Herb Block Quotes
McCarthyism
Herb Block, 1910-2001, [Herblock], Political Cartoonist, Origination of term for the type of activities of Senator Joseph Joseph R. McCarthy, 1908-1957, Quoted in his New York Times obituary, October 8, 2001
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Referring to Senator Joseph R. McCarthy:
A theater arts program that operated nationally under the WPA.
The Red Scare had affected much of the country. The House Un-American Activities Committee had frightened much of the country claiming that the Communists had infiltrated the government. But when facts and proof were demanded, all they came up with some workers in the Hollywood film industry who had gone to communist meetings and some who had joined the party before the War when The Great Depression was still plaguing the country. The Hollywood and TV executives caved in to the political demagogues and fired and blacklisted not only the communists but those who refused to testify. The actors and musicians could not work for several years until the country came to its senses, but the screenwriters wrote under false names. At least one Academy award was won that way.
Reacting to the disarray of the federal government as a result of the activities of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy:
After this, no other member of the Executive branch went before McCarthy again
Chambers was prescient and to the regret of the right wing, did not listen to him. The reality was that McCarthy, unscrupulous, mentally unstable and an alcoholic intimidated even his own party members and this one sick and flawed individual intimidated and threatened to entire American political establishment. Although Chambers called for the Republican Conservatives to act, it was the liberals of both parties who finally took him on, exposed him and brought him down.
Note the use of the word “alien” to describe the American owners of newspapers, radio and TV stations. Oliver was a right wing, racist, paranoid, fanatic and extremist. His quotations are interesting because he often said in public what many right wing extremists believed but only said in private. Joseph McCarthy was a senator who suffered from alcoholism and claimed that there were communists throughout the government and the military. However, while he claimed there were all these communists, he was never able to identify them. After a few years of his antics, he was censured by the Senate and he died shortly thereafter. Oliver and a few other extremists believe that McCarthy was silenced by a national communist conspiracy. However, McCarthy was never silent on anything.
The security system at Los Alamos while the atomic bomb was being developed was absurd. Scientists from all over the country had to be hired quickly. Many of them had friends and relatives who had various left-wing associations; some came from Germany or had German connections. A number of the key scientists were German refugees from Hitler's persecution. The military security people, using their traditional standards, would not clear people if they had any left wing friends or associates or they came from Europe and there were no records to prove that they were not fascists or communists. Most of the refugees got out with their lives and had no records, but they were among the best scientists in the world. J Robert Oppenheimer, the scientific director, and General Leslie Groves needed the scientists as the work had to be done. Groves approved important personnel for hire pending security clearance which never came and which Groves knew would never come. Nonetheless the people were working by the time intelligence officers outside the project realized what was going on. People without clearance had some of the most sensitive jobs at Los Alamos. Not a single one of those people turned out to be a security risk or a spy. There was a spy however who had come the English scientific delegation, but the security people had cleared him. Barnett however, as Oppenheimer’s personal assistant had access to almost everything having to do with the development of the bomb. She never did get cleared for her job.
Many in Congress were afraid of McCarthy as he would charge that anyone who criticized him was a Communist or Communist Sympathizer. Young John F. Kennedy was one of those who was intimidated into silence. Fulbright was one of the few who had the courage to take McCarthy on. Later, McCarthy was censured by the Senate and it afterwards it was revealed that he was a paranoid alcoholic but he did a tremendous amount of damage.
Herbert Lawrence Block, commonly known as Herblock, was an American editorial cartoonist and author best known for his commentaries on national domestic and foreign policy.
