(It was George Marshall, an old buddy of Eisenhower's, whom Ike didn't help with McCarthy.)

There were communists within the American government. Some. And there sure were communist spies within the scientific community. The Brits had a bunch more, too.

The people McCarthy smeared seemed to be of three types. First, the communists. Precious few of those came out through McCarthy.

Second were people who had been communist sympathizers. By far the majority of that happened during the depression, when people were looking everywhere for a solution to economic problems. Capitalism wasn't working well at that time for many of the people living in a capitalistic economy. And the USSR wasn't regarded highly by the west, wasn't regarded as a particular threat, either. One could have "communist" sympathies and not be interested in the overthrow, violent or otherwise, of the government. A person might have been only investigating viable ways for a society to take care of it's citizens.

This was the method of recruitment which was very, very effective in Britain. It doesn't seem to me to be completely unreasonable, given the circumstances at the time.

A good friend of mine was a Peace Corps volunteer the Bolivian highlands for three years in the '60s. The normal term is two years, but he was bombed out of a village after one year by communists, so persuaded the Peace Corps to let him have a full term in another village.

He said that communism was an active force in his area. The reason was that the only way for people to earn cash was to work in American owned copper mines. Those mines were at 20,000 feet, the wages were about 25 cents a day, and the workers invariably died by age 35.

The communists would tell them that the copper was Bolivian, they were Bolivian workers, and to work and die at a young age for next to nothing for the profit of American stockholders wasn't the way it had to be.

Sounded attractive to them. As a matter of fact, it was the only hope they were offered. Would have sounded attractive to me. I don't know that I blame some people for wanting a better way of life for themselves and their families. We are still talking economic system, not political, but those people were living under an economic dictatorship, wouldn't have been any worse off under a political dictatorship.

So, during the depression some intellectuals were looking at economic systems, and communism didn't seem completely off the wall. That's hard to see if you can't separate economic from political systems.

Anyway, the third class which was crucified were the people who just plain stood up to McCarthy, told him to fly a kite. People who said they loved their country, had never had a thought about the overthrow of the government, who had fought in the military with distinction, and who also told McCarthy that their political beliefs were none of his business. Treated harshly. Even blacklisted.

But it sounded good. I vaguely remember my parents regarding what was happening with some distaste, but didn't say anything to me. They certainly didn't protest. And nobody was more "American", pro-government, and less communist, than my parents.

And the public ate it up. Sort of like a political Jerry Springer. Went on for years, and the people who stood up to it, calling that witch hunt un-American were ridiculed. Not a proud episode in American history, the land of the free and the home of the brave. Jingoism is a very, very powerful force. Much more powerful than reason.

As I recall, Gus Hall and the American Communist Party was thoroughly infiltrated by the FBI, to the point that the informers fees subsidized it.

I'll read your citation more later, looks interesting.

Arf