The crime he did commit was that of practical, complicated, and nuanced thought. Though an ardent anti-communist, he also knew that Chiang's regime was bankrupt and that eventually America would have to deal with Mao if it wanted power over him. He also foresaw that one day we would want to do business with China. All this, of course, was soon to be learned by Nixon and every president since, long after, however, McCarthy had done his terrible damage to the republic. Davies paid dearly for his ability to see the gray tones between the black and white, and the red.
Tyrants call such thinkers mush- heads, and then they try to crush the heads.
Today we look at the grainy pictures of that era and congratulate ourselves on its passing. You don't need McCarthy for McCarthyism. It makes for good television. Some political talk show hosts on cable TV are, in terms of intellectual style and attitude, the accidental heirs to Joe McCarthy, though they heatedly would deny it. They badger guests like congressional witnesses and argue like machine guns in order to reduce the human mind to something clear, sure of itself, and stupid.