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Senator McCarthy's Wheeling Speech

At a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, on February 9, 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy proclaimed that he was aware of 205 card-carrying members of the Communist Party who worked for the United States Department of State. This speech set off an era of paranoia and accusation and propelled McCarthy into the national spotlight.

"Ladies and gentlemen, tonight as we celebrate the one hundred and forty-first birthday of one of the greatest men in American history, I would like to be able to talk about what a glorious day today is in the history of the world. As we celebrate the birth of this man who with his whole heart and soul hated war, I would like to be able to speak of peace in our time, of war being outlawed, and of world wide disarmament. These would be truly appropriate things to be able to mention as we celebrate the birthday of Abraham Lincoln ...."

"Five years after a world war has been won, men's hearts should anticipate a long peace, and men's minds should be free from the heavy weight that comes with war. But this is not such a period -- for this is not a period of peace. This is a time of the "Cold War." This is a time when all the world is split into two vast, increasingly hostile armed camps -- a time of great armaments race ..."

"Six years ago, at the time of the first conference to map out the peace — Dumbarton Oaks — there was within the Soviet orbit 180,000,000 people. Lined up on the anti-totalitarian side there were in the world at that time roughly 1,625,000,000 people. Today, only 6 years later, there are 800,000,000 people under the absolute domination of Soviet Russia -- an increase of over 400 percent. On our side, the figure has shrunk to around 500,000,000. In other words, in less than 6 years the odds have changed from 9 to 1 in our favor to 8 to 5 against us. This indicates the swiftness of the tempo of Communist victories and American defeats in the cold war. As one of our outstanding historical figures once said, "When a great democracy is destroyed, it will not be because of enemies from without, but rather because of enemies from within."

"The truth of this statement is becoming terrifyingly clear as we see this country each day losingon every front."

"At war's end, we were physically the strongest nation on earth and, at least potentially, the most powerful intellectually and morally. Ours could have been the honor of being a beacon on the desert of destruction, a shining living proof that civilization was not yet ready to destroy itself. Unfortunately, we have failed miserably and tragically to arise to the opportunity."

"The reason why we find ourselves in a position of impotency is not because our only powerful potential enemy has sent men to invade our shores, but rather because of the traitorous actions of those who have been treated so well by this Nation. It has not been the less fortunate or members of minority groups who have been selling this Nation out, but rather those who have had all the benefits that the wealthiest nation on earth has had to offer -- the finest homes, the finest college education, and the finest jobs in Government we can give."

"This is glaringly true in the State Department. There the bright young men who are born withsilver spoons in their mouths are the ones who have been the worst ..."

"Now I know it is very easy for anyone to condemn a particular bureau or department in general terms. Therefore, I would like to cite one rather unusual case -- the case of a man who has done much to shape our foreign policy."

"When Chiang Kai-shek was fighting our war, the State Department had in China a young mannamed John S. Service. His task, obviously, was not to work for the communization of China. Strangely, however, he sent official reports back to the State Department urging that we torpedo our ally Chiang Kai-shek and stating, in effect, that communism was the best hope of China."

"Later, this man — John Service — was picked up by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for turning over to the communists Secret state Department information. Strangely, however, he was never prosecuted. However, Joseph Grew, the Undersecretary of State, who insisted on his prosecution, was forced to resign. Two days after Grew's successor, Dean Acheson, took over as Undersecretary of State, this man — John Service —  who had been picked up by the FBI and who had previously urged that communism was the best hope of China, was not only reinstated in the State Department but promoted. And finally, under Acheson, placed in charge of all placements and promotions."

"Today, ladies and gentlemen, this man Service is on his way to represent the State Department and Acheson in Calcutta -— by far and away the most important listening post in the Far East ..."

"Then there was a Mrs. Mary Jane Kenny, from the Board of Economic Warfare in the State Department, who was named in an FBI report and in a House committee report as a courier for the Communist Party while working for the Government. And where do you think Mrs. Kenny is — she is now an editor in the United Nations Document Bureau ..."

"This, ladies and gentlemen, gives you somewhat of a picture of the type of individuals who have been helping to shape our foreign policy. In my opinion the State Department, which is one of the most important government departments, is thoroughly infested with Communists."

"I have in my hand 57 cases of individuals who would appear to be either card carrying members or certainly loyal to the Communist Party, but who nevertheless are still helping to shape our foreign policy ..."

