Revisiting a dark era.

Byline: The Register-Guard

The U.S. Senate's release last week of executive (non-public) session transcripts of hearings presided over by the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the early 1950s stirs memories of one of the nation's bleakest periods. The transcripts should remind the county not to take its freedoms for granted.

For those too young to remember, McCarthy, as chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation - the panel's title alone was scary, with its suggestion of unending probes - took it upon himself to hunt down communists, which he claimed permeated the federal government, academia and other American institutions.

To achieve his ends, the Wisconsin Republican subjected witness after witness to a guilty-until-proven-innocent inquisition. His strutting and accusatory persona intimidated witnesses and appalled Americans who took the Bill of Rights seriously. The senator's tactics - and those of his top aides, Roy Cohn and G. David Shine - rarely allowed a witness to counter the accusations of subversion.

At the time, of course, the United States was in a hot war against North Korea and a cold one against the Soviet Union. Anti-communist sentiment ran high, giving McCarthy an ideal backdrop for his unbridled inquiries.

But then came McCarthy's downfall.

In nationally televised hearings in June of 1954, the senator took on a tough adversary: the U.S. Army and its memorable counsel, Joseph Welch. It was Welch who speared McCarthy with the unforgettable line: "Until this moment, senator, I think I had never gauged your cruelty or your recklessness ... Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"

On Dec. 2, 1954, the Senate - by a whopping vote of 67-22 - censured McCarthy for bringing shame to the chamber. He died in 1957 at the age of 48.

Joseph McCarthy symbolized - no, personified - the thankfully rare, but nonetheless real, goal of those who seek to protect the country's freedoms by demolishing them.