The rehabilitated reputation of senator Joseph McCarthy.(Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism)

Publication: National Observer - Australia and World Affairs

Publication Date: 22-DEC-05

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COPYRIGHT 2005 Council for the National Interest

During the 1950's Senator Joseph McCarthy spent much time attacking the infiltration by communists of American public institutions. For this he was widely attacked by American liberals and the American left. He was described as a demagogue, and his efforts were mocked as looking for "reds under the bed", as an offensive example of fascism and as an erratic and unprincipled persecution of many good, conscientious and patriotic Americans.

It now appears that Senator McCarthy was correct in his assertions. This has been spelt out in detail in Ann Coulter's recent book, Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism. (1) In describing attacks by liberals as "a bellicose campaign of lies to blacken McCarthy's name", Coulter comments, (2)

"But after a half century of liberal mythmaking, it would be Judgement Day for liberals on July 11, 1995. On that day, the U.S. government released a cache of Soviet cables that had been decoded during the Cold War in a top-secret undertaking known as the Venona Project. The cables proved the overwhelming truth of McCarthy's charges. It was a mind-boggling discovery. Professors would be compelled to retract their theses about the extent of Soviet espionage. Alger Hiss, Julius Rosenberg, even American journalist I.F.Stone, were exposed as agents of Moscow. And yet, most people reading this book are hearing about the Venona Project for the very first time. The release of decrypted Soviet cables was barely mentioned by the New York Times. It might have detracted from stories of proud and unbowed victims of 'McCarthyism'. They were not so innocent after all, it turns out."

The unjustified attacks on Senator McCarthy are to be viewed in the context of American politics of that time. After the end of the Second World War Stalin was viewed with trust and admiration by many liberals. President Roosevelt himself was friendly towards the Soviets. One of his critical advisers, Alger Hiss, was a Soviet agent, who was influential in turning Roosevelt against Churchill and having Roosevelt approve at Yalta of the subjugation of many countries of Eastern Europe. A principled ex-communist, one Whittaker Chambers, informed Roosevelt's assistant secretary of state, Adolf Berle, of the names of at least two dozen Soviet spies working...

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