The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn Senator McCarthy and the Nature Of H is Strange Political Magnetism UNTIL we read the headline, "McCarthy Dead of Liver Complaint," none of us realized what a...
...Sometimes, while the examination of Secretary of the Army Stevens was under way, I left my place at the press table to sit with the public...
...Army, I tried rather persistently to secure an interview with him...
...But, though he obviously was using anti-Communism as a political lever, he was sincere in his campaign against the Bolsheviks...
...Though he made his reputation in connection with the fight against Communism, his special quality had nothing to do with Communism or any other sort of political movement or theory...
...I could learn much about the character of this man by observing those who clustered about him...
...This conviction was, of course, not limited to the Senator's immediate entourage...
...were thoroughly devoted to him...
...His secretaries were more than polite...
...This feeling about what was written in the stars was, of course, shared by the man of destiny himself...
...In the first place, the members of his staff, from his chief counsel Roy Colin down to the humblest messenger-boy...
...To get at his secret, you must realize that he was a primitive...
...They would say to one another in various ways: "Just wait till Joe gets there...
...Once, after a particularly hot session, Senator McCarthy was shouldering his way through the crowd in the marble-columned Senate caucus-room, carrying on a hit-and-run conversation with a follower...
...He really thought that he was it, that he had the people behind him and greatness lay right ahead...
...Again and again, they pleasantly promised to wedge me into the Senator's schedule for five minutes or ten...
...for a brief spell, thrown to the top of the American political heap...
...Serving him was advancing a cause...
...THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn Senator McCarthy and the Nature Of H is Strange Political Magnetism UNTIL we read the headline, "McCarthy Dead of Liver Complaint," none of us realized what a large part this strange Senator from Wisconsin played in our lives...
...But time spent sitting there waiting for an interview which never came was time far from wasted...
...He was a hard fighter, often bitter and unfair...
...They were all under the impression that under President Eisenhower we were in the doldrums so far as fighting Communism was concerned...
...His emotional power was that of certain types of saints, artists and supreme criminals...
...Whether we were for him or against him, there was something elemental and primitive about the man that struck a universal chord...
...Jumping to the conclusion that Secretary Stevens or General Zwicker was connected with the powers of darkness, he would get that look of irrational determination on his face and utter words which had no connection with any set of facts...
...As they were passing me, the follower remarked: "Eisenhower doesn't seem to like you.' The Senator grinned that curious grin of his and flung back the remark: "That doesn't matter...
...But, in a deep psychological sense, the man was forced to fight in this particular way...
...In the end, I failed...
...these fellows will come and go, but I'll stay here...
...All of them truly expected their man to become President...
...He didn't know anything about Marx or Lenin or how Communism worked in Russia...
...His office was constantly inundated by groups of people from all over the United States who came to catch what they could of the aura of greatness...
...I think his sort of campaign helped Communism more than it hurt it...
...yes, if I possibly can...
...he'll show them how to manage these so-and-so's...
...The great man would rush past in a sweat, look distractedly in my direction and murmur: "Yes...
...Though I never had a personal conversation with Joseph R. McCarthy, from the beginning I had a strange feeling of intimacy toward him—as if I had lived near him or known him well...
...He was a strange and primordial character who through an unusual set of circumstances was...
...For several days during his investigation into what he called Communist infiltration of the U.S...
...To be sure, their devoted service may have been partly motivated by less worthy impulses...
...The whispered dialogues one overheard gave the frightening impression that McCarthy was really on his way to the White House...
...All that he knew was that Communism is a horrid, dark monster, a devil image...
...When he was mentioned, their eyes would light up as if reference had been made to a saint...
...His drives were set in motion by ancient images not unconnected with religious tradition...
...In my youth I saw in the eyes of primitive revivalists the same wild look I later glimpsed in that of the Senator...
Vol. 40 • May 1957 • No. 20
