A Tale of Two Joe’s: McCarthy, Kennedy and the Warren Presidency: 1953-1955
Inauguration Day, January 20th 1949
President Earl Warren and Vice President-elect Jenner was surrounded by First Lady Nina Warner and their children and Jenner’s second family for the traditional tea before leaving for the Inauguration ceremonies. It was a cold, overcast day as the four mounted the Inaugural stand where Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson would swear them both in. Vinson nodded to Dewey, who raised his right hand. “I, Earl Warren, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me God.”
Vice President Jenner, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President Truman, Vice President Harriman, President Wallace, President Hoover, Reverend Clergy, and fellow citizens
It is our pleasure today to honor great men of another day, men who have contributed much to our national life and to the civilization of which it is a part. We speak of them, of course, in gratitude, but we have another reason, even more personal to present-day Americans and in keeping with the necessities of our time. We meet her to strengthen our own convictions concerning government and law; to fortify our belief in a government of laws and not of men. We seek re-dedication to the cause of justice, between individuals, between citizens and their sovereign, and between the nations of the world. We reach for perfect justice, but we do not expect to grasp it, because history, both profane and-divine, teaches us that as long as time and human nature exist there will be issues to decide, causes to adjust. We learn from Holy Writ that even the angels quarreled and the Satan and his angels were banished to darkness for their wrongs. We know that the path of justice in every time and place has been rough, tortuous, and uphill. No nation has yet reached the summit. Exact justice has not been achieved. No mortal has embodied all its principles. We recognize however that civilizations of the past have advanced it; nations in all ages have made contributions to it, and individuals have either evolved or formulated or synthesized principles of justice in a way that has challenged the admiration and emulation of people in many lands -- people who are interested in that kind of government which is premised upon freedom and the dignity of the individual. We honor those nations for their accomplishments and revere the memories of such individuals for their contributions.
As Americans, we are proud of our system of government and our standards of justice, although we claim neither originality nor perfection for them. We, too, have had our great men who have made contributions to the sum total of human knowledge in the field of justice. We do not deify them like the sages of other countries, they were people, subject to all the limitations of human beings. As a nation, we make no pretense except to a passion for justice based upon the dignity and rights of the individual. We stake everything we have on our belief that only through this kind of justice can there be order and contentment within nations and peace between countries of the world. We believe this kind of justice is the rightful heritage of every human being and that it is his right and duty to achieve it.
For three and a half centuries Americans, using the experience and wisdom of older countries from which we or our forebears came, have endeavored to develop in this section of the world a system of government and a body of law that will accord justice to everyone. We have made mistakes- many of them. People have at times succeeded in using our system for selfish and even oppressive ends. We have often been required to wipe some things from the slate and start again. At times we have been close to failure but we have never failed in our climb toward the pinnacle of true justice. And we are climbing today to meet the test of Thomas Jefferson that, "The most sacred of the duties of a government is to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens."
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Associated Press, 1953
Warren Cabinet Finalized
Secretary of the Treasury: Prescott S. Bush
Secretary of State: Nelson Rockefeller
Secretary of Defense: John Foster Dulles
Attorney General: Herbert Brownell
Postmaster General: Arthur Summerfield*
Secretary of Interior: Harold Stassen
Secretary of Agriculture: Roman Hruska
Secretary of Commerce: Oveta Hobby
Secretary of Labor: Fred A. Hartley
Secretary of HEW: James P. Mitchell
The Rosenberg’s go up in Smoke
Today on February 11th 1953, many American’s were shocked to find out that President Warren has refused to offer clemency to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for their crimes of High Treason. Although, the President had spoken out against the trial proceedings, he felt compelled to allow Judge Kaufman’s sentence stand as the Rosenberg‘s will be executed via electric chair on June 19th of this year. The White House is not available for comment at this time
Say Goodbye to Uncle Joe
On March 5th, we can now verify that Joseph Stalin…General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union has died at the age of 74. From apparent complications of a massive stroke he had four days earlier, Stalin’s death can now be considered official. However, all things in Washington and the White House are quiet as they wait to find out who will succeed the man, who held power for over three decades.
God Save the Queen
June 2nd, the year of our lord 1953...the British Commonwealth welcomes it’s newest queen, as the 27 year old Elizabeth eldest daughter of the late King George V and Queen Mary was coroneted at Westminster Abbey. Dignitaries from all over the world came to witness the once in a lifetime occasion, including President Warren who gave the new Queen a bottle of Korbel Californian Champagne dated from the 1880’s.
Korean War Over!!!
With the United Nations' acceptance of India's proposed Korean War armstice the KPA, the PVA, and the UN Command ceased fire on 27 July 1953, with the battle line approximately at the 38th parallel. Upon agreeing to the armistice, the belligerents established the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which has since been defended by the KPA and ROKA, US, and UN Commands. The Demilitarized Zone runs northeast of the 38th parallel; to the south, it travels west. The old Korean capital city of Kaesong, site of the armistice negotiations, originally lay in the pre-war ROK, but now is in the DPRK. The United Nations Command, supported by the United States, the North Korean Korean People's Army, and the Chinese People's Volunteers, signed the Armistice Agreement to end the fighting. The Armistice also called upon the governments of South Korea, North Korea, China and the United States to participate in peace talks in future. For his part, ROK President Rhee attacked the peace proceedings
Warren chooses Hand for Chief Justice
In a surprise move, President Earl Warren nominated 81 year old Learned Hand of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second District Court to position of Chief Justice. Due to the late Justice Vinson’s death September 8th of a massive heart attack, the spot has been vacated for this year Court term. The justify his nomination, President Warren said “This is something that should have been done forty years ago, Judge Learned Hand has been this nation’s most significant judicial philosopher in this nation’s history, and it thusly should be rewarded.” Despite concerns about his extreme age, Hand has almost universal adulation on both sides of the isle and is expected to be nominated without due delay.
Governor Kennedy and Actress Grace Kelly married
In a magnificent wedding, which looked as if it should have been filmed at a back lot in Hollywood, 38 year old Governor Joseph P. “Joe” Kennedy Jr. married the talented 24 MGM Actress Grace Kelly on November 22nd 1953. The two Irish Roman Catholics, had the ceremony take place at the massive Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston MA with over 1000 guests attending. For its outright lavishness, it is easily being considered the wedding of the century.
