Taking the opposite view, Victor'S. Navasky, in his National Book Award-winning book Naming Names (New York: The Viking Press, 1980), sees little if anything of value emerging from the HUAC hearings. He questions the motives of the committee members and believes the employment blacklists they inspired did great harm not only to those who were named as Communists by their former friends and colleagues, but also to the often conflicted witnesses who did the naming.
In 2006, I was fortunate to attend a debate between Ronald Radosh and Victor Navasky before a New York audience that obviously included many aging veterans of the HUAC hearings. It was equally apparent that few of those present had forgiven the men and women who, they believed, had given their names to the committee more than fifty years earlier. One elderly gentleman in a wheelchair shouted, "How can I ever forgive the bastard who told lies about me to save his own wretched skin?"
Finally, a play and a documentary film offer their own distinct insights into the anti-Communist investigations of the late 1940s and early 1950s.
The play is Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?, Eric Bentley's skillful compilation of some of the most significant HUAC hearings into the purported Communist activities of such Hollywood and Broadway celebrities as playwright Lillian Hellman, dancer-choreographer Jerome Robbins, movie and stage director Elia Kazan, and African American singer-actor Paul Robeson. (It is one of three plays by Bentley contained in the book Rallying Cries, Washington: New Republic Book Company, 1977.) The script can be performed as a staged reading, which makes it a good choice for a student cast.
Last but far from least, there is Emile de Antonio's critically acclaimed documentary record of the Army-McCarthy hearings, Point of Order (issued as a DVD in 2005 by New Yorker Video). Tightly edited from kinescopes (the predecessors of videos) of the hearings, this ninety-seven-minute 1964 movie climaxes with the dramatic exchange between Joe McCarthy and Joseph Welch after McCarthy exposed Welch's young legal associate, Fred Fisher, as a onetime leftist. Watching McCarthy's performance today, it's easy to see why the original television audience turned so decisively against him.
SOURCE NOTES
(A note about the notes: In my research, you'll see that I made extensive use of the Internet, especially Wikipedia. But I accompanied it with parallel research in the Columbia Encyclopedia because I still put more faith in a traditionally edited and crosschecked encyclopedia than in what may be a more loosely assembled Internet source.)
Chapter 1. Background information on Joe McCarthy's boyhood and young adult years: Reeves, The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy. Quotations of Leo D. Hershberger, Joe's sisters and brothers, and others: from interviews conducted by Reeves.
Chapter 2. Information about McCarthy's college years at Marquette University: Reeves. Quotations of Charles Hanratty: his interviews with Reeves. Background information on the Great Depression in the United States and the rise of the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 1930s: Wikipedia, the Columbia Encyclopedia, and the author's extensive reading on both topics.
Chapter 3. Information on Joe's experiences as a young lawyer: Reeves. Joe's discussions with Mike G. Eberlein and quotations of Eberlein and his secretary May Voy: Reeves's interview with Mrs. Allen Voy, October 25, 1976. Joe's unsuccessful campaign for district attorney of Shawano County: Reeves. Background information on the Spanish Civil War: Wikipedia, the Columbia Encyclopedia, and The Spanish Civil War by Hugh Thomas (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1961). Information on the situation in China in the 1930s, with the Nationalists battling the Communists and both of them struggling against the invading Japanese: Wikipedia, the Columbia Encyclopedia, and Red Star over China by Edgar Snow (New York: Random House, 1938).
Chapter 4. Quotes of Urban Van Susteren and Louis Cattau about Joe's use of the age factor in his campaign for district judge against Edgar V. Werner: From interviews Van Susteren and Cattau had with Reeves in 1975 and 1976. Excerpts from Joe's 1939 speech urging Americans to stay out of the impending European war: news story in the Appleton Post-Crescent, as reported by Reeves. Buildup to World War II, the signing of a nonaggression pact between the Soviet Union and Hitler's Germany, and Germany's invasion of Poland in September 1939: Wikipedia, the Columbia Encyclopedia, and World War II by C. L. Sulzberger (New York: American Heritage Press, 1985). McCarthy's speedy working style as a judge and his decision to enlist in the Marines after Pearl Harbor: from interviews conducted by Reeves with Urban Van Susteren, Charles Hanratty, and others. Main events in World War II in the summer of 1942: Sulzberger, World War II.
