Now commonplace in the liberal lexicon, the word McCarthyism has come to represent a “government witch-hunt seeking to punish unapproved thoughts or political stances.” Today’s liberals throw the word around in countless situations: discussing history, when society rejects their radical ideas, or, most noticeably, when losing an argument. The claims levied against Senator Joseph McCarthy, historical fallacies which have stuck through the decades, have wrought a grave injustice. Agree or disagree with the second Red Scare, any individual who rejects indoctrination and accepts the facts of history cannot justify the modern association of McCarthy with political repression.

Many believe that Senator McCarthy was on the House Un-American Activities Committee. In truth, Senator McCarthy couldn’t sit on a House committee; he was on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

Another claim attacks Senator McCarthy for unfairly criticizing, questioning, and pressuring many writers, actors, and directors in Hollywood for being communists, thus ruining their careers. There’s one problem with this claim: the only people investigated by Senator McCarthy’s committee were individuals in government. Everything ever conjured up about McCarthy having anything to do with the Hollywood Ten, Arthur Miller, et. al., is simple fiction.

Next? That popular claim that McCarthy made wild accusations, never rooted in sound evidence and always disproved. While a viable claim 55 years ago, the Freedom of Information Act has recently made available the VERONA project. The VERONA project was the American interception and decoding of cables sent by the Soviet Union to their communist operatives in the United States. Senator McCarthy couldn’t come out and reveal the VERONA project, as the Soviets would realize the breach and cut off the incriminating communications. History has vindicated Senator McCarthy; liberals haven’t.

So why did he imprison some people and ruin the lives of others? Well, the government employees who admitted their communist connections or pled the Fifth when approached by the committee were given a preordained period of time to pack up and either retire to the private sector or leave old jobs, which had often required security clearance. I’ll chalk it up to coincidence, but a good number of them left their old jobs to lecture at Harvard, write books, or keep high company in the parlors of society’s elite.

Lastly, there’s that relentless stream of ad hominem attacks that are now in history books. Despite numerous accusations, McCarthy was not a grumpy, pathological liar with no friends. Rather, McCarthy was a trusted confidant to the Kennedy family. Robert Kennedy made McCarthy the godfather of his child, while John F. Kennedy spent most of his life defending McCarthy from blatant character assault. Once, at a Harvard dinner, a speaker compared McCarthy with convicted Soviet spy Alger Hiss, prompting JFK to rise above the Crimson crowd and scream, “How dare you couple the name of a great American patriot with that of a traitor!” before storming out of the building.

Senator McCarthy was a great man who put the safety of his nation and fellow citizens above his own personal stature. For challenging the communists and proving the liberal institution wrong, the left has launched a vendetta against McCarthy’s name by associating it with a violation of liberties and the all-too-common notion of “witch-trials.” So next time some one asks you about McCarthyism, let them see for themselves that all they’ve been taught is part of a partisan ploy in the struggle for history.