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The Warren Administration, could be now seen as a team of Rivals especially when it came to the arena of foreign policy. The ever ambitious Nelson Rockefeller, had served strongly as the nation ‘s Treasury Secretary continuing many of the Keynesian practices put in place by his predecessors, while making enough cuts budgetary wise to ensure a balanced one. However, his heart had always intently been on Foreign Policy, and with Warren being elected in his own right, he had no problem obliging Nelson to the spot of the nation’s top diplomat in the state department. We now know that Dulles and Rockefeller held two fundamentally different ideas about foreign policy, and often quarreled for the most influence in the Warren White House. Usually Dulles won out, due to his seniority.
In 1954, Warren covertly stepped up military aid to France for their operations in Indochina, though he preferred an independent, anti-communist state. The campaign there dragged on through 1956; though France was facing increasing pressure to withdraw. The Cold War intensified in 1953 when the United States announced their possession of the hydrogen bomb, and the Workers’ Uprising in the GDR was smashed by Soviet forces in the region. Molotov tried to calm tensions in Europe, and remarked that what the Soviets did was no different than how America had supported France in Vietnam. GDR government also claimed American hands in the uprising, citing the conduct of radio stations in the American sectors of Germany and Berlin in their sensationalized reporting of the incident.
One of the defining moments came when Britain requested the assistance of the United States in preventing the nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1954. The United States and the UK, in perhaps the most infamous of the early CIA operations, began their plot to overthrow Mossadegh. But when Molotov heard of it, he was incensed. Having invited the Tudeh Party to participate in Cominform, he felt that continued American interference might lead to the destruction of the Tudeh Party. Deciding to align with the nationalists to prevent the US from keeping yet another ally on the Soviet border, he began plans to supply both the Kurdish communists and the Tudeh Party in 1953, as the CIA was setting up its own guerilla forces in the nation’s south. Neither side understood the full extent of the other’s involvement in Iran. In early 1954, Operation Ajax was put into motion, but not everything went as planned. There was absolute chaos in Tehran, and the Tudeh Party, on its own initiative, had tried to rally the nationalists, saying they had ‘common cause’ in preventing US interference in their politics. Guerilla forces backed by the powers clashed, and soon the conflict itself had exploded into civil war, with pro-West forces clashing with the nationalists and pro-Soviets. Kurds in the Northwest frontier revolted and with many of Iran’s forces drawn into the fighting there was little to oppose them. Barzani re-established the Republic of Mahabad, and Molotov allowed the fighters who had fled to Azerbaijan to return to Iran. The Shah fled the nation, and in the south the old government maintained nominal control, while Kurds and Tudeh forces held the most influence in the north. The British formally intervened in the region when they deployed naval forces to the Persian Gulf. They also negotiated a deal with other European powers, pledging to end the AIOC monopoly if they received support from other nations. France declared support, and as Molotov denounced Western intervention, Warren began to regret his approval of Operation Ajax most seriously. MacArthur and other defense officials privately argued for formal US military intervention, and now Warren was faced with a serious dilemma. He was afraid to commit troops to Iran after Korea, and knew that any victory would require US troops at the Soviet border. Such a solution was not tenable, with Warren aware of reports that said the Soviets had already tested “super” yield weapons, and would have refined versions in production by 1956. So Warren effectively left Britain and France on a limb, each with sizeable expeditionary forces deployed in southern Iran. In late 1955, both sides were at an impasse. Molotov did not want to fight a war over Iran. So in a series of negotiations, Iran was split into three nations: in the south was the regime controlled by the Shah and the military, while the north was controlled by the Tudeh-Nationalist coalition through Soviet backing. The pro-Soviet Republic of Mahabad was also created as a Kurdish homeland, and fortified with Soviet troops to prevent an invasion by Turkey or Iraq.
Outrage against Warren reached a high. That he had allowed the Soviets to expand so flagrantly, and that it was the result of an ill-planned CIA coup was a political disaster. But surprisingly, this did not strengthen the foreign policy doves as much as it did the hawks: many said Warren had not gone far enough, and that Molotov had been planning the communist-nationalist coalition’s ascendancy before the coup had occurred, which to some extent was true. Strategically, the results were mixed. While the Soviets had gained more influence, the majority of Iranian petroleum was now under Western control, at least for then. There were fears of the Baluchistani revolting, but the authoritarian regime seemed to have things under control. There was no formal peace signed between the pro-Western and pro-Soviet Iranian states, though since all the backers of these proxies had agreed to put a stop to escalation, there was little chance of any side waging a successful war against another.
Believing the costly adventure in Iran would discourage the West, Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal. What he did not anticipate was the Israeli invasion, and though the British lent air support the war was quickly put to a stop by UN peacekeepers. To solidify the pro-Western forces in the region, the Baghdad Pact was signed between the southern government of Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, which Nasser saw as a direct threat.
The Soviets formed the Council for Mutual Defense, or ComDef, in 1956. It was an expansion of COMECON that included the Eastern Bloc in Europe, communist clients in Iran, and China as an observing member.
Warren continued aid in Indochina though, and in 1956 France had regained nominal control. But the political toll was far too heavy. As a result, they decolonized the region and installed an authoritarian regime in its wake. France also reserved the right to intervene in the region if necessary, to protect its ‘trading interests’.
The support of the pro-western forces in Iran caused uproar in France, with many believing it was a poor decision by France to support the British and the Americans in the territory, especially with the war in Indochina not proceeding as well as the French Government would hope. At home, the 4th Republic, a weak coalition government was torn by internal squabbling with the De Gaullist Factions, who wished to make France more independent from what they saw as an Anglo-American co-dominance. When in 1956, the 4th Republic was dealt a double blow, with the believed surrendering of Indochina, and the end of the French Intervention in Iran, the 4th Republic began to come apart at the seams. In 1956, France went through 3 Prime Ministers alone.
Soviet, PRC, and US backing of revolutionary movements in Portuguese Africa continued, while the Central African Federation was formed to create a middle ground between radical African nationalism and white oppression in South Africa. But the policies of the Central African Federation were often paternalistic and mildly racist, yet amid the chaos of sub-Saharan Africa, it seemed an attractive option at the time. The support for the SACP increased throughout these years, alarming the United States. Warren, however, was uncomfortable supporting racist South Africa even covertly.
