McCarthy Myth Exploded
"History Books Will Have to be Rewritten"
May 9, 2003
By Toby Westerman
Copyright 2003 International News Analysis Today
www.inatoday.com
The current portrayal of former U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy will have to be recast in light of new information arising from the release of secret files from the early 1950s, according to M. Stanton Evans, a respected dean of American journalism.
Those seeking to weaken U.S. counter-espionage efforts often refer negatively to McCarthy, using terms including "McCarthy-era tactics," "McCarthy-era witch hunts," or "McCarthyism" to bolster their arguments.
Evans' statements were made during an exclusive interview with International News Analysis Today, and arose in response to questions concerning recently released transcripts from McCarthy's closed-door hearings.
Several news outlets characterized the 5,000 pages of hearing records as further damaging McCarthy's image. Reuters declared that the released documents "add another layer of tarnish to his (McCarthy's) place in history." A Chicago Tribune headline referred to McCarthy as a "flag-draped U.S. bully."
Evans disputes these depictions of McCarthy, and states that the hearing transcripts "if actually read," will provide "a very different view of McCarthy."
Additional information compelling a thorough reevaluation of McCarthy and his work is being released as the "fifty-year rule" ceases to be applicable to U.S. government archives. The "fifty-year rule" stipulates that sensitive government documents be kept secret for fifty years.
Several historians are already at work, investigating materials pertinent to the history of the late 1940s and early 1950s - the era in which McCarthy gained prominence.
The work of Herbert Romerstein and his analysis of the U.S. counter-espionage effort, the "Venona Project," stands out as historical research clarifying the reality of Soviet spying in the U.S.
Romerstein's book, The Venona Secrets (Regnery Press), not only documents the wide extent of Soviet intelligence operations within the United States before and after WWII, but meticulously demonstrates Soviet penetration into the highest levels of the U.S. government and the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The work of Romerstein and others demonstrates that suspicions of communist infiltration in the U.S. were justified.
Evans contacted several individuals who attacked McCarthy as the hearing transcripts were released, including Senator Carl Levin (D MI), and Senate historian Don Ritchie.
To date, neither Levin nor Ritchie have provided a single instance of an innocent individual attacked or "ruined" by McCarthy, stated Evans.
Although widely circulated, claims of McCarthy "bullying" are shown to be false when examined.
Evans gave the example of Oscar Shaftel, a college professor whom The New York Times identified in an obituary as a victim of McCarthy. Shaftel refused to answer McCarthy's questions, lost his position as professor, and lived out his years in difficult circumstances.
The New York Times article, however, was incorrect on a number of vital details, most shockingly that McCarthy had nothing to do with Shaftel, who appeared before another Senate committee to which McCarthy did not belong, Evans stated to INA Today.
Shaftel was also identified as a Communist operative by one of the professors at the college.
Evans pointed out the errors in the Shaftel obituary to The New York Times, and after numerous attempts obtained a retraction. A retraction was finally published, but appeared on the Friday of the Labor Day holiday, tucked away among corrections concerning the misidentification of birds in Brooklyn, and the identities of Mexican politicians in a photograph.
Evans wrote a detailed account of Shaftel's obituary in the New York Times in an article entitled, "Media Myths and Joe McCarthy," published in Human Events.
While expressing his hope that a new generation of journalists will be "less invested in negative myths," Evans urged all members of the press to adhere to "basic journalistic principles" and "get the facts straight."
Evans will shortly publish an article on the McCarthy closed-door hearing transcripts in Human Events, and he is writing a book on McCarthy and the controversies which developed around him.
Copyright 2003
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