LUX et VERITAS

From 1938 through the 1950’s there were two House Committees (the Dies and House Un-American Activities Committee (Note 1)) and the anti Communist crusade led by Republican  Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. The House investigations were suspended during WW II when the USSR joined the Allies fighting the Axis powers; however the HUAC did support the camps where over 120,000 Japanese Nationals and Japanese-American citizens were interned during the war. The “Red Scare” probes resumed in earnest from the beginning of the Cold War (“From…the Baltic to…the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent”, Winston Churchill, March 1946) and escalated during the Korean conflict.

During this post war era, employees were required to take loyalty oaths, and those not complying were terminated. Individuals were anonymously accused as Communist sympathizers and some imprisoned without due process. Among those harassed and targeted were Albert Einstein, Lenard Bernstein, Lena Horne, Pete Seeger, Thomas Mann, Robert Oppenheimer, Arthur Miller, Langston Hughes. Scores of actors, authors, activists protesting segregation were blacklisted from employment, publishing or otherwise discriminated and incriminated.

McCarthy was discredited disgraced and censured by the Senate in 1954.  His efforts and egregious tactics coined the term “McCarthyism”. Defined as “…aggressively questioning one’s patriotism making poorly supported accusations, using accusations to pressure a person to conformist politics, or to discredit an opponent”

Famed newsman Edward R Morrow in October 1953 commented “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember that accusation is not proof and conviction depends on evidence and due process of law.  We will not walk in fear one of another.  We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep into our history and our doctrine and remember we are not descended from fearful men.”

Vestiges of McCarthyism reemerge.  Muslims in the US are harassed and confront discrimination and unproven accusations – and comprise perhaps 4% of the population.  Hate groups, terrorists and their supporters of course should be rigorously rooted out, although such was not consistently pursued.  The KKK disbanded in the early forties, however there was a resurgence from the 50’s to mid-60’s targeting the civil rights movement.  In the 1970s some Irish Catholics businesses and organizations were providing funds to the IRA in Northern Ireland, and currently, White Supremacist militias have a small but embittered following.

Intolerance and strains of McCarthyism filter into Indian River County and Vero Beach surfacing in local media, civic activist groups, public discourse and municipal politics.

EPILOGUE

McCarthy, commissioned as a Marine Lieutenant consistently lied about his war record.  He served as an intelligence officer in the Pacific and flew several missions as an observer, posed for a picture aiming a machine gun on a parked dive bomber (rear gunners on these planes were enlisted men), thus earning him the derisive title “Tail Gunner Joe”.

Note 1:  The HUAC existed from 1945 to 1975, but was marginalized and widely criticized.  It was in decline from the early 60’s.