"This brings us down to the case of one Alger Hiss who is more important not as an individual any more, but rather because he is so representative of a group in the State Department ..."

"If time permitted, it might be well to go into detail about the fact that Hiss was Roosevelt's chief advisor at Yalta when Roosevelt was admittedly in ill health and tired physically and mentally ..."

"According to the then Secretary of State Stettinius, here are some of the things that Hiss helped to decide at Yalta. (1) The establishment of a European High Commission; (2) the treatment of Germany — this you will recall was the conference at which it was decided that we would occupy Berlin with Russia occupying an area completely circling the city, which, as you know, resulted in the Berlin airlift which cost 31 American lives; (3) the Polish question; ... (6) Iran; (7) China — here's where we gave away Manchuria; (8) Turkish Straits question; (9) International trusteeships; (10) Korea...."

"I know that you are saying to yourself, "Well, why doesn't the Congress do something about it?" Actually, ladies and gentlemen, one of the important reasons for the graft, the corruption, the dishonesty, the disloyalty, the treason in high Government positions -- one of the most important reasons why this continues is a lack of moral uprising on the part of the 140,000,000 American people. In the light of history, however, this is not hard to explain."

"It is the result of an emotional hang-over and a temporary moral lapse which follows every war. It is the apathy of evil which people who have been subjected to the tremendous evils of war feel. As the people of the world see mass murder, the destruction of defenseless and innocent people, and all of the crime and lack of morals which go with war, they become numb and apathetic. It has always been thus after war."

"However, the morals of our people have not been destroyed. They still exist. This cloak of numbness and apathy has only needed a spark to rekindle them. Happily, this spark has finally been supplied."

"As you know, very recently the Secretary of State proclaimed his loyalty to a man [Hiss] guilty of what has always been considered as the most abominable of all crime — of being a traitor to the people who gave him a position of great trust. The Secretary of State in attempting to justify his continued devotion to the man who sold out the Christian world to the atheistic world, referred to Christ's Sermon on the Mount as a justification and reason therefore, and the reaction of the American people to this would have made the heart of Abraham Lincoln happy."

"When this pompous diplomat in striped pants, with a phony British accent, proclaimed to the American people that Christ on the Mount endorsed communism, high treason, and betrayal of a sacred trust, the blasphemy was so great that it awakened the dormant indignation of the American people."

"He has lighted the spark which is resulting in a moral uprising and will end only when the whole sorry mess of twisted, warped thinkers are swept from the national scene so that we may have a new birth of national honesty and decency in government."
























EDWARD R. MURROW -- JOSEPH McCARTHY

                                                                                                 

In 1947, CBS and  Edward R. Murrow were trying to decide how to respond to the excesses of American anti-Communists, that was sweeping throughout the country.

Edward R. Murrow’s personal position had always been clear - he was anti-Communist, but, domestically, was opposed to the anti-Communist tactics of the Republican right-wing.

In 1948, CBS’s correspondent George Polk was assassinated in Greece. Edward R. Murrow went on the air and criticized America’s ally, by saying, “Greece is in the grip of politicians who are amazingly unwilling to serve anybody except themselves.” 
























After Senator McCarthy. On February 20, 1950, made his first sensational accusations in Wheeling,West Virginia, Edward R. Murrow said on the air, “If the weight of the public testimony has tended to show that so far, Senator McCarthy’s charges are unproven, that is not my responsibility.” Later that year, he signed the CBS loyalty oath without any protests.

Murrow chose not to crusade against McCarthy, despite occasional encouragement from friends. He did not do so for the next three years.

Edwar R. Murrow had a keen sense of timing, and he may have sensed that, with the war being fought in Korea, the moment wasn’t right for an attack on the anti-Communism tactics of Seator McCarthy.


Senator John Bricker, of Ohio, an ally of Senator McCarthy proposed federal legislation to regulate the networks (then as now, individual stations were federally regulated, but not the networks themselves). Sponsors didn’t like political controversy and  CBS had a business interest in trying to ride out the McCarthy witch-hunt.

The networks had made an agreement with the F.C.C. called the Mayflower Doctrine, which prohibited editorializing on the air. Edward R. Murrow was always against that policy.