Secretary of State Nelson A. Rockefeller greeting Princess Beatrix of the Neatherlands in South Africa
From: Warren’s Way written by Bloc Head
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Associated Press, 1954
Senator Kennedy Marries New York Socialite
Valentine’s Day 1954, The 36 year old Junior Senator from Massachusetts, John F. “Jack” Kennedy married the beautiful 24 year old daughter of Wall Street Broker John Vernou “Black Jack” Bouvier III…Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. The ceremony took place at St. Mary’s Church in Newport, Rhode Island in a mass celebrated by Boston’s Archbishop Richard Cushing (whom preceded over his older brother Joe’s wedding only four months earlier). An estimated 700 guests attended the ceremony and 1,200 attended the reception followed at Hammersmith farm.
Congress under siege
On March 2nd 1954, we can report that five congressman were shot today in the US House of Representatives by three rabid Puerto Rican Nationalists. Apparently the bullets were spraed down from above in the congressional gallery; yet none confirmed dead. The Female accomplice that was with the male shooters were quickly overpowered and high bonds have been set in response.
Army-McCarthy hearings conclude
The thirty six day long marathon, which has been televised in America’s home for most of the spring has finally came to an end today. After hearing 32 witnesses and two million words of testimony, the committee concluded that McCarthy himself had not exercised any improper influence on Schine's behalf, but that Cohn had engaged in "unduly persistent or aggressive efforts". The committee also concluded that Army Secretary Robert Stevens and Army Counsel John Adams "made efforts to terminate or influence the investigation and hearings at Fort Monmouth", and that Adams "made vigorous and diligent efforts" to block subpoenas for members of the Army Loyalty and Screening Board "by means of personal appeal to certain members of the [McCarthy] committee". One of the more memorable lines the summed up the public new found disapproval in Joe McCarthy was when the army’s chief legal representative Joseph Welch replied to McCarthy’s houndings by responding "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never gauged your cruelty or your recklessness[...]" When McCarthy resumed his attack, Welch interrupted him: "Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" When McCarthy once again persisted, Welch cut him off and demanded the chairman "call the next witness". At that point, the gallery erupted in applause and a recess was called
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McCullough: [voice-over] Nowhere was Warren's more direct style more apparent than in his efforts to undermine Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Herbert Brownell, Attorney, General: Warren gave orders early in his first term that one of his objectives was to destroy McCarthy. At the same time, he realized and said to the Cabinet that he didn't think that Dewey’s method of dealing with McCarthy had been successful. had denounced McCarthy from the Oval Office and that just fueled the controversy, created headlines for McCarthy and McCarthy loved that.
McCullough: [voice-over] ''Nothing will be so effective in combating this kind of trouble-making as to ignore him,'' Warren wrote. ''This he cannot stand.'' The President's interest quickened in late 1953 when McCarthy began to probe for Communists in the U.S. Army. McCarthy charged Army dentist Irving Peress with ''Communist affiliations.'' He then lambasted Peress' commanding officer for not preventing the dentist's automatic promotion.
McCullough: [voice-over] Warren had asked his staff to find a way to undermine McCarthy, and they did. After one of McCarthy's aides, David Schine, was drafted, McCarthy tried to use his influence to get Schein cushy assignments. The Army kept records of these attempts for preferential treatment and Eisenhower's staff gave them to all members of McCarthy's committee. That turned the tables. McCarthy's quest for who in the Army promoted ''the pink dentist'' became also a hearing on the Army's charge of influence-peddling.
Herbert Brownell: The President then issued an executive order which instructed everyone in the executive branch not to answer McCarthy's subpoenas. He cut off the fodder, so to speak, for the day-to-day examination by McCarthy of employees in the executive branch, and it was very effective in bringing the McCarthy era to an end.
Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy: I must admit I'm somewhat at a loss as to know what to do at this moment. I don't believe that this is the result of President Warren's own personal thinking.
McCullough: [voice-over] But it was, and it worked. Warren prevented McCarthy from rummaging at will through White House files. With the exposure of the hearings, televised for eight weeks to 20 million Americans, McCarthy's credibility plummeted.
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.: It was not a noble chapter in American history, but I do believe when Warren finally confronted McCarthy after the hearings it proved that his pragmatic yet sense of being a uniter had triumphed over the day. He let nature take its course, and eventually McCarthy self-destructed. Warren by playing his cards strategically, most definitely should claim credit for it.
Robert Donovan: What can I say, Warren did eventually do what I hoped he would do. On July 4th, at Ellis Island in New York…the President delivered the signature speech of his career a speech specifically about McCarthy and McCarthyism. He stood like a triumphant old king under the statue of liberty; holding the sweaty, bloody shirt who had taken his nation by storm.
POTUS Earl Warren: I believe the preservation of our civil liberties to be the most fundamental and important of all our governmental problems, because it always has been with us and always will be with us and if we ever permit those liberties to be destroyed, there will be nothing left in our system worthy of preservation. They constitute the soul of democracy. I believe that there is grave danger in this country of losing our civil liberties as they have been lost in other countries. There are things transpiring in this country today that are definitely menacing our future; among which are the activities of Senator McCarthy and other little McCarthy’s throughout the country. These activities are so basically wrong and so menacing to our institutions that every citizen and particularly every public official should oppose them to the limit of their strength.
Transcript from American Experience’s series on The Presidents…Earl Warren, Battling McCarthy segment
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On Joe Junior’s 39th birthday, Grace gave birth to his first child…a beautiful baby girl who weighed about seven pounds, ten ounces. They had decided to name her after both their mothers, a Margaret Rose Kennedy as her nickname Marge would be bestowed upon her at a later date. During the first few weeks after, Margaret’s birth, Joe was the perfect husband. He stayed home of the campaign trail, which due to it being his fourth gubernatorial election and running against a week republican opponent in former senator Sinclair Weeks. She indeed was quite happy adjusting to life as a mother and life as a governor’s mother but she still missed her work as an actress.
