Chapter Fourteen-The McCarthy Communist Hearings (1)

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*Senator McCarthy begun with a paid sponsored ad to promote Pepsi. But this wasn't his 'error'. He denounced "The Taft-Hartley slave labor Bill". This was to stop US labor workers from 'working to be bone'. The leglislation was proposed by J Mack Swigert, with the help of US Senator Robert Alphonso Taft (September 8, 1889 – July 31, 1953), and New Jersey Republican Fred Allan Hartley, Jr. (February 22, 1902 – May 11, 1969)*.

    **Taft's father was 27th  US President of the United States William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857 – March 8, 1930; Taft was President from (1909-13); Taft was also  the tenth Chief Justice of the US Court as well, (1921-30). Taft joined the Superior Court (Cincinnati, 1887). By 1890, he became the Solicitor General of the United States; by 1891, a year later, he was a United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit judge. In 1900, assassinated US President William McKinley (January 29, 1843 – September 14, 1901), made Taft "The Governor-General of the Phillppines". By 1904, the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858—January 6, 1919), (he was President from 1901-9), gave Taft the job of "Secretary of War"**.

       ***Trivia: President Roosevelt became famous for his name being associated with the "Teddy bear" because of his name***.

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McCarthy got into trouble during the Malmedy massacre that happened on December 17, 1944 when 80 US POWs in WWII were killed by the Kampfgruppe Peiper , ( 1st SS Panzer Division), a German military unit who served under the Führer, Adolf Hitler, 21 April 1889 – 30 April 1945, as they fought during The Battle of the Bulge. The trials in Dachau in 1946, inflamed American politicians in Europe, as a sad footnote to the end of WWII. McCarthy was insincere about the war crimes in Germany. According to the US Press Corps, quote: 'McCarthy is the worst US Senator currently in office', unquote.

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McCarthy, by the beginning of 1950, regained composure. He knew that the war was almost his downfall. But, saving lost grace, he elicited further controversy by tabelling a series of hearings that led to the infamous "naming of names", dubbed "The McCarthy trials". These were designed to weed out the Communist threat against America. Namely, anyone who was viewed to hate America, or showed "foreign sympathies to other countries", and "wasn't shown to be Johnny and Janes...and showed all American values".

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By Febraury 9, 1950, McCarthy vented his anger. Quote: "The State Department is infested with communists...I have here in my hand a list of 205...A list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party...and, who nevertheless, are still working and shaping policy in the State Department", unquote. And, before anyone could take a long, deep breath, prattled onward.

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