During his time as an executive, he drafted and presented to Paley an alternative, in which broadcasters could express opinions and those who disagreed would be given the opportunity to respond on the air. In 1949, the F.C.C. rescinded the Mayflower Doctrine and replaced it with the Fairness Doctrine, which was similar to Murrow’s suggestion. It made more explicit the requirement that broadcasters air public-affairs programming, and lifted the ban on editorializing in exchange for a requirement to provide equal time to opposing views. Just a few years earlier, the federal government had forced the breakup of NBC — that’s where ABC came from — and so the networks had very good reasons to take Washington’s wishes very seriously.

When, Edward R. Murrow finally confronted Senator McCarthy, it was the Fairness Doctrine that made it possible.


The run-up to Murrow’s McCarthy broadcast began with a program in the fall of 1953 on Milo Radulovich, an Air Force Reserve lieutenant from Michigan who had been dismissed from the service because his father and sister had unspecified Communist affiliations.

McCarthy himself was not involved, but Murrow saw something in the case, which involved a blue-collar Midwestern immigrant’s son, rather than a tweedy-diplomat type like Alger Hiss. The broadcast led to the Air Force’s reversing its decision.

In November of 1953, McCarthy’s menacing chief investigator, Donald Surine, buttonholed one of Murrow’s reporters, Joseph Wershba, in a Washington corridor, and complained about the Radulovich program, and showed Wershba some news clips from the thirties about the Moscow Summer School, in which Murrow had helped run when he was with the Institute of International Education. This added a new note — a direct personal threat to Murrow that he’d better shut up, or McCarthy would take him down — and, along with the success of the Radulovich program, overcame any remaining hesitancy that Murrow may have had about attacking McCarthy.

By the time the first “See It Now” program on McCarthy aired, on March 9, 1954, Senator   McCarthy had lost a lot of his power. Just a few weeks earlier, he had picked a fight with the Army, which led to his defeat at the Army-McCarthy hearings. At that time, the most powerful press baron in the country was Henry Luce, and his magazines which had been critical of McCarthy for years. Of the major news organizations, only the Hearst newspapers were strongly pro-McCarthy. (In the original McCarthy show, Murrow gestures to a large stack of leading newspapers — the Times, the Herald Tribune, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Chicago Tribune, and many more — that opposed McCarthy.) President Eisenhower, who had disappointed Murrow and other liberals by campaigning with McCarthy in 1952, made an unspecific speech about the importance of civil liberties in the fall of 1953. Edward R. Murrow picked the best to strike; if he had waited even two more months, it would have been difficult to present himself as the man who had discredited

The broadcast was the first of four — two “See It Now”s on McCarthy, and Senator McCarthy’s reply, and Edward R. Murrow’s reply to the reply. Murrow took pains to put onscreen Senator McCarthy’s most plainspoken, all-American opponents, like Senator John McClellan, of Arkansas. Murrow’s other main weapon was McCarthy himself.




















During his rebutal program, Senator McCarthy was awful on-camera, and the program caught him scratching, pulling at his ear, gesturing purposelessly, giggling, and fiddling with his hair. To see him in action is to understand instantly what was most chilling thind about him: he would accuse just about anybody of being a Communist, without offering any solid evidence. McCarthy includded Murrow as well, during his rebuttal.


Edward R. Murrow: 
A Report On Senator Joseph R. McCarthy


















"See it Now"
(CBS-TV, March 9, 1954)


Murrow: Good evening. Tonight "See it Now" devotes its entire half hour to a report on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy told mainly in his own words and pictures.


But first, ALCOA would like you to meet a man who has been with them for fifty years.
(Commercial break.)

Murrow: Because a report on Senator McCarthy is by definition controversial, we want to say exactly what we mean to say, and I request your permission to read from the script whatever remarks Murrow and Friendly may make. If the Senator feels that we have done violence to his words or pictures and so desires to speak, to answer himself, an opportunity will be afforded him on this program.

Our working thesis tonight is this question: If this fight against Communism is made a fight between America's two great political parties, the American people know that one of these parties will be destroyed, and the Republic cannot endure very long as a one party system.

We applaud that statement and we think Senator McCarthy ought to.... He said it, seventeen months ago in Milwaukee.

      McCarthy: The American people realize that this cannot be made a fight between America's two great political parties. If this fight against Communism is made a fight between America's two great political parties, the American people know that one of those parties will be destroyed, and the Republic can't endure very long as a one party system.

