What turned out to be one of Stan Evans' final contributions to the the truth of the record was an article he wrote last year called "McCarthyism by the Numbers." This "sampler," as Stan called it, contains a table of 50 McCarthy suspects named by McCarthy, his aides, or in his committee hearings who proved to be Communists, Soviet agents or who took the Fifth Amendment when asked about such matters. In sum, this concise article and table is the quickee way to refute the Big Lie that Sen. Joseph McCarthy never spotted a single Communist or Soviet agent -- or identitied, as the Learned Professors keep repeating, "only a few."
As Stan wrote:
As is self-evident from this lineup [of 50], it’s untrue that McCarthy never spotted a single Communist or Soviet agent, or–per one variation–came up with only a handful of valid cases. He in fact tracked down a small army of such people, and the roster given here is merely a sampling of the flagrant suspects who attracted his attention.
This is most obviously so of the Fifth Amendment pleaders. Our table of 50 includes 18 McCarthy cases who refused to answer questions concerning Red connections, but these were only a fraction of the total who claimed the privilege. All told, an astonishing 100-plus McCarthy suspects would plead the Fifth before his committee (the bulk of these in the Fort Monmouth/defense-supply probe that triggered the Army-McCarthy hearings).
Also, contra the standard image, McCarthy and his staffers in the usual instance did not allege that his suspects were Communists or Soviet agents–though in some famous cases (Owen Lattimore, Annie Lee Moss) this did happen–for the simple reason that the probers didn’t then know the total story. More typically, they wielded dossiers concerning adverse security findings, membership in pro-Red groups, and so on–thereby understating the scope and nature of the problem. ...
Add the fact that, in case after significant case, McCarthy suspects were linked in ever-widening circles to a host of other operatives of like nature. For example, Adler, Currie, Keeney and the egregious pro-Soviet apparatchik Robert Miller were all parts of much larger networks, each with multiple contacts in the government, press corps, and outside groups of shadowy purpose.
All told, the McCarthy cases linked together in such fashion amounted to several hundred people, constituting a massive security danger to the nation.
However, numbers per se were not the central issue. By far the most important thing about his suspects was their positioning in the governmental structure, and other posts of influence, where they could shape American policy or opinion in favor of the Communist interest. This they did on a fairly regular basis, a subject that deserves discussion in its own right.
This is where Stan's book co-authored with Herbert Romerstein, Stalin's Secret Agents, and my book, American Betrayal, come in.
Stan told me last year that he stopped counting when he hit 50 for purposes of the "sampler," which easily refutes the "court history" that tells us McCarthy targeted "halpess victims" and never came up with a certifiable Communist, let alone Soviet agent.
Today, randomly, I came across two more such cases.
51) George Seldes, a "journalist spy," who denied all (lied) in executive session before McCarthy's committee.
52) Nathan Sussman, a longtime spy for Julius Rosenberg who admitted his "past" secret Communist activities and named other secret Communists during McCarthy hearings into Communist infiltration of Ft. Monmouth, but not his own Soviet espionage. For true devotes, it's worthing noting that Sussman may also be added to the subset of McCarthy cases who appear in Venona (his cryptonym previously only decrypted in part).
Chalk 'em up.