Both her father-in-law and Industry professionals realized that it would have been impractical for her to continue acting and wished her well. Alfred Hitchcock had quipped that he was "very happy that Grace has found herself such a good part." Perhaps a reminder of what a career she could have possibly had, The family was astounded when Grace won the academy award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Mogambo. As an outlet for her frustrations in dealing with Joe’s rumored infidelity, and overall absenteeism due the heavy workload of the governor, Grace poured herself into teaching Theatre at numerous Massachusetts Universities including Harvard.
She was also there when her new family needed her the most. In October 1954, when Jack was admitted the Cornell Medical Center in New York due to his ongoing back problems. When the surgery created more problems for Jack than it before it, complications almost sent him knocking on death’s door. While his older brother’s was out campaigning for another landslide election Grace, was at Jack’s bedside with Jackie trying to help him recover.
The future first-lady recalled back on her relationship between Jack and Jackie in an oral interview in [REDACTED] “I actually knew Jackie ironically before I even met Joe or Jack at some dinner party back when I lived in New York. When we received news that Jack’s surgery had taken an unfortunate turn at the worst, Jackie wanted me to go into his room and say I was his new night nurse. Well, I hesitated. I was terribly embarrassed. Eventually, I was just sort of pushed into the room by the both of them and he recognized me instantly. He asked, with that usual charm of his, Did Joe send you up here to make sure I was dead already to keep the Kennedy name in the papers…we all just burst out laughing, and even in such a dire condition as what he was in, he still couldn’t have been sweeter to put all of us at ease.”
From: Grace, Jackie, Ethel and Joan: Women of Tir na Nog
Associated Press, 1954
Separate but Equal struck down
In a landmark unanimous decision, the Hand Court struck down in the case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. The decision declares that state laws establishing separate public schools for negro and white students and denying black children equal educational opportunities unconstitutional. It overturns the decision of Plessy v. Ferguson written in 1896 which reinforced segregation. President Warren declares “A grand triumph in the pursuit of equality in this nation, and this administration will stand by the decision of the Supreme Court 100%”
Democrats retake Senate and House
Largely due to the soft state of the economy, general dislike of the pro-right to work administrative policies pursued by the Warren administration, association of the GOP with the excess of McCarthyism and anger at the President’s open embrace of Civil Rights, Senate Democrats led by Lyndon B. Johnson picked up the three seats necessary to gain a majority in the upper house. Important Democratic pickups included, Alben Barkley in Kentucky, Foster Furcolo in Massachusetts and Patrick v. McNamara in Michigan. In the House, Sam Rayburn can expect to become speaker again ,as the Democrats picked up a whopping 18 seats in the house, allowing the democrats to retake the house for the first time since 1946. In Governor’s races, the Democrats can look for some solace, in knowing that their golden boy from Massachusetts Joe Kennedy Jr. picked up another resounding victory against former Bay State Senator Sinclair Weeks.
McCarthy Censured!!!
On December 2nd 1954, history will record as the day that the McCarthy era of fear ended as the Senate voted to condemn old Tail gunner on a 67 to 22 vote margin. The only senator not on record was John F. Kennedy, who was hospitalized for back surgery; Immediately after the vote, Senator Styles Bridges a McCarthy supporter, argued that the resolution was "not a censure resolution" because the word "condemn" rather than "censure" was used in the final draft. The word "censure" was then removed from the title of the resolution, though McCarthy himself said, "I wouldn't exactly call it a vote of confidence." He added, "I don't feel I've been lynched."
The two counts on which the Senate ultimately voted were:
In many ways, McCarthy and Joseph Kennedy Jr. represented two divergent paths available to Irish Catholic politicians for success in what was still a predominantly Anglo-Saxon and Protestant nation. McCarthy never lost track of his roots. He attended mass every Sunday, built strong friendships with priests and clerics and remained a strict Catholic. Joe Jr., by contrast was embarrassed by the presence of priests and the outward trappings of Catholicism. He had attended Choate and Harvard rather than Catholic schools, while McCarthy was a graduate of the Jesuit university of Marquette. Kennedy avoided doing or saying things in public that would identifiably or stereotypically “Irish” (although in private he enjoyed sitting at the piano and singing traditional irish ballads with his sisters). Early on he had decided his destiny lay with the dominant eastern political establishment. He forged links to its key institutions, Harvard(both Undergraduate and Law School), the mainstream press, and groups like the National Governor’s association and Americans for Democratic Action. [REDACTED] years after McCarthy’s censure, Kennedy ran for president as the standard bearer for that establishment liberalism. He surrounded himself with its best and brightest…some of the same men, as it happened, Joe McCarthy had spent his career attacking.
By contrast, Joe McCarthy was what a knowing observer would call “shanty Irish” as opposed to the “lace curtian Irish” which Joseph Kennedy Jr.’s mother Rose Fitzgerald epitomized. McCarthy was authentic working class. His eldest brother Steve, was a factory worker; another a local auctioneer; the third a truck driver. It was only in Law School that he finally learned to shed his broad Irish brogue. The grandiloquent gesture, the blarney, the do or die bravado, the inability to forget slights and humiliations, as well as the drinking and affinity for lost causes; it is not possible to understand McCarthy’s career without its ethnic component
The Election of Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. in [REDACTED] marked the culmination of another political trend that McCarthy started, but which, despite his ties to the Kennedy family, very few noticed: the emergence of American Catholics in the political mainstream. Joe Kennedy Jr., like his brothers never quite turned his back on McCarthy despite the divergent paths to political power. Now in [REDACTED], he embraced his Irish Catholic roots, which he had taken such great pains to hide, served him well at the ballot box. As Michael Barone puts it, Kennedy learned that “being a Catholic was worth votes…” and in the same places, such as Massachusetts, working class New York, and the Fox River Valley of Wisconsin, where McCarthy had found his bedrock support. The Catholic vote, in fact, may have been the margin of victory in [REDACTED].
Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) conferring with US Attorney Robert F. Kennedy during the Army-McCarthy Hearings
From : Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining The Life and Legacy of America’s Most Hated Senators by Arthur Herman
Inauguration Day, January 20th 1949
President Earl Warren and Vice President-elect Jenner was surrounded by First Lady Nina Warner and their children and Jenner’s second family for the traditional tea before leaving for the Inauguration ceremonies. It was a cold, overcast day as the four mounted the Inaugural stand where Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson would swear them both in. Vinson nodded to Dewey, who raised his right hand. “I, Earl Warren, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me God.”