Murrow: But on February 4th, 1954, Senator McCarthy spoke of one party's treason. This was at Charleston, West Virginia where there were no cameras running. It was recorded on tape.

      McCarthy: The issue between the Republicans and Democrats is clearly drawn. It has been deliberately drawn by those who have been in charge of twenty years of treason. Not the hard fact is... the hard fact is that those who wear the label... those who wear the label "Democrat" wear it with the stain of a historic betrayal.

Murrow: Seventeen months ago Candidate Eisenhower met Senator McCarthy in Green Bay,  Wisconsin and he laid down the ground rules on how he would fight Communism if elected.

       Eisenhower: Now this is a pledge I make. If I am charged by you people to be the responsible head of the Executive Department, it will be my initial responsibility to see that subversion, disloyalty, is kept out of the Executive Department. We will always appreciate and welcome Congressional investigation, but the responsibility will rest squarely on the shoulders of the Executive, and I hold that there are ample powers in
the government to get rid of these people if the Executive Department is really concerned in doing it. We can do it with absolute assurance. (Applause.)

    That is America's principle - trial by jury, of the innocent, until proved guilty - and I expect to stand to do it.

Murrow: That same night in Milwaukee, Senator McCarthy stated what he would do if the General was elected.

      McCarthy: I spent about a half hour with the General last night. While I an't ... while I can't report that we agreed entirely on everything ... [laughter and applause] ... I can report that when I left that meeting with the General, I had the same feeling as when I went in, and that is that he is a great American, will make a great president, an outstanding president. But I want to tell you tonight, tell the American people, as long as I represent you and the rest of the American people in the Senate, I shall continue to call them as I see them, regardless of who happens to be president.




Murrow: November 24th, 1953.

      McCarthy: A few days ago, I read that President Eisenhower expressed the hope that by election time in 1954 the subject of Communism would be a dead and forgotten issue. The raw, harsh, unpleasant fact is that Communism is an issue and will be an issue in 1954.

Murrow: On one thing the Senator has been consistent. Often operating as a one-man committee, he has traveled far, interviewed many, terrorized some, accused civilian and military leaders of the past administration of a great conspiracy to turn over the country to Communism, investigated and substantially demoralized the present State Department, made varying charges of espionage at Fort Manmouth. (The Army says it has
been unable to find anything relating to espionage there). He has interrogated a varied assortment of what he calls "Fifth Amendment Communists." Republican Senator Flanders of  Vermont said of McCarthy today: "He dons war paint; he goes into his war dance; he emits his war whoops; he goes forth to battle and proudly returns with the scalp of a pink army dentist."

Other critics have accused the Senator of using the bull whip and smear. There was a time two years ago when the Senator and his friends said he had been smeared and bull whipped.

    [former congressman] Frank Keefe: You sometimes think to hear the quartet that call themselves "Operation Truth" damning Joe McCarthy and resorting to the vilest smears I have ever heard. Well, this is the answer... ...and if I could express it in what's in my heart right now, I'd do it in terms of the poet who once said:

    Ah 'tis but a dainty flower I bring you,
    Yes, 'tis but a violet, glistening with dew,
    But still in its heart there lies beauties concealed
    So in our heart our love for you lies unrevealed.

      McCarthy: You know, I used to pride myself on the idea that I was a bit tough, especially over the past eighteen or nineteen months, when we've been kicked around and bull whipped and damned. I didn't think that I could be touched very deeply. But tonight, frankly, my cup and my heart is so full I can't talk to you.

Murrow: But in Philadelphia, on Washington's Birthday, 1954, his heart was so full he could talk. He reviewed some of the General Zwicker testimony and proved he hadn't abused him.

      McCarthy: Nothing is more serious than a traitor to this country in the Communist conspiracy. [Laughing] (Are you enjoying this abuse, General? [laughs]) Question: Do you  think stealing $50 is more serious than being a traitor to the country and part of the Communist conspiracy? Answer: "That, sir, was not my decision."

    Shall we go on to that for a while? I hate to impose on your time. And I've just got two pages. This is the abuse which ...the real meat of abuse, this is the official reporter's record of the hearing. After he said he wouldn't remove that General from the Army who cleared Communists, I said: "Then General, you should be removed from any command. Any man who has been given the honor of being promoted to General, and who says, 'I will protect another general who protects Communists,' is not fit to wear that uniform, General." (Applause.)