Chapter 5. McCarthy's Marine Corps experiences, including his initiation at sea during which he suffered his only wartime injury; the supposed citation for devotion to duty signed by Admiral Chester Nimitz; and Joe's brief service as a tail gunner on combat missions: Reeves, bolstered by quotes from Marines who served with Joe, subsequently interviewed by Reeves. Joe's unsuccessful primary campaign for the U.S. Senate while still in uniform and his subsequent (and successful) reelection campaign for his judgeship: Reeves.
Chapter 6. Events in the European war in the first half of 1945; the Yalta Conference; the death of President Roosevelt; the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the end of fighting in Europe; the Potsdam Conference; the situation in the ongoing war against Japan; America's development of the atomic bomb; the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the Soviet Union's entry into the Pacific war; and Japan's surrender: Wikipedia entries, the Columbia Encyclopedia, and Sulzberger, World War II. Joe's plans for his 1946 senatorial campaign: Reeves. Background on the La Follette family, and Joe's main opponent for the Republican nomination, Senator Robert M. La Follette, Jr.: Reeves, Wikipedia, and the Columbia Encyclopedia.
Chapter 7. How McCarthy got rid of two Republican rivals for the nomination and won the endorsement of political boss Tom Coleman: Reeves, abetted by interviews with Loyal Eddy and Urban Van Susteren. McCarthy's nonstop primary campaign across Wisconsin by car and plane: Reeves, enhanced by interviews with Ray Kiermas, a new friend of Joe's. La Follette, leading in the polls, refuses to debate McCarthy: Reeves, citing news stories in the Milwaukee Journal. McCarthy's upset victory over La Follette in the Republican primary: Reeves, including quotes from interviews with Loyal Eddy and Tom Coleman.
Chapter 8. Debate exchange between McCarthy and his Democratic opponent, Howard McMurray, in which Joe accuses McMurray of being disloyal: Milwaukee Journal, October 17, 1946, as reported by Reeves. McCarthy's living arrangements in Washington with Ray Kiermas and his family: Reeves's interviews with Kiermas and article "The Private Life of Senator McCarthy" by Eleanor Harris in the American Weekly, August 16, 1953. McCarthy's opposition to David Lilienthal's nomination to be chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission: Reeves. Additional information on Lilienthal: Wikipedia, the Columbia Encyclopedia.
Chapter 9. Information on the investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee of suspected Communists at work in Hollywood: Wikipedia entries; the Columbia Encyclopedia; Navasky, Naming Names; and Radosh, Red Star over Hollywood. The postwar housing problem in the U.S.: Reeves. Joe's sponsorship of and participation in a committee to survey the entire housing situation, and his ensuing clash with "Mr. Republican," Senator Robert Taft of Ohio: Reeves. McCarthy's first meeting with Jean Kerr, who would soon become his chief research assistant: Reeves. Article credited to Joe that appeared in a paperback book on the housing crisis, How to Own Your Own Home, published by the Lustron Corporation: Reeves. McCarthy's involvement in the Malmedy case, in which German prisoners of war claimed they had been tortured by their American captors: Reeves; also Wicker, Shooting Star. How the Malmedy investigation was overshadowed first by the Soviet Union's test of its own atomic bomb, in August 1949, and then by the final victory of the Chinese Communists over their Nationalist adversaries in October 1949: Reeves, Wikipedia articles, and entries in the Columbia Encyclopedia.
Chapter 10. McCarthy's charge that the city editor of the Madison Capital Times, Cedric Parker, is a Communist: Ree
ves. Background information on Alger Hiss and the Hiss case: Wikipedia, the Columbia Encyclopedia, and Reeves. President Truman's plans to develop a hydrogen bomb, and the arrest of German atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs as a Soviet spy: Wikipedia, the Columbia Encyclopedia, and Reeves. Joe's Wheeling, West Virginia, speech, in which he claimed there were 205 Communists at work in the State Department: Reeves, Wicker. Joe's contradictory comments on the number of Communist employees in subsequent talks given in Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada, and Huron, South Dakota: Reeves, Wicker.
Chapter 11. Account of Joe's speech to Congress, in which he tries to explain the shifting numbers of Communists he claimed were at work in the State Department: Reeves, Wicker. Democrats demand a full investigation of McCarthy's charges, and Republicans rally around Joe, not wanting him to be exposed: Reeves, Wicker. Charges against, and testimony of, New York lawyer Dorothy Kenyon: Reeves, Wicker. Maneuvering between McCarthy and the Democratic chairman of the investigating subcommittee, Millard Tydings: Reeves, Wicker, Wikipedia, and Columbia Encyclopedia entries on Senator Tydings.
