Recently, I saw the film Good Night and Good Luck, a film that bashes Senator Joseph McCarthy. During his day, McCarthy was one of the biggest threats to liberals and Communists (same thing) and they still despise him for his work despite the overwhelming evidence showing that he was not only right, but didn’t go far enough. (Personally, I think the Communistic threat then and even now needs a Phoenix Program-like operation to contain it)
The film was about CBS (i.e., See, B.S.) broadcaster Ed Murrow’s bashing of McCarthy on his television program. Murrow claims “McCarthy is wrong 100% of the time.
Early in the film, Murrow and his Leftist cohorts snivel about taking a loyalty oath to hold their jobs. When I enlisted into the U.S. Army decades ago, I had no problem affirming my loyalty to my Country. But, for most liberals and definitely Communists, such an oath is like sunlight to a vampire.
During the film, McCarthy (via of recorded broadcasts from the era) mentions the ACLU as being a subversive organization. Again, McCarthy was being kind. Murrow, however, claims that the ACLU was never listed as a subversive organization. Murrow (and the writers of the film) should have checked their facts. As early as 1931, a report by the Special House Committee to Investigate Communist Activities stated;
The American Civil Liberties Union is closely affiliated with the communist movement in the United States, and fully 90 percent of its efforts are on behalf of communists who have come into conflict with the law. It claims to stand for free speech, free press and free assembly, but it is quite apparent that the main function of the ACLU is an attempt to protect the communists. (1)
The founder of the ACLU, Roger Baldwin, wrote;
“I am for Socialism, disarmament and ultimately, for the abolishing of the State itself ... I seek the social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class and sole control of those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal.
While this particular House report doesn’t flat-out call the ACLU a subversive organization, a thinking person (which of course rules out any liberal) would come to that conclusion.
The film bashed McCarthy over his investigation of Annie Lee Moss, an elderly colored woman who worked with classified messages for the Pentagon. The woman lost her when an FBI informant testified that Moss was a member of the Communist party. When Moss testified before the Senate, she denied being a member. Her supporters claimed McCarthy confused her with another Annie Moss who lived at a different address. Moss got her job back in 1954.
Murrow made Moss a hero in his broadcasts, citing her as evidence that McCarthy was persecuting innocent people. In September of 1958 however, the Subversive Activities Control Board reported that membership records from the Communist Party showed that an Annie Moss, who lived at the same address as the Annie Moss investigated by McCarthy was a Communist in the 1940’s.
Murrow and his cohorts expressed glee when they heard that McCarthy was being investigated by the Army. What the film didn’t point out was that the Army investigation wasn’t about any of McCarthy’s claims being untrue, it was over McCarthy and his staff attempting to get preferential treatment for G. David Schine, one of the Committee’s consultants, who had been drafted. The hearing eventually found that McCarthy was completely innocent and that it was McCarthy’s chief counsel Roy Cohn who attempted to influence the Army. On an interesting note, the Army’s charges came eight months after the alleged incident and after McCarthy announced that he planned to subpoena several members of the Army Loyalty and Screening board. Another interesting note is that Schine was 26 and nearly too old to be drafted. Apparently, the Army didn’t like McCarthy ferreting out communists in its organization.
The film also trumpeted McCarthy’s censure by the senate. The movie didn’t see fit to reveal why he was censured, allowing the audience to think it was because of McCarthy’s actions during the hearings. In actuality, McCarthy was censured for not appearing before the senate to testify after being invited to. That’s invited, not subpoenaed. Given the way he’d been trashed by them, I probably wouldn’t have appeared before them either.
At the end of the film, I was expecting to see updated information about what followed the hearings and what has been revealed in recently released documents like the Venona transcripts that shows there was (and I would say that more than likely there still is) infiltration of government agencies by communists and their agents.
I could get into other aspects of the McCarthy hearings and the “McCarthy Era”. Perhaps I will later. For now my main point is that while McCarthy wasn’t perfect, he tried to the best he could with what and who he had. He also had the demoncrats, the Army and even theRepublican president working against him.
Sources
The ACLU’s Shocking Legacy, 5 Aug 2005, www.WorldNetDaily.com, Alan Sears
The New American Magazine, Vol. 12, #18, 2 Sept 1996, The Real McCarthy Record