    I think it is a tremendous disgrace to the Army to have to bring these facts before the public, but I intend to give it to the public, General. I have a duty to do that. I intend to repeat to the press exactly what you said, so that you can know that and be back here to hear it, General.

    And wait till you hear the bleeding hearts scream and cry about our methods of  trying to drag the truth from those who know, or should know, who covered up a Fifth Amendment Communist, Major. But they say, 'Oh, it's all right to uncover them, but don't get rough doing it, McCarthy.'

Murrow: But two days later, Secretary Stevens and the Senator had lunch, agreed on a memorandum of understanding, disagreed on what the small type said.

    Stevens: I shall never accede to the abuse of Army personnel under any circumstance, including committee hearings. I shall not accede to them being brow-beaten or humiliated. In the light of those assurances, although I did not propose the cancellation of the hearings, I acceded to it. If it had not been for these assurances, I would never have entered into any agreement whatsoever.

Murrow: Then President Eisenhower issued a statement that his advisors thought censored the Senator, but the Senator saw it as another victory, called the entire Zwicker case "a tempest in a teapot."

    McCarthy: [If an] arrogant or witless man in a position of power appears before our Committee and is found aiding the Communist Party, he will be exposed. The fact that he might be a General places him in no special class, as far as I am concerned. Apparently...apparently, the President and I now agree on the necessity of getting rid of Communists. We apparently disagree only on how we should handle those who protect Communists. When the shouting and the tumult dies, the American people and the President will realize that this unprecedented mud slinging against the Committee by the extreme left wing elements of press and radio was caused solely because another Fifth Amendment Communist was finally dug out of the dark recesses and exposed to the public view.

Murrow: (points to a chart): Senator McCarthy claims that only the left wing press criticized him on the Zwicker case. Of the fifty large circulating newspapers in the country, these are the left wing papers that criticized. These are the ones that supported him. The ratio is about three to one [against the Senator]. Now let us look at some of these left wing papers that criticized the Senator.

[Murrow quotes from articles and headlines]:

The Chicago Tribune: McCarthy will better serve his cause if he learns to distinguish the role of investigator from the role of avenging angel...

The New York Times: The unwarranted interference of a demagogue -- a domestic Munich...

The Times Herald of Washington: Senator McCarthy's behavior towards Zwicker not justified...

The Herald Tribune of New York: McCarthyism involves assaults on basic Republican concepts...

The Milwaukee Journal: The line must be drawn and defended or McCarthy will become the government...

The Evening Star of Washington It was a bad day for everyone who resents and detests the bully boy tactics which Senator McCarthy so often employees...

The New York World Telegram: Bamboozling, bludgeoning, distorting way...

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Unscrupulous, McCarthy bullying. What a tragic irony it is that the President's political advisors keep him from doing what every decent instinct must be commanding him to do...

Well, that's the ratio of a three-to-one, so-called "left-wing" press.

Another interesting thing was said about the Zwicker case, and it was said by Senator McCarthy.

    McCarthy: Well, may I say that I was extremely shocked when I heard that Secretary Stevens told two Army officers that they had to take part in the cover-up of those who promoted and coddled Communists. As I read his statement, I thought of that quotation "On what meat doth this, our Caesar, feed?"

Murrow: And upon what meat doth Senator McCarthy feed? Two of the staples of his diet are the investigation, protected by immunity, and the half-truth. We herewith submit samples of both.

First, the half-truth. This was an attack on Adlai Stevenson at the end of the 1952 campaign. President Eisenhower, it must be said, had no prior knowledge of it.



TITLE: Chicago, Oct. 27, 1957

    McCarthy: I perform this unpleasant task because the American people are entitled to have the coldly documented history of this man who says, "I want to be your President."

    Strangely, Alger -- I mean, Adlai [laughter] -- But let's move on to another part of the jigsaw puzzle. Now, while you think - while you may think there can be no connection between the debonair Democrat candidate and a dilapidated Massachusetts barn, I want to show you a picture of this barn and explain the connection.

