do you know what percentage of the accused were ever found "guilty" of anything?
No, but I believe the percentage would be quite small. There were people like the Rosenbergs who were convicted of treason, or Alger Hiss (a prime McCarthy target) who served time for perjury. There were surely other Soviet spies in the U.S. government. In the main, though, the objective of the various hearings was to oust people with Communist sympathies from sensitive positions, not to prosecute them.. McCarthy focused on government employees, and I don't believe he had a great interest in the entertainment personalities, although he certainly was an supporter of the HUAC committee.
The criteria for "guilt" in this respect was membership in the Communist Party at any time in the past, or evidence, such as past writings, of a sympathy for the Communist cause. By this criteria, even an Adlai Stevenson or a Dean Acheson could arguably qualify. A lot of liberals of the 1930s certainly did have sympathy and empathy for the ideals of Communism, especially considering that the U.S.S.R. Constitution borrowed heavily from our own, that the Soviets spoke with high idealism, and that the Stalinist purges and mass murders had yet to come to light. I think it is reasonable to believe that a significant number of career U.S. diplomats and other government employees with leftist leanings went through a period in their lives of enthrallment with the Soviet system. It would be a fine and murky line of distinction as to when admiration could have turned to actually abetting Soviet goals.
So to ask "How many were guilty" is not so easily answered.
We have a whole different view on all of this some 50 or 60 years later. We are a different nation now, but so is Russia. Back then, there is not much doubt but that the Russians viewed us as an enemy, wanted to topple other governments into the Soviet camp, and wished us harm.
I have no doubt that many innocent people were besmirched and harmed in the Red scare years, but on the other hand there was a need for actions to protect our own national interests. Nothing is ever quite as black and white as we might wish to think. |
