“Enemies from Within”: Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s Accusations of Disloyalty
Wisconsin Republican Joseph R.
McCarthy first won election to the Senate in 1946 during a campaign marked by
much anticommunist Red-baiting. Partially in response to Republican Party
victories, President Harry S. Truman tried to demonstrate his own concern about
the threat of Communism by setting up a loyalty program for federal employees.
He also asked the Justice Department to compile an official list of 78
subversive organizations. As the midterm election year got underway, former
State Department official Alger Hiss, suspected of espionage, was convicted of
perjury. McCarthy, in a speech at Wheeling, West Virginia, mounted an attack on
Truman’s foreign policy agenda by charging that the State Department and its
Secretary, Dean Acheson, harbored “traitorous” Communists. There is some
dispute about the number of Communists McCarthy claimed to have known about.
Though advance copies of this speech distributed to the press record the number
as 205, McCarthy quickly revised this claim. Both in a letter he wrote to
President Truman the next day and in an “official” transcript of the speech
that McCarthy submitted to the Congressional Record ten days later he uses the
number 57. Although McCarthy displayed this list of names both in Wheeling and
then later on the Senate floor, he never made the list public.
Speech of Joseph McCarthy, Wheeling, West
Virginia, February 9, 1950
Ladies and gentlemen, tonight as
we celebrate the one hundred forty-first birthday of one of the greatest men in
American history, I would like to be able to talk about what a glorious day
today is in the history of the world. As we celebrate the birth of this man who
with his whole heart and soul hated war, I would like to be able to speak of
peace in our time—of war being outlawed—and of world-wide disarmament. These
would be truly appropriate things to be able to mention as we celebrate the
birthday of Abraham Lincoln.
Five years after a world war has
been won, men’s hearts should anticipate a long peace—and men’s minds should be
free from the heavy weight that comes with war. But this is not such a
period—for this is not a period of peace. This is a time of “the cold war.”
This is a time when all the world is split into two vast, increasingly hostile
armed camps—a time of a great armament race.
Today we can almost physically
hear the mutterings and rumblings of an invigorated god of war. You can see it,
feel it, and hear it all the way from the Indochina hills, from the shores of
Formosa, right over into the very heart of Europe itself.
The one encouraging thing is that
the “mad moment” has not yet arrived for the firing of the gun or the exploding
of the bomb which will set civilization about the final task of destroying
itself. There is still a hope for peace if we finally decide that no longer can
we safely blind our eyes and close our ears to those facts which are shaping up
more and more clearly . . . and that is that we are now engaged in a show-down
fight . . . not the usual war between nations for land areas or other material
gains, but a war between two diametrically opposed ideologies.
The great difference between our
western Christian world and the atheistic Communist world is not political,
gentlemen, it is moral. For instance, the Marxian idea of confiscating the land
and factories and running the entire economy as a single enterprise is
momentous. Likewise, Lenin’s invention of the one-party police state as a way
to make Marx’s idea work is hardly less momentous.
Stalin’s resolute putting across
of these two ideas, of course, did much to divide the world. With only these
differences, however, the east and the west could most certainly still live in
peace.
The real, basic difference,
however, lies in the religion of immoralism . . . invented by Marx, preached
feverishly by Lenin, and carried to unimaginable extremes by Stalin. This
religion of immoralism, if the Red half of the world triumphs—and well it may,
gentlemen—this religion of immoralism will more deeply wound and damage mankind
than any conceivable economic or political system.
Karl Marx dismissed God as a
hoax, and Lenin and Stalin have added in clear-cut, unmistakable language their
resolve that no nation, no people who believe in a god, can exist side by side
with their communistic state.
Karl Marx, for example, expelled
people from his Communist Party for mentioning such things as love, justice,
humanity or morality. He called this “soulful ravings” and “sloppy
sentimentality.” . . .
Today we are engaged in a final,
all-out battle between communistic atheism and Christianity. The modern
champions of communism have selected this as the time, and ladies and
gentlemen, the chips are down—they are truly down.
Lest there be any doubt that the
time has been chosen, let us go directly to the leader of communism
today—Joseph Stalin. Here is what he said—not back in 1928, not before the war,
not during the war—but 2 years after the last war was ended: “To think that the
Communist revolution can be carried out peacefully, within the framework of a
Christian democracy, means one has either gone out of one’s mind and lost all
normal understanding, or has grossly and openly repudiated the Communist
revolution.” . . .