    Here is the outside of the barn. Give me the pictures of the inside, if you will. Here is the outside of the barn up at Lee, Massachusetts. It looks as though it couldn't house a farmer's cow or goat. Here's the inside: a beautifully panelled conference room with maps of the Soviet Union. Well, in what way does Stevenson tie up with this?

    My...my investigators went out and took pictures of this barn after we had been tipped off of what was in it, tipped off that there was in this barn all the missing documents from the Communist front - IPR - the IPR which has been named by the McCarran Committee ... named before the McCarran Committee as a cover shop for Communist espionage.

    Now, let's take a look at a photostat of a document taken from the Massachusetts barn - one of those documents which was never supposed to see the light of day. Rather interesting it is. This is a document which shows that Alger Hiss and Frank Coe recommended Adlai Stevenson to the Mount Tremblant Conference which was called for the purpose of establishing foreign policy (postwar foreign policy) in Asia. Now, as you
know, Alger Hiss is a convicted traitor. Frank Coe has been named under oath before congressional committees seven times as a member of the Communist Party. Why? Why do Hiss and Coe find that Adlai Stevenson is the man they want representing them at this conference? I don't know. Perhaps Adlai knows.

Murrow: But Senator McCarthy didn't permit his audience to hear the entire paragraph. This is the official record of the McCarran hearings. Anyone can buy it for two dollars.

Here's a quote: "Another possibility for the Mount Tremblant conferences on Asia is someone from Knox' office or Stimson's office." (Frank Knox was our wartime Secretary of the Navy; Henry Stimson our Secretary of the Army, both distinguished Republicans.) And it goes on: "Coe, and Hiss mentioned Adlai Stevenson, one of Knox's special assistants, and Harvey Bundy - former Assistant Secretary of State under Hoover, and now assistant to Stimson - because of their jobs."

We read from this documented record, not in defense of Mr. Stevenson, but in defense of  truth. Specifically, Mr. Stevenson's identification with that red barn was no more, no less than that of Knox, Stimson or Bundy. It should be stated that Mr. Stevenson was once a member of the Institute of Pacific Relations. But so were such other loyal Americans as Senator Ferguson, John Foster Dulles, Paul Hoffman, Harry Luce and Herbert
Hoover. Their association carries with it no guilt, and that barn has nothing to do with any of them.

Now, a sample of an investigation. The witness was Reed Harris, for many years a civil servant in the State Department, directing the Information Service. Harris was accused of helping the Communistic cause by curtailing some broadcasts to Israel. Senator McCarthy summoned him and questioned him about a book he had written in 1932.

    McCarthy: May we come to order. Mr. Reed Harris? Your name is Reed Harris?

    Harris: That's correct.

    McCarthy: You wrote a book in '32, is that correct?

    Harris: Yes, I wrote a book. And as I testified in executive session...

    McCarthy: At the time you wrote the book - pardon me; go ahead. I'm sorry. Proceed.

    Harris: At the time I wrote the book, the atmosphere in the universities of the United States was greatly affected by the Great Depression then in existence. The attitudes of students, the attitudes of the general public, were considerably different than they are at this moment, and for one thing there certainly was generally no awareness, to the degree that there is today, of the way the Communist Party works.

    McCarthy: You attended Columbia University in the early thirties. Is that right?

    Harris: I did, Mr. Chairman.

    McCarthy Will you speak a little louder, sir?

    Harris: I did, Mr. Chairman.

    McCarthy: And were you expelled from Columbia?

    Harris: I was suspended from classes on April 1st, 1932. I was later reinstated, and I resigned from the University.

    McCarthy: And you resigned from the University. Did the Civil - Civil Liberties Union provide you with an attorney at that time?

    Harris: I had many offers of attorneys, and one of those was from the American Civil Liberties Union, yes.

    McCarthy The question is did the Civil Liberties Union supply you with an attorney?

    Harris: They did supply an attorney.

    McCarthy: The answer is yes?

    Harris: The answer is yes.

    McCarthy: You know the Civil Liberties Union has been listed as "a front for, and doing the work of," the Communist Party?

    Harris: Mr. Chairman this was 1932.

    McCarthy: Yeah, I know it was 1932. Do you know that they since have been listed as a front for, and doing the work of the Communist Party?

    Harris: I do not know that they have been listed so, sir.

    McCarthy: You don't know they have been listed?

    Harris: I have heard that mentioned or read that mentioned.

