Robert Watson, Ph.D.

April 24, 2011

Robert Watson, Ph.D.
American Studies
Lynn University
3601 N. Military Trail
Boca Raton, FL 33431

RE: “Even paranoiacs have real enemies” – A “tone and tint” lesson in context on your column in today’s Sun-Sentinel Opinion section about the conflict between order and freedom in the Truman era.

My dear Professor,

Any discussion of HUAC, the House Un-American Activities Committee, must include the fact that it was the creature of an overwhelmingly Democratic House and that it was greatly welcomed by a Democratic President.

It must be noted that Senator McCarthy’s first counsel was Robert F. Kennedy, Esq. Yes, that Robert Kennedy. Modern American Liberals, in addition to raising “eclectic indignation” to an art form, have been doubly blessed with “eclectic memories” about which more a bit later.

The right of Congress to investigate, a right that includes both subpoena power and contempt citations, was used by Congress throughout the 20th Century. The Hollywood Ten, Frank Costello, Lillian Hellman, Jimmy Hoffa, John Dean, Oliver North…Day time television at its best!

The highlight of the Watergate Hearings was the morphing of Senator Sam Ervin, a man whose entire public life was dedicated to the proposition that little Black boys would not be in the same classroom with little White girls, into a heroic slayer of evil Republicans.

One of the strong points of modern American Liberalism is the handy paradigmatic template they possess that enables them to turn a lump of coal into a diamond. Thus, Senator Ervin, as strong a segregationist as Senator Bilbo or Senator Fulbright, became a folk hero to the permanently outraged American Left. The rebirth of Senator Byrd [D-WV], nee Deputy Grand Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan, into a modern day Cicero was spectacularly mind and soul numbing.







You say that

“Truman was aware that, in a larger sense, the anti-Communist paranoia
he faced was the latest manifestation of America’s long and inglorious
struggle against xenophobia, jingoism, and ultra-nationalism as seen in the
Salem witch trials, the Alien and Sedition laws, and the Ku Klux Klan.”

Perhaps the Salem witch trials were a colonial example of “irrational exuberance”. Perhaps it was a case of a community organizer overreaching because he had no czar to rein him in. Res ipso loquitur. When was the last time you heard about witches in Salem?

The Alien and Sedition law did nothing to prevent the Presidential campaign of 1800 from being the dirtiest campaign ever. That they did it without the benefit of Twitter, of e-mail, or even of electricity redounds to their credit.

The campaign of 1864 was marked by the acquiescence of the Democratic Party and the New York Times calling President Lincoln a “baboon”. They also wanted a negotiated settlement with the South, a settlement that would have left slavery in place.

Who said that Democracy was pretty?

Did the ascension of Senator Byrd to a position of great influence in the government, forgive me, white wash the Klan?

As to the general “paranoia” of the era it is also well to note that there really was a bear in the woods. Further, that bear meant to harm us.

Recently revealed Russian documents show a conscious pattern of duplicity and of deceit designed to dominate us. They used “useful idiots”, people such as Walter Duranty, Margaret Sanger, and Henry Wallace, to further their ends.

One of the other “inconvenient truths” of this age of paranoia is that there were 170,000 American casualties in Korea. Of these some 54,000 were killed. 18,000 a year. 1,500 a month. 400 a week. Almost 60 a day. 2.5 an hour.

While this butcher’s bill was being paid Lillian Hellman was caterwauling about how she only made $100,000 in 1952. I’m sorry that the Weavers never got to produce a Christmas album. The ideological biases of NPR and PBS are just a case of same feet, different shoes.




As to the Rosenbergs, I believe that History would be well served if we were to disinter them once a year to make sure that they really are dead. Just to be sure have their sad sacked treasonous asses wired up and fired up again. An armed guard, with bayonets pointing in, should be used the other 364 days of the year lest they escape and, like the infamous ideological incubus/succubus combination that they were, do yet more harm to the common weal.






Kevin Smith