Vice President Jenner, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President Truman, Vice President Harriman, President Wallace, President Hoover, Reverend Clergy, and fellow citizens
It is our pleasure today to honor great men of another day, men who have contributed much to our national life and to the civilization of which it is a part. We speak of them, of course, in gratitude, but we have another reason, even more personal to present-day Americans and in keeping with the necessities of our time. We meet her to strengthen our own convictions concerning government and law; to fortify our belief in a government of laws and not of men. We seek re-dedication to the cause of justice, between individuals, between citizens and their sovereign, and between the nations of the world. We reach for perfect justice, but we do not expect to grasp it, because history, both profane and-divine, teaches us that as long as time and human nature exist there will be issues to decide, causes to adjust. We learn from Holy Writ that even the angels quarreled and the Satan and his angels were banished to darkness for their wrongs. We know that the path of justice in every time and place has been rough, tortuous, and uphill. No nation has yet reached the summit. Exact justice has not been achieved. No mortal has embodied all its principles. We recognize however that civilizations of the past have advanced it; nations in all ages have made contributions to it, and individuals have either evolved or formulated or synthesized principles of justice in a way that has challenged the admiration and emulation of people in many lands -- people who are interested in that kind of government which is premised upon freedom and the dignity of the individual. We honor those nations for their accomplishments and revere the memories of such individuals for their contributions.
As Americans, we are proud of our system of government and our standards of justice, although we claim neither originality nor perfection for them. We, too, have had our great men who have made contributions to the sum total of human knowledge in the field of justice. We do not deify them like the sages of other countries, they were people, subject to all the limitations of human beings. As a nation, we make no pretense except to a passion for justice based upon the dignity and rights of the individual. We stake everything we have on our belief that only through this kind of justice can there be order and contentment within nations and peace between countries of the world. We believe this kind of justice is the rightful heritage of every human being and that it is his right and duty to achieve it.
For three and a half centuries Americans, using the experience and wisdom of older countries from which we or our forebears came, have endeavored to develop in this section of the world a system of government and a body of law that will accord justice to everyone. We have made mistakes- many of them. People have at times succeeded in using our system for selfish and even oppressive ends. We have often been required to wipe some things from the slate and start again. At times we have been close to failure but we have never failed in our climb toward the pinnacle of true justice. And we are climbing today to meet the test of Thomas Jefferson that, "The most sacred of the duties of a government is to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens."
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Associated Press, 1953
Warren Cabinet Finalized
Secretary of the Treasury: Prescott S. Bush
Secretary of State: Nelson Rockefeller
Secretary of Defense: John Foster Dulles
Attorney General: Herbert Brownell
Postmaster General: Arthur Summerfield*
Secretary of Interior: Harold Stassen
Secretary of Agriculture: Roman Hruska
Secretary of Commerce: Oveta Hobby
Secretary of Labor: Fred A. Hartley
Secretary of HEW: James P. Mitchell
The Rosenberg’s go up in Smoke
Today on February 11th 1953, many American’s were shocked to find out that President Warren has refused to offer clemency to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for their crimes of High Treason. Although, the President had spoken out against the trial proceedings, he felt compelled to allow Judge Kaufman’s sentence stand as the Rosenberg‘s will be executed via electric chair on June 19th of this year. The White House is not available for comment at this time
Say Goodbye to Uncle Joe
On March 5th, we can now verify that Joseph Stalin…General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union has died at the age of 74. From apparent complications of a massive stroke he had four days earlier, Stalin’s death can now be considered official. However, all things in Washington and the White House are quiet as they wait to find out who will succeed the man, who held power for over three decades.
God Save the Queen
June 2nd, the year of our lord 1953...the British Commonwealth welcomes it’s newest queen, as the 27 year old Elizabeth eldest daughter of the late King George V and Queen Mary was coroneted at Westminster Abbey. Dignitaries from all over the world came to witness the once in a lifetime occasion, including President Warren who gave the new Queen a bottle of Korbel Californian Champagne dated from the 1880’s.
Korean War Over!!!
With the United Nations' acceptance of India's proposed Korean War armstice the KPA, the PVA, and the UN Command ceased fire on 27 July 1953, with the battle line approximately at the 38th parallel. Upon agreeing to the armistice, the belligerents established the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which has since been defended by the KPA and ROKA, US, and UN Commands. The Demilitarized Zone runs northeast of the 38th parallel; to the south, it travels west. The old Korean capital city of Kaesong, site of the armistice negotiations, originally lay in the pre-war ROK, but now is in the DPRK. The United Nations Command, supported by the United States, the North Korean Korean People's Army, and the Chinese People's Volunteers, signed the Armistice Agreement to end the fighting. The Armistice also called upon the governments of South Korea, North Korea, China and the United States to participate in peace talks in future. For his part, ROK President Rhee attacked the peace proceedings
Warren chooses Hand for Chief Justice
In a surprise move, President Earl Warren nominated 81 year old Learned Hand of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second District Court to position of Chief Justice. Due to the late Justice Vinson’s death September 8th of a massive heart attack, the spot has been vacated for this year Court term. The justify his nomination, President Warren said “This is something that should have been done forty years ago, Judge Learned Hand has been this nation’s most significant judicial philosopher in this nation’s history, and it thusly should be rewarded.” Despite concerns about his extreme age, Hand has almost universal adulation on both sides of the isle and is expected to be nominated without due delay.
Governor Kennedy and Actress Grace Kelly married
In a magnificent wedding, which looked as if it should have been filmed at a back lot in Hollywood, 38 year old Governor Joseph P. “Joe” Kennedy Jr. married the talented 24 MGM Actress Grace Kelly on November 22nd 1953. The two Irish Roman Catholics, had the ceremony take place at the massive Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston MA with over 1000 guests attending. For its outright lavishness, it is easily being considered the wedding of the century.
