Oversize Testimony III

Richard J. O'Melia Collection

(2 copies)

Title: TESTIMONY OF: Honorable Joseph R. McCarthy, United States Senator from the State of Wisconsin; Honorable William Benton, United States Senator from the State of Connecticut.
S. RES. 304
Date: Thursday, July 3, 1952
Pages: 1-169
Note: Some pages have sentences underlined or marked, with written comments.
Contents: United States Senate, Subcommittee on the Rules and Administration, Washington D.C.


Selected excerpts from testimony

pg. 3-212 Testimony of Joseph R. McCarthy, United States Senator from the State of Wisconsin

Pg. 1 "Senator Gillette. The subcommittee will come to order. The meeting has been called for the purpose of receiving in public hearings any statement that Senator McCarthy wishes to make in support of charges made by him against Senator Benton in Senate Resolution 304, which was introduced in the Senate by Senator McCarthy on April 10,1952.

Pg. 7 Senator McCarthy-"My resolution, No. 304, incidentally, does not ask for the expulsion of Benton from the Senate. I have complete confidence that the intelligent voters of Connecticut will terminate with absolute finality the short-lived, read and pink checkered senatorial career of this chameleon-like, Webster in the New International Dictionary has a long definition of a chameleon."

Pg. 10 Senator McCarthy-"The chief characteristics and attribute of a chameleon its ability to change its outward colors to fit surrounding conditions with, of course, no inward change -- just as Benton changes his public colors on the subject of subversives in Government depending upon the time, place and the circumstances in which he speaks. Ever since February of 1950, when I began the public phase of my fight against the infiltration of subversives in Government -- a fight in which I have coursed all my energies and resources -- I have been the subject of the most vicious and slanderous attacks from this man. With him it has been an almost all-consuming obsession to injure, harass and obstruct by whatever methods he and his cohorts could devise."

Pg. 15 Senator McCarthy- "We will find, as we go along, that no less than seven individuals who either were fellow travelers, Communists, or complete dupes for the Communist cause were sheltered by Benton in the State Department, even though he knew about their records."

Pg. 16 Senator McCarthy- "It was interesting to note, Mr. Chairman, that prior to my fight against infiltration of Communists in Government Benton made no public remarks whatsoever concerning me. His attacks have coincided with and paralleled the attacks by the official Communist spokesmen."

Pg. 49 Senator McCarthy- "Immediately under Benton, serving as Director of the Office of International Information and Cultural Affairs was William T. Stone.

Pg. 52 Senator McCarthy- "It was Stone, who, when informed by Naval Intelligence that his subordinate, Nathan Gregory Slivermaster was a Communist agent and should immediately be removed from his job, went to Silvermaster and informed him about this intelligence, alerting him to the fact that he was being watched."

Pg. 62 Senator McCarthy-"I refer to Haldore E. Hanson who, both in 1945 and 1956, was Benton's special assistant...On Tuesday, April 25, 1950, during the State Department loyalty investigation, in executive session, Louis Budenz testified under oath that Haldore Hanson was a member of the Communist Part. That is Exhibit 23."
Pg. 66 Senator McCarthy- "Let us now pass on to the case of Esther Brunauer, who, according to Benton, worked very closely with him, whose advice he said he relied upon very heavily, and who helped him set up some of the organizations. Esther Brunauer admitted before the Tydings Committee under oath that her husband had been a member of the Young Communist League..."

Pg. 73 Senator McCarthy- "In order to give the picture of Benton I must discuss his cohorts and associates, those with Communist records, records of Communist fronts, to whom he granted a haven."

Pg. 78 Senator McCarthy- "In the files of the State Department at the time he was working with Benton, according to the Lee report it was shown he attempted to secure -- we are speaking about Thomson -- a position for one Richard Johnson, a London Communist, in the division in which he was working. He was closely associated with one Charles Page, who was removed from the Department of State because of his long record of Communist activities..."

Pg. 81 Senator McCarthy- "The next associate of Benton whom I am going to discuss is Robert T. Miller, who worked directly under Benton while Benton was allegedly setting up loyalty procedure mechanisms and combating Communist propaganda throughout the country. Robert T. Miller was described on the Floor of the House of Representatives by Congressman Fred E. Busbey of Illinois, on March 25, 1948, as being: "One of the most dangerous Soviet agents ever to infiltrate the State Department.""

Pg. 88 Senator McCarthy- "I call your attention now to Rowena Rommel who worked closely with Benton in the Department of State, in the Division headed by him." pg.91 "On September 5, 1946, she was investigated for her interest in securing employment for a Soviet espionage suspect in the Department of State."

Pg. 102 Senator McCarthy- "No. 8. It is noted that Zacharia Chaffee, Jr., Harvard Law School professor was quoted with approval in the Communist Worker, Southern Edition, February 19, 1950, with his 43-page analysis of the Mundt-Ferguson bills submitted to the Senate Judiciary, being named as the source of the quotation."

Pg. 109 Senator McCarthy- "If [General] Marshall is innocent of guilty intention, who could he be trusted to guide the defense of this country further? We have declined so precipitously in relation to the Soviet Union in the last 6 years. Where will all this stop?"

Pg. 137 Senator McCarthy- "Let us pass to another interesting facet in Benton's record of aiding the cause of communism. I call your attention to Benton's relationship to the magazine Amerika."

Pg. 150 Senator McCarthy- "...the pattern of buying books by well known Communist writers, harboring under his immediate supervision at least seven individuals with records of Communist activities, communism, their working with espionage, it gives a fairly good picture of Benton."

Pg. 158 Senator McCarthy- "Benton carried on as Assistant Secretary of State in Charge of Public Affairs what he described as a student exchange program. Under this program, Communist students were permitted to come to the United States...a sizable number of Communist students were allowed to come to the United States under this Bentonian program."

Pg. 166 Senator McCarthy- "...I shall suggest to the subcommittee to call upon the House Committee of Un-American Activities for its files on these Benton-employed Britannica Film writers.

Pg. 173 Senator McCarthy- "Daily People's World, that is a Communist paper, of October 15, 1951, page 2, reported that Professor Henry Steele Commager, Columbia University, protested loyalty oaths."

Pg. 178 Senator McCarthy- "As shown in the November 1937 issue of 'Soviet Russia Today' (page 79), Robert S. Lynd was one of those who signed the Golden Book of American Friendship with the Soviet Union, cited as a 'Communist enterprise' signed by hundreds of will-known Communists...pg. 180 "We have this man hired by Benton to prepare the script, to sell it to the State Department and use it abroad to fight communism, sold apparently to the schools throughout the country..."

Pg. 184 Senator McCarthy-"As we know, the number one aim of the Communist Party is to infiltrate the schools, get to the mind of the young. That was Hitler's theory to capture the mind of the young, have it capture the nation without firing a shot."

Pg. 185A Senator McCarthy-"Let's just run over some of the writers quickly without giving their communist front records. Ralph Ingersoll, Marshall Field of course with a record of communist fronts, Max Lerner with a record of 19 communist fronts, Albert Deutsch with a record of I believe 10 or 12, I. F. Stone with a record of communist fronts, nine principal writers

Pg. 190 Senator McCarthy-"In September of 1950, Cosgriff gave some money to Benton. In October of 1950, Cosgriff was appointed as director of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation."

Pg. 213-369 Testimony of Honorable William Benton, United States Senator From the State of Connecticut.