What About Those Communists?
More than half a century ago, "Tailgunner" Joe McCarthy and Robert Kennedy launched a campaign to remove communist party members and sympathizers from the US government. Didn't know about Bobby Kennedy's involvement? It was relatively minor; he was the third in command of the process. McCarthy was a good friend of and supported by John F. Kennedy as well. McCarthy dated two of the Kennedy sisters, presumably not at the same time.
In "Good Night and Good Luck," the 2005 movie about Edwin R. Murrow and McCarthy, Kennedy is on screen in some of the stock footage with McCarthy. Not shown is one part of the aftermath: After Murrow made his famous anti-McCarthy telecasts, when he was to be awarded at a ceremony in Washington Bobby Kennedy got up and walked out of the room.
That Kennedy walkout scene is not in the film, nor does the film mention that Annie Lee Moss, the janitor-turned-cryptographer clerk featured in the film, and shown being "unfairly" harassed in the hearings, really did turn out to be a communist according to the evidence unearthed both at the time and much later. Here's how that's phrased in Wikipedia:Historians with a mainstream view of McCarthy have placed little importance on the issue of Moss's guilt. While some have noted it as showing laxity on the part of the army's security review board, it is not seen as having much bearing on the overall picture of McCarthy and his methods.
Considering the adoration that Karl Marx gets among mainstream historians (and many other disciplines besides), I am intrigued by the notion that, essentially, it didn't matter that McCarthy was right. This article suggests that he was correct.
Murrow also lampooned McCarthy's accusation that Murrow had been one of the "Wobblies" i.e. a member of the IWW. The film portrays this, but never gets around to mentioning that it was true; Murrow had been an IWW member in Washington State.
JFK, like the overzealous McCarthy, fiercely despised the idea of communists in the US government, and felt that the State Department suffered from this affliction. He wanted them all out.
What about you? Some of my friends and readers here favor the left side of the political aisle; does the idea of active, outspoken communists in the administration trouble you? Or is it no big deal?
===|==============/ Level Head
In "Good Night and Good Luck," the 2005 movie about Edwin R. Murrow and McCarthy, Kennedy is on screen in some of the stock footage with McCarthy. Not shown is one part of the aftermath: After Murrow made his famous anti-McCarthy telecasts, when he was to be awarded at a ceremony in Washington Bobby Kennedy got up and walked out of the room.
That Kennedy walkout scene is not in the film, nor does the film mention that Annie Lee Moss, the janitor-turned-cryptographer clerk featured in the film, and shown being "unfairly" harassed in the hearings, really did turn out to be a communist according to the evidence unearthed both at the time and much later. Here's how that's phrased in Wikipedia:Historians with a mainstream view of McCarthy have placed little importance on the issue of Moss's guilt. While some have noted it as showing laxity on the part of the army's security review board, it is not seen as having much bearing on the overall picture of McCarthy and his methods.
Considering the adoration that Karl Marx gets among mainstream historians (and many other disciplines besides), I am intrigued by the notion that, essentially, it didn't matter that McCarthy was right. This article suggests that he was correct.
Murrow also lampooned McCarthy's accusation that Murrow had been one of the "Wobblies" i.e. a member of the IWW. The film portrays this, but never gets around to mentioning that it was true; Murrow had been an IWW member in Washington State.
JFK, like the overzealous McCarthy, fiercely despised the idea of communists in the US government, and felt that the State Department suffered from this affliction. He wanted them all out.
What about you? Some of my friends and readers here favor the left side of the political aisle; does the idea of active, outspoken communists in the administration trouble you? Or is it no big deal?
===|==============/ Level Head