Chapter 12. Joe's claim that China expert Owen Lattimore is the "top Soviet agent" in the U.S.: Reeves, Wicker, Wikipedia article on Lattimore. Controversy over whether President Truman should order the release of FBI loyalty files regarding Lattimore and others charged by McCarthy: Reeves. McCarthy's lengthy Senate speech denouncing Lattimore: Reeves, the Congressional Record. Lattimore's quote that McCarthy couldn't look him "straight in the eye": Lattimore, Ordeal by Slander. Lattimore's strong denial of the espionage charge: Reeves, Ordeal by Slander. McCarthy's witnesses against Lattimore fail to prove that he was, or is, a Communist agent: Reeves, Ordeal by Slander. Despite the lack of evidence, a majority of Americans tell pollsters they believe McCarthy's charges: Reeves. To aid Democrats, President Truman agrees to partial release of the FBI and State Department files on Lattimore: Reeves, Ordeal by Slander, Wicker.
Chapter 13. Senate subcommittee members examine files on Lattimore, find nothing to support McCarthy's charges; McCarthy claims the files have been altered—"raped," as he puts it: Reeves. Tydings committee shifts its focus to John Stewart Service, another State Department China expert whom McCarthy accuses of being disloyal: Reeves, Wikipedia article on Service, the Columbia Encyclopedia. Service impresses senators when he testifies before subcommittee, but not Joe: Reeves. Excerpt from McCarthy's Wisconsin speech in which he continues to attack Service: the Ashland [Wisconsin] Daily Press, August 1, 1950. Senator Margaret Chase Smith, Republican of Maine, gives a Senate speech, "A Declaration of Conscience," in which she indirectly criticizes McCarthy for making unwarranted charges against people without supporting evidence: Reeves, Wikipedia biography of Smith, Smith's website. McCarthy's sneering response: the New York Times, June 3, 1950, as reported by Reeves. North Korea invades South Korea on June 25, 1950, marking the start of what became the Korean War: Reeves, Wikipedia article, the Columbia Encyclopedia. Background to the conflict: Reeves, Wicker, Wikipedia, the Columbia Encyclopedia. President Truman's response to the outbreak of war: Reeves, Wicker. Joe's attack on the president and Secretary of State Dean Acheson for not being prepared for the war: Reeves, Wicker.
Chapter 14. Tydings committee's final report absolving Kenyon, Lattimore, Service, and others of McCarthy's charges against them is issued on July 17, 1950; McCarthy predictably denounces its findings as a "whitewash": Reeves, Wicker. Anecdote about Jean Kerr and an FBI agent's attractive young wife who caught McCarthy's eye: Wicker. McCarthy's efforts to get revenge on Millard Tydings by undermining the latter's reelection campaign, and Tydings's bitter reaction when he is defeated: Reeves, Wicker. Back-and-forth developments in the Korean War in the fall and winter of 1950–51: Reeves, Wicker, Wikipedia articles. McCarthy and other conservatives criticize Truman for what they see as his weak leadership: Reeves. General Douglas MacArthur seeks authorization to carry the fight on into Communist China, and to use tactical nuclear weapons if necessary, but Truman rejects the general's proposals: Reeves. MacArthur lets it be known he strongly disagrees with the president's policies, leaving Truman no option except to fire him for disobedience: Reeves, Wicker. McCarthy joins other right-wingers in protesting the general's firing, calling him "the greatest American I know," but Truman stands by his guns: Reeves, Wicker, Wikipedia articles on the progress of the Korean War.
Chapter 15. Background material on General George Marshall's life and military career: Wikipedia articles, the Columbia Encyclopedia. Excerpts from McCarthy's Senate speech denouncing Marshall: the Congressional Record, June 14, 1951. Congress attempts to rein in McCarthy via a subcommittee investigation of unfair tactics he allegedly employed during Senator Tydings's 1950 reelection campaign, but final report contains no specific charges against McCarthy: Reeves, Wicker. Focus shifts to the upcoming 1952 elections, in which McCarthy is up for reelection and a new president will be chosen. McCarthy starts out backing General MacArthur for president, but switches his allegiance to General Dwight Eisenhower when Republican delegates turn in Ike's direction: Reeves, Wicker. McCarthy's health isn't good, and he begins to drink more heavily: Reeves. Joe sounds enthusiastic about Eisenhower's eventual nomination, but there are deep differences between the two men: Reeves, Wicker.
