Artwork by Sal Buscema
In 1971, the Avengers were able to thwart an invasion of Earth by a shape-shifting alien race known as the Kree. Fearing mass hysteria if news of the adverted invasion was ever made public, the superheroes vowed to keep it a secret. Their fears are realized nonetheless in Avenger #92 when the existence of the Kree and their plan to conquer Earth is leaked to the media. The President of the United States creates an Aliens Activities Committee in response, setting up a Marvel Universe equivalent to the communist witch hunt of the 1950s led by Wisconsin Senator Joseph R. McCarthy.
According to historian James T. Patterson in his 1996 book Great Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974, McCarthy referred to himself as “Tail Gunner Joe” during his initial run for the U.S. Senate in 1946, claiming to have flown over thirty combat missions during World War II. In reality, he was a Marine officer who had never taken part in a single mission. He also claimed that his limp was due to the “ten pounds of shrapnel” that had penetrated his leg during the war – he actually injured his leg when he fell down a set of stairs at a party.
McCarthy was in need of a new campaign strategy for his 1952 re-election campaign and found one while dining with friends in January 1950. “That’s it!” he exclaimed. “The government is full of Communists! We can hammer away at them.”
On February 9, Joseph McCarthy went public with his claims in Wheeling, West Virginia, as part of a Lincoln Day celebration tour. “While I cannot take the time to name all the men in the State Department who have been named as members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring, I have here in my hand a list of 205 that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department,” he said.
Fred Desmond of The Wheeling Intelligencer included the comment in his article on the speech, and the Associated Press picked up the story. When McCarthy arrived in Denver – the next stop on his cross-country trip – he confirmed that the list existed but couldn’t show it to anyone because he had left it on the plane. By the time he reached Salt Lake City, the number had dropped from 205 to 57, and then to four, but the Senator’s rhetoric increased in intensity nonetheless.
The words of H. Warren Craddock – chairman of the Aliens Activities Committee in the Marvel Universe – share similarities with those of Senator Joseph McCarthy. When asked about rumors that the superhero Captain Marvel, who assisted the Avengers in preventing the alien invasion, is actually a Kree, Craddock replies, “Yes, I’ve heard those rumors. I accuse the Avengers of nothing, mind you, but I have in my possession a list of 153 ‘model citizens’ who are actually alien spies. And, you can quote me on this, boys, I intend to ferret them out no matter where the trail may lead. Yes, even to the Avengers Mansion itself!”
Joseph McCarthy wasn’t a true ideologue but a demagogue more interested in publicity and re-election than fighting Communism. He thus accused without remorse, never offering evidence or proving his assertions. Even those within his own party were not safe from denunciations, often uttered in bombastic language ensured of making headlines. It was government officials within the administration of President Harry Truman, however, who most felt McCarthy’s wrath. “Twenty years of treason” by the Democrats had resulted in the State Department being filled with spies, traitors, and Communist sympathizers.
Democrats in Congress formed a committee to look into the allegations, proclaiming afterwards that McCarthy’s accusations were a “fraud and a hoax perpetrated on the Senate of the United States and the American people.” McCarthy countered that the committee’s findings were a “green light to the Red fifth column” and a “sign to the traitorous Communists and fellow travelers in our Government that they have no fear of exposure.”
While Democrats were unable to stop to McCarthy, Republicans were unwilling. As journalist David Halberstam notes in his 1993 book The Fifties, even Dwight Eisenhower was intimidated by the Wisconsin Senator. During the 1952 presidential campaign, McCarthy attacked former general George Marshall, who served as Army Chief of Staff during World War II and Secretary of State under Truman, accusing him of aiding the spread of Communism. Eisenhower was incensed – Marshall had taken Ike under his wings early in his military career and been instrumental in his advancement.
“I have been privileged for thirty-five years to know General George C. Marshall personally,” Eisenhower wrote into a campaign speech afterwards. “I know him, as a man and a soldier, to be dedicated with singular selfishness and the professional patriotism to the service of America.” When the time came to deliver the speech, however, Ike was persuaded by his advisors to omit the remarks in fear of retribution from McCarthy.
Although the Avengers are able to shield Captain Marvel from the wrath of Warren Craddock, Vision, Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, and Clint Barton – in his Giant Man persona as opposed to Hawkeye – are subpoenaed and appear before the Aliens Activities Committee. The Fantastic Four also testify, demonstrating the polar extremes of the growing controversy.
“I’ve never met the man called Captain Marvel,” Reed Richards begins. “But, if the Avengers say he poses no threat, I’d be inclined to accept their judgement.” Benjamin Grimm, however, has a different opinion. “The Avengers? What Avengers? The Avengers I knew was Thor, Iron Man, guys like that. These new guys might be okay – me, I don’t know ’em from Adam. But they should’a made Marvel show up here, ’steada helpin’ him take a powder. Superheroes like them four, we don’t need!”
When the Vision attempts to testify, Committee Chairman Craddock cuts him off. “Your testimony can have no value before this court,” he dismissively states. “A robot could only parrot what others tell it to say. It’s the traitors behind you that I’m after.” Vision explains the difference between a mere robot and an android like himself, but to no avail. He then tries to reason with Craddock, telling him, “My design is such that my voice is always even, seemingly unemotional. But, if I could, I would beg you in most beseeching tones to call off this witch-hunt, this trial-by-accusation, before it does irreparable harm.”
While those watching the proceedings appear to be swayed by the Vision, Warren Craddock is not one of them. “If you think you can influence this commission to drop its investigation, and let humanity’s enemies have a field day,” he counters, “you’re engaging in an idle dream!”
According to James Patterson, Senator Joseph McCarthy’s downfall began in early 1954. During March and April, widely respected journalist Edward R. Murrow ran a series of segments on the CBS news program See It Now that used the senator’s own words to expose him as nothing more than a bully. McCarthy in turn accused Murrow of being “the leader and the cleverest of the jackal pack which is always found at the throat of anyone who dares to expose individual Communists and traitors.”
In the Senate, meanwhile, McCarthy announced that he was going to investigate subversive activities in the United States Army. The Army countered that McCarthy cohort Roy Cohn had secured special privileges for a private named G. Dave Shine, who had been an aide to the senator and was a friend of Cohn. The Senate’s Subcommittee on Investigations subsequently conducted a thirty-six-day hearing on the matter, chaired by Senator Karl Mundt.
Suddenly on the defensive, McCarthy rapidly deteriorated, sleeping in his office at night and drinking heavily. His appearance at the hearings – broadcast live on television – were thus of a weary, disheveled shadow of his former self who jumped to his feet and shouted “Point of order!” so many times that he became a national laughingstock.
On June 9, 1954, the Age of McCarthyism officially ended when McCarthy interrupted attorney Joseph Welch’s questioning of Roy Cohn, accusing Welch’s law firm of employing a left-leaning lawyer named Fred Fisher. Fisher had briefly been a member of the National Lawyers Guild, which was indeed a pro-Communist organization, but that was the extent of his subversion.
“Until this moment, Senator, I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness,” Welch replied. When McCarthy persisted, Welch fired back, “Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you no sense of decency?” There was a brief silence after Welch finished his remarks, and then the room burst into applause, leaving Joseph McCarthy confused and repeatedly asking, “What did I do?”
Anthony Letizia