Washington cover-up

by Clark R. Mollenhoff

When, following this testimony on May 14, the Senate committee members asked for information about the conversations, Adams balked. He said that “instructions of the Executive Branch” barred him from telling of the conversations at that key meeting on January 21. Committee members were concerned. How could they obtain the evidence necessary to draw a conclusion on the hearings if they were to be barred from all “high-level discussions of the Executive Branch”?

The Army-McCarthy hearings centered on charges and countercharges involving Army Secretary Stevens, John G. Adams, Defense Department General Counsel H. Struve Hensel, Senator Joseph McCarthy, Roy M. Cohn, and Francis P. Carr. Cohn was chief counsel for McCarthy’s Permanent Investigating Subcommittee, and Carr was chief investigator.

The Department of the Army alleged that Senator McCarthy, Cohn, and Carr had improperly used the power of the McCarthy subcommittee to obtain preferential treatment for Cohn’s pal, Private G. David Schine. It was contended that the tough and aggressive little Cohn had tried to intimidate the Army and Defense officials to get Schine a commission or a special assignment as an assistant to the Secretary of the Army, or a post in the Central Intelligence Agency. It was also charged that Cohn had suggested that Private Schine might be given a special assignment to work with the McCarthy committee. In fact, Schine had been drafted and after a short time on regular Army duty was permitted to leave his regular duties to work with Cohn on the McCarthy committee investigations.

On the other side, Army Secretary Stevens contended that McCarthy and Cohn had launched a vindictive probe of the Army security programs in reprisal against those who had not co-operated to grant special treatment to Private Schine.

Senator McCarthy countercharged that the Army tried to blackmail his investigating subcommittee into dropping its investigation of the Army loyalty-security setup by threatening to circulate an embarrassing report about Cohn and Schine. The Wisconsin Senator declared that his investigation of the Army loyalty-security program was fully justified, and reiterated his charge that Major Irving Peress had been promoted by the Army despite his record as a “subversive.” McCarthy did not deny that he had criticized Brigadier General Ralph Zwicker as a “disgrace” in uniform. And he renewed his assault on the Fort Monmouth Missile Research Center as a place honeycombed with “Reds.”

It was easy to understand why the Eisenhower administration held the January 21 meeting at the Justice Department to decide how to handle Senator McCarthy. However, it was not so easy to understand why, after testifying there had been such a meeting, Army Counsel Adams refused to tell what was said.

Senator Stuart Symington, the handsome Missouri Democrat, was amazed that testimony would be barred on such a crucial meeting. He declared that testimony on the January 21 meeting was essential to determine the responsibility for the Defense Department’s attempt to stop Senator Joseph McCarthy.

“This was a high-level discussion of the executive department, and this witness [Adams] has been instructed not to testify as to the interchange of views of people at that high-level meeting,” explained Joseph N. Welch, the gentle-voiced Boston lawyer who was serving as a special counsel for the Army.

“Does that mean we are going to get the information about low-level discussions but not about high-level discussions?” Senator Symington asked.

“That is only, sir, what I have been informed,” Welch replied and then carefully made it clear he was not passing on the right or wrong of the policy. “It isn’t a point of what I like. It is a point of what the witness has been instructed.”