Strangest of bedfellows: McCarthy and the Kennedys.

[Smarmie Doofus]

I stumbled across this on wikipedia. I knew there were some connections and affinity, esp. w. Joseph Sr., but I didn't realize *how* close.

McCarthy *dating* Eunice and Pat? Godfather to RFK's Kathleen?

No, I'm not a Kennedy-basher; just a little surprised by the *degree* of closeness.


>>>>McCarthy established a bond with the powerful Kennedy family, which had high visibility among Catholics. McCarthy became a close friend of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., himself a fervent anti-Communist, and was a frequent guest at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port. He dated two of Kennedy's daughters, Patricia and Eunice,<47><48> and was godfather to Robert F. Kennedy's first child, Kathleen Kennedy. Robert was chosen by McCarthy as a counsel for his investigatory committee, but resigned after six months due to disagreements with McCarthy and Cohn. Joseph Kennedy had a national network of contacts and became a vocal supporter, building McCarthy's popularity among Catholics and making sizable contributions to McCarthy's campaigns.<49> The Kennedy patriarch hoped that one of his sons would be president. Mindful of the anti-Catholic prejudice Al Smith faced during his 1928 campaign for that office, Joseph Kennedy supported McCarthy as a national Catholic politician who might pave the way for a younger Kennedy's presidential candidacy.>>>>

[Puregonzo1188]

1. Very seldom are any of the politicians we hold up as saints

actually are.

It's sometimes hard for people to understand that.

[hedgehog]

2. In 1950, Stalin was the head of the Soviet Union and the world was

a different place. Catholics were staunchly anti-Communist because of the suppression of the church behind the Iron Curtain and Joe McCarthy was a war hero. Young Robert Kennedy was given a job as a Republican staff lawyer for a house Committee that McCarthy was on. After a few months, he quietly resigned his position and went to work for the Democrats. John Kennedy also started distancing himself as McCarthy dove further down the neck of a bottle in his personal life and into the slime in his political life.

Still, years later, Robert Kennedy was one of the few to attend McCarthy's funeral. As a point of personal honor, he couldn't turn his back on a man who sat at his father's table.

So, the Kennedys separated themselves from the man as he rose to power because he went to the Dark side, but stood by him in the end when all his other supporters were nowhere to be found.

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. In "Point of Order", there's some footage of RFK....

.... attending the hearings, seated right behind some of the chief participants. He does not speak in the film, if memory serves.

Presumably he's working for *someone*. Is he still w. McCarthy at that point or had he already switched and was there as a DEM staffer?

[hedgehog]

5. I don't know, I jsut remember reading that he quietly switched sides very early on.

[Starry Messenger]

4. Not that strange actually

Kennedy was very anti-communist. http://books.google.com/books?id=fxzd__gA_I4C&lpg=PA395&ots=b0e7N45Gaz&dq=mccarran%20act%20kennedy%20vote&pg=PA394#v=onepage&q=mccarran%20act%20kennedy%20vote&f=false Sorry I can't find some way to clip the text but if you read up to pg. 398 from 394, there's some more details there.

[hedgehog]

6. Again - we all have to remember that pretty much everyone was anti-Communist

then - it was just a matter of degree how anti-Communist you were. John Kennedy was moving away from the Cold War with the Test Ban treaty when he died, Robert was campaigning against the War in Vietnam when he was shot.

[Starry Messenger]

7. The American Communists were not anti-Communist

Are they not part of history? I think it is important to have all the facts, instead of soft-shoeing the role of people who had the power to curtail the liberties of fellow Americans.

[Smarmie Doofus]

8. Henry Wallace was not anti communist either.

At least not in '48, when he ran for prez. Took a lot of heat for it.

Later on, I believe he became more conservative. But the US reds were part of the Progressive Party coalition.