Product Description
Accused of creating a bogus Red Scare and smearing countless innocent victims in a five-year reign of terror, Senator Joseph McCarthy is universally remembered as a demagogue, a bully, and a liar. History has judged him such a loathsome figure that even today, a half century after his death, his name remains synonymous with witch hunts.
But that conventional image is all wrong, as veteran journalist and author M. Stanton Evans reveals in this groundbreaking book. The long-awaited Blacklisted by History, based on six years of intensive research, dismantles the myths surrounding Joe McCarthy and his campaign to unmask Communists, Soviet agents, and flagrant loyalty risks working within the U.S. government. Evans’s revelations completely overturn our understanding of McCarthy, McCarthyism, and the Cold War.
Drawing on primary sources—including never-before-published government records and FBI files, as well as recent research gleaned from Soviet archives and intercepted transmissions between Moscow spymasters and their agents in the United States—Evans presents irrefutable evidence of a relentless Communist drive to penetrate our government, influence its policies, and steal its secrets. Most shocking of all, he shows that U.S. officials supposedly guarding against this danger not only let it happen but actively covered up the penetration. All of this was precisely as Joe McCarthy contended.
Blacklisted by History shows, for instance, that the FBI knew as early as 1942 that J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the atomic bomb project, had been identified by Communist leaders as a party member; that high-level U.S. officials were warned that Alger Hiss was a Soviet spy almost a decade before the Hiss case became a public scandal; that a cabal of White House, Justice Department, and State Department officials lied about and covered up the Amerasia spy case; and that the State Department had been heavily penetrated by Communists and Soviet agents before McCarthy came on the scene.
Evans also shows that practically everything we’ve been told about McCarthy is false, including conventional treatment of the famous 1950 speech at Wheeling, West Virginia, that launched the McCarthy era (“I have here in my hand . . .”), the Senate hearings that casually dismissed his charges, the matter of leading McCarthy suspect Owen Lattimore, the Annie Lee Moss case, the Army-McCarthy hearings, and much more.
In the end, Senator McCarthy was censured by his colleagues and condemned by the press and historians. But as Evans writes, “The real Joe McCarthy has vanished into the mists of fable and recycled error, so that it takes the equivalent of a dragnet search to find him.” Blacklisted by History provides the first accurate account of what McCarthy did and, more broadly, what happened to America during the Cold War. It is a revealing exposé of the forces that distorted our national policy in that conflict and our understanding of its history since.
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 The Rest of the Story
For those of us who have always believed there was more to the McCarthy story than was ever printed, this book is the proof McCarthy was right after all. In fact, he was more right than he ever knew on the Communist infiltration of our government. Thanks to Evans' painstaking research, the Freedom of Information Act (Thanks to James Buckley), opening of the KGB archives, and the Veona transcripts, we now know Soviet penetration of our State Department, Treasury Dept. and Executive Branch was all but complete by the time of the junior senator from Wisconsin.
Evans does a remarkable job at turning over old grounds and adding new insights and information at every turn. He systematically destroys the liberal cliches concerning McCarthy revealing a true patriot who fought for his country in war and in peace with few allies at his side.
Some of his allies were the late, great J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI and Senator Pat McCarren of Nevada who died to early to stand by McCarthy at the end of it all.
Many others, long on the list of suspects, do not come off too well in this book. Stillwell, General Marshall, Ike, Tidings of Maryland, all are shown to be much less than standard history records them.
McCarthy was the man against the liberal mob. The blue collar populist, champ of the little guy, fighting for what was right and true against all odds, and could not prevail. But how much worse would we have been if there had been no Joe McCarthy. The Commie take over of this country would have been complete by 1955 instead of still hanging in the balance in 2009.
Having read Evans for 40 years, if he never wrote anything but this book, his name would still be engraved on the Mount Olympus of American Conservatism. This is his Magnus Opus, a work of major importance to our understanding of Cold War History.
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One of the most important books on 20th Century History.
Joe McCarthy is probably the most villified figure in American history besides Benedict Arnold, and this book shows quite clearly that he was a fervent patriot merely trying to blow the whistle on penetration of all levels of our government by our enemies. Sad to see how his life was destroyed for trying to keep our nation safe.
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great novel of intrigue and espionage ( freddyreddy )
The most intriguing book I've ever read. Actually, whether you choose to read this book to learn more about recent revelations on this era or you want just to read a great novel of intrigue and espionage, you won't be disappointed. (Only those thoroughly indoctrinated -- dare I say, yikes, close-minded? -- will dismiss this book out of hand.)
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 Objectivity is important
The author is obviously biased in his work and overlooks several of McCarthy's many flaws. McCarthy's methods were questionable particularly smearing those who disagreed with him. His lack of being a team player created a problem with both the Eisenhower White House and fellow Republicans as well.
The author needs to be more objective in his writing and not display the obvious right wing tendency to preach, in this case, McCarthy was right. The only right thing was the Republicans used him and the issue to gain political power and in doing so upset the equilibrium of this nation. Conincidentally, they also paved the way to the Vietnam War courtesy of the rampant anti-communism exhibited in the Geneva Convention.
Communism...obviously there were some, but McCarthy used the topic to remain in the limelight; not to assist in rooting out. He began with a lie and let the snowball roll out of control until he lost control completely. McCarthy's creation of a fictitious war record. campaigning in uniform for a US senate position while holding a judgeship and numerous other incidents of flaunting the law only illustrate his power hunger and flawed psyche.
Ann Coulter is certainly not a scholar nor can her works be regarded in that capacity. Thus her endorsement of this book is suspect as is her pedantic writing style. Ms. Coulter does not write to pursue the search for truth, but is content only to stir the pot in order to earn more book sales.
McCarthy was not an aberration; he was a symptom of the time that backfired both on the Republicans and Congress. Unfortunately, it cost this nation numerous lives destroyed by questionable methods, 60,000 dead Americans in Vietnam and over 3,000,000 Vietnamese perished. That, in itself, is McCarthy's legacy.
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Required Reading
Should be required reading! New and old evidence brings conclusive authority to what we have long needed to know. McCarthy was not wrong, and any of his errors should have been rectified, not magnified, spun, and dismissed!
The huge propaganda spin of magnifying the negative aspects of his investigations, demonizing and destroying him personally made it impossible to identify and remove communist infiltration from our government. Communists have had huge influences upon our history and have been free to infiltrate and subvert our government institutions and educational institutions for fifty years!
No wonder we are so divided. No wonder we have politics of vicious personal attack instead of reasoned logic. They are masters of propaganda and deceit and we have been ignoring their existence for fifty years and treating their propaganda as legitimate points of view!
We need to know the facts and not be swayed by propaganda and ad homen smears. Just in these reviews we can see negative reviews supported with nothing but name calling and labeling. Honest discourse would substantiate itself with facts and logic instead. Yet, we no longer expect reasoned discourse or condemn personal attack and unfounded smears as legitimate forms of dissent or disagreement. We need to check up on our facts instead of accepting emotional propaganda and we need to wake up soon before we find ourselves the United Socialist States of America!
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