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The Warren Administration, could be now seen as a team of Rivals especially when it came to the arena of foreign policy. The ever ambitious Nelson Rockefeller, had served strongly as the nation ‘s Treasury Secretary continuing many of the Keynesian practices put in place by his predecessors, while making enough cuts budgetary wise to ensure a balanced one. However, his heart had always intently been on Foreign Policy, and with Warren being elected in his own right, he had no problem obliging Nelson to the spot of the nation’s top diplomat in the state department. We now know that Dulles and Rockefeller held two fundamentally different ideas about foreign policy, and often quarreled for the most influence in the Warren White House. Usually Dulles won out, due to his seniority.
In 1954, Warren covertly stepped up military aid to France for their operations in Indochina, though he preferred an independent, anti-communist state. The campaign there dragged on through 1956; though France was facing increasing pressure to withdraw. The Cold War intensified in 1953 when the United States announced their possession of the hydrogen bomb, and the Workers’ Uprising in the GDR was smashed by Soviet forces in the region. Molotov tried to calm tensions in Europe, and remarked that what the Soviets did was no different than how America had supported France in Vietnam. GDR government also claimed American hands in the uprising, citing the conduct of radio stations in the American sectors of Germany and Berlin in their sensationalized reporting of the incident.
One of the defining moments came when Britain requested the assistance of the United States in preventing the nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1954. The United States and the UK, in perhaps the most infamous of the early CIA operations, began their plot to overthrow Mossadegh. But when Molotov heard of it, he was incensed. Having invited the Tudeh Party to participate in Cominform, he felt that continued American interference might lead to the destruction of the Tudeh Party. Deciding to align with the nationalists to prevent the US from keeping yet another ally on the Soviet border, he began plans to supply both the Kurdish communists and the Tudeh Party in 1953, as the CIA was setting up its own guerilla forces in the nation’s south. Neither side understood the full extent of the other’s involvement in Iran. In early 1954, Operation Ajax was put into motion, but not everything went as planned. There was absolute chaos in Tehran, and the Tudeh Party, on its own initiative, had tried to rally the nationalists, saying they had ‘common cause’ in preventing US interference in their politics. Guerilla forces backed by the powers clashed, and soon the conflict itself had exploded into civil war, with pro-West forces clashing with the nationalists and pro-Soviets. Kurds in the Northwest frontier revolted and with many of Iran’s forces drawn into the fighting there was little to oppose them. Barzani re-established the Republic of Mahabad, and Molotov allowed the fighters who had fled to Azerbaijan to return to Iran. The Shah fled the nation, and in the south the old government maintained nominal control, while Kurds and Tudeh forces held the most influence in the north. The British formally intervened in the region when they deployed naval forces to the Persian Gulf. They also negotiated a deal with other European powers, pledging to end the AIOC monopoly if they received support from other nations. France declared support, and as Molotov denounced Western intervention, Warren began to regret his approval of Operation Ajax most seriously. MacArthur and other defense officials privately argued for formal US military intervention, and now Warren was faced with a serious dilemma. He was afraid to commit troops to Iran after Korea, and knew that any victory would require US troops at the Soviet border. Such a solution was not tenable, with Warren aware of reports that said the Soviets had already tested “super” yield weapons, and would have refined versions in production by 1956. So Warren effectively left Britain and France on a limb, each with sizeable expeditionary forces deployed in southern Iran. In late 1955, both sides were at an impasse. Molotov did not want to fight a war over Iran. So in a series of negotiations, Iran was split into three nations: in the south was the regime controlled by the Shah and the military, while the north was controlled by the Tudeh-Nationalist coalition through Soviet backing. The pro-Soviet Republic of Mahabad was also created as a Kurdish homeland, and fortified with Soviet troops to prevent an invasion by Turkey or Iraq.
Outrage against Warren reached a high. That he had allowed the Soviets to expand so flagrantly, and that it was the result of an ill-planned CIA coup was a political disaster. But surprisingly, this did not strengthen the foreign policy doves as much as it did the hawks: many said Warren had not gone far enough, and that Molotov had been planning the communist-nationalist coalition’s ascendancy before the coup had occurred, which to some extent was true. Strategically, the results were mixed. While the Soviets had gained more influence, the majority of Iranian petroleum was now under Western control, at least for then. There were fears of the Baluchistani revolting, but the authoritarian regime seemed to have things under control. There was no formal peace signed between the pro-Western and pro-Soviet Iranian states, though since all the backers of these proxies had agreed to put a stop to escalation, there was little chance of any side waging a successful war against another.
Believing the costly adventure in Iran would discourage the West, Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal. What he did not anticipate was the Israeli invasion, and though the British lent air support the war was quickly put to a stop by UN peacekeepers. To solidify the pro-Western forces in the region, the Baghdad Pact was signed between the southern government of Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, which Nasser saw as a direct threat.
The Soviets formed the Council for Mutual Defense, or ComDef, in 1956. It was an expansion of COMECON that included the Eastern Bloc in Europe, communist clients in Iran, and China as an observing member.
Warren continued aid in Indochina though, and in 1956 France had regained nominal control. But the political toll was far too heavy. As a result, they decolonized the region and installed an authoritarian regime in its wake. France also reserved the right to intervene in the region if necessary, to protect its ‘trading interests’.
The support of the pro-western forces in Iran caused uproar in France, with many believing it was a poor decision by France to support the British and the Americans in the territory, especially with the war in Indochina not proceeding as well as the French Government would hope. At home, the 4th Republic, a weak coalition government was torn by internal squabbling with the De Gaullist Factions, who wished to make France more independent from what they saw as an Anglo-American co-dominance. When in 1956, the 4th Republic was dealt a double blow, with the believed surrendering of Indochina, and the end of the French Intervention in Iran, the 4th Republic began to come apart at the seams. In 1956, France went through 3 Prime Ministers alone.
Soviet, PRC, and US backing of revolutionary movements in Portuguese Africa continued, while the Central African Federation was formed to create a middle ground between radical African nationalism and white oppression in South Africa. But the policies of the Central African Federation were often paternalistic and mildly racist, yet amid the chaos of sub-Saharan Africa, it seemed an attractive option at the time. The support for the SACP increased throughout these years, alarming the United States. Warren, however, was uncomfortable supporting racist South Africa even covertly.
