The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy

by James Cross Giblin

  The fact that such questions were being asked by a large segment of the American public gave Joe the justification he needed to continue pursuing Communist subversives in government. He set aside the search for a Communist in the Atomic Energy Commission—perhaps for lack of evidence—and focused on a hotter tip: that the Army had distributed what McCarthy called "clearcut Communist propaganda" to thirty-seven of its commands in 1952. He displayed a document titled Psychological and Cultural Traits of Soviet Siberia at a press conference and said, "If you read this and believed it, you would move to Siberia."

  An Army spokesman responded by saying that anyone who did read the entire document would realize that Joe's description wasn't accurate. Besides, the spokesman said, it wasn't widely distributed; only one hundred copies had been printed. The Army followed up by releasing the final pages of the publication, which clearly showed that the content was pro-American, not pro-Soviet.

  The Army's dismissive attitude made Joe angry. He called General Richard C. Partridge, chief of Army Intelligence, to testify about the publication on September 21. Secretary of the Army Robert T. Stevens sat in on the session. McCarthy began by sharply criticizing Gen. Partridge for authorizing publication of the Siberia document, and then for defending it.

  MCCARTHY: You come here and say it is a good, honest attempt. I wonder how much you know about the book. Do you know that the book quotes verbatim from Joe Stalin, without attributing it to him, as a stamp of approval of the U.S. Army? Are you aware of that?

  GEN. PARTRIDGE: I don't know that it quotes from Joe Stalin.

  MCCARTHY: Don't you think before you testify you should take time to conduct some research to find out whether it quotes Joe Stalin and other notorious Communists? Don't you think you are incompetent to testify before you know that?

  GEN. PARTRIDGE: No, sir.

  MCCARTHY: I don't want someone here who knows nothing about this document, just giving us conversation.

  Joe then called another witness, a civilian consultant to Army Intelligence who had reviewed and approved the Siberian document. After Joe and Roy Cohn subjected the man to the same kind of relentless questioning, Joe dismissed the witness, calling the man "completely and hopelessly incompetent."

  Secretary of the Army Stevens attempted to defend Gen. Partridge and the other witness, saying, "I think they have tried to get before you the facts, right or wrong, to the best of their ability." That only led Joe to attack Partridge more fiercely. "We need someone who has some conception of the danger of Communism!" McCarthy shouted. His attacks proved effective. A short time later, Gen. Partridge was replaced as head of Army Intelligence and sent to Europe on a lesser assignment.

  Jean Kerr and Joe McCarthy on their wedding day, September 29, 1953.

  The National Archives

  In late September, Joe took an unexpected break from the hearings, leaving Roy Cohn in charge. Surprising many Washington insiders, including some of his closest friends, Joe married his longtime assistant, Jean Kerr, on September 29 at St. Matthew's Cathedral in Washington.

  Jean had earlier converted from Presbyterianism to Catholicism so that the marriage could go forward. She looked glowing in her long white wedding dress and veil. Joe seemed a bit uncomfortable, though, in the formal outfit Jean had probably persuaded him to wear.

  Almost 900 invited guests assembled in the cathedral for the ceremony. Among those present were Vice-President Nixon and his wife, Pat; key Eisenhower aide Sherman Adams; CIA director Allen Dulles; and many congressmen and senators, including Senator John F. Kennedy. President Eisenhower and his wife did not attend but sent their regrets in a letter of congratulation. Pope Pius XII dispatched a cablegram from the Vatican giving the bride and groom his "apostolic blessing." More than 200 of Joe's Wisconsin relatives and friends traveled to Washington for the event, and McCarthy's brother William served as best man.

