Senator Joseph McCarthy was a hero

Senator McCarthy though unorthodox was trying to warn the American people that several branches of the United States government including a lot of areas that had access to top secret documents as well as the ability to influence foreign policy had been infiltrated by enemies of the state, spies. If I prove that McCarthy was right, that spies had infiltrated high levels of government, influential think tanks etc. then certainly he was right to want an investigation into the matters. Certainly being concerned enough about national security to willingly become a laughing stock and ruin your political career in the pursuit of the higher goal of saving your nations sovereignty and security is a good thing. VENONA PAPERS The Venona papers are now declassified documents that show Senator McCarthy was correct when he stated that the United States government was infected with Soviet spies. [3] "The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has just made public its hitherto sealed closed-door hearings 50 years ago showing widespread Soviet penetration of the U. S. government. Despite the negative media spin, the hearing transcripts show its chairman, Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, was ahead of his time. A prime example is the case of the atomic scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, whose advocacy of sharing nuclear secrets with the Soviet Union helped bolster the war machine of the genocidal Joseph Stalin. This gave the Soviets a leg up in the Cold War that lasted nearly a half century and took millions of innocent lives. "[2] That should be the end of this. McCarthy wasn't on a which hunt, he was right. Communists infiltrated sensitive locations and needed to be removed. ACCUSATIONS OF A WITCH HUNT 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. "[4] These names cam from what's known as the Lee list. A list compiled by Robert E. Lee as part of an investigation by the house appropriations committee on security risks. [5] The senator was actually against naming names. He directly states so. "[I]t would be improper to make the names public until the appropriate Senate committee can meet in executive session and get them," explained McCarthy. "If we should label one man a Communist when he is not a Communist I think it would be too bad. " McCarthy began to read the cases and just referred to them as numbers. His intention was to protect people from any undue public suspicion. He merely asked for an investigation, but while reading his list senator Scott Lucas interrupts him yelling. "I want him to name those Communists. " "if those people are not Communists the senator will be protected. "[6] McCarthy made an honest attempt to protect these people until his opponents demanded their names and forced him to reveal them publicly. Looking back at history, it's clear why his opposition forced this issue. McCarthy once again tried to protect the names from being publicly exposed. He merely wanted an investigation but his opposition was trying to force a witch hunt in order to tarnish his name and reputation. "The Senator from Illinois demanded, loudly, that I furnish all the names. I told him at that time that so far as I was concerned, I thought that would be improper; that I did not have all the information about these individuals . .. I have enough to convince me that either they are members of the Communist Party or they have given great aid to the Communists: I may be wrong. That is why I said that unless the Senate demanded that I do so, I would not submit this publicly, but I would submit it to any committee -- and would let the committee go over these in executive session. It is possible that some of these persons will get a clean bill of health. .. ." In hearings of Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI here after), 83 individuals plead the 5th amendment and 9 refused to testify. [8] Of the 83 people who pleaded the 5th several were proven later to be spies. some prominent examples are: 1. Mary Jane Keeney, a United Nations employee, and her husband Philip Keeney, who worked in the Office of Strategic Services;[9] 2. Lauchlin Currie, a special assistant to President Roosevelt;[10] 3. Virginius Frank Coe , Director of Division of Monetary Research, U. S. Treasury; Technical Secretary at the Bretton Woods Conference; International Monetary Fund; [11] 4. William Ludwig Ullman, delegate to the United Nations Charter Conference and Bretton Woods Conference;[12] 5. Nathan Gregory Silvermaster, Chief Planning Technician, Procurement Division, United States Department of the Treasury and head of the Silvermaster network of spies; 6. Harold Glasser, U. S. Treasury Representative to the Allied High Commission in Italy; 7. Four staff members of the LaFollette Civil Liberties Committee, a Senate subcommittee on labor rights; 8. Allan Rosenberg, Chief of the Economic Institution Staff, Foreign Economic Administration; Counsel to the National Labor Relations Board; 9. Solomon Adler, U. S. Treasury Dept. , went to China and joined government of Mao Zedong; 10. Robert T. Miller, Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs; Near Eastern Division United States Department of State; also identified in the Gorsky Memo from Soviet Archives; McCarthy's Case #16 and Lee list #12;[14] 11. Franz Leopold Neumann, consultant at Board of Economic Warfare; Deputy Chief of the Central European Section of Office of Strategic Services; First Chief of Research of the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal; also identified in the Gorsky Memo from Soviet Archives; 12. Laurence Duggan, head of United States Department of State Division of American Republics;[16] There are a ton more names I can add to that list but I think, I've made my point. (these descriptions were taken from citation 15) CONCLUSION I think we can see that McCarthy's actions were noble and that his intent was noble. The guy is a hero. It's unfortunate that he was forced to reveal names of people who he was trying to protect until due process was done, but his opponents forced him to, for the obvious reason to discredit him. I look forward to Imabench's opening arguments. Good luck. sources [1] . http://www.senate.gov... [2] . http://www.michaelkeller.com... [3] . https://www.nsa.gov... [4] . http://faculty.tnstate.edu... [5] U. S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, State Department Employee Loyalty Investigations (Washington, D. C. : U. S. Govt. Print. Off. , 1950). [6] . http://books.google.com... (Blacklisted from history pg. 202) [7] ibid pg 438-439 [8] Drummey, James J. (May 11, 1987). The Real McCarthy Record. The New American, Section III. Committee Chairman (1953-54). . http://www.knology.net... [9] Buckley, Jr. , William F. and Bozell, L. Brent (1954, 1995 Printing). McCarthy & His Enemies, The Record And Its Meaning. Regnery Publishing Inc. . ISBN 0-89526-472-2. Congressional Record, (February 20, 1950). Page 1956. U. S. Government Printing Office. [10] Congressional Record, (June 14, 1951). Page 6574. U. S. Government Printing Office. [11] . http://fl1.findlaw.com... [12] . http://fl1.findlaw.com... [13] . http://fl1.findlaw.com... [14] Alexander Vassiliev, Notes on A. Gorsky"s Report to Savchenko S. R. , 23 December 1949. [15] . http://www.conservapedia.com... [16] Joseph R. McCarthy Papers, Series 14, Senate Subject Files, Marquettte University Library Special Collections.