    McCarthy: Now, you wrote a book in 1932. I'm going to ask you again: at the time you wrote this book, did you feel that professors should be given the right to teach sophomores that marriage - and I quote - "should be cast out of our civilization as antiquated and stupid religious phenomena?" Was that your feeling at that time?

    Harris: My feeling was that professors should have the right to express their considered opinions on any subject, whatever they were, sir.

    McCarthy: All right, I'm going to ask you this question again.

    Harris: That includes that quotation. They should have the right to teach anything that came into their minds as being the proper thing to teach.

    McCarthy: I'm going to make you answer this.

    Harris: All right, I'll answer yes, but you put an implication on it, and you feature this particular point of the book, which, of course, is quite out of context, does not give a proper impression of the book as a whole. The American public doesn't get an honest impression of even that book, bad as it is, from what you are quoting from it.

    McCarthy: Well, then, let's continue to read your own writing, and...

    Harris: Twenty-one years ago, again.

    McCarthy: Yes, but we shall try and bring you down to date, if we can.

    Harris: Mr. Chairman, two weeks ago, Senator Taft took the position that I took twenty-one years ago, that Communists and Socialists should be allowed to teach in the schools. It so happens that nowadays I don't agree with Senator Taft, as far as Communist teaching in the schools is concerned, because I think Communists are, in effect, a plainclothes auxiliary of the Red Army, the Soviet Red Army. And I don't want
to see them in any of our schools, teaching.

    McCarthy: I don't recall Senator Taft ever having any of the background that you've got, sir.

    Harris: I resent the tone of this inquiry very much, Mr. Chairman. I resent it, not only because it is my neck, my public neck, that you are, I think, very skillfully trying to wring, but I say it because there are thousands of able and loyal employees in the federal government of the United States who have been properly cleared according to the laws and the security practices of their agencies, as I was - unless the new regime says no; I was before.

    Senator John McClellen: Do you think this book that you wrote then did considerable harm, its publication might have had adverse influence on the public by an expression of views contained in it?

    Harris: The sale of that book was so abysmally small, it was so unsuccessful that a question of its influence  Really, you can go back to the publisher. You'll see it was one of the most unsuccessful books he ever put out. He's still sorry about it, just as I am.

    Senator John McClellan: Well, I think that's a compliment to American intelligence . (Laughter). I will say that for him.

Murrow: Senator McCarthy succeeded in proving that Reed Harris had once written a bad book, which the American people had proved twenty-two years ago by not buying it, which is what they eventually do with all bad ideas. As for Reed Harris, his resignation was accepted a month later with a letter of commendation. McCarthy claimed it as a victory.

The Reed Harris hearing demonstrates one of the Senator's techniques. Twice he said the American Civil Liberties Union was listed as a subversive front. The Attorney General's list does not and has never listed the ACLU as subversive, nor does the FBI or any other federal government agency. And the American Civil Liberties Union holds in its files letters of commendation from President Truman, President Eisenhower, and General MacArthur.

Now let us try to bring the McCarthy story a little more up to date. Two years ago Senator Benton of Connecticut accused McCarthy of apparent perjury, unethical practice, and perpetrating a hoax on the Senate. McCarthy sued for two million dollars. Last week he dropped the case, saying no one could be found who believed Benton's story. Several volunteers have come forward saying they believe it in its entirety.

Today Senator McCarthy says he's going to get a lawyer and force the networks to give him time to reply to Adlai Stevenson's speech.

Earlier, the Senator asked, "Upon what meat does this, our Caesar, feed?" Had he looked three lines earlier in Shakespeare's Caesar, he would have found this line, which is not altogether inappropriate: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."

No one familiar with the history of this country can deny that congressional committees are useful. It is necessary to investigate before legislating, but the line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine one and the junior Senator from Wisconsin has stepped over it repeatedly. His primary achievement has been in confusing the public mind, as between the internal and the external threats of Communism. We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men - not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.

This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape iresponsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at  home.

The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn't create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it -- and rather successfully. Cassius was right. "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."


Good night, and good luck.


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In my opinion:

Several messages became crystal clear to the average American

Be careful of What you read, write of say.
Conform - Don't be different.
Don't trust or criticize our governmental politicians.

I started to count on my fingers, the number of members in Congress who are now using the methods of McCartyism.  I RAN OUT OF FINGERS.

