Senator Joe McCarthy's excesses, both real and imagined, are well-known and have earned him a place of infamy in recent political history. However, newly declassified documents and other previously unavailable sources are creating a consensus among historians that there was, indeed, a secret communist espionage ring that operated at very high levels in the U. S. government. Many people--including Dan Rather--whether for ideological or personal reasons, still refuse to believe this.

Rather also continues to defend convicted spy, Alger Hiss, even though almost all historians believe he was guilty.

"I had been amazed for some time, and would remain so, by how wrong, how out of touch, and how behind the Carter and (perhaps to a greater degree) Reagan and Bush administrations were about the real developments within the Soviet Union."
--Dan Rather in his 1994 book, The Camera Never Blinks Twice.

The 1950's were "a time of blacklists and witch-hunts and red baiting, a time that took Senator McCarthy's name--'The McCarthy Era'--a time when America trembled."
--Dan Rather on CBS Reports, June 15, 1994.

"There is a disease running rampant in this country and taking a very heavy toll. The disease is hatred. Often, it is spread by demagogues, be they politicians or preachers or, yes, broadcasters. The cure: exposure to light. It was the undoing of a United States senator named Joseph McCarthy, exposed for the demagogue he was, by CBS News correspondent Edward R. Murrow. It happened 40 years ago tonight on a CBS program called "See It Now," and you will see it again in tonight's Eye On America."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, March 9, 1994.

Alger Hiss, "a former U.S. State Department official accused of spying for the Soviets."
--Dan Rather on CBS Reports, June 15, 1994.
Note: Hiss was not only accused, but convicted by a jury and sentenced to prison time. He tried to appeal his verdict on several occasions but was denied each time by judges appointed by both parties. The general consensus among historians and CIA officials is that he was a spy. Intercepted communications between the KGB and its U.S. agents, known as the Venona Papers, refer to a person named "Ales," whom intelligence experts identify as Alger Hiss. Now only the most fervent liberals maintain his innocence.

"Bartley Crum committed suicide in 1959, but not before giving into the FBI and revealing the names of Communist Party members."
--Dan Rather on CBS Reports, June 15, 1994.
Note: Rather considers revealing the names of Communists as "giving in." Does Rather mean to say that Crum should have committed perjury in the service of the Soviet Union?

"Despite what many Americans think, most Soviets do not yearn for capitalism or Western-style democracy."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, June 17, 1987.

"In neighboring Albania, the collapse of communism has left people hungry, cold and hopeless. A children's hospital in Tirana is overflowing with patients and critically short of food and medicine."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, December 19, 1992.

"Who would stand up to McCarthy? Many people did, but it was Edward R. Murrow's opposition on television that signaled the end of Joe McCarthy."
--Dan Rather speaking of 1950s CBS reporter Edward Murrow.CBS Reports, June 15, 1994. print_file('footer'); ?>