Did you hear? The government has released all the classified documents relating to Soviet espionage during the McCarthy era. Or maybe the liberal media never told you anything. This happened several years ago and I still meet people who say that McCarthy was a raging demagogue who oppressed millions of innocent Americans and imprisoned thousands of wrongfully convicted people just under the suspicion that they were Communists. The Venona project has since been declassified, proving the direct connections of over 350 people in the US to Moscow. Then, Boris Yeltsin revealed the Soviet archives on the subject and proved that Soviet infiltration of the US was far worse than even McCarthy believed. However, history has not been rewritten to account for this and most people in the US think his claims were completely unfounded. There is also another myth that McCarthy terrorized Hollywood writers into silence. In fact, he only lead investigations into the State Department, while HUAC, which had nothing to do with McCarthy, lead the assault on Stalinist supporters in the film industry. See this article for facts on McCarthism and this for the official report of the Venona Project.

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"It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a 'dismal science.' But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.

--Murray Rothbard

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Originally Posted by Skinny. A liberal is just a libertarian who hasn't studied economics.

Umm, so what? I am a Communist, are you going to report me to the police?

The reason that I have a problem with McCarthy is that it is not illegal to be a Communist. It is unconstitutional to publicly force people to confess to Communist affiliations. That is their own personal business and should not be chastised for it.

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"Masters of War" by Bob Dylan
"When a man assumes public trust, he should consider himself as public property"
-Thomas Jefferson
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
-Albert Einstein
"One man with courage is a majority"
-Thomas Jefferson

The 50's were an interesting time for the US. After World War Two and the subsequent Korean War, the American people were convinced that we needed to confront the Soviet threat.

Then you had Eisenhower warning us of the rise of the 'Military-Industrial' complex whcih was very interesting considering he was an ex-general and a pro-business Republican. One final thing to also take account in this period is the reassertion of civilian control over the military. When Macarthur crossed the metaphorical 'Rubicon' Truman was quick to put him in his place.

What I'm trying to say here is that the 50's set a precedent for how America would conduct itself in an imperial struggle for hegemony of the world. The USSR rose quickly from the damage done by Nazi Germany and threatened American business all over the world. Naturally the Americans responded.

Now, The American people were all very frightened by this post WW2 world and this manifested itself in McCarthy's 'Witch hunt', sort of similar to post 9/11. The thing I think alot of people of today conviently forget about this time is the fact that Soviet spies were actually involved in the Manhattan Project and were the ones who were the keystone in the Soviets creation of the A-Bomb. The problem with McCarthy and American intelligence in general is that it was young and unexperienced which allowed America to lose it's Nuclear monopoly. McCarthy & Co. tried to root out Soviet spies in Amerca and although they succeeded in the short term, in the long run Soviet spies still were in America and this makes McCarthy's endeavours futile.

McCarthy failed and failure is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of McCarthy.

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I'll tell you this no eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn
You may bury my body, down by the highway side,
so my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride.
You and I must fight to survive

To be a Communist spy is illegal. If you do not read about the Venona project and what was really going on, than you will never understand what this whole issue is about.

Are you also a spy? If so than yes I will report you to the police. You can be a Commie if you want, why I will never understand, but I guess we all make stupid decisions at some point.

The Communist Party of the United States was heavily involved in espionage and served as a link between the Communist spies in our country and Moscow. They also used the party to recruit more spies. That's why it was a big deal if you were a Communist. It was sort of like belonging to a terrorist organization. You don't actually have to blow stuff up, but you are still involved in what your organization is doing.

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"It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a 'dismal science.' But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.

--Murray Rothbard

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skinny. A liberal is just a libertarian who hasn't studied economics.

Your political views have been noted and forwarded to the proper authorities...

Now, just as was the case of the Honorable Senator Joseph McCarthy, we don't advocate locking you people up. We advocate making note of you and stripping you of your means to vote and influence US policy.

By advocating communism you declare yourself mentally insufficient to participate in affairs that determine US policy, or public office of any kind; your communications and activity are monitored and as long as you behave yourself and practice your notions in a flaccid capacity we don't give a toot... but when you begin to fomet discontent... well the list of options is just darn near endless.

Sleep well sis... we know who you are and we're watching you.

McCarthy was concerned with communist because communism is inherently anti-American. Now this simply means that the communist cannot be, EVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, the communist cannot be loyal to the United States; this being due to the essence of communism being completely at odds with everything the United States stands for, not the least of which is of course INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM... Thus, this being an incontestable fact, McCarthy recognized that communists would then by default have already been indoctrinated by that which influenced such idiocy and at that time there was only one source for that crap and that was the Soviet Union, which he knew was actively operating intelligent assets in the US...

Thus McCarthy's problem was that he knew, as just a matter of common sense that to allow a leftist in power was to give the Soviets everything which the given Red was privy to... meaning that wherever there was a communist in government, the US security was compromised.

Again, this is LONG established fact and since the release of Vernona, its been public knowledge. Of course, the Reds feel it is their right to be idiots...

I completely disagree; on the grounds that communism is an infectious cultural virus, which killed 150 million people in just the last half of the 20th century ALONE and there is no potential Right to spread lethal infectious disease.

Thus McCarthy was RIGHT! And NO better evidence of just how right he was came to light any brighter than the onset of the Clinton regime, where every level of US government was infected with communist radicals and that resulted in less than a year post Clinton, when vulnerabilities created by that insurgency realized the US succumbing to the attack we now know as 9-11.

God Bless you Senator McCarthy! Wherever you are....

Dude, if you knew anything about Communists, you'd know that we do not advocate gaining power through the existing capitalist political system, change only comes from violent revolution. I wouldn't participate in the capitalist political system if you insisted.

On the other hand, I am about as anti-Soviet as you can be.