Senator Joseph McCarthy had a major impact on both Del and my generation. Yet it was not until 4 years ago that the truth actually came out about him. Just as I've previously covered L. Ron Hubbard and will cover others like Tim Leary, Duane Allman, Ken Keysey and others who had impacts on us both, so too I will post at times McCarthy.

This time I decided a footnote was in order- the true story as revealed by CIA is so out there I figured you'd want to read it before we continued here. Del and I did not know the true story when Del was alive. But you should. And I know Del would have wanted to know the hidden truth, too.

 

My talk on Joe McCarthy is online. It is based on declassified CIA papers and there were some strange things, and funny things that happened when I began to write and talk about them.

 

1. I tried contacting George Clooney's office when he was preparing to do his film on Murrow and offer him not my speech, but the CIA report. His assistant interrupted me, stated that CIA was not involved in the McCarthy era, and hung up.

 

2. I contacted a college professor and expressed an interest in returning to teaching- in this case contrasting the popular culture- films, books, etc on the era from THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE to the romance of the left over Soviet spies of the era and was told that not only would he not read anything from CIA, but he would never allow such a class to be taught.

 

3. As far as I know, I was the ONLY person on earth who talked about the CIA revelations. In the latest issue of STUDIES IN INTELLIGENCE the CIA magazine, it is revealed that the decision to release the Family Jewels was based on the academic and press worlds having no idea how to deal with the McCarthy revelations.

 

4. I spoke twice on the story. When I spoke to military students the class was quiet for a long time afterwards. Stunned disbelief I call it. The question I got more often than not, was that the CIA couldn't have that much power. The second place I spoke at was a meeting of socialists and leftists. They burst into long, thunderous applause twice after I was finished. The comments I heard were often based around, "the reseach can't be touched" and "Now it makes sense what happened!"! People who had in some cases for decades believed the CIA spin (as we all had) and used it for their own propaganda, "got it" the fastest.

 

5. I did lose a few friends over the story, and even got a few death threats (which I ignored). Friends who knew me challenged me over simple things. I was accused of being a CIA spy. I was told women I was sleeping with I couldn't be. People who had been to my plays actually questioned if I'd ever done a play! Implying I guess some CIA agent must have actually created them. When I discovered I couldn't spell out McCarthy's name on a blog mirror I had to set up as so many people were coming to the original site, because of the numbers of letters I dropped one letter. This was seized on as proof that the entire story was false and made up by me. Even though there was a link to the CIA website with the information! It was all very Kafkaesque.

 

6. I don't know if other outlets would like me to give the talk, but I certainly wouldn't mind doing it. Email me.