In defense of McCarthy

Connor- I have decided that it is futile to keep rebutting the same charges, especially the Moss case. That is only one case, and even with the few others you mentioned doesn't make up any fraction at all of McCarthy's charges. I will start with the most grievous cases. I know it would take up a lot of space to rebut these, so please, don't trouble yourself. All I ask is that you look into these charges for yourself. Try to keep an open mind and stay away from Wikipedia. First off, the regrettable case of Owen Lattimore. Mr. Lattimore, in addition to being an employee of the Office for War Information and later the State Department and, was affiliated with Pacific Affairs and Amerasia. It is generally known that the OWI was one of the most Red-ridden parts of the USG during the war, and many of its employees were given high postings at State after the war. To make a long story short, Lattimore was the architect of US East Asian policy for years, and it is certain that his Pro-Soviet leanings and Communist affiliation (McCarthy originally said he was an agent, which he was not, per se, but later backed down) influenced him in his policymaking. It is a matter of connecting the dots, then, that American support for the Anti-Red forces of Chiang Kai-Shek in China dried up under Lattimore's supervision, and it is a matter of record that Lattimore, while in China as an advisor to Kai-Shek, PASSED CODED MESSAGES FROM THE CHUNGKING GOVERNMENT TO THE CHINESE REDS AT YENAN UNDER MAO ZEDUNG. This, even you will agree, is not a mere "Socialist ideology" but a blatant abuse of power and certainly grounds for removal from the government. Thankfully, this eventually happened, though he was convicted only of eight counts of perjury. During the early Post-war years, when the Red Scare was at its first peak but before McCarthy came to the scene, it was, unlike today, government policy to have "loyalty files" on all employees. Those at the State Department were infamously messy. According to many employees there, the records were in looseleaf form, in several rooms, and access to them was not a matter of security. Anything could be taken, changed, removed, or substituted. This chaos was perhaps why the McCarthy hearings dragged on so long: the files on his "victims" at their place of employment were impossible to find, and so it was a stalemate between McCarthy, who had only what he could glean from outside the enormous bureaucracy of the executive branch against Acheson and his cronies at State, who may or may not have been acting from the right motives, but were paralyzed by the fact that they could give no proof. It was because of this that the stonewalling efforts against McCarthy began: "If we can't prove him wrong, let's fog the issue." McCarthy's charges were mainly made from FBI and State Department documents, including the infamous Klaus memo, the Lee List, and other sources. He also, with the help of his capable counsels Roy Cohn and Robert F. Kennedy (I kid you not) had uncovered several other Communists that were neither on the Klaus memo or the Lee list. I feel I cannot go into detail about the various charges McCarthy made in the space allotted. However, I will give you very incomplete list of some of the cases. First, it should be stressed that many of these people had previously been investigated, either by the internal Loyalty Board, or the infamous House Committee on Unamerican Activities. McCarthy's charges were not dragged out of the blue. E.J. Askwith-Was a friend of known Communists, under investigation by FBI at the time of McCarthy's Tydings Committee naming of her. She worked at State, in an office called the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, which included such people as Robert Miller, Joseph Gregg, William Park, and Bernard Redmont who had all been named in Communist defector Elisabeth Bentley's testimonies. (She, along with Whittaker Chambers, was key in exposing perhaps the most infamous counterintelligence case ever: that of Alger Hiss. It is evidence in McCarthy's favor that various liberal elements of the government fought as hard against the overwhelming evidence condemning Hiss as they fought the rather vaguer accusations of McCarthy.) Lois Carlisle-Worked at the OSS, another Red-ridden wartime department, and member of several Communist front groups. Close friend, as was Askwith, of Mary Jane Keeney, who along with her husband was a proven Communist agent; this confirmed by her own private diaries after her death. Frances Ferry-Regular reader of Communist newspaper Daily Worker, according to a roommate, worked at the CIA. Minor case, but the Daily Worker was part of Communist Party membership. Herbert Fierst--Known Contact of Mary Jane Keeney and friend of "master spy" David Wahl. Under investigation by FBI at time of McCarthy case. The list goes on: John Stewart Service, Dorothy Kenyon, John Carter Vincent, Haldore Hanson, Esther Brunauer, Myra Page, Gustavo Duran, Solomon Adler, O. Edmund Clubb, V. Frank Coe, John Payton Davies, Cora DuBois, Stanley Graze, Mary Jane Keeney herself, Raymond Ludden, Philleo Nash, Franz Neumann, Edward Posniak, Philip Raine, William Remington, William Stone, David Weintraub, David Zabladowsky, Edward U. Condon, and last but not least, the nuclear Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. The Oppenheimer scandal is well-known, but it is not common knowledge that he was one of McCarthy's cases, and that the record agrees with McCarthy in this case is strong evidence for him in the less-well-known cases. Oppenheimer attended a meeting at the home of Haakon Chevalier, a self-admitted Communist, which Communist also attended. He was on the FBI list of "Custodial Detention"-security risks to be placed in custody in case of a national emergency. Communist leaders were quoted as saying to a US informer that Oppenheimer was a Communist, but was not in Party lists because of the sensitive nature of his job. The case, suppressed by Truman who was constantly badgered by FBI Director Hoover about him, did not come to light until Eisenhower ascended to the presidency. It should be noted that many of these cases were not singular to McCarthy. A solid majority of them had been previously identified as Communists by Elisabeth Bentley or Whittaker Chambers, or by internal investigations. All of these people were employees of the government. All of these people were Communists, Communist-affiliated, paid informers, or otherwise security risks. As I have stated (and you haven't bothered to refute) under the Truman loyalty program, all of these people and indeed the vast majority of McCarthy's cases, should have been dismissed and perhaps criminally charged. I feel that I have proven my beginning thesis in the debate, "McCarthy...knew what he was talking about. He was right in most of his accusations." The cases I have listed are only the most provable. Why, then, did McCarthy's accusations meet with such ridicule and dismissiveness? Because, simply, of his bulldog manner and unlikable personal habits and appearance. The various counterintelligence cases: Oppenheimer, Hiss, etc. that McCarthy was NOT involved in were much bigger successes, and I find no other reason than that McCarthy was not involved. Therefore, I restate my thesis: McCarthy, though his manner was fatally flawed, was right in most of his accusations. Any attack on his personal methods, on his character (like his alcoholism) are nothing but an Ad Hominem fallacy, and in no way diminish the essential truth of his accusations. A fair balance sheet of McCarthy (and I do not present one here) would probably meet in the middle between my arguments and Connor's but it is ludicrous to say, as you have Connor, that his accusations were baseless. Connor, I enjoyed the debate greatly, and I will certainly look into them for myself at greater length. I hope you will afford mine the same consideration. You are an excellent debater, to be sure. ;)