The Witness

The long-awaited event was an anticlimax. By the time Joe McCarthy raised a broad right hand and took the witness' oath at midweek, the suspicions, facts, hunches, charges and countercharges had been so well chewed over in seven weeks of hearings that not a morsel of fresh meat remained. On Committee Counsel Ray Jenkins' invitation to draw upon his "knowledge and experience," McCarthy first gave a lengthy lecture on Communist Party organization and tactics, amply illustrated for TV viewers by a large map (which Joe acknowledged was four years out of date).

Under crossexamination, McCarthy in turn was arrogant, conciliatory and forgetful ("Don't tie me down to dates").

He played down his differences with Army Secretary Stevens and Army Counselor John Adams, whom he had once tarred as blackmailers. Stevens, said Joe, is "a very honest individual [who] got mousetrapped in the very rough politics played down here." Of Adams he said tolerantly, at one point: "I wouldn't want to accuse him of perjury . . . John is badly mistaken." Even the McCarthy charge that Stevens and Adams had sought to sidetrack the McCarthy committee investigations of the Army by offering "dirt" on the Air Force and Navy was airily dismissed.

"They were offering the information which any loyal American should get." Had Senator McCarthy tried to have Dave Schine assigned to New York? On this point McCarthy flatly and directly contradicted Stevens' previous testimony.

Counsel Ray Jenkins: Do you recall that Mr. Stevens . . . swore under his oath . . . that you asked him to assign Dave Schine to the New York area . .?

McCarthy: He is in error on that.

Jenkins: Did you or did you not make such a request of the Secretary . . .? McCarthy: No.

McCarthy insisted that neither he nor his staff--including Roy Cohn--had used pressure to get Schine a special assignment. Why, then, asked Jenkins, had McCarthy cautioned the Army not to give Schine special treatment? Said Joe: the Army itself had, "on some instances," brought the Schine matter up. Another reason was that "the Communist liners started to loose their attack," charging McCarthy-Cohn intervention on Schine's behalf. The attacks, he recalled, came from Columnist Drew Pearson--"one of the greatest Communist-line smearers that I know"--and Columnists Joseph and Stewart Alsop.

All in all, Witness McCarthy seemed more than content to forgive old enemies and sting new ones. Again and again he needled Democrat Stuart Symington for talking over the Army v. McCarthy problem with Clark Clifford, onetime counsel for President Truman (TIME, June 14).

McCarthy slurred at Symington as "Sanctimonious Stu," and once remarked: "I'm glad we're on television [so] millions of people . . . can see how low an alleged man can sink." Symington replied: "You'd better go to a psychiatrist." The new directions of attack seemed to indicate that McCarthy, in his own fantastic way, was trying for some kind of happy ending in the Republican family.

In one sense, he hit a responsive chord, for as far as all Republicans were concerned, any ending would be happier than a prolongation of the agony.

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