last person executed for espionage in the us

LAST PERSON EXECUTED FOR ESPIONAGE IN THE US SERIES

The Army compiled a damaging dossier of dirt on Cohn, showing that he used threats and intimidation to demand that Schine be given plum assignments and easy duty. The first move the White House made was to try to discredit the men around McCarthy, notably the lawyer Roy Cohn, who was leading the investigation, and Cohn’s assistant David Schine, who had recently been drafted into the Army. Joe McCarthy turned his investigatory resources on the US Army and on members of the administration itself. Eisenhower had no choice but to fight back. The first two paragraphs of the MaNew York Times story on McCarthy, Cohn, and David Schineīut at the start of 1954, the picture changed. Then he tried to seduce him with promises of new legislation to destroy Communism in America. On June 19, 1953, they were both put to death.Įisenhower in 1953 improvised in dealing with McCarthy, at first trying to ignore him, then trying to outdo him in the Red-hunting business. When Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were condemned to die in the electric chair as punishment for their theft of atomic secrets, Eisenhower did not for a moment consider granting them clemency. Alger HissĪnd Communist agents had stolen classified secrets from the wartime Manhattan Project that built the atomic bomb. There had, after all, been real spies who penetrated into the State Department, notably Alger Hiss. Ike needed to keep his party unified to pass bills in other areas battling McCarthy would only stir up a civil war inside the GOP.įurthermore, Eisenhower did not want to appear “soft” on the problem of internal subversion. McCarthy was a Republican, after all, and many fellow senators supported him. And during 1953, he tried to avoid the whole issue, hoping the Senate would silence the explosive senator. Looking at all the evidence, the clearest conclusion is that Eisenhower did not want to confront Joe McCarthy at all. He addressed the issue more abstractly, stating, 'The right to question a man's judgment carries with it no automatic right to question his honor.' Marshall from a speech he gave in McCarthy's home state of Wisconsin. Late in his first presidential campaign, Eisenhower excised a defense of General George C. President read my text with great irritation, slammed it back at me and said he would not refer to McCarthy personally-‘I will not get in the gutter with that guy.’ C. In this interpretation, Ike rode above the fray of politics while secretly pulling levers and using White House influence to obstruct McCarthy and his allies. The political scientist Fred Greenstein, for example, argued that Eisenhower’s handling of McCarthy provides evidence of a “hidden hand” approach to government.

Ike adopted an “indirect approach.” Instead of going right at McCarthy, Eisenhower worked behind the scenes to undercut and stymie the senator and his attacks. Only a short-sighted or completely inexperienced individual would urge the use of the office of the presidency to give an opponent the publicity he so avidly desires.'īy contrast, later scholars working from the documentary record perceived a design in Eisenhower’s strategy with McCarthy. In this letter to his brother Milton, Eisenhower explains, 'As for McCarthy. By avoiding the Red-hunting senator, some have argued, Eisenhower allowed McCarthyism to continue unchecked. Despite his popularity and his enormous political capital, they believed, Ike refused to engage directly with McCarthy. It has long been a subject of debate among historians: Why didn’t Eisenhower do more to confront McCarthy? Journalists, intellectuals, and even many of Eisenhower’s friends and close advisers agonized over what they saw as Ike’s timid approach to McCarthyism. No one dared tangle with McCarthy for fear of being labeled disloyal.Īny man who has been named by a either a senator or a committee or a congressman as dangerous to the welfare of this nation, his name should be submitted to the various intelligence units, and they should conduct a complete check upon him. During Eisenhower’s first two years in office, McCarthy’s shrieking denunciations and fear-mongering created a climate of fear and suspicion across the country.

LAST PERSON EXECUTED FOR ESPIONAGE IN THE US SERIES

This paranoia about the internal Communist threat-what we call the Red Scare-reached a fever pitch between 19, when Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin, a right-wing Republican, launched a series of highly publicized probes into alleged Communist penetration of the State Department, the White House, the Treasury, and even the US Army. Communists could be lurking anywhere, using their positions as school teachers, college professors, labor organizers, artists, or journalists to aid the program of world Communist domination. In the early 1950s, American leaders repeatedly told the public that they should be fearful of subversive Communist influence in their lives.

Last person executed for espionage in the us