Army-McCarthy Hearings

From Freepedia

The Army-McCarthy hearings (April 22 to June 17, 1954) were a congressional inquiry convened to investigate a convoluted set of charges made by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (Republican, Wisconsin), at the U.S. Army and vice versa.

The conflict originated when a consultant on McCarthy's staff named G. David Schine had been drafted into the Army. Roy M. Cohn, the Committee's chief counsel, personally lobbied members of Army in order to gain preferential treatment for Private Schine. These failed attempts culminated with the Secretary of the Army, Robert T. Stevens, refusing to cancel an overseas assignment for Private Schine.

At the time, McCarthy was chairman of the Senate Committee on Government Operations and its Subcommittee on Investigations. McCarthy had been investigating the presence of CPUSA members employed in government or with government contractors. (Historians have since speculated that Schine and Cohn had a sexual relationship and that Cohn sought preferential treatment for his lover.)

The dispute became public on March 11, 1954, when the Army published a detailed account protesting Cohn's interference in Private Schine's military career. McCarthy countered by claiming the Army was holding Schine "hostage" to deter his committee from exposing Communists within the military ranks.

The Subcommittee on Investigations ordered the inquiry, allowing live television coverage. For the duration of the proceedings, the chair was temporarily relinquished to Karl E. Mundt (Republican, South Dakota). Acting as Special Counsel for the Army was Joseph Welch of the Boston law firm of Hale & Dorr.

Notably, this was the first nationally televised congressional inquiry, and was broadcast on the new ABC and DuMont networks.

The hearings are most remembered for the exchange that occurred on the afternoon of June 9 1954. McCarthy asserted that a young lawyer of Welch's firm had been a member of the National Lawyers Guild, a group which the U.S. Attorney General at the time was seeking to designate as a Communist front organization.^[1] This was a violation of a pre-hearing agreement not to raise the issue because the designation was being litigated. Welch responded with the immortal speech that ultimately ended McCarthy's career:

"Until this moment, Senator, I think I never gauged your cruelty or recklessness...."

When McCarthy resumed his attack, Welch cut him short:

"Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator.... You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"

This exchange was witnessed by millions of television viewers, and within a short time McCarthy's massive popularity withered. A few months later, the Senate voted to censure him.

A broken man, McCarthy died in 1957, at the age of 48.

See also

• Reactions to McCarthyism
• John L. McClellan

Notes

• 1⇧ In 1953, the Attorney General of the United States proposed to designate the organization as subversive. His proposal was made under revised regulations, promulgated under Executive Order 10450 to comply with Anti-Fascist Committee, establishing a notice and hearing procedure prior to such designation of an organization. 18 Fed. Reg. 2619; see 1954 Annual Report of the Attorney General, p. 14. The Guild brought an action in the District Court for the District of Columbia attacking the Executive Order and the procedures. A summary judgment in favor of the Attorney General because of failure to exhaust administrative remedies was sustained on appeal and this Court denied certiorari, National Lawyers Guild v. Brownell, 96 U.S. App. D.C. 252, 225 F.2d 552, cert. denied, 351 U.S. 927. After a Hearing Officer determined that certain interrogatories propounded to the Guild should be answered, the Guild brought another action in the District Court, National Lawyers Guild v. Rogers, Civil Action No. 1738-58, filed July 2, 1958. On September 11, 1958, the Attorney General rescinded the proposal to designate the Guild. 1958 Annual Report of the Attorney General, p. 251. On September 12, 1958, the complaint was dismissed as moot at the instance of the Attorney General, who filed a motion reciting the rescission and stating that the Attorney General had "concluded that the evidence that would now be available at a hearing on the merits of the proposed designation fails to meet the strict standards of proof which guide the determination of proceedings of this character." The present federal statutes provide that the Subversive Activities Control Board may not designate an organization as a Communist front without first according the organization the procedural safeguards of notice and hearing. Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950, 13, 64 Stat. 998, 50 U.S.C. 792 (1958 ed.).[1]

External links

• The Army-McCarthy Hearings
• McCarthy-Welch Exchange "Have You No Sense of Decency" (transcript and sound file)