McCarthy Is Accused By State Department, Evening Star (Article, May 1950)
Full Text
McCarthy Is Accused By State Department of 'Crude Misquotation'
Charged With Implying Falsely That Loyalty Files Are Open to All in Agency
By the Associated Press
The State Department charged last night that Senator McCarthy, Republican, of Wisconsin, had deliberately misquoted a congressional report to imply falsely that loyalty files were wide open to anyone in the department.
Actually access in the files is "strictly limited," the department said. It accused Senator McCarthy of a "crude misquotation" in which he substituted the name of the department itself for the name of its security division.
This was done in a Chicago speech May 6, the department said. It made public its second point-by-point analysis of an address by the Wisconsin Senator who has carried on a running attack against the department as a hotbed of communism.
Ranking Minority Member.
In another development yesterday it appeared likely that the prospective congressional inquiry into Federal employment of sexual perverts would be handled by a committee of which Senator McCarthy is the senior Republican.
Senator McCarthy has coupled to his charges of communism in the State Department the contention that the department also has a lot of homosexuals on its payroll. The department has denied it.
It appeared yesterday that a proposed inquiry into he extent of homosexuality in all Government agencies may be handled by a special investigations subcommittee of the Senate Expenditures Committee, Senator Hoey, Democrat, of North Carolina, is chairman, and Senator McCarthy, the ranking minority member.
The State Department's statement in reply to Senator McCarthy led off with a blow aimed at his assertion that State Department loyalty files furnished to a Senate committee investigating his charges were "phony."
The Senate investigators now are going through these records which deal with the cases of 81 persons whom Senator McCarthy has labeled as Communists or fellow travelers. The records were released to Congress by President Truman. Senator McCarthy immediately charged the files had been "raped" and "purged."
To get the truth about his charges, the Senator said, Congress needs the files of the FBI, the Army and Navy intelligence services, the Secret Service and the Central Intelligence Agency.
The State Department observed that "the facts" about its files given the committee are that they are "full and complete... current as of the date transmitted. They contain all information relevant to the deterination of [employee] loyaly or security."
It noted that under the Federal loyalty program the FBI is the agency which conducts loyalty investigations of State Department personnel It added:
"The files made available to the committee contain the material collected by the FBI and transmitted to the State Department."
"Misquotation Cited"
The department analysis said that Senator McCarthy's "Misquotation" of a congressional report in his Chicago speech dealt with one made by House Appropriations Committee investigators dated January 27, 1948. This report accompanied a list of cases forming the basis for Senator McCarthy's original blast against the department in the Senate February 20, the statement added. It quoted the senator as saying at Chicago:
"Now from Page 37 of the House report I quote the following: '...Almost anyone and everyone in the State Department had access to the files....'"
But what the report actually said, according to the State Department is:
"...Most everyone and anyone in the division has access to the files...."
The department added:
"The division that the House investigators were talking about was the division of security... Charged with the physical and personnel security program of the department and the Foreign Service, and it is therefore essential that its staff have access to the files when needed."
Action Due Tomorrow.
In the proposed new inquiry on the extent of the employment of homosexuals in Government, a resolution providing for such an investigation is expected to be referred to one of the Senate committees tomorrow by Vice President Barkley.
Mr. Barkley was reported ready to designate the Senate Expenditures Committee in line with a recommendation by Senator Hill, Democrat, of Alabama, who introduced the resolution.
Senator McClellan, Democrat, of Arkansas, chairman of the expenditures group, told reporters the inquiry--if it is assigned to his committee--probably will be turned over to a special investigations subcommittee headed by Senator Hoey. That is the same group which conducted last summer's "fiver percenter" inquiry into payment of commissions for Government contracts.
Refers to John Service Case.
Continuing, the analysis quoted Senator McCarthy as saying that John S. Service was arrested by the FBI in the so-called Amerasia case and that FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover "who is not noted for overstatement...stated that this is a 100 [percent] air-tight case of espionage."
That was a reference to the 1945 case in which six persons were arrested and two subsequently fined after a number of secret Government documents were found in the offices of the magazine Amerasia.
Mr. Service, a career diplomat, was one of the persons arrested, but he was cleared when a Federal Grand Jury refused to indict him.
The State Department said it had written to Peyton Ford, assistant to the Attorney General, to learn whether Mr. Hoover ever made the statement which Senator McCarthy quoted him, as making.
Ford's Reply Quoted.
It said that Mr. Ford replied on May 8: "You are advised that Mr. Hoover did not make the statement which has been attributed to him."
The analysis said that Senator McCarthy referred at Chicago to "the list of names which I have given the Secretary of State." It replied that the Senator had spoken of "205 or 57" accused State Department [employees], and had been asked for them, but had not furnished them.
Senator McCarthy's renewed attack on Philip Jessup, ambassador at large, as a joiner of Communist front organizations, sent the department to the investigating subcommittee "to see if Senator McCarthy had supplied them with any information to back up these charges." The department said it was told that the Senator had not supplied any such material. Mr. Jessup has denied Senator McCarthy's assertion that he had an affinity for Communist-front groups.
Senator McCarthy is not a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee which is investigating his charges that the State Department is harboring many Communists, Red sympathizers, and other security risks. But he is the top Republican on the Hoey subcommittee.
There has been some talk that the Democrats on the Hoey Subcommittee might ask Senator McCarthy to give up his place on that unit if it conducts the investigation. The reason, it was said, would be that Senator McCarthy should not serve as both judge and prosecutor.
The Senator said he was undecided as to whether he would step aside, adding that he would cross that bridge when he came to it.
The resolution calling for a full-scale Senate inquiry into Government employment of sexual perverts was prompted by a Washington police estimate that there are about 3,750 homosexuals on the Federal payroll in the Nation's capital alone.
Senators Hill and Wherry, Republican, of Nebraska, in reports to a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee, stressed that perverts are dangerous security risks because theyy usually are an easy mark for blackmailers.
Senator Hoey said he is not anxious to have the investigation come to his committee, but that "we will do our duty if it does."
He said his group would conduct the investigation "very [discretely]," with probably all of the hearings behind closed doors."
"I think the entire matter probably could be handled by the subcommittee's staff on a very quiet basis," he added.
