with so many elites plotting against him, the late Senator Joseph McCarthy left behind a number of accomplishments.
Numerous Soviet agents and communists loyal to Moscow relinquished their jobs in the U.S. federal government when adverse security findings about them were exposed. These include Robert Oppenheimer, Lauchlin Currie, Soloman Adler, Mary Jane Keeney, John Stewart Service, John Carter Vincent, Owen Lattimore, Phillip Jessup, Esther Brunauer, V. Frank Coe, Chi Chao ting, Joel Barr, T. A. Bisson, Alfred Sarant, Annie Lee Moss, Robert Miller and many more.
McCarthy catalyzed national security improvements in the Harry Truman administration, where these measures had previously been far too lax.
His investigations provided greater transparency into the federal government bureaucracy, revealing many instances of corruption and security violations. His insistence on greater accountability resulted in officials taking corrective actions. This resulted in significant government improvements after every major McCarthy investigation as a committee chairman from 1953-1954.
McCarthy's impact on the course of Cold War history was in many ways greater than any American outside of the White House.12
Despite release of the era’s declassified archives, to date, standard history books and the media have shown no interest in correcting the record. They still make McCarthy out to be a devil. In reality, he was a U.S. patriot and martyr to the cause of freedom. Next time you hear the pejorative “McCarthyism,” consider it a fake narrative meant to censor legitimate concerns about ongoing communist threats to democracy. It’s a slogan designed to silence all anti-totalitarian dissent.
Evans, M. Stanton. Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America’s Enemies. Forum Books, 2009.
West, Diana. A Short, communist History of ‘McCarthyism.’ The Epoch Times, 10/4/2018.
See footnote 1.
Kengor, Paul. Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century. ISI Books, 2018.
Evans, M. Stanton. Stalin’s Secret Agents: The Subversion of Roosevelt’s Government. Simon & Schuster, 2012.
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West, Diana. American Betrayal: The Secret Assault on Our Nation’s Character. New York, St. Martin’s Press, 2013.
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McCarthy was a true hero. He uncovered the fundamental reason why we are where we are today in the US - Godless communists. Diana West's "American Betrayal" is required reading for every American! Peace.
I recently, before reading this piece, became aware of the fact that what I learned about McCarthyism in school was a total lie designed to deny the rampant infiltration by the US government by communists (which continues to this day) intent on undermining the interests of the USA. After reading the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, which was intended as an allegory about the Red Scare, I was convinced that the McCarthy hearings were a witch trial. How easily we are lulled into believing the one true narrative.