Secretary of State Nelson A. Rockefeller greeting Princess Beatrix of the Neatherlands in South Africa
From: Warren’s Way written by Bloc Head
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Associated Press, 1954
Senator Kennedy Marries New York Socialite
Valentine’s Day 1954, The 36 year old Junior Senator from Massachusetts, John F. “Jack” Kennedy married the beautiful 24 year old daughter of Wall Street Broker John Vernou “Black Jack” Bouvier III…Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. The ceremony took place at St. Mary’s Church in Newport, Rhode Island in a mass celebrated by Boston’s Archbishop Richard Cushing (whom preceded over his older brother Joe’s wedding only four months earlier). An estimated 700 guests attended the ceremony and 1,200 attended the reception followed at Hammersmith farm.
Congress under siege
On March 2nd 1954, we can report that five congressman were shot today in the US House of Representatives by three rabid Puerto Rican Nationalists. Apparently the bullets were spraed down from above in the congressional gallery; yet none confirmed dead. The Female accomplice that was with the male shooters were quickly overpowered and high bonds have been set in response.
Army-McCarthy hearings conclude
The thirty six day long marathon, which has been televised in America’s home for most of the spring has finally came to an end today. After hearing 32 witnesses and two million words of testimony, the committee concluded that McCarthy himself had not exercised any improper influence on Schine's behalf, but that Cohn had engaged in "unduly persistent or aggressive efforts". The committee also concluded that Army Secretary Robert Stevens and Army Counsel John Adams "made efforts to terminate or influence the investigation and hearings at Fort Monmouth", and that Adams "made vigorous and diligent efforts" to block subpoenas for members of the Army Loyalty and Screening Board "by means of personal appeal to certain members of the [McCarthy] committee". One of the more memorable lines the summed up the public new found disapproval in Joe McCarthy was when the army’s chief legal representative Joseph Welch replied to McCarthy’s houndings by responding "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never gauged your cruelty or your recklessness[...]" When McCarthy resumed his attack, Welch interrupted him: "Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" When McCarthy once again persisted, Welch cut him off and demanded the chairman "call the next witness". At that point, the gallery erupted in applause and a recess was called
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McCullough: [voice-over] Nowhere was Warren's more direct style more apparent than in his efforts to undermine Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Herbert Brownell, Attorney, General: Warren gave orders early in his first term that one of his objectives was to destroy McCarthy. At the same time, he realized and said to the Cabinet that he didn't think that Dewey’s method of dealing with McCarthy had been successful. had denounced McCarthy from the Oval Office and that just fueled the controversy, created headlines for McCarthy and McCarthy loved that.
McCullough: [voice-over] ''Nothing will be so effective in combating this kind of trouble-making as to ignore him,'' Warren wrote. ''This he cannot stand.'' The President's interest quickened in late 1953 when McCarthy began to probe for Communists in the U.S. Army. McCarthy charged Army dentist Irving Peress with ''Communist affiliations.'' He then lambasted Peress' commanding officer for not preventing the dentist's automatic promotion.
McCullough: [voice-over] Warren had asked his staff to find a way to undermine McCarthy, and they did. After one of McCarthy's aides, David Schine, was drafted, McCarthy tried to use his influence to get Schein cushy assignments. The Army kept records of these attempts for preferential treatment and Eisenhower's staff gave them to all members of McCarthy's committee. That turned the tables. McCarthy's quest for who in the Army promoted ''the pink dentist'' became also a hearing on the Army's charge of influence-peddling.
Herbert Brownell: The President then issued an executive order which instructed everyone in the executive branch not to answer McCarthy's subpoenas. He cut off the fodder, so to speak, for the day-to-day examination by McCarthy of employees in the executive branch, and it was very effective in bringing the McCarthy era to an end.
Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy: I must admit I'm somewhat at a loss as to know what to do at this moment. I don't believe that this is the result of President Warren's own personal thinking.
McCullough: [voice-over] But it was, and it worked. Warren prevented McCarthy from rummaging at will through White House files. With the exposure of the hearings, televised for eight weeks to 20 million Americans, McCarthy's credibility plummeted.
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.: It was not a noble chapter in American history, but I do believe when Warren finally confronted McCarthy after the hearings it proved that his pragmatic yet sense of being a uniter had triumphed over the day. He let nature take its course, and eventually McCarthy self-destructed. Warren by playing his cards strategically, most definitely should claim credit for it.
Robert Donovan: What can I say, Warren did eventually do what I hoped he would do. On July 4th, at Ellis Island in New York…the President delivered the signature speech of his career a speech specifically about McCarthy and McCarthyism. He stood like a triumphant old king under the statue of liberty; holding the sweaty, bloody shirt who had taken his nation by storm.
POTUS Earl Warren: I believe the preservation of our civil liberties to be the most fundamental and important of all our governmental problems, because it always has been with us and always will be with us and if we ever permit those liberties to be destroyed, there will be nothing left in our system worthy of preservation. They constitute the soul of democracy. I believe that there is grave danger in this country of losing our civil liberties as they have been lost in other countries. There are things transpiring in this country today that are definitely menacing our future; among which are the activities of Senator McCarthy and other little McCarthy’s throughout the country. These activities are so basically wrong and so menacing to our institutions that every citizen and particularly every public official should oppose them to the limit of their strength.
Transcript from American Experience’s series on The Presidents…Earl Warren, Battling McCarthy segment
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On Joe Junior’s 39th birthday, Grace gave birth to his first child…a beautiful baby girl who weighed about seven pounds, ten ounces. They had decided to name her after both their mothers, a Margaret Rose Kennedy as her nickname Marge would be bestowed upon her at a later date. During the first few weeks after, Margaret’s birth, Joe was the perfect husband. He stayed home of the campaign trail, which due to it being his fourth gubernatorial election and running against a week republican opponent in former senator Sinclair Weeks. She indeed was quite happy adjusting to life as a mother and life as a governor’s mother but she still missed her work as an actress.
Both her father-in-law and Industry professionals realized that it would have been impractical for her to continue acting and wished her well. Alfred Hitchcock had quipped that he was "very happy that Grace has found herself such a good part." Perhaps a reminder of what a career she could have possibly had, The family was astounded when Grace won the academy award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Mogambo. As an outlet for her frustrations in dealing with Joe’s rumored infidelity, and overall absenteeism due the heavy workload of the governor, Grace poured herself into teaching Theatre at numerous Massachusetts Universities including Harvard.
