Turning Point

[markses]

Editor's note: The beginning of the end of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's hunt for Communists in government came on June 9, 1954, in the Army-McCarthy hearings in Congress. The senator and the Army had come into conflict over the service of G. David Schine, a lawyer on McCarthy's staff who had been drafted. McCarthy and another of his attorneys, Roy Cohn, attempted to have Schine released from Army service so he could return to Washington. The contest of wills eventually became so intense that it resulted in 36 days of congressional hearings broadcast live on national television. The Army was represented at the hearings by Joseph Welch, an attorney from the Boston firm of Hale and Dorr. As Welch was cross-examining Cohn, McCarthy tried to impugn the integrity of Fred Fisher, a young attorney for Hale and Dorr who was not working on the Army case. Welch's objection to the tactic became famous:

Welch: Sen. McCarthy, I think until this moment --

McCarthy: Just a minute. Let me ask, Jim -- will you get the news story to the effect that this man belongs to this Communist front organization.

Welch: I will tell you that he belonged to it.

McCarthy: Will you get the citations -- order the citations showing that this was the legal arm of the Communist Party and the length of time that he belonged and the fact that he was recommended by Mr. Welch? I think that should be in the record.

-snip-

http://www.startribune.com/stories/1389/33743.html

EDITED BY ADMIN FOR COPYRIGHT REASONS

[mike_c]

1. powerful dialog....

Thanks for posting this.

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

All you have to do is change the pronoun. How about "Mr. Vice President," or "Mr. Secretary of Defense?" "Mr. Deputy SecDef?"

[markses]

2. Kick

Sheepishly. :-)

[Moderator]

3. markses

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
news source.

Thank you.

DU Moderator

[markses]

4. I'm pretty sure everything but the editor's note is in the public domain

It's congressional testimony, after all!

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. I didn't realize

that infamous event happened on the day before I was born.

I just hope that 50 years later, that date will again be a turning point in US history.

[Bandit]

6. They not only have no decency they revel in it.

That line of attack will no longer work. We as a nation have become so coarse and vulgar that decency is just a quaint old concept. They consider it a form of weakness.

[markses]

7. I don't believe that at all

If anything, the 1950's were much worse when it came to the cultivation of bizarre pseudo-patriotism than the current climate.

The genius of Welch's strategy here is that it lays bare exactly how despicable Mccarthy was. But I dispute that it was any easier to do so then than it is today. It just looks easier cuz Welch was so skillful about it.