X, you MUST have raised your eyebrows at this:
For some time opponents of Joseph McCarthy had been accumulating evidence concerning his homosexual activities. Several members of his staff, including Roy Cohn and David Schine, were also suspected of having a sexual relationship. Although well-known by political journalists, the first article about it did not appear until Hank Greenspun published an article in the Las Vagas Sun in 25th October, 1952. Greenspun wrote that: "It is common talk among homosexuals in Milwaukee who rendezvous in the White Horse Inn that Senator Joe McCarthy has often engaged in homosexual activities."
And this from an author who had just said, "McCarthy and his supporters immediately began smearing Benton" !!
Ah, the irony of it !!
This is such a classic example of how more-or-less factual material can be blended with innuendo and unsupported rumor to create a highly unflattering portrait. (Homosexuality, of course, was at the time a devastating charge to level against a public figure).
McCarthy was a lightning rod for both praise and criticism -- the stakes were high -- and it should not be surprising that McCarthy's enemies were often guilty of using the same tactics that they deplored in him, against him.
Before reading this piece, I was about to mention that Joe's rise from obscurity, fame, and precipitous downfall -- all occurred in a period of about three short years. He is now firmly linked to (and blamed for) events that occurred well before his time, such as HUAC, and well after.
I would be interested if you comment of your parents "take" on this era. I was working in an office at the time, and I was one of few there who ever spoke in defense of him. I don't believe any ordinary citizen was deterred in the least from expressing their opposition or even revulsion toward him. Academia always hated what he stood for. Certainly, no "average joe" ever had to fear coming under some sort of investigation for speaking out about him. That simply just not the climate at the time. McCarthy was controversial from day one, and everyone among the general public tended to have strong opinion about him and express it openly.
A lot of new information has surfaced in recent years, especially as top-secret Soviet material has been declassified and released, that puts McCarthy's claims in a new light:
We now know that the Communist spying McCarthy fought against was amazingly extensive -- reaching to the highest levels of the White House and the top-secret Manhattan Project ... When McCarthy accused two American employees of the United Nations of being Communists, he was widely criticized -- but he was right. When McCarthy called Owen Lattimore "Moscow's top spy," he was again assailed -- but we now know Lattimore was a witting aid to Soviet espionage networks. McCarthy often overreached himself, but McCarthy was often right (Arthur Herman, Joseph McCarthy, The Free Press, 2000).
However, there are some topics, and Joseph McCarthy is one of them, where a lot of people would rather have their stereotyped view remain cast in stone, than bother to ever reexamine it. And I am not meaning you in particular! (Of course, if the shoe fits ...ggg) |
