Senator McCarthy Hounds Decorated War Hero

Major General Ralph W. Zwicker

Yesterday's testimony by Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and subsequent questioning had a ring of familiarity. This was not the first time a lawmaker tried to discredit one of our nation's decorated war heroes. 

In 2013, I wrote my Master's Thesis in Justice and Legal Studies comparing two periods in American history when politicians sounded an "Exaggerated System of Alarm." The first was from the late 1790s when five Alien and Sedition Acts were passed into law in response to an unlikely government overthrow by France. 

The second period focused on the 1950s, McCarthyism, and the House Unamerican Activities Committee. 

In 1954, Senator Joseph McCarthy hounded US Army Major General Ralph Wise Zwicker during a sub-committee hearing. Below is an except from my thesis. 

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In February 1954 General Ralph Zwicker was called to testify before the Senate sub-committee. Zwicker was a genuine WWII hero. He had commanded the 38^th Infantry Regiment at the D-Day landing and, having led his troops through heavy fire, was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action. During the sub-committee hearing McCarthy wanted him to testify that another military member was a Communist. Ramrod straight and refusing to be bullied, Zwicker stated he had no evidence to support McCarthy’s accusations. Enraged and sputtering, McCarthy impugned the general’s honesty as well as his intelligence. He insisted the general be removed from command stating he was “not fit to wear that uniform.” Committee members must have blanched. 

Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI)

Although, no media was allowed at the hearing, parts were leaked to the press and immediately spread like wildfire. The following day McCarthy’s supporters started to turn. Speaking engagements were cancelled. Colleagues avoided him. Journalist Edward R. Murrow devoted part of his television show, See It Now, to a scathing critique of McCarthy. Murrow denounced the senator’s use of false information, as well as abuse and terror of both civilian and military personnel. He stated on the air, “The line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine one and the junior senator from Wisconsin has stepped over it repeatedly . . . He confuses the public mind as between the internal and the external threats of Communism. We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.” Once an asset to the party, McCarthy had now become a liability. By June his approval rating was a scant thirty-four percent. 

In July 1954 the United States Senate passed a resolution 75 to 12 to censure Joseph McCarthy for “behavior that was contrary to senatorial traditions.” He was censured that December and effectively became persona non grata in Washington. Try as he might, he could not raise another alarm. People would no longer listen to him nor did his actions garner media attention which had been his life’s blood for three years. “All of us on the staff,” wrote Press Secretary Hagerty, “including the president will make it a point not to have any comment whatsoever on anything McCarthy says or does.” Government and newsmen agreed that “McCarthy-ism had become McCarthy-wasm.”

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman