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Memories of Joe McCarthy and My Dad
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BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY
by Barbara from NYC
Yesterday was quite a day for me, my brothers and many old friends, as we are children of victims of Joe McCarthy. (See: "Secret Joe McCarthy Papers Opened After 50 Years")
We downloaded the hearing transcripts that were just released, found my father's testimony, plus everyone else's testimony that we knew of, and spent a good part of the day and night reading.
My father had always told us all about it, and he kept diaries, so I knew the gist of what he went through. It was the strangest feeling to see this in black and white -- recorded in the annals of history. My father's great crime was going to the same college as Julius Rosenberg and being in the same engineering program.
My father subsequently ended up working at Fort Monmouth in a high security position and thus became embroiled in the McCarthy hearings. This was a big part of our life growing up, as I'm sure it was for anyone who went through this, or is related to anyone who experienced it.
In a way, I almost feel like I had a bit of a head start in life when it comes to cynicism. We learned at an early age not to trust authority; we learned especially to be cynics about government. I believe very strongly that my parents taught me the right thing, and I am forever grateful to them for that. It's why I can look at what's going on now and have no trouble believing it. I still know so many people who refuse to believe that their government would hurt them in any way. I guess I could say my parents unknowingly prepared me for what's happening now in this country.
For me to sit and read the actual words was pretty shocking and also very emotional, as my father passed away in 1995. There were parts of it where I was actually laughing though -- you almost forget for a minute that this is not fiction -- but the lines of questioning were just so ridiculous that it's hard to believe this went on for so long. I really felt his fear even though I don't think he showed it to them, but mostly I felt so heartbroken that my poor innocent little dad had to go through this.
So many people still think that it was just famous people; i.e., Hollywood, authors, playwrights, etc. that were targeted. But these were mostly just everyday, ordinary people, regular Joes, who would never expect to become the target of a witch hunt. These people really had no voice or recourse (sound familiar?), so they all had to more or less suffer in silence and sheer terror.
In looking at the questions these masochistic idiots were asking ("Did you ever have lunch with Julius Rosenberg?" -- come on!), it's so obvious that they had absolutely nothing on anyone. It was an honest to goodness witch hunt as we all now know.
Dad was instinctively so smart, and really knew how to get around them. I was amazed how he, someone with no experience at all in anything like this, was able to skillfully answer these questions, making them think he was giving them something, while actually giving them nothing. An example of this: At one point, Roy Cohn told my father that he had the best memory of any of the witnesses they had so far. He told my father that he would be very useful to them.
Do you know why he said that? He had asked my father if he knew of any people who went to City College who were now working at Fort Monmouth.
My father quickly thought to himself -- this is not classified information, it's public information. Anyone can find out who went to which college, and who was working at Fort Monmouth. So he gave them a few names. They got all excited over this because they thought they had a live one. My father said he almost burst out laughing. I remember him telling me about this, and the point he was making was that the people who were doing all the terrorizing were so incredibly stupid (sound familiar), they thought he was really naming names.
As I was reading I was thinking -- imagine this, imagine a climate where this can go on and no one stops it. What kind of judge would even allow this in a courtroom? And then I woke up -- of course, I don't have to imagine it. It's here. And probably any judge handpicked by Reagan, Bush 1 or (God help us) Bush 2 would be happy to allow it in their courtrooms.
How far away are we from having innocents hauled into secret hearings by some right wing lunatic senator who finally snaps? Wanna start a pool on who it will be? It's not that we're even heading in that direction.
We have arrived. I can see it now -- "Did you or did you not take part in the anti-war demonstration in March 2003? Did you or did you not carry a sign that said "No Blood for Oil"? (No sir, my sign said "Bush is a Terrorist".)
The sad part is that the people who really need to read about that shameful part of our history won't. We're in deep doo doo. There are already many McCarthys around now. He has no shortage of admirers. Limbaugh, Savage, Orrin Hatch, Ashcroft, Cheney -- I could go on and on. You know who they are.
But we have to remember that it was when the hearings were made public, and people saw what was going on, that it started to fall apart for McCarthy. There's a lesson to be learned there, and I do wish that someone in our government or media would figure that out and grow some testicles.
And of course, there was one very courageous journalist, Edward R. Murrow (the likes of which we'll probably never see again) who really busted the whole thing open. Those who stood up and fought ended up scaring McCarthy away.
In the end, it didn't take all that much to get rid of him. Just a little courage. We should get some comfort from that.
All we need is just a few people to turn on this administration and expose them. It's just that I don't know when or if that'll happen, because I don't know if there's anyone around with that kind of courage anymore.
But I will draw some hope from the fact that they finally found a way to get rid of old stinkin' Joe McCarthy.
So take heart!
Barbara
from NYC
A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY
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