  Most of the friends rejoiced with the McCarthys, but a few had doubts about the marriage. After all, Joe was almost forty-five and had never seemed like "the marrying kind," as his friend Ray Kiermas said later. Willard Edwards, a reporter from the Chicago Tribune, put the matter more bluntly. He told friends and associates he thought McCarthy had gotten married to squelch rumors that he was homosexual. The rumors had spread because of Joe's close association with Roy Cohn, but few in Washington believed them. While it was true that McCarthy appeared to have more lasting relationships with his male buddies than with any of the women he had dated, except for Jean, no evidence had ever surfaced that he engaged in homosexual activity.

  At the conclusion of the wedding ceremony, the newlyweds walked slowly up the cathedral's central aisle, both smiling broadly. Joe waved to Nixon as he passed the row in which the Vice-President was sitting. Outside, the McCarthys acknowledged the cheers of a crowd estimated at around 3,500 before they entered a waiting limousine. Later that day they flew to Spanish Cay in the British West Indies, where they planned to honeymoon for ten days.

  Their stay on the island was cut short, however, when Joe received an urgent phone call from Roy Cohn. Cohn said that while Joe was away, he had been alerted that Communist subversives had infiltrated the Army Signal Corps Center at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. The Center housed the Signal Corps' main research, development, and training facility. In one of its laboratories, scientists conducted top-secret radar research.

  McCarthy agreed with Cohn that the situation at Fort Monmouth required his immediate attention. He and Jean made arrangements to return at once to Washington. On their arrival, Joe told reporters that his subcommittee had uncovered evidence of "extremely dangerous espionage" at Fort Monmouth that threatened to "envelop the whole Signal Corps." The evidence was recent, he added, and concerned "our entire defense against atomic attack."

  20. The Dangerous Dentist

  IMMEDIATELY AFTER HIS RETURN to Washington, McCarthy launched closed-door subcommittee hearings into the situation at the Fort Monmouth radar laboratory. The investigation centered on charges that Julius Rosenberg had set up a Communist spy ring there when he worked for the Signal Corps in the 1940s.

  After each day's session, Joe invited a group of reporters to his office to give them his version of what had transpired. The hearings were supposed to be confidential, but McCarthy conducted these little press conferences to get maximum coverage of the subcommittee's activities on the front pages of the nation's major newspapers. A headline that appeared in the New York Times shows how well he succeeded: "Rosenberg Called Radar Spy Leader: McCarthy Says Ring He Set Up 'May Still Be in Operation at Monmouth Laboratories.'"

  When the Army suspended thirty-three civilian employees at Fort Monmouth during the month after the hearings began, Joe's investigation appeared to be getting quick results. The senator had nothing but praise for Secretary of the Army Stevens and Major General Kirke B. Lawton, the commander at Fort Monmouth. Joe called the suspensions "a very important step in making sure that all government employees are the true, loyal, fine type of people that the vast majority of them are."

  If Secretary Stevens thought McCarthy's compliments indicated he would ease up on the investigation, he was much mistaken. At the end of October, Roy Cohn and David Schine told reporters that McCarthy had given the subcommittee

  McCarthy and Roy Cohn at a subcommittee hearing. Wisconsin Historical Society

  the go-ahead to call as witnesses members of the Army's top screening board in Washington. Cohn said the subcommittee had learned that the board had been negligent in approving "many civilian employees suspected of Communist activities."

  Secretary Stevens knew he had to act before the situation got out of hand. He called a press conference to announce that the Army had conducted its own investigation of security at Fort Monmouth and had found no evidence that any of the thirty-three recently suspended employees were spies. Nor had the Army investigators uncovered any "current cases" of subversion at the fort.

  Joe was furious. He instructed Cohn to prepare for immediate public hea
rings and told reporters he was sure they would be "of great interest to the American people." The subcommittee held ten hearings between November 1953 and the end of the year, and five more in the early months of 1954. Forty witnesses testified during the course of the hearings, thirty-four of whom were suspected by Joe and his staff of being Communists or spies, or both. When Joe or Roy Cohn asked, "Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?" twenty-five of the thirty-four declined to answer, claiming the protection of the Fifth Amendment.