Ladies and gentlemen, can there
be anyone tonight who is so blind as to say that the war is not on? Can there
by anyone who fails to realize that the Communist world has said the time is
now? . . . that this is the time for the show-down between the democratic
Christian world and the communistic atheistic world?
Unless we face this fact, we
shall pay the price that must be paid by those who wait too long.
Six years ago, . . . there was
within the Soviet orbit, 180,000,000 people. Lined up on the antitotalitarian
side there were in the world at that time, roughly 1,625,000,000 people. Today,
only six years later, there are 800,000,000 people under the absolute
domination of Soviet Russia—an increase of over 400 percent. On our side, the
figure has shrunk to around 500,000,000. In other words, in less than six
years, the odds have changed from 9 to 1 in our favor to 8 to 5 against us.
This indicates the swiftness of
the tempo of Communist victories and American defeats in the cold war. As one
of our outstanding historical figures once said, “When a great democracy is
destroyed, it will not be from enemies from without, but rather because of
enemies from within.” . . .
The reason why we find ourselves
in a position of impotency is not because our only powerful potential enemy has
sent men to invade our shores . . . but rather because of the traitorous
actions of those who have been treated so well by this Nation. It has not been
the less fortunate, or members of minority groups who have been traitorous to
this Nation, but rather those who have had all the benefits that the wealthiest
Nation on earth has had to offer . . . the finest homes, the finest college
education and the finest jobs in government we can give.
This is glaringly true in the
State Department. There the bright young men who are born with silver spoons in
their mouths are the ones who have been most traitorous. . . .
I have here in my hand a list of
205 . . . a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as
being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and
shaping policy in the State Department. . . .
As you know, very recently the
Secretary of State proclaimed his loyalty to a man guilty of what has always
been considered as the most abominable of all crimes—being a traitor to the
people who gave him a position of great trust—high treason. . . .
He has lighted the spark which is
resulting in a moral uprising and will end only when the whole sorry mess of
twisted, warped thinkers are swept from the national scene so that we may have
a new birth of honesty and decency in government.
Joseph
McCarthy to President Harry Truman, February 11, 1950
In the Lincoln Day speech at
Wheeling Thursday night I stated that the State Department harbors a nest of
Communists and Communist sympathizers who are helping to shape our foreign
policy. I further stated that I have in my possession the names of 57
Communists who are in the State Department at present. A State Department
spokesman promptly denied this, claiming that there is not a single Communist
in the Department. You can convince yourself of the falsity of the State
Department claim very easily. You will recall that you personally appointed a
board to screen State Department employees for the purpose of weeding out
fellow travelers—men whom the board considered dangerous to the security of
this Nation. Your board did a painstaking job, and named hundreds which had been
listed as dangerous to the security of the Nation, because of communistic
connections.
While the records are not
available to me, I know absolutely of one group of approximately 300 certified
to the Secretary for discharge because of communism. He actually only
discharged approximately 80. I understand that this was done after lengthy
consultation with the now-convicted traitor, Alger Hiss. I would suggest,
therefore, Mr. President, that you simply pick up your phone and ask Mr.
Acheson how many of those whom your board had labeled as dangerous Communists
he failed to discharge. The day the House Un-American Activities Committee
exposed Alger Hiss as an important link in an international Communist spy ring
you signed an order forbidding the State Department’s giving any information in
regard to the disloyalty or the communistic connections of anyone in that
Department to the Congress.
Despite this State Department
black-out, we have been able to compile a list of 57 Communists in the State
Department. This list is available to you but you can get a much longer list by
ordering Secretary Acheson to give you a list of those whom your own board
listed as being disloyal and who are still working in the State Department. I
believe the following is the minimum which can be expected of you in this case.
1. That you demand that Acheson
give you and the proper congressional committee the names and a complete report
on all of those who were placed in the Department by Alger Hiss, and all of
those still working in the State Department who were listed by your board as
bad security risks because of their communistic connections.
2. That you promptly revoke the
order in which you provided under no circumstances could a congressional
committee obtain any information or help in exposing Communists.
Source: U.S. Senate, State
Department Loyalty Investigation Committee on Foreign Relations, 81st Congress;
Joseph McCarthy to President Harry Truman February 11, 1950, Congressional
Record, 81st Congress