79-07-A6

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McCarthy

Transcript I've spoken before about the so-called "cold war" era in the 40's and 50's when there was widespread Communist subversion and infiltration of government agencies and selected industries. And I've called attention to the rewriting of history that would have us believe now that the "cold war" was unreal, e:xisting only in the minds of some "reactionaries". Yet, the cold war, the subversion and attempts at infiltration were real and very much part of an overall Communist plan. In Hollywood in 1947 several Communist- infiltrated unions attacked their fellow workers by way of a jurisdictional strike and there was physical violence and bombings. I was part of that Hollywood and participated in the successful effort to keep the studios open and operating. Today all of those stormy years are lumped together by the history rewriters and laid on the doorstep of the late Senator Joseph McCarthy. Indeed, the term "McCarthyism" is used to identify that entire era. Actually the Senator didn't make his charges and begin his investigations until several years after the Communist effort in Hollywood had been defeated. But it's true that the Senator used a shotgun when a rifle was needed, injuring the innocent along with the guilty. Nevertheless, his broadsides should not be used today to infer that all who opposed Communist subversion were hysterical zealots, while the Communists were high-minded liberals, free thinkers and not really Communists at all. Recently while watching the TV show "60 Minutes", I saw a case in point. Let me hasten to say I'm a regular viewer of that program and have the greatest respect for the investigative work of the people involved in "60 Minutes". They have exposed any number of evil situations that needed spotlighting. But, in a recent program in tribute to Edward R. Murrow, they were led down the garden path. A Murrow "See It Now" broadcast of 25 years ago was replayed on "60 Minutes", showing a portion of a filmed hearing by the "Government Operations Committee", which took place in March, 1954. The witness appearing before the committee had been discharged from a position in the code room of the Pentagon on charges of membership in the Communist party. Viewers of "60 Minutes" saw only a carefully edited portion of the witnesses' testimony and questioning. Now understand this editing was not done by "60 Minutes", they were replaying film of a program that had been aired 25 years ago. But today's viewer must have come away with an impression that the witness was innocent and was being persecuted by the committee chaired by Senator McCarthy. What the viewer couldn't know is that only a tiny portion of the witnesses' testimony was shown. In fact, only 180 lines scattered throughout the more than 1,000 lines of testimony were in the transcript shown. The entire transcript does not give the impression of innocence as does the filmed portion. And there was no one to tell us that in 1959, five years after the hearing, new evidence was disclosed that the witness was indeed a Communist and had perjured herself in her appearance before the committee. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 79-07-A6 Production Date 05/08/1979 Book/Page N/A Audio Youtube? No
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