  "Taking the Fifth" was and is perfectly legal, but for Joe and other right-wing Republicans it was the same as an admission of guilt. In fact, McCarthy frequently called witnesses who did so "Fifth Amendment Communists." That was not a description to be dismissed lightly, for it could have serious consequences. Back in the summer of 1953, a good friend of Joe's, Senator Everett Dirksen, had proposed legislation barring government employment to any person who claimed the Fifth Amendment when called to testify by an investigating committee. Even before the legislation came to a vote, the rule was adopted voluntarily by many government agencies. The armed forces followed suit, as did President Eisenhower, who said the rule should be applied to all employees in the White House and other executive branch departments.

  Witnesses who claimed the protection of the Fifth Amendment during the Fort Monmouth hearings paid a heavy price. Not only were their reputations ruined, but many were suspended from their jobs without pay pending the outcome of the investigation, or fired outright. The government covered none of their legal expenses. Their lawyers were not given the names or addresses of their accusers, so they could not interview these witnesses while preparing their cases.

  As McCarthy had anticipated, the hearings received prominent newspaper, radio, and television coverage over many months. Not all of it was favorable. A newspaper in the Fort Monmouth area, the Long Branch Daily Record, criticized Joe for assuming "the roles of prosecutor, judge, and jury," and for treating with "callous disregard ... American citizens who have never been accused of any crime, much less convicted." Jewish groups and publications were especially upset, because a majority of the witnesses at the public hearings, and almost all the employees suspended by the Army, were Jews.

  In the midst of the Fort Monmouth investigation, McCarthy launched another inquiry, this one focused on employees at the General Electric Company plant in Schenectady, New York. Hearings began in November 1953 in Albany, the state capital. A few days later, an FBI undercover agent testified that he had discovered a number of Communist cells operating in the GE plant. Joe responded by demanding that any "Fifth Amendment Communists" working at GE be fired.

  In early December, company officials gave in to Joe's demand. They agreed to suspend any employee who invoked the Fifth Amendment and to fire immediately all employees who admitted they were Communists. With these threats hanging over them, several dozen witnesses testified before Joe's subcommittee during the weeks that followed. Among those called were grinders of castings, coil winders, and drill-press operators. One sixty-four-year-old man, who had been employed by GE for thirty-one years, worked exclusively on streetlights. None of them had access to classified information.

  Whenever someone took the Fifth, Joe denounced the witness. On one occasion, he bellowed, "I wish there were some way to make these conspirators testify, because the Fifth Amendment was for the purpose of protecting the individual, not for the purpose of protecting a conspiracy against this nation."

  Roy Cohn later boasted that thirty-two GE employees were fired, and many others suspended, as a result of the investigation. But not a single act of subversion or espionage had been traced conclusively to any of those called before McCarthy's subcommittee. Still, the wide press coverage given the hearings convinced many Americans that Joe and his staff were exposing one traitor after another.

  The public became even more aroused when the White House, in late fall, announced that 1,456 government employees had been fired from their jobs during the first months of the Eisenhower administration. Appearing on the television program Meet the Press, Joe claimed that 90 percent of the firings were for "a combination of Communist activities and perversion." But he added a cautionary note: "Believe me when I say 1,400 [firings] is just scratching the surface."

  Later, Attorney General Herbert Brownell declared that 2,200 government employees deemed to be "security risks" had been dismissed since President Eisenhower took office. Once again Joe cheered the news, saying it proved that his investigations, along with those pursued by other Congressional committees, were effective. But many commentators believed that the Republicans were merely laying the groundwork for what would be one of their main themes in the 1954 Congressional elections: the continuing threat of Communist subversion. Whatever the explanation for the wave of dismissals, one thing was clear. Many Americans were losing their livelihoods because of unproved charges lodged against them by Joe and other Congressional investigators.

