05.19b McCarthyism and Kerryism. It has been well publicized by now that when he returned from Vietnam John Kerry made wild, false, and slanderous accusations that the U.S. army committed atrocities in Vietnam. I just realized that this has considerable similarity to the accusations by Joseph McCarthy back in the 1950's. Both men made undocumented allegations of widespread severe misconduct, allegations which seemed improbable but which would be major scandals, not just in themselves but because they implied cover-up by the Administration. Here's a couple of paragraphs on McCarthy from the U.S. State Department.

Then in February 1950, an undistinguished, first-term Republican senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, burst into national prominence when, in a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, he held up a piece of paper that he claimed was a list of 205 known communists currently working in the State Department. McCarthy never produced documentation for a single one of his charges, but for the next four years he exploited an issue that he realized had touched a nerve in the American public.
He and his aides, Roy Cohn and David Schine, made wild accusations, browbeat witnesses, destroyed reputations and threw mud at men like George Marshall, Adlai Stevenson, and others whom McCarthy charged were part of an effete "eastern establishment."

Kerry, of course *was* part of the effete eastern establishment, but he was criticizing it nonetheless. Like McCarthy, he exploited an issue that he realized had touched a nerve in the American public. I wonder which were more numerous, Communists in the State Department or American atrocities in Vietnam? At any rate, Kerryism might join McCarthyism in our vocabulary. ... [in full at 04.05.19b.htm]

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