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April 1953. Washington, D.C. "Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin." Kodachrome by Frank Bauman for the Look magazine assignment "Joe McCarthy: The Man With the Power." Not to mention what looks like a pepper mill. View full size.
I'm surprised to see Joe McCarthy receive support here. In my opinion, it was a shameful period in American history, a low point in democracy, when craven men used a moment of fear to turn on their fellow citizens who didn't share their opinions or political views. In the end, it wasn't about being a communist or not, but about whether or not you would give in to bullies and rat out your friends and colleagues. A lot of good people got blacklisted simply for being principled and for refusing to submit to McCarthy's dirty rules.
Sure enough. I have the same kind of pepper mill in my kitchen, originally used in my parents' restaurant in the 1950s. I never imagined that I would discover I had this much in common with Joe McCarthy, but it's pretty safe to assume that his pepper mill, like mine, was never filled with red pepper.
Growing up in Wisconsin in the 1950s, my late mother spent time going door-to-door in Madison as part of the 'Joe-Must-Go' campaign. She always recalled that one of her fellow petition passers was a prominent local Republican. All I can say as I watch the appalling Senator Ted Cruz use some of the same tactics in 2014 is that I hope the electorate won't have to wait for him to self-destruct (as Tail-Gunner Joe did) before rejecting him.
Obviously, he never heard to old adage that when you point your finger, you have three more pointing back at you.
Whatever his faults were, and they were many, Joe McCarthy was absolutely correct in his charge that Soviet agents had infiltrated the U. S. Government at its highest levels. Alger Hiss from the State Department comes to mind, as does Harry Dexter White of Treasury. The Project Venona papers, decrypted Soviet cables (1939-1957), pretty much tell the story.
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