  While the inquiries into alleged Communist activities at Fort Monmouth and General Electric continued, Roy Cohn was preoccupied with a personal matter. Although the Korean War had come to an end the previous summer, thousands of American troops remained on guard along the 38th Parallel, and young Americans were still being drafted into the armed forces. Cohn himself was designated 4F (unable to serve for medical reasons) because of an old injury, but his friend David Schine was likely to be called up at any time.

  Starting in July 1953, Cohn began trying to get special consideration for Schine. First, he sought a commission (officer's rank) in the Air Force or Navy Reserve for his friend. When that was ruled out because Schine lacked the necessary qualifications, Cohn asked Army Secretary Stevens if Schine could be given an assignment in the New York City area. Stevens rejected the idea, saying he thought Cohn's colleague should be treated like any other Army private.

  Schine was drafted on November 3 and told to report to Fort Dix, New Jersey, fifteen days later. Cohn arranged a delay, saying that Schine needed to finish an important job for the subcommittee. Joe backed up Cohn, telling Army Secretary Stevens he, too, would like to have Schine remain in New York. McCarthy suggested that Private Schine be assigned to study textbooks the Army used at West Point to see if pro-Communist ideas were expressed in them. Stevens ignored Joe's suggestion, but he made a concession to placate the senator. The Army secretary said that Schine might be permitted to leave Fort Dix on some evenings and weekends if he was urgently needed for subcommittee work.

  McCarthy and Secretary of the Army Robert Stevens share a joke after a tense meeting in early 1954. The National Archives

  Schine's basic training began on November 23 after five days of indoctrination. Almost immediately, he sought passes to leave the base in the evening and return late at night. He told the officer in charge that Secretary Stevens had personally okayed it. Schine also requested passes to go into New York almost every weekend.

  General Cornelius Ryan, commander of Fort Dix, wondered about Schine's special privileges and contacted Secretary Stevens to make sure they had been authorized. Stevens was surprised to learn that Schine left the base almost every evening. The Army secretary ordered Ryan to put a stop to Schine's weekday departures, but to continue to allow his weekend passes.

  While Roy Cohn kept on trying to obtain special treatment for his friend, Joe was active on many different fronts. In early January 1954, he reached a compromise with the Democratic members of his subcommittee and they returned to work, more than six months after they had walked out. As part of the compromise, the Democrats won the right to hire their own legal counsel. They chose Robert Kennedy, who had left Joe's employ on friendly terms the year before.

  After much back-and-forth, Joe also got the budget he wanted for expanded subcommittee activities. Indirect support for his investigations came from the Gallup poll released in mid-January. It showed that Joe's overall popularity had soared a remarkable 16 percent since August, probably due to the publicity his Fort Mon
mouth and General Electric investigations had received. A whopping 62 percent of Republicans approved of his performance, 19 percent disapproved, and 19 percent had no opinion. Democrats were almost equally divided—39 percent approved of what Joe was doing, 38 percent disapproved, and 23 percent had no opinion.

  Buoyed by the poll's evidence of strong public support, Joe turned his attention back to the Army. In December 1953, he had received a tip that Irving Peress, a thirty-six-year-old Army dentist stationed at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, had received a promotion from captain to major. The promotion was approved even though shortly after entering the Army the previous January, Peress had refused to answer an Army questionnaire that asked whether he had ever been a member of a subversive organization.

  McCarthy summoned Peress to testify at an executive hearing of his subcommittee on January 30, 1954. When he was asked about his membership in organizations the Army deemed subversive, including the Communist Party, Peress repeatedly took the Fifth Amendment. In return, Joe angrily charged that fellow Communists within the Army must have helped Peress get his promotion, and he vowed to hold public hearings on the matter in February.

  In a meeting with reporters, McCarthy demanded that the Army court-martial Peress, who, he said, was "a major in the United States Army at this very moment." He also called upon the Army to "severely punish the officers who had failed to expose him or had played a part in his promotion." His voice rose to a shout: "This is the only way to notify every Army officer that twenty years of treason are past and that this really is a new day."