She was also there when her new family needed her the most. In October 1954, when Jack was admitted the Cornell Medical Center in New York due to his ongoing back problems. When the surgery created more problems for Jack than it before it, complications almost sent him knocking on death’s door. While his older brother’s was out campaigning for another landslide election Grace, was at Jack’s bedside with Jackie trying to help him recover.
The future first-lady recalled back on her relationship between Jack and Jackie in an oral interview in [REDACTED] “I actually knew Jackie ironically before I even met Joe or Jack at some dinner party back when I lived in New York. When we received news that Jack’s surgery had taken an unfortunate turn at the worst, Jackie wanted me to go into his room and say I was his new night nurse. Well, I hesitated. I was terribly embarrassed. Eventually, I was just sort of pushed into the room by the both of them and he recognized me instantly. He asked, with that usual charm of his, Did Joe send you up here to make sure I was dead already to keep the Kennedy name in the papers…we all just burst out laughing, and even in such a dire condition as what he was in, he still couldn’t have been sweeter to put all of us at ease.”
From: Grace, Jackie, Ethel and Joan: Women of Tir na Nog
Associated Press, 1954
Separate but Equal struck down
In a landmark unanimous decision, the Hand Court struck down in the case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. The decision declares that state laws establishing separate public schools for negro and white students and denying black children equal educational opportunities unconstitutional. It overturns the decision of Plessy v. Ferguson written in 1896 which reinforced segregation. President Warren declares “A grand triumph in the pursuit of equality in this nation, and this administration will stand by the decision of the Supreme Court 100%”
Democrats retake Senate and House
Largely due to the soft state of the economy, general dislike of the pro-right to work administrative policies pursued by the Warren administration, association of the GOP with the excess of McCarthyism and anger at the President’s open embrace of Civil Rights, Senate Democrats led by Lyndon B. Johnson picked up the three seats necessary to gain a majority in the upper house. Important Democratic pickups included, Alben Barkley in Kentucky, Foster Furcolo in Massachusetts and Patrick v. McNamara in Michigan. In the House, Sam Rayburn can expect to become speaker again ,as the Democrats picked up a whopping 18 seats in the house, allowing the democrats to retake the house for the first time since 1946. In Governor’s races, the Democrats can look for some solace, in knowing that their golden boy from Massachusetts Joe Kennedy Jr. picked up another resounding victory against former Bay State Senator Sinclair Weeks.
McCarthy Censured!!!
On December 2nd 1954, history will record as the day that the McCarthy era of fear ended as the Senate voted to condemn old Tail gunner on a 67 to 22 vote margin. The only senator not on record was John F. Kennedy, who was hospitalized for back surgery; Immediately after the vote, Senator Styles Bridges a McCarthy supporter, argued that the resolution was "not a censure resolution" because the word "condemn" rather than "censure" was used in the final draft. The word "censure" was then removed from the title of the resolution, though McCarthy himself said, "I wouldn't exactly call it a vote of confidence." He added, "I don't feel I've been lynched."
The two counts on which the Senate ultimately voted were:
- That McCarthy had "failed to cooperate with the Subcommittee on Rules and Administration," and "repeatedly abused the members who were trying to carry out assigned duties..."
- That McCarthy had charged "three members of the [Watkins] Select Committee with 'deliberate deception' and 'fraud'...that the special Senate session...was a 'lynch party,'" and had characterized the committee "as the 'unwitting handmaiden,' 'involuntary agent' and 'attorneys in fact' of the Communist Party," and had "acted contrary to senatorial ethics and tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute, to obstruct the constitutional processes of the Senate, and to impair its dignity
In many ways, McCarthy and Joseph Kennedy Jr. represented two divergent paths available to Irish Catholic politicians for success in what was still a predominantly Anglo-Saxon and Protestant nation. McCarthy never lost track of his roots. He attended mass every Sunday, built strong friendships with priests and clerics and remained a strict Catholic. Joe Jr., by contrast was embarrassed by the presence of priests and the outward trappings of Catholicism. He had attended Choate and Harvard rather than Catholic schools, while McCarthy was a graduate of the Jesuit university of Marquette. Kennedy avoided doing or saying things in public that would identifiably or stereotypically “Irish” (although in private he enjoyed sitting at the piano and singing traditional irish ballads with his sisters). Early on he had decided his destiny lay with the dominant eastern political establishment. He forged links to its key institutions, Harvard(both Undergraduate and Law School), the mainstream press, and groups like the National Governor’s association and Americans for Democratic Action. [REDACTED] years after McCarthy’s censure, Kennedy ran for president as the standard bearer for that establishment liberalism. He surrounded himself with its best and brightest…some of the same men, as it happened, Joe McCarthy had spent his career attacking.
By contrast, Joe McCarthy was what a knowing observer would call “shanty Irish” as opposed to the “lace curtian Irish” which Joseph Kennedy Jr.’s mother Rose Fitzgerald epitomized. McCarthy was authentic working class. His eldest brother Steve, was a factory worker; another a local auctioneer; the third a truck driver. It was only in Law School that he finally learned to shed his broad Irish brogue. The grandiloquent gesture, the blarney, the do or die bravado, the inability to forget slights and humiliations, as well as the drinking and affinity for lost causes; it is not possible to understand McCarthy’s career without its ethnic component
The Election of Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. in [REDACTED] marked the culmination of another political trend that McCarthy started, but which, despite his ties to the Kennedy family, very few noticed: the emergence of American Catholics in the political mainstream. Joe Kennedy Jr., like his brothers never quite turned his back on McCarthy despite the divergent paths to political power. Now in [REDACTED], he embraced his Irish Catholic roots, which he had taken such great pains to hide, served him well at the ballot box. As Michael Barone puts it, Kennedy learned that “being a Catholic was worth votes…” and in the same places, such as Massachusetts, working class New York, and the Fox River Valley of Wisconsin, where McCarthy had found his bedrock support. The Catholic vote, in fact, may have been the margin of victory in [REDACTED].
Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) conferring with US Attorney Robert F. Kennedy during the Army-McCarthy Hearings
From : Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining The Life and Legacy of America’s Most Hated Senators by Arthur Herman
