The left uses "McCarthyism" as an attack on anyone who disagrees with them, but "Blacklisted by History" shows how they attacked Joseph McCarthy from the very beginning as he pointed out that Communists were already deeply embedded in the US government. The left was more interested in attacking McCarthy than in actually stopping the enemies that were attacking America, which tells you all you need to know about the politics of the left for the last 50 years or so in America. ( )

Another Setback for the American Left

The Venona tapes and declassified Soviet archives show that McCarthy was quite right about the numerous Bolshevik agents in American government from the 1930's onwards.

The author even gives their Soviet codenames and shows that great harm that they did to US interests in places like China and Yugoslavia while always presenting themselves as loyal Americans.

This all makes something of a problem for the American Left since “McCarthyism” is a key word in their lexicon of victimization. However, all is not lost. Leftist spokesperson Anne Applebaum now says, “ Recent documents showing that some of his accusations were correct do not change the impact of his over-zealous persuit of communists in American public life: ultimately his public “trials” of communist sympathizers would tarnish the cause of anti-communism with the brush of chauvinism and intolerance.”

In other words, he should have been more relaxed about it all (like the State department) and he showed far too much of a chauvist (i.e.America First) attitude. Even if he was sometimes (weasel word) right he should still have shut up and not victimized (named) anybody.

Interestingly Applebaum is pulling the same trick with the other side of the equation concerning Bolshevik Russia in her 2003 book, “Gulag, A History”.

The Gulag death camps were set up as part of the Bolshevik state terror that consumed something like 15 million mostly European Christian lives. Her index refers to “Jewish prisoners”, (the Americans Left's truly untouchable victims), while completely blanking out the fact that the Gulag camps were all in fact headed by Jews and they founded and led the Bolshevik movement itself and the Soviet state terror organizations until 1937.

Unfortunately the truth can only be found outside Party approved media, with the clearest statement probably being David Duke's recent samizdat hit "The Secret Behind Communism" (Usually out of stock on Amazon but available on his website). ( )

(5/29/2012) I have barely started reading this book through page 7 and already, source documents are missing from places that records should not be missing from. I think this is going to be one very good read. This book also has an extensive source index listed in the book by chapter and foot-noted. I am going to rate as a 3 star read for now and will update the rating (for me) once I complete this book.
(6/1/2012) Ok, on pages 24 and 25 is the reason McCarthy has been treated the way he still is today-adding one more star for my book rating.
(7/31/2012) A MUST read about ALL the lies about this subject - Senator McCarthy was right. This book rates more than 5 stars. ( )

This is a horribly great book; or a greatly horrible book. One of the two.

The array of facts summoned, the research dug up, the misconceptions pointed out, the lies deconstructed - this is all grand. Senator Joe McCarthy was not an unprincipled hack who made things up, bullied the innocent, and was paranoid to the point of insanity. M. Stanton Evans shows that the federal government from the 1930s to the 1950s was filled with communists, fellow travelers, and even out-and-out spies. This is proven, I think, without a doubt.

However, this book is achingly long. It is over 500 pages of clunky paragraphs, when it could have been 300 pages of brilliant prose. M. Stanton Evans is in dire need of an editor here, or perhaps a co-author. The reader drowns in the names, allusions to cases that occurred 100 pages ago, excessive italicization, unclear sentences, and, in the end, sheer boredom. It took me almost two years of on and off reading to finish this brick of a book.

So, great book, horribly written; or great info, bad presentation. ( )