Moments With Clyde: Political Accusations And Lies

Political Accusations And Lies

Joseph McCarthy was essentially a paranoid United Senator Republican Senator and drunk, who, starting in February 1950, began to see Communists everywhere, and decided to initiate a witch-hunt, which was largely trying to prove that everyone in power, or who was famous, was essentially, a Communist. Joseph McCarthy then tried to destroy their lives. He started with the American State Department. He kept on going by attacking President Truman, and then the United States Army.

Drunken, Fascist, U. S. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, and his lying minister of propaganda, Richard Nixon (who would later be the only United States President to resign in disgrace).

Somewhere along the way Joseph McCarthy decided to aim at the entertainment industry, amongst whom, it was well known, (so they say) pretty much everyone had leftist sympathies. There were some had been members of the Communist party during the Great Depression, when most people who cared about politics were trying to figure out a solution. The most famous case was when Charlie Chaplin had to leave the United States, after Joseph McCarthy had accused him on being a Communist.

"The Weavers" realized that they were a target of Joseph McCarthy, and as long as they could, the group tried to avoid anything that would cause controversy.

Zena, Zena, Zena

Around The Corner

Goodnight Irene

The Sinking Of The Reuben James

If you examine the songs that "The Weavers" released, you will not find anything subversive in there.

At the height of "The Weavers" popularity, a man by the name of Harvey Job Matusow (a campaign aide to Joseph McCarthy) announced that "The Weavers" were Communists, and suddenly the group's music was blacklisted from radio playlists. It destroyed "The Weavers" career, right then and there. Of course, it turned them into martyrs and legends amongst the folk music community.

In 1955, Harvey Matusow published a book, "False Witness", in which he discloses that he was an FBI agent and was paid to lie about members of the American Communist Party. He also claimed in the book, that Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn had encouraged him to lie. Because of his book, Harvey Matusow was found guilty of perjury, jailed for nearly three years, and ultimately blacklisted.

Harvey Matusow once reported that 126 Communists worked in the Sunday Department of the New York Times, even though the total number of employees was only 100.

The HUAC (House UnAmerican Committee) hearings and Senator Joseph McCarthy led to a general distrust in the government by the American people.The HUAC came into being because they wanted to prove that a lot of actors and writers were communists. They thought that movies were brainwashing Americans and putting communist propaganda into their heads. The HUAC probed Hollywood and the entertainment community, but they never confirmed that any of the charges were true. They even questioned 10-year-old Shirley Temple.

Just to be associated with someone who was suspected of communism was enough to ruin a career. The HUAC blacklisted many innocent people. Blacklisting means putting people on a list of suspected communists. It meant that their professional reputation was destroyed, and that no one would hire them for fear of being thought to be a communist.

The committee immediately blacklisted the ones who refused to cooperate. As a result of this, people who were afraid that they were going to be charged gave the names of people that they knew were not really communists.

Joseph McCarthy made reckless, unsubstantiated accusations, as well as demagogic attacks on the character and patriotism against thousands of American Citizens. He accused officials in the government of communism. He accused officials of the Army of communism.

The primary targets of such suspicions were government employees, those in the entertainment industry, educators and union activists. Suspicions were often given credence, despite inconclusive or questionable evidence, and the level of threat posed by a person's real or supposed leftist associations, or beliefs, was often greatly exaggerated

Edward R. Murrow was the only major News personality to openly confront the ego-maniac. He exposed Joseph McCarthy for what he was, by largely using video taped messages of his own comments.

Joseph McCarthy never proved any of his charges, and his ideas were discredited by Edward R. Morrow. Nobody believed his claims anymore.

Many American citizens suffered greatl osses, the loss of employment and /or the destruction of their careers, Some Americans even suffered imprisonment. Most of these punishments came about through trial verdicts that would later be overturned, and laws that would be declared unconstitutional,

Even while the HUAC hearings were going on, in the height of the "˜red' scare', many people knew that the hearings were unfair, nd unjust. They knew that the blacklists were wrong. The public was asking, could a government that would allow these unfair practices be unfair in other ways?

Reform groups in America suffered much during the McCarthy era. They were often accused of having communist or socialist leanings, and support for reform wavered and in some cases stopped altogether. Fewer social reform bills were passed. The American people didn't want to be called a communist, and America's poor, especially the children, suffered because of it.

McCarthyism was a major factor in a change in feelings about both politics and society. The distrust of the government and the political activism in the 1960's can be directly attributed to Joseph McCarthy and our government officials who supported him or were afraid to oppose him..

That hunt for scapegoats (someone to nlame for all of our troubles) is a dark spot on America's history. Many American lives were ruined. Some committed suicide and some left the country.

The American national anthem calls the United States the land of the free. People in America are supposed to be able to hold any belief that they want. Americans are supposed to have friends that they shoose. They are supposed to be able to publically speak out against things they oppose. They are supposed to worshp or not worship God in their own way. Too many American men and women have died for those rights, to have some loud mouthed politicians take it away.

Senator Joseph McCarthy forgot that. During the Senate hearings, many Americans forgot that.

There are some in this country, TODAY, who would put our country through such things again. You can never predict who they might attack. And this time, it might even be YOU!