Army-McCarthy-Hearings-June-2-1954-revised.mp3
The infamous Army-McCarthy Hearings - a Capitol Hill spectacle that went from March 16 to June 17, 1954 - televised - broadcast live over Radio - captured millions of Americans who sat glued as charges and counter-charges of Communist influence in Washington spilled out for all to witness.
On this June 2nd, Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy claimed he was studying alleged Communist infiltration of hydrogen and atomic bomb plants and of the government's super-secret Central Intelligence Agency. Simultaneously, the Army-McCarthy subcommittee voted to recommend that McCarthy turn over to the Defense Department the names of some 130 security risks McCarthy said are now working in defense plants. McCarthy protested the Defense Department already knew about them.
The twin actions came during the hectic 25th day of the Army McCarthy hearings, which also saw McCarthy fling a new blast at President Eisenhower's recent secrecy order and deliver a stinging reply to Sen, Ralph E. Flanders who criticized McCarthy and his aides.
McCarthy's statements on the CIA were answered almost immediately by CIA Director Allen W. Dulles, who declared that "McCarthy's charge that the CIA is penetrated by Communists is false." Members of the Joint Congressional Atomic Energy Committee also said their group had done a good job policing the atomic-hydrogen program and demanded any data McCarthy might have. One Democrat joint committee accused McCarthy of making a play for headlines. McCarthy said his subcommittee began a preliminary investigation of the intelligence agency last year because "we had a sizeable number of complaints about Communist Infiltration" and "corruption." But he said he decided not to hold public hearings after a meeting with high-level administration officials, including "one of the highest elected officials in the executive branch not Eisenhower." This official presumably was Vice president Richard M. Nixon, the only other elected official of the executive branch. McCarthy said the meeting convinced him it would not be in the public interest to hold public hearings then. Informed of Dulles' statement, McCarthy repeated he has a lot of information indicating "Communist infiltration into the CIA." He said the final verdict must depend on sworn testimony. ' McCarthy said it is "extremely difficult, to go into communism in the CIA because Dulles had ordered his men not to testify. It will be up to Congress to determine if the CIA was an agency whose officialswere exempt from testifying.
The turbulent hearings, which ran nearly an hour overtime, also were marked bv a flat declaration by Sen. Charles E. Potter (It-Mich.) that "perjury has been commuted" by some one on the Army or McCarthy side.
And there was more in the days to come, as the hearings would finally wind down on June 17th. Here is a recap from June 2nd from CBS Radio.
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