McCarthy and Moss: The Result? She Was Reinstated

It's a mystery and rather pathetic that anyone would attempt to validate the behavior and credibility of Joe McCarthy by using as an example the case of Annie Lee Moss.

Not only did McCarthy blow the investigation---by literally walking out---he also, by his inactivity and failure to question Moss, allowed her to be reinstated in her job where she handled sensitive information.

Again let’s refer to some research.

Two days after the Murrow broadcast on McCarthy, the Senator surfaced at another investigation by his subcommittee in the Senate Caucus Room. Murrow’s favorite cameraman, Charley Mack, and reporter Joe Wershba were dispatched to cover the hearing. The spy was a middle-aged black woman, Annie Lee Moss, who had been the subject of past investigations. McCarthy focused on an FBI memo that other investigators had used: one Annie Lee Moss (a worker in an Army cafeteria) had been transferred to the position of code clerk for the Army Signal Corps and had been given security clearance.

McCarthy also had the testimony of an FBI undercover operative, Mary Stalcup Markward, who pegged Moss as a member of the Washington, D.C., Communist Party.

In addition, before the hearing, three Democrat senators---John McClellan (Ark.), Stuart Symington (Mo.), and Henry Jackson (Wash.)---were fully briefed by the FBI, which had thorough documentation that the Moss subpoenaed to testify was indeed the same person in question and that she was a Communist.

Now refer to the transcript or watch the footage. Here is what transpired that day.

Moss’ appearance was that of a frightened woman, clad in a frayed black coat, a tiny hat perched on her head.

McCarthy clearly defined his important goal: “Mrs. Moss, let me say for the record that you are not here because you are considered important in the Communist apparatus. We have the testimony that you are or have been a Communist. We are rather curious, however, to know how you suddenly were shifted from a worker in a cafeteria to the code room.”

Moss was asked to read the notice suspending her from her job. She starts to read slowly then gives up after the word “adjudication” defeated her. She is then questioned if she had ever heard of “Karl Marx.” She answers, “Who’s that?” Asked about espionage, her lawyer had to explain to her that the word meant spying. All this time McCarthy is looking nervous himself, unsure. Then it is revealed that Moss did not code or encode messages. She simply fed already coded tapes into a transmitting machine.

A tier of U.S. senators arrayed against Moss now begin to question the evidence that the accuser, McCarthy and his team, has compiled. A new, major issue appears: it is one of mistaken identity. Seems there is more than one Annie Lee Moss in Washington, DC. But Moss, in her testimony, actually clears up the confusion regarding her identity.

At this point, McCarthy had not succeeded in accomplishing his stated goal: “We are rather curious, however, to know how you suddenly were shifted from a worker in a cafeteria to the code room.” In fact, he had lost control of the hearings. Control had given way to chaos.

Inexplicably, what he said next shocked most onlookers: “I am afraid, I am going to have to excuse myself. I’ve got rather an important appointment tonight which I have got to work on right away.” Charley Mack was going to stop filming but continued, playing his camera from time to time over McCarthy’s conspicuously empty chair.

Some of this footage would be used on Murrow’s March 16, See It Now broadcast in which he devoted the hour to the Annie Lee Moss investigation. Some ignorant people have written that Murrow defended Moss on this show. Apparently, those clods have never seen the show. If they did, they would know that Murrow did not defend Moss. In fact, in his closing remarks, he stated “…nor this reporter know or claim that Mrs. Moss was or is not a Communist. Their claim was simply that she had the right to meet her accusers face to face.”

Question: When she met this accuser, Joe McCarthy, face to face, what was the result?

Answer: Joe encountered heat and resistance in the form of questioning his evidence. He then excused himself, never to investigate Moss again. Moss was reinstated in her job where she had access to sensitive information.

Postscript: Six months later, Moss was suspended based on information from a new investigation conducted by different people. In January ’55, she was reinstated, but this time in a “nonsensitive” position. Three years later, the Subversive Activities Control Board issued a report stating that, in the 1940s, Moss had been a member of the Communist Party.