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“See It Now”: Murrow vs. McCarthy

(The following article is taken from the U.S. Department of State publication, Edward R. Murrow: Journalism at Its Best.)

by Michael Jay Friedman

Edward R. Murrow may not have scored the first blow against Joseph McCarthy, but he landed a decisive one. For that, he always will be linked inextricably with the Wisconsin senator, and remembered by Americans as a champion of liberty.

Opposing Communism while maintaining fundamental political liberties posed serious challenges in Cold War America. There were Americans who were members or supporters of  the Communist Party of the United States, which owed its political allegiance to the Soviet Union and not to the United States. But there were other Americans falsely charged with being Communist supporters or sympathizers, and wrongly accused of treason against the United States. The U.S. government and other institutions – from employers to universities – found it difficult at times to distinguish between those who were real threats to the nation and those who were innocent.

Joseph McCarthy, the junior U.S. senator from Wisconsin, seized upon the public mood to launch a series of inquiries through public Senate committee hearings about possible Communist infiltration of prominent American institutions, particularly the government, the military, and the media. Individuals suspected of Communist ties were called before his subcommittee, aggressively questioned about their involvement in the Communist Party, and pressured to name Communists. While the archives of the former Soviet Union and U.S. intercepts of Soviet spy communications later proved some measure of infiltration, McCarthy's often savage efforts ruined careers and damaged lives. Always a controversial figure, McCarthy enjoyed considerable popularity for a time. Eventually, though, his campaign effectively discredited the anti-Communist investigations among many Americans.

Murrow was himself an anti-Communist but a McCarthy skeptic. As early as 1950, Murrow observed on the air that "the weight of the public testimony has tended to show that so far, Senator McCarthy's charges are unproven." Unproven or not, those charges continued, and they contributed to an atmosphere in which many feared McCarthy and his Senate investigations subcommittee. On March 9, 1954, Murrow, then the most respected journalist in America, engaged in a tough exposé of the senator and his tactics.

Gradually, Murrow's fear that McCarthy posed a real threat to civil liberties developed into a determination to use his TV documentary series "See It Now" against the senator.

At that time, U.S. broadcasters were covered by the "Fairness Doctrine," which required broadcast licensees to present contentious issues in an honest, equal, and balanced manner and to afford persons or groups criticized during such a broadcast the opportunity to respond on the air. Murrow and his producer, Fred Friendly, prepared a half-hour program focused only on McCarthy and his tactics. They understood that the CBS network would afford the senator a half-hour of prime time – in a separate broadcast – to rebut Murrow. They also realized that McCarthy likely would launch a personal attack on Murrow himself.

Even so, Murrow understood that on television a skilled journalist and his technology-savvy team of editors, writers, and producers enjoyed real advantages. They could select the least flattering video clips, juxtapose McCarthy's many contradictory statements and charges, and generally employ their skills to portray the senator in an unflattering light. Murrow feared that less scrupulous journalists might abuse these techniques, but he believed that McCarthy posed an immediate threat and that the American people, when confronted with the truth, would repudiate McCarthy.Murrow's own broadcast featured excerpts from the senator's own speeches interspersed with Murrow's comments, which pointed out contradictions and deftly turned McCarthy's words against him. Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of 
Journalism, described Murrow's demeanor as "a magnificent controlled fury, handsome and composed – an attitude all the more effective because the public knew that he could be genial and easygoing on-camera." Murrow's words reflected that controlled fury:

[T]he line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine one and the junior senator from Wisconsin has stepped over it repeatedly. … We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason. … (W)e are not descended from fearful men – not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular. This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep silent.

When the broadcast ended, CBS was flooded with telegrams, telephone calls, and letters. They ran 15 to 1 in Murrow's favor. By contrast, McCarthy's equal-time broadcast proved disastrous. He was obviously uncomfortable in the television studio, and, as Murrow suggested, prone to flinging wild charges, calling Murrow "the leader of the jackal pack." Millions of Americans watching at home had seen enough. McCarthy's political influence rapidly ebbed. On December 2, 1954, the U.S. Senate formally adopted a
resolution censuring – formally reprimanding – McCarthy for conduct unbecoming to a senator.



[Michael Jay Friedman is a staff writer in the Bureau of International Information Programs of the U.S. Department of State.]