16 I CHRONICLESnTHE EVIL THAT MEN DON’T DO:nJOE MCCARTHY AND THE AMERICANnRIGHT by Samuel T. FrancisnHis is probably the most hated name in Americannhistory. Other villains—Benedict Arnold, AaronnBurr, Alger Hiss, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg—today evokenmerely the esoteric passions of the antiquarian or theninterminable controversies of partisans. Only Joe McCarthynhas given his name to an enduring term of political abuse,nand in American politics today there is literally no one whonwould publicly defend him. When he died, eminent publicnmen could find no good to say of him. Vandals innAppleton, Wisconsin, have repeatedly desecrated his grave,nand nearly 30 years after his death his ghost conhnues tonhaunt us, called up only by his old enemies to frighten us ofnwhat we once became, to warn us of what we might becomenagain.nIt is not immediately clear why so much hatred shouldnendure so long, especially when it is recalled that thenSenator was never accused or convicted of any crime, nevernbetrayed his country, caused no wars, perpetrated nonatrocities, and after 1946 never even lost an election. Thenreason usually given for the hatred of McCarthy is that hendid and said so many evil things. That he has a reputationnfor doing and saying evil cannot be denied. We are told thatnMcCarthy made reckless accusations of treason, and that henoften or always failed to substantiate his charges. He madenvitriolic attacks on his opponents and publicly challengednnntheir good faith and integrity. He interfered with thenworkings of the State Department and the Army. He sentnhis aides on a junket to Europe, where they made fools ofnthemselves and embarrassed the United States. He ruinednthe careers of many—hundreds, thousands—of innocentnpeople. He encouraged mass hysteria, played on fear andnresentment, and harmed the cause of responsible anti-nCommunism. He violated the rules of the Senate as well asnthe standards of common decency. He physically attackednDrew Pearson. He lost his temper, bullied witnesses, talkedndirty, and drank too much. He insulted such devoted publicnservants and stalwart patriots as Dean Acheson, AdlainStevenson, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, andnGeorge Marshall. He tried to link Stevenson with AlgernHiss, and he made attorney Joseph Welch cry on nationalntelevision. Perhaps worst of all, when journalists or othernsenators called McCarthy a liar, a crook, an extremist, anhomosexual, or a fraud, he paid them back in the same coinnwith his distinctive gift for invective. Joe McCarthy said andndid all these things and more, and the evil that inheres innthem lives after him and recoils upon us to this day in thenhatred that attaches to his cursed name.nOnce in a while, however, someone who marches to thentune of a different drummer points out that Joe McCarthyndid not do some of the evil things that were done in andnaround his era. He did not, for example, make solemnncommitments to anti-Communist allies of the UnitednStates, as Franklin Roosevelt did to Chiang Kai-shek, andnthen violate those commitments at the first opportunity. Hendid not, like General Eisenhower, initiate “OperationnKeelhaul,” in which untold numbers of anti-CommunistnRussians were delivered to the Soviets at the point ofnAmerican bayonets in the aftermath of World War 11. Hendid not make agreements with Joseph Stalin that consignednan entire subcontinent to Communism and then characterizenthe Yalta agreements as an act of prudent statecraft.nHe did not send American troops to Korea, and later tonVietnam, and then deny them the full support of Americannmilitary power while their death tolls mounted. He did notnallow the Hungarians who revolted against Communistndomination to be shot or rounded up by Soviet tanks andnMongolian troops. He did not sponsor an invasion ofnCommunist Cuba, withdraw promised air support at thenlast minute, and leave the invaders to be slaughtered bynCastro’s armies. He did not countenance the overthrow andnmurder of President Diem and his brother, plunge annanti-Communist ally into chaos from which it nevernrecovered, and later sign a peace treaty that ensurednCommunist control of South Vietnam and make excusesnSamuel T. Francis is the author of Power and History:nThe Political Thought of James Burnham and lives innWashington, DC.n