How we cite our quotes: (LastName.Line)
Quote #4
Sir, if there is need for surveillance in the case of espionage or anything like that, I can well assure you that Mr. John Edgar Hoover and his men know a lot better than I, and I quite respectfully suggest, sir, than probably a lot of us, just who should be put under surveillance. (Cohn.64)
Even here, being needled by Welch, Cohn retreats to meaningless patriotic flag-waving. At this point in time, J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI, was a man with nearly unchecked power. Referring to Hoover was the ultimate patriotic reference. Ironically, probably nobody in history did more to trample the basic civil liberties of Americans than Hoover. How patriotic was that?
Quote #5
Not exactly, Mr. Chairman, but in view of Mr. Welch's request that the information be given once we know of anyone who might be performing any work for the Communist Party, I think we should tell him that he has in his law firm a young man named Fisher whom he recommended, incidentally, to do work for this committee, who has been for a number of years a member of an organization which was named, oh, years and years ago, as the legal bulwark of the Communist Party. (McCarthy.74)
By claiming Fisher was a member of an organization with Communist ties (true or not), McCarthy implied he could not be loyal to the United States. People in the national Lawyers Guild thought that they were being completely loyal to the founding principles of the U.S.—freedom, civil liberties, equality, and justice. How naïve.