Chapter 16. Joe's surgeries: Reeves. Backing for Joe from right-wing commentators and John Wayne: Reeves. Joe's successful attempt to get Eisenhower to delete support for General Marshall from his Milwaukee speech: Reeves, Wicker, The Ordeal of Power: A Political Memoir of the Eisenhower Years, by Emmet John Hughes (New York: Atheneum, 1963).
Chapter 17. Joe's refusal to campaign for Henry Cabot Lodge and against John F. Kennedy in Massachusetts: Reeves, Wicker. In wake of Eisenhower's decisive victory, and his own, Joe chooses to head the Senate Committee on Government Operations and its Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, saying these positions will give him the most power: Reeves, Wicker. McCarthy plans new investigations of the Federal Communications Commission and Communist professors in the nation's colleges: Reeves, Wicker. Joe hires Roy Cohn to be his chief counsel: Reeves, Wicker, and Wikipedia and Columbia Encyclopedia biographies of Cohn. The trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for espionage and Roy Cohn's role in it: Reeves, Wicker, and Wikipedia and Columbia Encyclopedia articles about the Rosenbergs. Hiring of G. David Schine as a "consultant" to the committee: Reeves, Wicker, and Wikipedia and Columbia Encyclopedia articles on Schine.
Chapter 18. Controversy over Charles Bohlen's nomination to be ambassador to the Soviet Union: Reeves, Wicker, and Wikipedia and Columbia Encyclopedia entries on Bohlen and the cold war. Case of philosophy professor at Western Reserve University who was reluctant to discuss Marx and Marxism in class: the author's experience in 1953. Roy Cohn and David Schine's trip to Europe in search of books by Communist writers in American-sponsored libraries: Reeves, Wicker.
Chapter 19. Speculation about Joe's political ambitions: Reeves, Wicker. Opposition by the president to Joe's announcement that he plans to investigate the CIA: Reeves, Wicker. Reactions to the distressing news that the Soviet Union has tested a hydrogen bomb, which the U.S. had successfully tested just nine months earlier: Reeves, Wicker, and Wikipedia and Columbia Encyclopedia accounts of nuclear weapons developments in the early 1950s. Testimony of General Richard C. Partridge: the Congressional Record. Joe's marriage to Jean Kerr: Reeves, Wicker.
Chapter 20. McCarthy's investigation into allegedly subversive activities of civilian employees at the Army's radar laboratories at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey: Reeves, Wicker. McCarthy expands investigation to General Electric plant in Schenectady, New York: Reeves. Roy Cohn's attempts to win special privileges for David Schine after Schine is drafted into the Army: Reeves, Wicker. Accusations against Army dentist Irving Peress: Reeves, Wicker.
Chapter 21. Exchanges between McCarthy and General Ralph Zwicker: Communist Infiltration in the Army, record of February 1954 hearings, as excerpted by Reeves. Background of Annie Lee Moss: Reeves, Wicker, Wikipedia, the Columbia Encyclopedia. Qu
otes of President Eisenhower regarding McCarthy's Army investigations and the Senator's long-term ambitions: unpublished diaries of Press Secretary Jim Hagerty, as excerpted by Reeves.
Chapter 22. Quotes of Army Secretary Stevens and Press Secretary Hagerty at news conference: Hagerty's unpublished diaries, as excerpted by Reeves. Senator Ralph Flanders's speech attacking McCarthy: the Congressional Record, March 9, 1954. Background of Edward R. Murrow: Reeves, Wicker, Wikipedia, the Columbia Encyclopedia. Murrow's TV report on McCarthy: Reeves, Wicker. Murrow's earlier report on McCarthy's role in the case of Milo Radulovich: Reeves, Wicker, memoir of Murrow's TV associate Joe Wershba.
Chapter 23. Confronted by Army report of Cohn's attempts to get special treatment for Schine, McCarthy refuses to fire Cohn: Roy Cohn, McCarthy (New York: New American Library, 1968). Annie Lee Moss returns as a witness before McCarthy's subcommittee and wins sympathy of Democratic members: Reeves, Wikipedia, the Columbia Encyclopedia. McCarthy's subcommittee decides to hold full inquiry into Army-McCarthy dispute: the New York Times, March 17, 1954. Decline in McCarthy's favorability ratings: Gallup Poll, March 21, 1954. Army appoints Boston lawyer Joseph N. Welch to be its special legal counsel in the Army-McCarthy hearings: the New York Times, April 3, 1954.
The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy Page 28
