The True Story of Senator Joseph McCarthy
The True Story of Senator Joseph McCarthy
Last month I took a group of high school seniors once again to the Boston/New York area for a week. In addition to the historical places we always visit, I decided to add Salem, Massachusetts to the list. I hadn’t included Salem before because I was aware of the political interpretations of what happened in the Salem witch trials in 1692, and felt that it didn’t deserve our valuable time. But I was persuaded this time and so on our way to Lexington and Concord we made a small detour and visited Salem and the Salem Witch Museum. The multi-media presentation was quite impressive and seemed to portray accurately the fateful happenings wherein 20 people lost their lives as a result of the hysteria generated over “witch-hunts” in puritanical New England in the late 1600s.
After the presentation, we were then ushered into another room and I could tell immediately we were in for the “interpretation” for our modern time. The propaganda came by the truck load. It was concluded by strongly suggesting that such investigations conducted by Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s and the persecutions of the homosexual community because of AIDS beginning in the 1970s, were motivated by prejudice, hate and fear and were therefore comparable to the witch-hunts of Salem which had no basis in fact.
Many high school students also read The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, written at the time of the McCarthy Hearings. The major publishers of Social Studies and English high school curricula nearly always encourage students to “Compare and contrast the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 to the McCarthy Hearings of the early 1950s.” Most high school Social Studies teachers today have a much skewed view of Senator Joseph McCarthy and have bought into the “McCarthyism” line.
Even after 50 years, the label of “McCarthyism” continues to raise its ugly head from time to time and concerned Americans need to be reminded of what really happened and who Senator McCarthy really was and what he was trying to do. The following is taken from Dr. Skousen’s book The Naked Capitalist, pp. 80-91. It was Dr. Skousen’s assignment in the FBI to study Communism and its tactics. He was very close to the happenings of the time and is one of the most qualified to address the McCarthy issue.
The McCarthy Hearings
For several years [during the 1940s and 50s] the U.S. Congress tried to use its powers under the Constitution to compel the Executive Branch of the Government to clean out the subversives [which had already been identified by the FBI as communists or communist sympathizers]. Under the principle of checks-and-balances, the Congress can have its committees conduct investigations to determine whether or not there is corruption, waste of expenditures, or subversion in the executive branch. Three avenues are open to the House and the Senate:
- Upon learning of an allegation of subversion, refer it to the President or to the Department involved and ask for an investigation and a report.
- If this doesn't get results, then subpoena those who are supposed to know about the problem and release the facts to the public so there will be sufficient pressure and embarrassment to bring about a prompt improvement.
- If neither of the above get results, then subpoena those who are known by other Government employees to be guilty of subversion and ask them under oath whether or not the charges are true. If such persons are innocent, they can say so; but if they plead the Fifth Amendment, then they will be publicly exposed and forced out of Government.